Comments by "Mark Pawelek" (@mark4asp) on "7 Philosophy Books for Beginners" video.

  1. History of Philosophy books are too much like compendiums which introduce the themes and the 'who did what when' but won't help much with developing a philosophy. IMHO: Plato and Aristotle are outdone by The European Enlightenment. Apart from Descartes, not typical of The Enlightenment - but in opposition to the previous Christian Philosophy which rules Western thought. I recommend 4) "The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters" by Anthony Pagden as a good introduction to the European Enlightenment. Also: buy an introduction to philosophical fallacies such as 3) 'How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic' by Madsen Pirie. This is an amusing book which pretends to teach you how to abuse rhetoric, but actually teaches you how to spot it. So I'm voting YES to the first two recommendations, and last (Russell, Blackburn, and Mill)! 2) Think, and 1) 'Problems of Philosophy', and 5) 'On Liberty'. I numbered my recommendations in the order in which they can be read. Generally the list doesn't have enougth modern philosophy books in it and doesn't explain how far philosophy ran off the rails in the last 250 years (under the influence of Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Pomo, ...) especially since the end of the Enlightenment and Hegel (hiss, hiss, but you still need to read him (or summary of his ideas) such is the reach of his shaddow).
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