Can someone help me with this question

[Stella Richards]

Can someone help me with this question on philosophy?
I want to start thinking about philosophy and thinking critically and I was wonderin is it possible to learn philosophy by just finding out the major questions in philosophy, and thinking and writing about them from my own perspective and having conversations with others about them and finding out their opinion of things, or would it be better to buy a book on philosophy. It seems like to me just finding out the questions of philosophy and thinking and talking about them with other people is alot better than buying a book because conversation is what philosophy seems to be all about, but I wanted some other opinions. Thanks in advance.

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[Limehouse]

Hello Stella,

What an intereting post. You are right, philosophy is about questioning, critical thinking and working out your own ideas about key questions. However, it is helpful to have a few guidelines and it is certainly more interesting if you can discuss some of the ideas of the main philosophers.

There is a great starter book called The Phenomenally Phrank History of Philosophy by John Farman which is aimed at teenagers, but is actually very readable for adults. I would also recommend The Problems of Philosophy by Bertand Russell - one of the greatest philosophical thinkers of modern times. It is also interesting to read about the ideas of Karl Popper.

You can also go right back the the ancient Greek philosophers and explore the techniques of dialogue.

At this stage. I would avoid the works of post-modern thinkers such as Lacan and Derrida, whose ideas, although intriguing, are very bound up with language and meaning and whether anything can actually exist outside your own head and/or the text.

Good luck!

[Robert]

Hi Stella

You're right, discussion is important in philosophy - otherwise you've got to play both roles yourself!

One thing that might be worth saying : at a certain point it will be necessary to read the works of the great philosophers. Expositions and explanations by modern authors are all very well, but no substitute for the works themselves. And that being so, it won't do any harm if you read one or two of these books now. You may not understand a word of it, but the point is, the seed will be sown for later, and curiosity stimulated.

But not every philosopher writes like Kant, and some of the great philosophers are very good writers. If you read the Meditations by Descartes, you'll get a reasonably lucid entree into the world of philosophy. "Descartes" by Bernard Williams is a good book to accompany it, but again, read the Descartes first.