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Comment by jxcl | Hacker News Reader

I can entirely relate to what Lewis writes about reading Plato. I was interested in philosophy but found myself gravitating to reading and listening to podcasts about philosophy rather than reading it directly.

Once I actually picked up a volume of Plato's works I was surprised how approachable it was to me, a complete layman of philosophy.

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Same for me with Stoicism: I read everything modern book on it and while it was useful nothing comes close to when I actually decided to pick up the classics, starting with Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

There is a very important reason for this: any philosophy is born as a result of important questions of the times in which it was created. When a philosopher writes an original work he/she has all these problems in mind. A modern writer will have to filter that same philosophy to the lights of the modern days, which usually doesn't work as well. To truly understand what a philosophy is all about you need to read the originals.

Read Epictetus if you liked MAs Mediations.

Read Seneca if you liked Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. He's better than both, imo.

Just ordered the book. Er...a book. Letters from a stoic

My favorite is On the Shortness of Life.

You can read it free here:

https://tripinsurancestore.com/4/on-the-shortness-of-life.pd...

Nice CC0 ebooks of the above three:

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/seneca/dialogues/aubrey-st...

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/the-enchiridion/...

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marcus-aurelius/meditation...

I was skeptical but you are correct. Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic is fantastic.

I recently read, The Swerve about On the Nature of Things by Lucretius. It was very well written has made reading On the Nature of things that much more enjoyable. Getting that context and backstory was -ironically- a godsend. While I agree with his point about coming into conversation late and missing some of the meaning, with some books you just have to accept that that ship has sailed and look for the help of somebody who studied the work. To me this is why historical writers are so important, we put a lot of trust in them.

Plato is certainly very approachable, and perhaps Athanasius is as well; of course there are examples on the other side as well - Aristotle leaps to mind. Better, probably, to read an account of his logic than to try to read the Prior Analytics, for instance.

Got any recommendations for philosophy podcasts?

Not a podcast but the first thing audio book of story of philosophy by will durant is fantastic.

This is the one I have listened to on and off: https://historyofphilosophy.net/

Philosophize This. It's on Spotify. I'm not experienced with philosophy but this guy I found interesting.

Philosphize This! is excellent.

Very Bad Wizards and The Black Goat. Both are oriented around the intersection of science, philosophy, and psychology, if you're into that sort of thing. (VBW also will occasionally do a "just for fun" episode where they philosophize about popular films and such.)

Literally creating an account because I have to recommend "Great Ideas of Philosophy" by Professor Robinson. It was the first survey course to philosophy I took, and being somewhat unschooled in that area, it opened my eyes to a new world

Partially Examined Life

It's hosted by former philosophy students who cover many dozens of philosphers relatively in depth. Their style is very approachable and conversational. They're not stuffy or boring, and often they're pretty funny. I've listened to a lot of philosophy podcasts and this is by far the best.

https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/

The Partially Examined Life and Philosophize This! are both entertaining.

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