Ask HN: How to Learn About Philosophy | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to Learn About Philosophy

9 pointssheepybloke10 comments

Hey HN, What's the best way to learn philosophy out of college? One big caveat is that I learn better through being taught the concepts, rather than through just reading a bunch of books. What are resources I could use to help grow my knowledge of philosophy?

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Try the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at <https://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html>.

I second this. It has very detailed descriptions of a given philosopher’s theories and breakdowns of the distinct periods in their life. It is a great resource with well-written and concise explanations (often easier to read and understand than the actual works themselves).

This looks exactly like the kind of resource I was looking for! Thanks for sharing.

These are books or book series but can give you different pathways into whatever you're interested in.

- Try graphic novel versions that intro you to philosophers / concepts. At LAPL, we have the "Introducing..." series[1].

- The "Very Short Introduction" series are indeed short and cover the basics[2]

- Don't look down on "For Dummies". I thought "Existentialism For Dummies" was a good overview. You can skim them pretty quickly too since within a chapter they may repeat the same theme over a few times from different angles / examples.

- Ask yourself what it is you're interested in. Is it something specific about philosophy? "Does life have meaning?" "How can I be a good person?" etc or do you only want a general overview (which some of the courses mentioned in other posts may cover)

[1] https://lapl.overdrive.com/search/series?query=Introducing.....

[2] https://www.veryshortintroductions.com/browse?t0=VSIO_SUBJEC...

Some philosophers had a writing style that is readable when translated to English, so they can be read directly. For example, one can read a translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and understand what he is saying. Nietzsche is fun to read. For a philosopher such as Spinoza, who wrote his philosophy as a set of mathematical proofs, reading a book about his thought is easier than the original.

The "So you want to study philosophy..." guide by Susan Fowler / Rigetti gives a good introduction to self-study of philosophy. It lists both courses (e.g. coursera) and books. But ... if you don't like reading books, maybe philosophy isn't the best subject for you depending how deep you want to go ? There's a LOT of reading you'll be doing.

https://www.susanrigetti.com/philosophy

Study old scientific books.

If your are in need of a philosophy community, join us here. [0]

[0]: https://academyofideas.com/

I like The Partially Examined Life Podcast. I used to listen to it a few years ago, they go through a bunch of different philosophers and hit high level points about them as they roll through the history of philosophy more or less. Serves as a good introduction and from there you can dive into more specific sources.

https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/

Oops, I just realized I was thinking of the Philosophize This! podcast. Partially Examined Life is still great, but I was totally describing Philosophize This!

https://www.philosophizethis.org/podcasts

Wisecrack on youtube comers quite a bit of some philosophical ground.

https://www.youtube.com/wisecrack/videos

>just reading a bunch of books.

Honestly though, you would be best served to take a step back and learn to read deeply. How? Couldn't tell ya, but that'd be worth another Ask HN.

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