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Looking For Philosophy Books

A good story I just finished reading was "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, I loved it for the philosophies that are mixed into the story. very thought provoking conversations go on in it.
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^+1, it is incredible.

...not for the faint of heart, however, or the 'headachers', as it is extremely long.

*My recommendation- Michael Foucault's This Is Not a Pipe: An Art Quantum (I use a version translated by James Harkness)
 
These are what I have on my coffee table they will give you a Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Psychedelic, Scientific, Open minded view of reality, religion and the mind. I think you have to be all encompassing when you read so that you can get a thorough understanding of the subject your interested in.

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Allan Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity by Allan Watts

The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series) by Joseph Campbell

No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth by Ken Wilber

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything by Ken Wilber

Food of the Gods by Terrence Mckenna

Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bhagavad Gita, The bible

The Joy of Living by Rinpoche

Meditation by Dalai Lama

Ethics in a modern world by Dalai Lama
 
I've been scanning thrift shops and used bookstores for The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. I think I'm going to have to resort to a library.

I've read so many quotes of his that deeply resonated with me and others that irked me that I suspect he'll be a good read for me.
 
These are what I have on my coffee table they will give you a Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Psychedelic, Scientific, Open minded view of reality, religion and the mind. I think you have to be all encompassing when you read so that you can get a thorough understanding of the subject your interested in.

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Allan Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity by Allan Watts

The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series) by Joseph Campbell

No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth by Ken Wilber

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything by Ken Wilber

Food of the Gods by Terrence Mckenna

Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bhagavad Gita, The bible

The Joy of Living by Rinpoche

Meditation by Dalai Lama

Ethics in a modern world by Dalai Lama

Some good ones in there, but I find it difficult to think of McKenna's writing as "philosophy" ;).
 
Well, it's not a science, in the positivist sense, and it's not an ideology, in most religious senses, so. . .I just have trouble taking much of McKenna seriously.

Moar books recommended s00n... :)

ebola
 
best book ever written on ethics:

Three Methods of Ethics: Baron, Pettit and Slote.

If you know absolutely nothing about ethics and want to get a grip on the three main schools of thought, then this is the book for you. clear, well written and each of the authors respond to the others' points at the end. This is one of the few textbooks I have actually read cover to cover.
 
I also enjoyed The Brothers Karamozov by Dostoevsky. I would also recommend crime and punishment. It takes a great look at ones conscience and outlines some, at the time, new ideas. right now I'm reading the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, and am finding it very enlightening.
 
Friedrich Nietszche - The Gay Science

I also enjoyed The Brothers Karamozov by Dostoevsky. I would also recommend crime and punishment. It takes a great look at ones conscience and outlines some, at the time, new ideas. right now I'm reading the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, and am finding it very enlightening.

Truth has been spoken. Crime and Punishment is epic win and I'm currently reading the Brothers Karamazov
 
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson - this is what got me into philosophy (and psychedelics). its goal is to get you to think for yourself

"wilhelm reich in hell" is a cool really really short book by the same guy if you want to check out his style, though WRiH is even whackier than his usual

Flatland - this book is very small and quick read, but very entertaining and interesting. no matter what, you will have to admit that math is fun after it

Sophie's World - this book is a good summary of philosophers and their ideas, how our thinking has changed from prehistory to today. it is all in simple terms, easy to understand (written for highschool level), and there is a fictional story that goes along with it

Aint Nobody's Business If You Do is a great book on how our constitution has been shit on, it takes on the drug war, war on gambling, prostitution, etc. very well researched. the writer died because the courts wouldn't let him use medical marijuana and he choked on his vomit (if he failed a drug test he would have gone back to prison so he had to oblige the court even though it meant a miserable several months of vomiting and losing weight--and death, but he didn't know that till after he died! he never used recreationally, only as prescribed by law)
 
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^ Robert Anton Wilson's writing definitely has the power to drastically alter the way you look at the world!
 
Okay

Rudolf Steiners' Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is the best philosophical work I've seen. His Truth and Science is also good and is sort of a prelude to Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Atlas Shrugged is a Novel that contains quite a bit of Philosophy and may someday be a Movie, they're working on it. For Zen, for westerners, I recommend Alan Watts.
 
^ Robert Anton Wilson's writing definitely has the power to drastically alter the way you look at the world!

Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Watts, Ken Wilber and Buddhism are what altered my thought the most. Robert Anton Wilson and his meta-programming in Quantum Psychology, Alan Watts and explaining in detail how everything is interconnected and we are God manifest and dispelling the neurosis of western thought, Ken Wilber in helping me be more integral and encompassing all schools of thought, religions and states of consciousness, and Buddhism for helping me realize the illusion of Maya and the ego as well as the Chakra system and meditation. The other most useful tool alongside studying, and meditation have been the use of psychedelics in having direct experience of a lot of the mystical phenomenon reported by mystics of the ages.
 
At the moment I'm kind of looking for for books by the people who spun out of Freud's circle.Otto Grosser seems interesting to me biographically as the son of a famous criminologist who left Freudianism as a free love ignore the establishment sort of person. A lot of people who I think might be interesting reads end up being difficult reads though.

I also am on the look out for A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. I know from a previous encounter that his style is very readable for me.
 
I'm not sure if you'd say he 'spun out of Freud's circle', but Jaques Lacan is one of the most important inheritors of the psychoanalytic legacy. He combined Freud's ideas with French structuralist linguistics to talk about the way that cultural signs constitute the psychoanalytic subject. He's a very important thinker historically and has influenced everything from gender theory to post-colonial studies.

He's also very hard to read so I would suggest getting a secondary text before diving into Lacan's actual texts. He didn't write very much, most of his published work is in the form of transcribed seminars, many of which have a lot of assumed knowledge, so a secondary text is the best place to start.
 
^ http://nosubject.com/Main_Page this is a Lacan wiki I've looked over and I have a book by Fink on Lacanian therapy. Lacan isn't an active study for me at the moment. I tend to reject the proposition that without language there is no unconscious that Lacan super emphasizes in a youtube video I've seen that was actually Lacan talking with English sub-titles. I might be rejecting without understanding though as it Lacan is very dependent on prerequisite concepts and a specialized vocabulary.

My area has a handful of Lacanians in influential spots in the psychiatric community and academia. There might even be a Lacanian community here but I'm not in contact with any of them atm.
 
I concur on "The Brothers Karamazov". I read the entire thing in 4 days on an amphetamine binge, and my mind was blown by the end of it. I was half-way into amphetamine psychosis and felt I was in that period of Russian history, immersed in visions of religious icons and raging in agony about the fate of one of my favorite characters (I won't spoil it for you).

I can't read for shit without my amphetamines though, so I have been stagnant lately, and will be until I either find a connect or my doctors start giving it to me again.

To add another great philosophic essay to this outstanding thread, I would recommend "The Rebel" by Albert Camus.


Edit: I think it is worth pointing out that Kant is indeed a pedantic asshole. I have a couple of his books, and can never get through the first page. For me to read anything he ever wrote would require a fuckload of amphetamines and determination.
 
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