New at Philosophy, and in need of some advice.

[G.T.]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Pack a bag ... Sell all your belongings you don't pack ... And take a journey around the world until something tells you to stop.
Talk to everyone that doesn't want to kill you ... And if they are comfortable, even ask them why the others that want to kill you feel that way.
Bring along some books on philosophy ... But learn what you can from the people as well.....

.

I did all that. It doesn't make one a philosopher.

I don't think there is a lot more to being a philosopher.

correction I think there IS a lot more to being a philosopher. You cant just pick a philosophers concepts and beliefs you have to develop your own concepts and beliefs by experience and knowledge. How you perceive the things around you and how you see them. To understanding the and answering the questions you seek to know.

Belief also alters one's philosophy - you might find a vastly different meaning in life between believing and not believing in certain origin stories, of existence.

 

[Moonglow]

philosophy = perception

 

[OnePercenter]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Pack a bag ... Sell all your belongings you don't pack ... And take a journey around the world until something tells you to stop.
Talk to everyone that doesn't want to kill you ... And if they are comfortable, even ask them why the others that want to kill you feel that way.
Bring along some books on philosophy ... But learn what you can from the people as well.

Develop your own philosophy ... Actually contemplate your existence, examine your values compared to others, seek knowledge, apply wisdom and reason.

.

Man would I love to be able to do that! For years now I wanted to travel to various countries to witness and experience the world and different cultures. Every extreme that the world offers I want to witness.
But for now I'm stuck in an urban environment, where everybody think they are gang bangers. All my old friends are hooked on a drug or another, or alcoholics, that are going no where in life, that can not hold even a bit of intelligent conversation. Luckily I broke away from all that before it got to late.
People in the neighborhood got the police harassing everyone, thinking everyone is picking up drugs or what not. Gun shots every night, people getting shot couple houses down, at the local park, in front of a tobacco store, in front of a deli, even in front of the police station. I would love to just get up and leave..

All the result of low wages.

 

[BlackSand]

I did all that. It doesn't make one a philosopher.

Well ... In any case I doubt Aristotle and Plato ran by Barnes and Nobles to pick up the Cliff's Notes when they explored philosophy ...
Dude asked for advice ... Said he would appreciate any ... How about you give him something helpful instead of just stating the obvious result in your experience?

.

 

[BlackSand]

Man would I love to be able to do that! For years now I wanted to travel to various countries to witness and experience the world and different cultures. Every extreme that the world offers I want to witness.
But for now I'm stuck in an urban environment, where everybody think they are gang bangers. All my old friends are hooked on a drug or another, or alcoholics, that are going no where in life, that can not hold even a bit of intelligent conversation. Luckily I broke away from all that before it got to late.
People in the neighborhood got the police harassing everyone, thinking everyone is picking up drugs or what not. Gun shots every night, people getting shot couple houses down, at the local park, in front of a tobacco store, in front of a deli, even in front of the police station. I would love to just get up and leave..

Well ... It was just an idea ... And it wouldn't interrupt your research on philosophy.

Experience is the best teacher ... And where you can gain knowledge from a book, wisdom comes from application and observations.
Sometimes the best way to think outside the box ... Is to get out of the box.

Who knows ... With the right initiative and an investment in some tech ... It's possible someone could make living sharing their explorations of our world.
Make take a little talent ... But as I suggested, life is a wonderful instructor ... Maybe a bit harsh from time to time though.

.

 

[SeaGal]

...Experience is the best teacher ... And where you can gain knowledge from a book, wisdom comes from application and observations.
Sometimes the best way to think outside the box ... Is to get out of the box.

Well put! Deserved more than a green checkmark.

 

[Penelope]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Pack a bag ... Sell all your belongings you don't pack ... And take a journey around the world until something tells you to stop.
Talk to everyone that doesn't want to kill you ... And if they are comfortable, even ask them why the others that want to kill you feel that way.
Bring along some books on philosophy ... But learn what you can from the people as well.

Develop your own philosophy ... Actually contemplate your existence, examine your values compared to others, seek knowledge, apply wisdom and reason.

.

Man would I love to be able to do that! For years now I wanted to travel to various countries to witness and experience the world and different cultures. Every extreme that the world offers I want to witness.
But for now I'm stuck in an urban environment, where everybody think they are gang bangers. All my old friends are hooked on a drug or another, or alcoholics, that are going no where in life, that can not hold even a bit of intelligent conversation. Luckily I broke away from all that before it got to late.
People in the neighborhood got the police harassing everyone, thinking everyone is picking up drugs or what not. Gun shots every night, people getting shot couple houses down, at the local park, in front of a tobacco store, in front of a deli, even in front of the police station. I would love to just get up and leave..

You do not need to travel the world, just live for a year in different areas of the US, we have plenty of diversity here.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Makes the Reader Proud to Be an American

William James is the easiest to understand.

William Durant's The Story of Philosophy is the best introduction to it.

 

[BlackSand]

You do not need to travel the world, just live for a year in different areas of the US, we have plenty of diversity here.

We have public education with standardized testing ... Hardly an adequate base for true diversity in schools of thought.
If you want to think like an American ... Well you can certainly accomplish that in the US.
If you want to draw from a greater pool of diversity ... Then it would be a better idea to cast a wider net.


Examples ...
Poverty in western Kentucky is not the same as poverty in southeast Asia.
Gun violence in Chicago is not the same as gun violence in Sierra Leone.

You can find diversity in the US ... But that doesn't mean the way you look at things will ever be any different than the way an American sees them.
That will always be a product of the way you look at them ... Which is constructed and applied by the environment you use to base your experiences on and compare against.


.

 

[Penelope]

You do not need to travel the world, just live for a year in different areas of the US, we have plenty of diversity here.

We have public education with standardized testing ... Hardly an adequate base for true diversity in schools of thought.
If you want to think like an American ... Well you can certainly accomplish that in the US.
If you want to draw from a greater pool of diversity ... Then it would be a better idea to cast a wider net.


Examples ...
Poverty in western Kentucky is not the same as poverty in southeast Asia.
Gun violence in Chicago is not the same as gun violence in Sierra Leone.

You can find diversity in the US ... But that doesn't mean the way you look at things will ever be any different than the way an American sees them.
That will always be a product of the way you look at them ... Which is constructed and applied by the environment you use to base your experiences on and compare against.


.

Well for starters he can travel and live in areas of the US, what do you want to get him killed. Its bad enough in the US. Really from the UP of MI I lived in several areas of the US, you do not need to travel the earth.

Beside many have explored the world and wrote about it, why reinvent the wheel. Or he can join the military.

 

[BlackSand]

Well for starters he can travel and live in areas of the US, what do you want to get him killed. Its bad enough in the US. Really from the UP of MI I lived in several areas of the US, you do not need to travel the earth.

Beside many have explored the world and wrote about it, why reinvent the wheel. Or he can join the military.

Of course you don't need to travel and experience things for yourself ... If you are satisfied with what someone else thinks about your existence.
Society would completely fall apart if we weren't lazy enough to stop asking questions and accept what other expect of us.

.

 

[Dajjal]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Pack a bag ... Sell all your belongings you don't pack ... And take a journey around the world until something tells you to stop.
Talk to everyone that doesn't want to kill you ... And if they are comfortable, even ask them why the others that want to kill you feel that way.
Bring along some books on philosophy ... But learn what you can from the people as well.....

.

I did all that. It doesn't make one a philosopher.

I don't think there is a lot more to being a philosopher.

correction I think there IS a lot more to being a philosopher. You cant just pick a philosophers concepts and beliefs you have to develop your own concepts and beliefs by experience and knowledge. How you perceive the things around you and how you see them. To understanding the and answering the questions you seek to know.

If you don't study the history of philosophy how will you know if your concepts have not already been thought of and refuted. If you do study the history of philosophy you will find this has happened many times, and previous concepts have been proved false. Just as you think you have learned something from an ancient philosopher, you will find a more recent philosopher has a different conclusion.
Today it has been said that no philosopher can understand all the concepts involved in modern physics therefore modern philosophy has nothing left to do but an analysis of language..

 

[Natural Citizen]

I would start with older ones like Aristotle and Plato, and go from there.

Aristotle and Plato served tyrants. They offered justification for oppression.

 

[Unkotare]

You do not need to travel the world, just live for a year in different areas of the US, we have plenty of diversity here.

We have public education with standardized testing ... Hardly an adequate base for true diversity in schools of thought.
If you want to think like an American ... Well you can certainly accomplish that in the US.
If you want to draw from a greater pool of diversity ... Then it would be a better idea to cast a wider net.


Examples ...
Poverty in western Kentucky is not the same as poverty in southeast Asia.
Gun violence in Chicago is not the same as gun violence in Sierra Leone.

You can find diversity in the US ... But that doesn't mean the way you look at things will ever be any different than the way an American sees them.
That will always be a product of the way you look at them ... Which is constructed and applied by the environment you use to base your experiences on and compare against.


.

Well for starters he can travel and live in areas of the US, what do you want to get him killed. Its bad enough in the US. Really from the UP of MI I lived in several areas of the US, you do not need to travel the earth.

Beside many have explored the world and wrote about it, why reinvent the wheel. Or he can join the military.

There are plenty of reasons (or none) beyond a self-defeating attempt at 'making' yourself something to shake the dust off your shoes. It's a small world, but it's still pretty big.

 

[Unkotare]

Don't forget, Plato was a talented wrestler!

 

[Picaro]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Bumped an older thread, added a couple of links for you. Most of what you need for intros is available free, so don't run around spending bucks on retreads published for the 10,000th time by some textbook hustlers. Don't waste time on rubbish like Kant or Nietzsche.

 

[Unkotare]

..... Don't waste time on rubbish like Kant or Nietzsche.

Hey OP: Do NOT listen to the uniformed musings of the ignorant. Don't discount any of the great Philosophers based on some yahoo on the internet.

 

[Picaro]

I just sparked an interest in philosophy recently. I have been reading a lot on philosophy and the different branches. My goal is to have a broad knowledge of all the branches.

What I need advice on, is there a specific order to study them? Like do I need to understand 1 branch in order to understand another. Or does it matter where I start and they all intertwine with each other?

This is the order of the branches that I am most interested in learning. Should it be in a different order to help me understand and have a broad knowledge of the different branches of philosophy?

metaphysics
ontology & logic together
epistemology
axiology
ethics
aesthethics
political theory

What I came across while researching, when developing your own philosophy use another philosophers concepts and ideas as a framework to get started?

Is there any key concepts that are recommended?
Any websites?
Any particular philosophers work?
Any theories I should study?
Any advice would help?

I understand what philosophy is, but I want a better understanding. Any advice and or help would be much appreciated, Thank you.

Pack a bag ... Sell all your belongings you don't pack ... And take a journey around the world until something tells you to stop.
Talk to everyone that doesn't want to kill you ... And if they are comfortable, even ask them why the others that want to kill you feel that way.
Bring along some books on philosophy ... But learn what you can from the people as well.

Develop your own philosophy ... Actually contemplate your existence, examine your values compared to others, seek knowledge, apply wisdom and reason.

.

Man would I love to be able to do that! For years now I wanted to travel to various countries to witness and experience the world and different cultures. Every extreme that the world offers I want to witness.
But for now I'm stuck in an urban environment, where everybody think they are gang bangers. All my old friends are hooked on a drug or another, or alcoholics, that are going no where in life, that can not hold even a bit of intelligent conversation. Luckily I broke away from all that before it got to late.
People in the neighborhood got the police harassing everyone, thinking everyone is picking up drugs or what not. Gun shots every night, people getting shot couple houses down, at the local park, in front of a tobacco store, in front of a deli, even in front of the police station. I would love to just get up and leave..

It's the result of mindless consumerism and hedonism, a form of 'affluenza' and relatively easy living; leads to boredom and artificiality in expectations that are unrealistic and few can expect to achieve, and an infantile cynicism that is also unjustified.

 

[Picaro]

..... Don't waste time on rubbish like Kant or Nietzsche.

Hey OP: Do NOT listen to the uniformed musings of the ignorant. Don't discount any of the great Philosophers based on some yahoo on the internet.

Don't listen to some troll who is a scat fetishist and thinks the short term internment of a few Japanese at the beginning of WW II is the moral equivalence of Hitler's gas chambers, i.e. a moron. Reading Ayer's book first will give you some basis for understanding most of the others and the arguments and some idea of the validity and points they make. You will find that most of the 'great philosophers' weren't particularly 'great' and many of the modern ones are better and make more sense. It's a overview of many of those you're interested in to begin with, and why Kant is a waste of time, as is the homosexual Nietzche who died of syphilis and was never more than merely a sheltered middle class academic who became fashionable for a while and never wrote anything worthwhile. A lot of emotionally disturbed closet cases with Daddy Issues probably think he's 'interesting', but that's about it.

The recommendation of William James and Bertrand Russell is also good as well, though I think Ayer's history is the more interesting, in that he was an 'extremist' who later kind of moderated his views due to personal experience and is informative in itself.

 

[Unkotare]

..... Don't waste time on rubbish like Kant or Nietzsche.

Hey OP: Do NOT listen to the uniformed musings of the ignorant. Don't discount any of the great Philosophers based on some yahoo on the internet.

Don't listen to some troll who is a scat fetishist and thinks the short term internment of a few Japanese at the beginning of WW II is the moral equivalence of Hitler's gas chambers, i.e. a moron. Reading Ayer's book first will give you some basis for understanding most of the others and the arguments and some idea of the validity and points they make. You will find that most of the 'great philosophers' weren't particularly 'great' and many of the modern ones are better and make more sense. It's a overview of many of those you're interested in to begin with, and why Kant is a waste of time, as is the homosexual Nietzche who died of syphilis and was never more than merely a sheltered middle class academic who became fashionable for a while and never wrote anything worthwhile. A lot of emotionally disturbed closet cases with Daddy Issues probably think he's 'interesting', but that's about it.

The recommendation of William James and Bertrand Russell is also good as well, though I think Ayer's history is the more interesting, in that he was an 'extremist' who later kind of moderated his views due to personal experience and is informative in itself.

Personal acrimony aside, the OP should not listen to anyone here, including me. Unlike the wannabe experts here, I have a degree in philosophy, but I will not presume to make a reading list or denigrate figures in the history of the science just to look like I know what I’m talking about. Everyone’s journey is their own. The OP can start anywhere and go where his interests take him.