I recently decided to start learning philosophy, but I’m not sure where to begin. Which books or philosophers would be best for a beginner?
Also, I’m not a native English speaker, so my English isn’t very strong. Are there any beginner-friendly books that are easier to understand?
I’d really appreciate any recommendations!
but for now i am reading complete works of PLATO by JOHN M. COOPER
by Traditional-Pin-9114
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In the direction Eastern philosophy, I found *Tao Te Ching* to be very easy to read and reflect upon. As long as your native language is one that is widely spoken, there’s probably a decent chance that there’s a translated copy for you to read. But even then, an English translation still shouldn’t be too hard to get through :).
Are you familiar with The Good Place? It’s an incredibly funny TV show that, due to the nature of its content, edges into moral philosophy territory. The creator of it, Michael Schur, had to go from knowing nothing about philosophy, to being effectively an expert so that he could do the show well, and also write a specific character accurately.
Well… Michael Schur wrote a moral philosophy book. It’s very much “I didn’t know anything about this. Now I know everything about this. So I’m writing a book in easy-to-understand terms that’s informative and hilarious.” The book is called How to be Perfect, and it’s an absolute incredible introduction to most primary branches of moral philosophy. Cannot recommend enough!
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. It’s been published in a variety of different languages and is intended to be an introduction to philosophy.
If you are already reading Plato straight up, a bit of historic background would be great. The standard textbook is *A history of Western Philosophy* by Bertrand Russell, it is translated to many languages, very entertaining and plain written but a bit biased to Eurocentrism. I prefer *The History of Philosophy* by AC Grayling which is also very broad and less biased, also can be found translated to some languages. Also I cannot recommend enough *Politics of Liberation* by Enrique Dussel for a completely unorthodox narrative that tries to rescue the erased and forgotten perspectives of political and moral philosophy. This last one can be downloaded for free in English, Spanish and Portuguese from Dussel’s website.
Marcus Arielus meditations
The Story of Philosophy by Durant is a great one volume intro to Western philosophy.
The complete works of Plato is a great place to begin.
For help in understanding Plato I’ve appreciated books by Leo Strauss (such as *The City and Man*) and Michael Davis’ *Ancient Tragedy and the Origins of Modern Science* (which has a chapter on Plato’s *Meno*).