I’m a college lecturer in philosophy and listed below are my 5 finest tips about the best way to self-study philosophy as an grownup learner: be affected person; begin with actual life; use the Web; learn up on historical past; and keep away from the unique sources. Learn on to see the best way to get all this sorted out!
Introduction
Welcome! This can be a new sequence, through which I’ll attempt to offer you recommendation on the best way to finest study philosophy in case you are not a college scholar.
I’ve observed within the feedback to the Daily Philosophy YouTube channel that there are numerous viewers who want to study extra about philosophy however they don’t know precisely the place to start out.
And it is troublesome in case you are not a college scholar. Even discovering out what you’re purported to be studying might be daunting – after which, whenever you attempt to learn the good philosophers of the previous, you quickly discover out that these are very heavy books, dense with jargon, and is obscure any single one with out figuring out all of the others that got here earlier than it.
So the issue stays: The place to start and the best way to get into this complete philosophy factor. So let’s get going! Listed here are my 5 most essential tips about the best way to study philosophy later in life.
Tip number one: Be affected person
The very first thing to bear in mind is to be affected person with your self. Philosophy has been round because the starting of human historical past and no person is aware of all of it. In actual fact, philosophy professors are so specialised these days that somebody specializing in early fashionable philosophy will normally don’t know of bioethics and so forth.
Notice that in the long run you’ll have to make decisions. First attempt to get an outline of what’s on the market, what the historical past of philosophy seems to be like from a really excessive degree standpoint. After which choose your favorites and skim up on these. There isn’t a must endure via Russell or Kripke, if analytic philosophy is just not your factor. There isn’t a must learn Thomas Aquinas in case you are not enthusiastic about Center Ages theology. It’s okay to not know issues.
Philosophy needs to be enjoyable – so discover out what’s enjoyable for you and go for that.
Additionally, keep in mind to take sufficient time. It took me personally 10 years of finding out at college and one other 10 years of instructing philosophy, with the intention to get a working data of a handful of philosophers. That’s okay. You can not rush it. Begin with philosophers who’re related.
Tip quantity 2: Begin with actual life
Begin with life typically or your life particularly.
Sure, it’s simple to get excited whenever you first encounter questions like what number of angels match on the tip of a needle or whether or not all our actions are predetermined. These sound like enjoyable, fascinating questions. However they very quickly can grow to be very tedious and really technical.
It’s a lot simpler to see the relevance of philosophy if you happen to keep on with on a regular basis questions at first. Essentially the most satisfying for me are questions of ethics. In Covid occasions, for instance, whether or not it’s morally proper to power individuals to get vaccinated. Or whether or not abortion is true or fallacious. Or whether or not it’s higher to have a democracy or a strong dictator or king. Studying up on such subjects will make it simpler so that you can see the relevance of philosophy to on a regular basis life. It is going to additionally make it simpler to speak to others, to your folks or your loved ones, about what you’re finding out.
Tip quantity 3: Use the Web
My subsequent tip is to make use of the Web.
The Web, if used properly, is filled with nice assets that you should use to study philosophy – and it’s all free!
Don’t spend your cash shopping for the entire works of Spinoza or Leibniz. which you’ll most likely not even learn as soon as via after which they’ll simply sit on a shelf, gathering mud. All traditional works of philosophy earlier than the twentieth century can be found totally free and legally on the Web.
As well as, YouTube has an infinite provide of free lectures from the most effective universities. My very own, by the way in which, are additionally out there totally free and you’ll find them here on my YouTube channel.
Then there are philosophy blogs and magazines, like Day by day Philosophy – my very own journal that you’re studying proper now. However there are after all many extra on the market that publish simple to learn articles which might be related to as we speak’s life.
And, lastly, you’ll be able to all the time go to one of many massive websites that provide on-line programs like Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, Teachable, and discover very top quality programs. Generally these are a lot better and extra motivating, higher structured and higher recorded than what you’ll get in a college setting.
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Tip quantity 4: Historical past counts
My tip quantity 4: Historical past counts.
First get a excessive degree understanding of the historical past of concepts and the historical past of philosophy. Don’t attempt to study the whole lot directly, but in addition don’t specialize on one thinker too early in your journey.
Some say, for instance, I like Schopenhauer, so I’ll simply learn Schopenhauer and nothing else. You are able to do that, after all, nevertheless it is not going to actually allow you to study philosophy.
The factor is to comprehend that each thinker wrote inside their very own time, concerning the questions of their very own time, and in dialogue with different philosophers of the identical time. So simply choosing out one thinker with out understanding the historic context is doomed to failure, since you received’t perceive what the individuals of this time have been speaking about.
Fortunately, there are nice books that provides you with a great overview of the entire historical past of philosophy and the way it developed over time. And also you must also have some concept of how historical past typically progressed, not less than within the West. You must have some concept about who the traditional Greeks have been, concerning the change from historical Greece to Rome, after which into the Center Ages. You must know just a few fundamentals concerning the age of scientific discoveries and the early fashionable interval, which incorporates all these essential philosophers like Descartes, Hume, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza. And, lastly, it is best to know concerning the Industrial Revolution, concerning the French and the American Revolutions, and what occurred to the world within the twentieth century.
And all that is just for Western philosophy. If you want to study Chinese language or Indian philosophies, then put together your self for a way more uphill battle, particularly if you happen to don’t know these languages and when you’ve got not grown up in these cultures.
I generally ask my college students who got here first in time: Plato or Kant. And lots of of them can not reply. In case you’re going into philosophy with out not less than a tough image of how human historical past developed, and what the varied intervals are, then you’ll be certain to get misplaced and to not have a lot enjoyable, as a result of these philosophers will simply be names scattered throughout time and the map. You will be unable to affiliate them with a selected historic improvement, so you’ll not perceive what they’re speaking about.
Fortunately, it’s simple to study this little little bit of historical past simply from YouTube.
I’m additionally placing up my very own very quick historical past of philosophy on this channel:
However you may also discover many different movies which provides you with an outline, maybe in half an hour or an hour, about the entire improvement of Western historical past. And and this shall be immensely helpful to you to have the ability to later type out which thinker goes the place.
Tip quantity 5: Don’t learn authentic sources
And eventually right here comes my most essential tip: Don’t learn the unique sources.
That is all the time a mistake. It’s extremely tedious to learn Spinoza or Leibniz, Wittgenstein or Heidegger. Truthfully, making an attempt to power your means via Heidegger’s prose and not using a information is bound to make you hate philosophy. However the identical can also be true of many different philosophers.
You all the time should remind your self that these individuals didn’t write for you. They didn’t write for a twenty first century learner who desires to self-study philosophy. They wrote for different philosophers – they wrote for specialists, they wrote for individuals who have been educated about the entire historical past of philosophy of their time, and who wished to go ahead into new analysis and focus on new questions. And this is the reason you can’t perceive them if you happen to begin studying them as we speak, with out having all that prior data and with out being an professional your self.
And it’s not solely the language or the problem. It’s additionally simply the quantity of writing. Typically a thinker could have their central concept unfold over 5 totally different books: somewhat bit right here, somewhat bit there. And it’s a must to learn all these books with the intention to piece collectively what their philosophy is.
A great historical past of philosophy can let you know precisely the identical factor in two pages, so do your self a favor and get a great introductory guide that may clarify to you what these philosophers have been speaking about.
I provides you with extra info, extra books and proposals in future articles like this one; however if you would like one thing to start out proper now, get Bertrand Russell’s The Historical past of Western Philosophy.
On the lookout for a life-changing summer season learn? Listed here are Day by day Philosophy’s suggestions for 5 of probably the most inspiring books that everybody ought to know.
This can be a very normal historical past that everyone is aware of and you can learn simply. It’s written in a energetic means, and it’s fascinating sufficient, so that you could simply learn it for enjoyable. You may take it to the seashore, you’ll be able to get pleasure from it over the summer season, and it covers the entire historical past of philosophy: from historical occasions to the mid twentieth century. We are going to converse later in additional element about this guide. Russell has its personal opinions and he treats some philosophers extra unfairly than others, however that is inevitable. Each thinker has their very own concepts and agrees extra with some individuals than with others. Russell is maybe somewhat extra opinionated than others however this, however, makes it additionally extra enjoyable to learn his guide. Generally you’ll be able to snort with him about what philosophers get fallacious or what foolish issues they are saying – and different occasions, he may give you a extremely good perception into what is occurring, particularly with the harder philosophers.
So don’t learn the unique authors – learn a great historical past of philosophy or a number of. This shall be an enormous time saver over having to learn these 50 or 100 individuals your self, which can take you most of your life with a lot much less worth in return.
So there have been my 5 suggestions for self-studying philosophy. In case you’d like to start someplace proper now, you will get Russell’s guide, or you’ll be able to simply get the free Daily Philosophy newsletter, which can ship you one article each week that introduces a subject from philosophy, ranging all the way in which from the traditional theories of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to the ethics of abortion and house exploration.
Or simply maintain studying right here:
Day by day Philosophy’s suggestions for 5 extra of probably the most inspiring books in your Christmas presents record. The very best from Jill Taylor, John Stevens, Invoice Porter, Eugen Herrigel and Aldous Huxley. With tips about whom to present every guide.
Title picture by Philippe Bout on Unsplash.
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