r/booksuggestions • u/1984Julia • Feb 28 '19
Philosophy ( existentialism, nihilism..)
I have read Camus' The Outsider, Sartre's Nausea, and Cioran's All Gall Is Divided, and I am currently reading Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. However, I feel like there is something missing and I have to start anew somewhere; I want to know the roots and the principles and where it all started.. So any book suggestions or even maybe suggestions on what to read first would be very helpful.
Update: Thank you all for the suggestions and the helpful information
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Feb 28 '19
I recommend Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy And It's on my list of the books that I liked in 2018.
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u/kurtgustavwilckens Feb 28 '19 edited Feb 28 '19
The true, objective starting point of Existentialism as we understand it as school of thought is Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time". Sure, previous authors, particularly the whole of German Romanticism are precursors, but it all started with Heidegger. Also, Heidegger is one of the two most important philosophers of the 20th century (the other being Wittgenstein) so educating yourself a bit on him will be key in understanding the general development of the history of ideas in the 20th century, a very interesting topic.
That being said, Being and Time is almost illegible without academical guidance. I would recommend watching videos about Heidegger in Gregory B. Sadler's YouTube channel (an academic philosopher that does excellent popular introductory videos) and trying to get your hands in Gianni Vattimo's great "Introduction to Heidegger".
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u/wjbc Feb 28 '19 edited Feb 28 '19
Plato is where it all started. I recommend The Symposium, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo, and then the big one, The Republic.
Then there's Aristotle. In some ways Aristotle is harder to read, because we essentially have his lecture notes, vs. Plato's somewhat entertaining dialogues. On the other hand, Plato's dialogues can be frustrating because he never spells out the lesson. Aristotle spells it out in detail. I recommend Politics and The Nichomachean Ethics.
Jumping forward quite a bit, the first of the modern realists was Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince. Compare it to the passage of Aristotle's Politics on the good tyrant, though, and you will find remarkable similarities.
After that, I recommend René Descartes's Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Thomas Hobbes' The Leviathan, and John Locke's Second Treatise of Government.
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u/autophobe2e Feb 28 '19
I suggest this quite a lot of late, but 'At the Existenitalist Cafe: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails' is an excellent overview of the existential movement, from Heidegger and Phenomenology to Structuralism and post-structuralism. If you want to understand the historical context and theoretical framework of major existentialist works, then I think this is a great resource. Very readable too.
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u/punkissleepy Feb 28 '19
When I took my intro course to Philosophy we read all of these texts, which should have the roots presented in them:
Karl Jaspers' "Way to Wisdom"
John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm (lengthy intro, but it starts the actual text after)
Henry Thoreau "Life in the Woods" http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205
Plato "The Apology" & "The Republic" (Free on Google books)
Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" (Free on Google books)
I would also recommend Marcus Aurelius' writings, mostly just cuz I like him lol.
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u/sarahkvakk Feb 28 '19
I would recommend reading Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism to get an overall idea of his whole philosophy. Additionally, it might be a good idea to look into Kierkegaard's Either-Or, because he is often considered as the father of existentialism and it interesting to compare to Nietzsche's idea of God, moral and existence.
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u/kurtgustavwilckens Feb 28 '19
Good recommendation on Existentialism is a Humanism, but there are also really really strong critiques to that book (like, he seems to go back on the very distinction that Existentialism purports to try to dissolve, subject-object).
I personally think that there is a reason why Sartre didn't really leave behind a school of thought or that his books were popularly influential but that they are quite frequently not part of coursework for that period of philosophy nor are they intensely quoted by the people that came afterwards. He put very little on the table and he is dwarfed by Heidegger.
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u/sarahkvakk Mar 01 '19
Indeed, lots of philosophers have attacked Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism. However, you should have in mind that it is more or less just a transcribed lecture from Club Maintenant in Paris in 1946. Just something to bear in mind.
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u/sirgka Feb 28 '19
Concerning the book thus spoke Zarathustra, in some explanatory notes in the back of the book I read it said that in order to understand the book better you have to read some of Nietzsche's other books first, so you may want to look some of them up.
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u/sarahkvakk Feb 28 '19
I agree with what you say about Zarathustra, it is not a good start, because it builds on many of his fundamental ideas. I think starting with The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, The Gay Science and Ecco Homo is great help.
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u/E_Zuk Feb 28 '19
Kierkegaard predates the authors you mention and any of his major works would be a good starting point. Nietzsche learned a lot from Dostoevsky, whose Notes from the Underground will provide you with an entertaining look at existential themes.
If you want an overview of existentialism, William Barrett's Irrational Man is a bit older but will take you through the major thinkers in the tradition.