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HOW to read philosophy

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HOW to read philosophy

2Ponder
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Posted 07/03/09 - 09:12 PM: Subject: HOW to read philosophy	#1
Today, I was browsing through the (disappointing) philosophy shelf of my local library, thinking about how interesting all the books looked and how much I wanted to read them. When I pulled one down and opened it, however, my eyes kind of glazed over in a matter of seconds, and I recalled how I'd already taken that book out twice and never gotten past the first paragraph. Then it hit me. I finally discovered the focal point of my love/hate relationship with the world of philosophy: I have no clue how to read a philosophy book. I've taken several philosophy classes (mixed results - 2 'A-'s, a 'B' and 2 'C's), but I've never really known what I was doing in any of them. I pick up the book that I'm supposed to be reading for class, open it, and then find myself waking up several hours later. I'm interested in what the author is trying to say (I keep telling myself), but I just can't read it. A friend of mine told me to 'browse' the book first, get the structure and main points, then come back and read it again to get the details. When I tried it, however, I got confused the first time through and tried delving into the text to get a better understanding, and I was suddenly no longer 'browsing', though I was still confused. Someone else told me to highlight without mercy, write anything that came to mind in the margins, and deconstruct every paragraph for its meaning as I encountered it. I tried that on Hobbes' "Leviathan", almost destroyed the book, and after 90 minutes was nearly crying. The only method that I've tried that remotely works is to simply read the same text again and again and again until I understand what's going on. I used it to great effect for my Intro. to Philosophy class in school, but we were only reading short texts, like Plato's "Apology", so the method worked. With longer works, like the ones encountered in more advanced classes, there just isn't the time to read "Critique of Pure Reason" 5 times in a semester, let alone 3 weeks. I just don't understand how I can tear up the colonial motifs of Shakespeare plays, write excellent essays on the parallels between T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and Picasso paintings, and point out subtle similarities between contemporary Irish drama and Beowulf, but can't even get through a damn philosophy essay that's more than 30 pages or written by Kant. Are there any other methods out there for reading philosophy?
"Not all who wander are lost."

kNoctis
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Posted 07/03/09 - 10:20 PM:	#2
Figure out the central conclusion the author is trying to support. You can usually do this by reading the introduction, but you could also cheat and find out on the internet. After that, remember, philosophy works by way of argument. So, deconstruct the arguments that you read. List the propositions in logical order from premise to conclusion. Do this anywhere you see an argument in print. After some practice, the arguments will jump out at you. Define any strange terms you see, and take note of any normal terms that are being used in strange or unusual ways. Good authors will do this for you, but sometimes not explicitly.

Caldwell
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Posted 07/04/09 - 01:54 AM:	#3
2Ponder wrote: I'm interested in what the author is trying to say (I keep telling myself), but I just can't read it. A friend of mine told me to 'browse' the book first, get the structure and main points, then come back and read it again to get the details. When I tried it, however, I got confused the first time through and tried delving into the text to get a better understanding, and I was suddenly no longer 'browsing', though I was still confused. Someone else told me to highlight without mercy, write anything that came to mind in the margins, and deconstruct every paragraph for its meaning as I encountered it. I tried that on Hobbes' "Leviathan", almost destroyed the book, and after 90 minutes was nearly crying. I suspect that your problem lies in the chronological positioning of the work/s you're reading, so none of the pieces of advice above would work unless you know where you are in the "map" of philosophy, because you need to know how that particular work relates to the rest of all philosophies. Yeah, your prof or teacher doesn't tell you this for reasons such as time constraint, and reasonable amount of material to read, just to get you to understand several pages of Kant, for instance. So, your first strategy is to place the work in time , and of course, your starting point, always, is Aristotle and his followers, and your very last is those guys in Postmodernism. (If you are majoring in philosophy, extend your end point to the very first being the Pre-socratics, and your last is still the postmodernists.) Place the work you're reading in between these endpoints, use well-known philosophers such Hume, Nietzsche, and Kant as marks. So, for instance, Hume came first before Kant, and Nietzsche came after Kant. You don't need to read the works of these philosophers, just look them up in reference books such as the dictionary for quick "definition" of their works. Hmmm, maybe this won't work either. Goodluck 2Ponder.

mayor of simpleton
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Posted 07/04/09 - 02:55 AM:	#4
Philosophy is far too important to be taken seriously. The fact that you can read without a disability is something to be greatly valued. Dyslexia is a real pain in the ass. Believe me, I know what I speak of! Anything you read in philosophy is never complete. Ideas build upon other ideas. Together they create a mosaic. The "big picture" need a bit of distance and time to place in a visual field of understanding. Don't take it too personal. A bit of detachment can help. There is no end to this process, but there are many starting points. Pick one and go on. Just because someone is known and said to be important does not mean what they have written will rock your world or speak to you in any shape or form. Philosophers are just human and are in truth no more enlightened than you or anyone else. They just make more effort to access potential and take the risk of stating their perspectives. Experience helps in the expression, but I find it very interesting how many a philosopher end exactly where they began. They are only human. Cool! How to read philosophy? One word at a time. One page at a time and from beginning to end. Read critically and honestly. This process can take minutes or decades. Time means nothing. Philosophers, often, define words differently too what we are finding in the dictionary. (especially wikipedia!) This is a hybrid from of "prose/poetry". Try to get into the shoes of the one writing the text. A form of detachment. If something bothers you, or you don't get it, or you don't see it that way, or it is just what you have always thought, or it brings you to new ideas (including unrelated ideas, often the best of all), then you are doing it correctly. That is, you are reading the text with a critical perspective and an open mind. The "maps and legends" for philosophy are unlimited and whatever works for you is the way to go. This is not a one-size fits all t-shirt. No one looks good in such a t-shirt (you might as well write "I'm with Stupid" on the front of such a thing). Have patience with yourself to find your thing. This is the love of language and the love of knowledge. Is there a "map or legend" for falling in love? With my dyslexia, I find that if I read the text as if I were in a dialogue with the writer, in the same time and space inwhich the text was originally conceived, the process of "understanding" is much better. I read at times aloud. I talk too my books and they "talk" too me. It may seem odd, but hey... who cares? All I can say is have fun. Nothing is better in life than thinking. "The suspense is killing me, I hope it'll last!" - Willy Wonka (original film 1971) Meow! GREG
I am not one to attribute that which I cannot understand immediately to be god(s)-perhaps I will never understand, but god(s) are not defined by my lack of understanding-this is the foundation of dogmas, the pressing of connotative values into the realm of dennotative meaning. - MOS

sqeecoo
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Posted 07/04/09 - 03:24 AM:	#5
Philosophy books are HARD to read. My suggestion is to read about the book (on the web or in some other book) before you read the book itself. Also, start with something easy to read. I recommend "Symposium" by Plato and "Conjectures and Refutations" by Karl Popper. The former is fun, the latter serious but easy and self-contained.

mayor of simpleton
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Posted 07/04/09 - 03:41 AM:	#6
sqeecoo, SUPER RECOMENDATION! Especially Karl Popper. Meow! GREG
I am not one to attribute that which I cannot understand immediately to be god(s)-perhaps I will never understand, but god(s) are not defined by my lack of understanding-this is the foundation of dogmas, the pressing of connotative values into the realm of dennotative meaning. - MOS

zjerome
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Posted 07/04/09 - 08:12 AM:	#7
It's great that you are so interested in philosophy, and yes some philosophy books are difficult. The first couple of "philosophy books" I read i found myself re-reading 50% of the pages. But keep with it and you will get used to the terms and it will get easier. The more you read the easier it will be to understand. I suggest maybe trying more story based philosophical book/authors to break up the classic philosophers. Try Dostoevsky, Camus, Henry David Thoreau, Faulkner, Dante, Fante, Capote etc. You can find them in the literature section of the library or bookstore. The author that I think had the most influence on me getting into Philosophy was probably Charles Bukowski, who probably never used the word philosophy in anything he wrote. Don't confine yourself to the Philosophy section, there are tons of great philosophy books in every genre. I might also recommend choosing an author you enjoy reading and reading a few of their books. I did that with Nietzsche, the first book was pretty confusing but they got easier as I went and I understood better as I could look at multiple works in sort of a "big picture" sort of thing.

sqeecoo
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Posted 07/04/09 - 12:25 PM:	#8
mayor of simpleton wrote: sqeecoo, SUPER RECOMENDATION! Especially Karl Popper. Meow! GREG Hey, thanks! You might be dyslexic, but you're probably the first person on this forum that managed to spell my nick correctly I completely agree with your post too. The only reason I said Popper's book is self contained is that he discusses in some detail the history of philosophical ideas that influenced him. I have to warn you though, that great quote at the end of your post is actually STOLEN () from Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest". And here's another Wilde quote that's applicable to this topic: The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. - Oscar Wilde Interestingly, I think Popper's book also opens with a Wilde quote Cheers!

unenlightened
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Posted 07/04/09 - 03:28 PM:	#9
2Ponder wrote: I pick up the book that I'm supposed to be reading for class, open it, and then find myself waking up several hours later. The difficulty, I find, is in approaching a philosopher with an open mind. One has absorbed uncritically a 'modern' way of thinking, and come to certain understandings of things like cause, free-will, atoms, the mind, and so on, and it is hard not to try all the time to reconcile what is being said with one's own conception of things. For this reason, the more intensely critically one reads, the less one understands. Assume instead, in the first instance, that what is being said is coherent as a way of looking at the world, and try to see the world for a moment from this point of view. This requires a cultivated ignorance that does not already have 'a position'. It can be helpful to know something of the history of ideas, as philosophers tend to react to each other. To understand Kant, it is helpful to have read Hume, for example, who articulated the problems he is trying to address. A potted history of philosophy, a dictinary of philosophy, and a modern summary of various philosophers are all good aids, but beware of aplying modern ideas like deconstruction, psychoanalysis, or scientific scepticism to phlosophers of a earlier time. To understand a philosopher, think a mile in his concepts, not in our modern ones.
...most of our actions are the result of the past, or according to a future ideal. That's not action, that is just conformity. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

ManiacJack
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Posted 07/04/09 - 08:40 PM:	#10
Did Caldwell just suggest Socrates and Plato are not only not the starting point, but should be avoided alltogether?
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