nick’s Comments (group member since Dec 23, 2015)

nick’s comments from the Philosophy group.

Old topic, but old only in the sense that it was created long ago. Always itself pervading our lives.

That being said, I want to switch gears and recommend someone not typically thought of as a philosopher in the western, academic sense... Proust!

I've somewhat recently finished his ISoLT after working on it for quite a long time, and, though it may be somewhat cumbersome at times, the wealth of insight shines through that's really been unrivaled by anything else I've read thus far. To me, it was like phenomenology in practice, which gave me such a rich and exhilarating experience of the surrounding world.

It's not for the light-hearted, though. You're life will be changed.

Plato, hands down.

Reading something more contemporary or modern is probably going to be much too biased - though implicitly. You'll hear second-hand opinions, analyses of past works, etc., without having read them. That in itself could do damage to your later reading of the ancient classics, Plato specifically (imagine if you were to read Nietzsche as your commencement into philosophy and decided to read Plato a year later - I think it'd be rather impossible to read unbiased at that point).

That being said, Plato is great. He's embodies the original philosophic method, easy to read, and you leave with more questions than answers - which is the fitting place to begin any subject.

Something that's guided me throughout my life thus far is

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education" -Twain

Though I'm in school and am just doing this for a degree (I know), I've learned more from private conversations with professors and reading and writing on my own then I ever have or ever will in a classroom.