Problems from Locke

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1. mbatemanJul 2010
   Hi, I'm an ABD philosopher.

   The deepest and most interesting philosophical books are generally difficult and best accompanied by some form of instruction. This is true regardless of how clearly (e.g. Plato) or esoterically (e.g. Kant) written they are. There are some good secondary sources that can help but it's far preferable to be able to talk to an expert in a one-on-one or smallish setting. It would take a long time to explain why this is the case, so I'll just leave it as an assertion here.

   Okay, that being said, I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from reading philosophy on their own. Here are some recommendations for books and articles that can be (more) fruitfully read on one's own. Anything marked with a + is a secondary source. Ideally I'd be giving you excerpts from each of these in a reader for a course. I'm going to skip some people like Aristotle who should be approached in carefully selected excerpts or with a guide, and also some more obvious things that almost everyone with a college education has read, like Descartes' Meditations or Plato's Republic.

   On Fate, Alexander of Aphrodisias

   + Problems from Locke, Mackie

   Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Spinoza

   + The Courtier and the Heretic, Stewart (on Spinoza and Leibniz)

   Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume

   Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant

   Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Kant

   On Liberty, Mill

   "Modern Moral Philosophy", Anscombe

   "What is Capitalism?", Rand

   The Bounds of Sense, Strawson

   + "Rawls on Justice", Nagel

   "The Naturalists Return", Kitcher

   Sources of Normativity, Korsgaard

   This crowd in particular might be interested in some of Frege's work as well, e.g. "What is a Function?" and "Sense and Reference."

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2. telemachosJul 2010
   I respectfully disagree. In many cases, reading secondary sources is pointless without also reading the originals. (It's a bit like reading a review of a meal, rather than eating any of it.)

   That said, the quality of secondary works varies a lot. Some things, like Mackie's Problems from Locke, are now primary sources in their own right, albeit in a secondary way.

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