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    Cover of Think

    Think

    Simon Blackburn · 1999

    Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for "anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them," Think provides a sound framework for exploring the most basic themes of philosophy, and for understanding how major philosophers have tackled the questions that have pressed themselves most forcefully on human consciousness.

    Philosophy
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    2recommend
    3mentions
    3people
    2016–2020years
    67% recommend33% neutral

    Mentions per year

    20162017201820192020

    What Hacker News says

    1. a_humeanMay 2016
      I would check out Philosophy Bites, which is a podcast interviewing active research philosophers in 15-20 minutes about their topics.

      http://www.philosophybites.com/

      Check out Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which is free and edited by active research philosophers on pretty much every major topic and figure.

      http://plato.stanford.edu/

      Naming and Necessity by Kripke is about reference and the causal theory of reference, but it assume a decent amount (in case that is what you were asking for specifically).

      The Very Short Introductions series have some really good booklets if you want quick ways to jump into a topic.

      A few other books:

      B Russell The Problems of Philosophy. OUP (dated, but a classic general introduction)

      Simon Blackburn Think. Oxford (nice general introduction)

      Tim Crane The Mechanical Mind. Penguin (Nice introduction to phil of mind)

      A J Ayer Language, Truth, and Logic. Penguin (dated, but a classic)

      D Hume Enquiries

      T Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Univ of Chicago Press

      thread
    2. dmlhllndApr 2016
      > Religion (like philosophy and superstition)

      One of these things is not like the others.

      This book ("Think" by Simon Blackburn) is a wonderfully readable introduction to the subject if you haven't studied philosophy before:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think:_A_Compelling_Introducti...

      It's one of the books every smart person should read.

      thread
    3. ci5erOct 2020
      I guess it depends on workplace culture? I have worked and/or consulted at places where I would not have been (in general) afraid to be bold.

      Books like "Think" by Simon Blackburn don't bother me to comment on. They are pretty light treatments of the underlying topics, but (as philosophy), they are framed as rational discourses. (Whether they are or not is a different topic).

      Topics about things like emotional intelligence (EQ) or persuasion or even nudging or race-relations in the 20th century can trigger a fairly rapid group response (primarily amongst the younger co-workers), and then you get to feeling piled upon (and even cancelled) pretty quickly.

      It's a new world, and I'm pretty old, and as a sit-at-my-workstation-and-code engineer, I'm guessing that I may have allowed myself to get behind the curve on normative (allowable?) social opinions.

      thread

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