Logical Investigations

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1. mykowebhnJul 2024
   Edmund Husserl truly is the father of phenomenology. He's been somewhat overshadowed by Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, which is a shame.

   For anyone interested in studying phenomenology, and specifically the philosophy of Husserl, I'd kindly recommend his works "Logical Investigations" and "Ideas".

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2. neel_kOct 2018
   The literature on this subject is both vast and populated by the work of the most eminent philosophers -- both continental and analytic -- of the last two hundred years.

   Here are some books that I liked. However, there are three caveats. First, being a great philosopher does not mean that one is a great writer. Second, I don't agree with all of these philosophers (indeed, most of them don't agree with _themselves_, since they changed their minds over time). Finally, I myself am not a philosopher, so this list is necessarily somewhat idiosyncratic:

   - Edmund Husserl's Philosophy of Arithmetic and Logical Investigations. In the first, he studies what we mean by numbers, and comes to (in my view) a very modern cognitive-scientific/computer-scientific view (ie, that we have direct access only to very small numbers and that our understanding of bigger numbers is symbolic). In the second, he turns around and rejects the idea that reductionism can turn logic into psychology, inventing phenomenology in the process and authoring the root source of modern continental philosophy.

   - Alain Badiou's _Number and Numbers_. If you need a Maoist continental philosopher who would disdain the entire Internet Bayesian rationalist community for being a bunch of squishy relativists who don't genuinely believe in capital-T Truth or capital-R Reality, then have I got the man for you! (After all, one should believe in true things because they are true, not because it would let you win a bloody bet. You should believe in true things even if that would make you lose a bet.)

   Badiou is a hard-core set-theoretic Platonist realist who passionately hates everything in logic that I love ("[...] if it is true that mathematics, the highest expression of pure thought, in the final analysis consists of nothing but syntactical apparatuses, grammars of signs, then a fortiori all thought falls under the constitutive rule of language"), and I love him for it.

   - Ludwig Wittgenstein's _Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_and Philosophical Investigations_. I find PI much more convincing than the Tractatus, but it's worth reading because it makes a strongly-argued case for logical realism. The big danger with Wittgenstein is that his epigrammatic style is infectious (he's the best writer on this list by a country mile).

   - David Lewis's books _Convention_ and _Counterfactuals_. I read _Convention_ as formalizing Wittgenstein's idea of a language-game in terms of game theoretic ideas of equilibria (as well as less formal ideas like Schelling points). _Counterfactuals_ is good (despite Lewis's bonkers modal realism) because counterfactuals and causation are an important part of actual real-world-applicable logic (as opposed to formal logic).

   - Michael Dummett's On the Logical Basis of Metaphysics. This is probably the book that has had the biggest impact on how I think about everything. His analysis of realism anti-realism is beautiful and subtle, and makes one of the best arguments for intuitionistic mathematics I have ever read.

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3. jcmosconJul 2017
   We can gain "lots" of intelligence by reading good books that forces your intellect like Logical Investigations from Edmund Husselr: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/312739.Logical_Investiga...
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4. vsthesquaresJul 2010
   Logical Investigations, Vols 1 & 2, by Edmund Husserl. Truly a great philosopher.
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5. michael_dorfmanJul 2010
   I think the quality of advice you're getting on this thread is very mixed.

   Some of the books mentioned are absolutely great-- like "Being and Time", or Husserl's "Logical Investigations"-- but incredibly difficult to read unprepared. If you were ready to be reading them, you wouldn't be asking the question here.

   The two books you mention in the question (Common Sense and "On the Fourfold Root") are both quite readable, as are a few of the primary texts mentioned in the responses ("Existentialism is a Humanism", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra") but in general, I'd have to suggest you stay away from primary texts at first.

   In other words, begin by reading works about philosophy, rather than works of philosophy.

   A single-volume work on the history of philosophy will give you the broad scope (for example, Durant, or Russell, or "Sophie's World" if you prefer fiction), but will tend to turn the philosophers discussed into caricatures of themselves.

   You mention that you are in school; I'd suggest you take a philosophy course or two, if you are interested in the field. Having an experienced guide will definitely help.

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