Posted by Jean65  6/26/2017 2:09 pm | #1 |
I'm currently an engineering student and I have some interest in philosophy.
The problem is that I would like to study it without a teacher. I think that alone I can read and have at least a basic understanding of many texts, concepts or arguments. But is it really possible to learn alone to think and to acquire some analytical skills with the help of a teacher to correct you and to give you some fundations?
Would you have some tips?
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Posted by Dennis 6/26/2017 2:21 pm | #2 |
Hi Jean65, personally, I've learnt philosophy by the grace of the members on this forum and the constant discussion that takes place here. I suggest you try joining the forum reading group, other than that you need a good handle on logic, for which I recommend something like Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic (for at least understanding how it operates), and then moving on to texts that cover propositional logic (I leave it to other members to specify those texts). It's not an easy task, but with time and dedication, I do believe that you can do it.
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Posted by John West 6/26/2017 3:44 pm | #3 |
Dennis wrote:
[. . .] other than that you need a good handle on logic, for which I recommend something like Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic (for at least understanding how it operates), and then moving on to texts that cover propositional logic (I leave it to other members to specify those texts). It's not an easy task, but with time and dedication, I do believe that you can do it.
Perhaps try Initiation à la logique formelle instead. No sense studying in your second language when you don't have to.
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Posted by RomanJoe 6/26/2017 6:09 pm | #4 |
Hi Jean65, personally, I've learnt philosophy by the grace of the members on this forum and the constant discussion that takes place here. I suggest you try joining the forum reading group, other than that you need a good handle on logic, for which I recommend something like Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic (for at least understanding how it operates), and then moving on to texts that cover propositional logic (I leave it to other members to specify those texts). It's not an easy task, but with time and dedication, I do believe that you can do it.
I'm a fairly new member and this forum is extremely helpful for me, someone who is interested in scholastic metaphysics. The recommended reading on this forum is fantastic. I'm slowly working through Garrigou-Lagrange's Reality.
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Posted by Jean65 6/27/2017 6:12 am | #5 |
Thanks for this references and the advices! They seem to be great.
I'm a very slow reader, won't it be a little bit hard for me to follow the rythm in a reading group?
Regarding the language, I have no big problem to read in english. Most of the times, my misunderstandings arrive because of the difficulty of what is explained, or because of the way it is explained.
Since it seems that most of the contempary french philosophy books focus on the history of philosophy (and since it isn't the field that is the drive of my curiosity), I don't think that it is bad to read english references
Is there a way to "think along" (or any good pratice, I don't know how to tell) when you read a philosophy book? I know that trying to reconstruct by yourself the arguments is a good thing but are there other good practices?
Is it a good idea to write a short essay on a given question (in order to help to memorize the ideas you're studying and to get a critical point of view), if there is nobody to correct you as a beginner?
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Posted by RomanJoe 6/28/2017 11:15 am | #6 |
Thanks for this references and the advices! They seem to be great.
I'm a very slow reader, won't it be a little bit hard for me to follow the rythm in a reading group?
Regarding the language, I have no big problem to read in english. Most of the times, my misunderstandings arrive because of the difficulty of what is explained, or because of the way it is explained.
Since it seems that most of the contempary french philosophy books focus on the history of philosophy (and since it isn't the field that is the drive of my curiosity), I don't think that it is bad to read english references
Is there a way to "think along" (or any good pratice, I don't know how to tell) when you read a philosophy book? I know that trying to reconstruct by yourself the arguments is a good thing but are there other good practices?
Is it a good idea to write a short essay on a given question (in order to help to memorize the ideas you're studying and to get a critical point of view), if there is nobody to correct you as a beginner?
Get a pencil out, pick up a book and start underlining, annotating, and making connections in the margins. Come to this forum if you have any questions or confusions about the content you're reading. If you don't understand something right away, make sure you understand the terms in use and then go back and read it again (Look in the resources section, there's an online version of the Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy). Words like "essence," "existence," even "act" and "potency," are completely foreign to people who aren't familiar with the scholastic tradition. Other than that, just keep reading, and read with a desire to actually understand, not just to memorize the content. Memorization is a funny thing--it will only sustain itself for a short amount of time unless you understand what you're trying to memorize. I may memorize all the dates in a given war, but those will leak from my memory if I don't understand the significance of these dates, the stories, the battles, they encapsulate. Things will become familiar, the fuzziness will sharpen out.
Last edited by RomanJoe (6/28/2017 11:16 am)
