@@Flux799 Hey, ancient Sumerian is still mostly just understanding the language and its contexts. Hegel on the other hand is buried in conceptually disjointed language that's impossible to deduct in a rigid manner.
“But the height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously been known only in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most bare-faced general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, and will remain as a monument to German stupidity.” - Edward Caird (1835 - 1908)
Unexpected selection, I have never heard of Blondel and am surprised by how many "christian" philosophers you have included. What about Wittgenstein or the British Empiricists? What would also be interesting is a "thematic" list that considers the setting of living on a desert island. Heidegger is definitely a great choice then. Imagine yourself sitting in a tropic Todtnauberg hut. Maybe also something in line with Chalmers' "Constructing The World", like Carnap's "The Logical Structure of the World".
Probably much less surprising for someone who knows or follows my work, or who has watched any of my other personal videos. I've already discussed Hume and Locke in previous comments here. Wittgenstein, I've done an entire video about previously
Gregory B. Sadler yeah I've seen that a lot of your videos center around christian themes, I'll visit them later. A book that just came to my mind, although I've not yet read much of it, but seems to be very promising, is Eihei Dogen's "The True Dharma-Eye Treasury", a 2000-page massive essay collection on Zen Buddhism. Have you talked about Buddhism in any of your videos or articles?
Great list, but if I had to read Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in the bomb shelter, I might be be praying for a direct hit: he with the gift of rendering the inscrutable incomprehensible.
@@GregoryBSadlerHehe Indeed! I'm not in a bomb shelter, but since I'm in Australia and in lock down I should give him another shot. Your clips are great.
1) Plato's Republic. 2) Aristotle's Politics. 3) Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. 4) Rawl's A theory of Justice. 5) Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. 6) Macintyre's After Virtue. 7) Descartes Meditations 8) Aquinas' Summa theologica 9) Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembeling 10) Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.
My list (with some cheating) Plato: Complete Works Aristotle: Complete Works Agostino: Confessions Descartes: Collected Works Ethics (Spinoza) A Treatise of Human Nature Critique of Pure Reason Being & Time Theory of Justice The Concept of Law (Hart)
@@MultiBOZA No it hasn't. Sorry to be a party pauper as I don't know if you made that remarks as a tongue in cheek humor. However, if you were being serious, then you are wrong...or rather most people are clueless to believe philosophy is just about abstract knowledge. In fact, one of the books selected by Dr. Sandler in this list is the Phenomenology of spirit by Hegel who set out in the book to show the concrete nature and requirements of philosophical musings
@@PFMAGGAMFP McCarthy is a very skilled writer and Blood Meridian stands at the "end" of philosophy (not to be mistaken with nihilism). I've found that the best way to learn philosophy is to write it oneself, otherwise you're just trying to memorize what someone else said. We are in charge of our own lives, after all. I'm not in Plato's camp per se, but I've always admired the power in the realization that one cannot learn what one doesn't already know. Teachers have charisma which lends itself well to entertainment, but wisdom isn't something that can be passed along. And good writers are very good magicians. We're all making all of this up as we go anyway. I do tend to relax a lot by reminding myself to try and enjoy the ride.
This would be my top 10 list of books on a desert Island: Epictetus - Discourses Marcus Aurelius - Meditations Seneca - Hardship and Happiness Seneca - Letters from a Stoic Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics Plato - Symposium Plato - Republic Kant - Critique of Pure Reason St. Augustine - The City of God The Bible
Oh, now that I think about it, my list should be mostly Stoicism. In the harshness of a deserted island, I think some Marcus Aurelius would really come in handy 😂
a video I shot recently in response to a number of similar questions I've been getting for some time, this one prompted by thinking about the particular question asked me by an old college classmate and friend
Gregory B. Sadler Ah I see. So that would be an intresting topic as well :). Or have you already done something like that? Ps:Great channel and work. Thank you very much!
St.Augustine is by far one of my favorite philosophers. Without a doubt one of the most powerful in his prose and writing. Only other person that comes to being as powerful is Dostoevsky.
If I may ask, I wasn't raised in the Christian culture. I don't believe in supernatural agents. And I used to be a practicing (and reading) muslim. Do you think I could see St. Augustine like you do ? (I've read Dostoevsky with great pleasure).
@@a1k131 Hey man, sorry for answer late. It's really different. Al-Ghazali uses a sort of aristotelian philosophy whereas Augustine uses a Neoplatonism philosophy. I haven't see much about Al-Ghazali honestly, but a Christian counter-part would be Thomas Aquinas, he uses aristotelian philosophy as well. But for what I've seen Al-Ghazali focus more in metaphysics and the existence of God, causation, etc whereas Augustine is more about ethics, problem of evil his works are much more about self-reflection, much more poetic.
A lot of what you have would be on my list, specifically Plato's Republic, Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, Decartes' Meditations, and Aristotle's Metaphysics. My other five would be Augustine's Confessions, Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments, Locke's Two Treatises of Government, Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. These are not in any particular order of course.
I'd thought of Kierkegaard, Locke and Hume -- but it's tough to decide just what work of Kierkegaard, if I could just choose one, I would want (same problem with Nietzsche). Hume's Treatise was a tempting one as well.
Mine would probably be. 1. Eroticism - Bataille 2. Being and Nothingness - Sartre 3.Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche 4. Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky 5. Philosophy of the Boudoir - Sade 6. Phenomenology Of Spirit - Hegel
@@GregoryBSadler Meditations feels more like a collection of poetically exquisite nothings, whereas Epictetus actually and concisely addresses specific issues. Epictetus > Marcus Aurelius any day
@@Recondite101 I think Marcus himself would recognize that Epictetus' Discourses are more meaty than the Meditations. That said, Marcus' stuff is decent
Hi Professor Sadler, I have to say that your list of philosophical works are impressive. I, myself, am very fond of Augustine's "City of God" and in many ways I think it is way ahead of its time. It's not perfect, but some of the things he touches on, even when he is speaking as though he does not know what to think about a matter, I find that his reasoning process is usually so spot on, so much so in fact that he often mentions the answer already (perhaps without even knowing) in the form of a question. As time has past, I have become more and more convinced that St. Augustine truly deserves the amount of praise and recognized influence he has earned. There are many modern-day philosophers who are not nearly as skilled thinkers, but merely have the benefit of living in a time and place where more information is open to them.
My List: 1) Kant's Critique of Pure Reason 2) Spinoza's Ethics 3) Descartes' Meditations 4) Shankara's Brahmasutra Bhashya 5) Harsha's The Sweets of Refutation 7) Heidegger's Being and Time 8) Plotinus' Enneads 9) Aristotle's Metaphysics 10) Nishida Kitaro's An Inquiry Into the Good
Love it! I'm thinking that id bring works by literary philosophers like Camus, Dostoevsky, or Nietszche. But perhaps over time the literary flash may wear off and I would crave some really philosophical flesh, a system like you said
please do professor sadler! I would love to know your top 10 literary works. especially if it's something i haven't read yet. I read Rlike's letters because of your rilke lecture, maybe 2 years ago and I've kept coming back to Rilke. thanks for these videos!
I would bring Chicken Soup for the Soul, the Manual for Windows XP, Sharks Don't Get Cancer, the sequel Shark's Still Don't Get Cancer, and Schelling's Philosophy of Mythology.
No Anselm? Great writer, 2. Me, I'm going with his On Free Will and the following 2fers: Aquinas' commentaries on Metaphysics, De Anima, and NE, as well as a splendid 3-fer, Gail Fine's On Ideas: Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms. (4-fer, if you count the footnotes.) Notice that I've got all the branches covered, 2. Whoops, no logic. 'Captain, may I please take my copy of the Kneales' magisterial Development of Logic? And, while you're at it, if I slip you a 20, may I stowaway Geach and Anscombe's 3 Philosophers?'
I've only studied for a few years now, so my list is bound to change, but here it is: 1. Aristotles Metaphysics 2. Descartes Meditations 3. De Beauvoir's Second Sex 4. Platos republic 5. Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations 6. Marx Capital 7. David Chalmers The Conscious Mind 8. Levi Bryant's The Democracy of Objects
Liber librum aperit. (One book opens another) It's hard to limit myself to so few, because I've enjoyed many thoughtful books - and even ones where I'm fairly certain the author is wrong I've enjoyed for the exercise. I'd have to include one of Wylie's essays, like The Magic Animal, Generation of Vipers, or An Essay on Morals, because they've been such a loadstone in my thinking and I've spent so much time thinking about them and eventually thinking beyond and past them. . And on a desert island it seems Robinson Crusoe might be useful... or at least edifying...
Gregory B. Sadler I think so. There are some I return to over and over again, and though the words on the page don't change, they do spark new thoughts, and it really is like a conversation with an old friend. Most of them are philosophical, but not capital P Philosophy, per se. I'm thinking of things like Hesiod's "Works and Days" or Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat. Shakespeare will do for the literary minded. . I was going to post a list of more canon philosophy books last night but ran out of places, and hadn't even left the Hellenes!
I had to do a similar thing in school last year, it was because we read Fahrenheit 451 and books are illegal in that universe but they didn't have to be philosophy. I chose the Bible, The Prince, on the Genealogy of Morality, The Spirit of the Laws, Plato's Republic, the Gulag Archipelago, The Rights of Man, and On the Origin of Species. I would probably change my list now that ive learned more
I'd cheat and take Complete Works Anthologies of Berkeley, Hume and Nietzsche -- all three of whom I consider some of the best most interesting writers in philosophy. After which I'd add two more: Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (just to see if I can finally get through it -- as I consider it to have some of the most exciting ideas in the history of human thought -- but written, unfortunately, in the most boring way possible) and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (to see if I can finally get a REAL sense of why so many consider it such a seminal work).
Obviously, at some point, you're going to have to leave that island and reintegrate back into the human situation. Therefore, I would recommend Alfred Korzybski's "Science And Sanity." I think it might be the most important work ever written on this planet followed (at a distance) by Alfred North Whitehead's "Process And Reality." I liked your program. Thank you for your insights.
Dr. Sadler, a word of gratitude in making this video and your online work. Supremely rewarding and meaningful. My list, since it was asked in the description, 1. Aristotle, Metaphysics. 2. Augustine, Confessions. 3. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason 4. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit 5. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra As is the case for yourself, the last five are perhaps more telling of my individual interests. 6. Pascal, Pensees 7. Heidegger, On the Way to Language 8. Leibniz, Monadology 9. Heraclitus, Collected Scripts 10. Descartes, Meditations
Yes, I do think I could find in these much to consider for the rest of my days. Further, I think I could have in these material enough to form some of my own stances and maintain in my work the type of dialogue amongst the thinkers. But, ultimately, I do hope such a scenario never occurs as I would miss so many other works, including the literary as opposed to just the philosophical.
Please, who can tell what edition of the Meditations this is? The only french version that includes the objections and replies that I found was horrible GF Flammarion edition (horrible in terms of cover, paper, font..). This one seems to be old, is it still available? Gregory B. Sadler
BG and Evil Rumi's Masnavi The B Karamazov V. Hugo's Laughing Man Seneca's Dialogues Ralph Waldo Emerson's journals and essays ... However, I haven't read many of the classics you have mentioned, so this list is provisional.
I know this video is older , but I was wondering if you have a recommended translation of "City of God." Henry Bettenson is the translation you have linked, and I'll use that link if that's the translation you recommend! It's been on my reading list for far too long. I read Confessions a while back and found it incredible. Being familiar with Plato, it was interesting to see those references, and the narrative of the story was outstanding too. But the thing that I found most incredible was was in the last chapters when he turned his search inward. The questions he asked and his insights... I really felt like he was making steps into the theory of the unconsciousness and psychoanalysis without explicitly naming them.
My thoughts exactly. Why use your time in the playgrounds of thought if you had to pick. Even on a desert island the understanding of the will to power is relevent and even usefull.
Great channel, thank you for sharing this interesting list. I see you're leaving out the Stoics, although you are part of the Modern Stoicism movement, (in a desert island I may take at least one text from Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus maybe Hadot's Inner Citadel). I also think Spinoza would be in my list, maybe Nietzsche too, but that is of course very personal.
Yes I did, great works in themselves that are systematic, and connect with other great works. That rules out the Stoics and Nietzsche I guess, works that you'd read in other circumstances. But Spinoza? it is systematic, great in itself and seems to me quite connected with many of the great authors in your list, answering Descartes' dualism and advancing Hegel's monism. I was only expressing a personal prefference toward those authors.
Of course, that doesn't mean that I think he's bad. He's got his interesting points, and I like the challenge of teaching him. But, I wouldn't place him as highly as many people seem to
I'm actually reading the Pensees right now and Pascal was way ahead of his time not only in philosophy, but for his theories in probability as well as some of his inventions. His thought really seems to be somewhat of a precursor towards the existentialist movement and I know he had an impact on the writings of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as well. I do believe people make way too much of his "Wager" and I don't think his intentions were to mean some sort of "fake it to make it" type thing...as people make it out to be. I honestly think he was meaning for the atheist to actually try it or be open to belief in God. I highly doubt a man of his intelligence would suggest that you could just slip one past God.
Yes, that's a funny way to think about it -- which I'd say a lot of people do fall into -- slip[ping] one past God. Kierkegaard was influenced by Pascal, but Nietzsche really didn't seem to like him (understandably so, given the incompatibilities between their perspectives)
Perhaps down the line, in a video. In the mean time, I've got several videos on him you can watch, and a few writings as well, that you can find in Academia.edu
I'm by no means a philosopher (I've read on the side while studying History), but I'd probably include Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. I'd be hard-pressed to provide a definite work, but I'd have to include Wittgenstein and Hayden White, too. Anyway, I haven't read a few of the ones you listed, so I'll have to get on that, soon.
For the last 4 years I was required to read predominantly analytical philosophy, but I can say with some ‘certainty’ that not one of these so called analytical philosophers will make it to the desert island. It might also be more forceful to change the statement to ’10 Philosophical Works I’d safeguard for the future of humanity after the final destruction of civilisation’. The problem with this type of list is that a lot of books are still on my ‘to read’ list but unfortunately still in the’ have not yet read’ pile, so some choices rest on assumptions: Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit Heidegger - Being and Time Plato - Complete works Aristotle - Metaphysics Kant - Critique of Pure Reason (doubtlessly a, or even the, central work of Philosophy. But it’s endless complexity and at times abstractness together with the fact that there are very few living creatures with a complete comprehension of the whole book makes this a problematic choice. I can imagine the nightmare of teaching Kant to a punch of inquisitive intelligent students on a bad brain day :) Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche - On the Genealogy of Morality, or Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols, however this uncertainty could easily be resolved by taking the complete ‘Werke’ . Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations Then I would have to decide between Hegel’s ‘Science of Logic’, his ‘Philosophy of Right’, Kant’s ‘Critique of Judgment’ and the works of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Schmitt, Derrida, Deleuze, Badiou, Zizek, Lacan and Tillich.
Well. . . I think I'd probably revise the list if it was ’10 Philosophical Works I’d safeguard for the future of humanity after the final destruction of civilization’. This was a more personal list reflecting my own interests to some extent. One rule about this, though -- you can't take any "collected works" along. Otherwise, it would have been a much easier choice!
Then my Plato would probably have to be the Republic. But I still have to read the Parmenides and Gorgias which are favourites to some. My Nietzsche choice would then be ‘Beyond Good and Evil’
No Kierkegaard?! *Gasp* Well, having Pascal there helps make up for that. Slightly. :) Seriously though, this was a fascinating video. This may show my ignorance but when it comes to metaphysics how does one determine what is true? I mean lets take Aristotle's four causes way of conceptualizing reality or Aquinas distinction between act and potency. How does one know that these are the best ways to conceptualize things? I mean I know that modern philosophers moved away from Aristotle's way of thinking but I don't know why or even how one would go about disputing such things. I guess that is part of the disagreement too. I mean in history or science it is easy to dispute things. One goes back to the sources or one does another experiment. How does one do this in metaphysics? Just considering all the things in metaphysics that I don't understand or just know a little bit about hurts my head.
Well, there's no simple answer (or rather, there's plenty of deficient simple answers) to that question. I tend to see it this way: Any metaphysics that is going to worth entertaining must do justice to the whole range of reality and our experience of it. It should be able to address its rivals and predecessors, and make some reasonable case for why it provides a superior perspective.
+Gregory B. Sadler This answer you gave sounds *exactly* like the type of answer I'm accustomed to providing. You sound like the type of person who cares about over-arching, encompassing philosophical conclusions. Socrates, apparently was the same way. I find this to be a quality in people who are given to having a desire to believe the right things as much as it is humanly possible to do.
Just discovered your work on RUclips. The 2020 Covid-19 outbreak has been great for exploring philosophy. Am curious as to your selection. No Derrida, Baudrillard?
@@GregoryBSadler True, but I find in Parts I and II, one of my favourite accounts of man and morality in relation to power and the conditions of sociability. As for the fiction, probably something Goethe.
Hegel??!?!? only if its a last copy to bury on tbe island. it's going to be the last read...... gots to be entertaining, Symposium, Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus to revel in the absurdity of, well, you're on a desert island fuh fucks sake. Being and Time being the most influential work from the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.
If I was going to take a history of philosophy as one of the texts I'd want something more comprehensive, accurate, and scholarly than Durant. Is it fair to count the complete Copleston History of Philosophy as one work? Not sure what my complete list would be but I think I'd include that.
Late to the party but thought it was a cool exercise so I'll try it out: 1. Nietzsche's Dawnbreak 2. James' Pragmatism 3. Heidegger's Being and Time 4. Dewey's A Common Faith (some very moving passages there) 5. Wittgenstein's Investigations 6. Derrida and Bennington's Jacques Derrida / Circumfession (one of the most fun reads I've ever done, and worth coming back to) 7. Rorty's Philosophy and Social Hope 8. Proust's In Search of Lost Time (considering it's NOT cheating to bring multiple volumes, if the Summa is allowed then the Search is also allowed haha. Maybe in a deserted island I'd actually, finally, finish the whole thing...) 9. Joyce's Finnegans Wake (plenty of time to make sense of the whole thing) 10. Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse (good for thinking about death, something I might do a lot in a deserted island...)
This is one of my favourite videos. I liked to go back to it when I’m about to read one of the texts from this top ten list and in this case Aristotle metaphysics the WD Ross translation.
What do you think of something like the Enneads which is also pretty systematic? I've noticed that Neoplatonic stuff is seldom spoken of in comparison to other schools of Western philosophy. Why do you think Neoplatonism isn't given much attention even with its vast scope?
I think Plotinus is very cool, and if I was doing the "20 works. . ." , he would probably be on my list, or at least in contention. Why isn't Neo-Platonic stuff discussed as much? It tends to get passed over when we teach philosophy (as used to also be the case with the Stoics and Epicureans), unless the instructor understands and likes it. Also, there's a bit more of a learning curve required in order to make sense of what is being discussed.
Interesting, so would you say that perhaps the difficulty is a bigger factor for it being passed over or is "dislike" or "distaste" a bigger factor based on your experience and experience you've had with your peers? Do philosophers today who still take interest in the classics as you do believe that Plotinus really did have genuine insights into things which others did not have? Do they think the criticisms he makes regarding Aristotle are well founded, considering Aristotle is taken so much more seriously and authoritatively? Sorry if that's too many questions lol, just curious. I personally am very into Plotinus because of the role his philosophical language and concepts play in the Nizari Ismaili Islamic school of thought (Definitely also a big contributor to other Islamic schools and Christianity as well) which I follow and so I've seen the insights that Plotinus has to be truly piercing.
Most of my peers in philosophy have never studied Plotinus or other neo-Platonists, period. They haven't got a distaste or dislike, since they'd have to know enough about his thought to have that reaction. I'd say that when you're talking about "philosophers today who still take interest in the classics", you're actually talking about two very different groups. There's the people who actually study the texts, keep up on the better research, and understand the history. An Aristotle scholar in that line is quite likely to know neo-Platonic stuff as well, and may well appreciate it. Then there's the "great books" or "western civ" types, who usually have relied more on glosses and manuals rather than actually studying the text. They typically have some rather schematic and outdated "history of philosophy" stuck in their heads, one that says Aristotle is really great and the neo-Platonists not so much.
very interesting.......hmm. So it just gets passed over period. How unfortunate. But ya I can understand it, I'm reading a companion book by Lloyd Gerson right now that my mentor recommended and it's not at all easy but I found it made more sense when I look at what someone like Nasir Khusraw says for example in his works which basically use Neoplatonic concepts to illustrate three hyposteses of Ismaili thought: God, Universal Intellect and Universal Soul. But ya definitely something people should prolly look into more. It actually in that sense in very helpful in reconciling Islam and Christianity when it comes to the Trinity and the concept of tawhid though not completely since in Christianity I believe all the members of the Trinity are coequal whereas in Ismaili Islam, they are arranged in a hierarchy.
Fun concept for a video and got me thinking. I hope I don't get stuck on an island in my teens, as I don't have the requisite understanding to take on some of your texts. My list: 1) Principia Mathematica, Whitehead 2) Decline of the West, Spengler 3) Logical Investigations, Husserl (friend insists) 4) Aristotle's Politics 5) The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer (haven't read yet, but enjoy his essays) 6) An Inquiry, Reid 7) Copleston's History of Philosophy (could be a mistake, leaving me wanting) 8) Summa 9) Gramsci's Prison Notebooks 10) Vico's New Science
Descartes as a sorbet to cleanse your philosophical palate. LOL We have a saying here in Germany, "Never read Goethe in English, Never read Keats in German, But never read Hegel in any language" LOL I agree that the opening up of other vistas by a writer or book makes it more rewarding especially on a reread as you can dive off in so many other directions Having read Karl Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies" (sometimes called "The Open Society by one of its Enemies") I have a bias against Plato and Hegel and so tend to avoid them in my reading. I want to understand Heidegger but am put off by what Lévinas described as a lack of ethics - which meant he became a Nazi and served the Nazi state so have preferred to read Lévinas and find him rewarding.
Dr. Sadler, just found your channel. Thank you. I can certainly see your passion for Philosophy and it's contagious. I am new to the subject, have never taken any classes or the like, but would like to start with some reading. As per your recommendations here, I just picked up the following: The Republic The Metaphysics Pensees City Of God Meditations On First Philosophy Which one do I read first? Also, should I possible start with an Introduction to Philosophy book first?
+Gregory B. Sadler Thank you for the reply. I'm assuming you're referring to the single volume, Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo (Hackett Classics).
@@GregoryBSadler To steer towards the right one, I'd love to hear what Heidegger is "definitely wrong" about. He covers so much, so it's no wonder someone as well-versed as yourself would spot an important error. Then again, I'm fairly deep into Heidegger and haven't spotted anything that jumps off the page as "wrong."
Unfortunately, I think I need a desert island in order to examine Hegel and Heidegger as one should. Otherwise, just give me any ten of Bertrand Russell's books--a beautiful writer as well as a beautiful thinker. I would also like to take Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death," "Escape from Evil," and "The Birth and Death of Meaning." ...Kenneth Burke's "Language as Symbolic Action" and "Rhetoric of Motives." Every time I read Becker and Burke, I fell like Moses is splitting a sea in my head. Anyway, I put Blondel's "Action" on my reading list. Thanks.
I'd actually debated about including Perelman's New Rhetoric. As far as the Hegel goes, if you want to work through the Phenomenology at least, you might take a look at the Half-Hour Hegel series. I've shot 17 installments so far
Only one I agree with is Aristotle's Metaphysics. Wish you had picked a different dialogue from Plato. Anyway, you make great and interesting/helpful videos, keep it up!
Well, I'm pretty uninterested in surface level comparisons myself, to be honest. Anything can be compared to anything at the surface level, and that time is often better spent getting past a surface level
1. Heidegger- Being and Time 2. Sartre- Being and Nothingness 3. Camus- Myth Of Sisyphus 4. Nietzsche- Human All Too Human or The Gay Science 5. Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian or Suttree 6. Faulkner- Absalom Absalom! 7. John Milton- The Complete Poems 8. It’s hard to choose a favorite Dostoevsky, either The Brother’s Karamazov or Demons 9. Thomas Pynchon- Gravity’s Rainbow 10.Alexandre Dumas- The Count Of Monte Cristo I liked your list. The only Aquinas I’ve read is ‘Confessions’ but I must admit I read it when I was too young. Have you read this one? Republic is a good book, I only read it maybe twice. I should read more Greek works. Looking forward to Summa Theologica someday. Some of the works I included were fiction but they contain philosophical themes. Blood Meridian is sometimes thought as a Gnostic text, I’ve read one paper where there is a Nietzsche influence, concerning the Judge. Absalom Absalom name derives from Absalom from the Bible and Gravity’s Rainbow is about science and WW2, the opening is very famous: “A screaming came across the sky.” Cheers, have a good day.
Aquinas didn't write Confessions. You're mixing him up with Augustine, who comes about 8 centuries earlier. And that's an excellent work, but if I was going to bring an Augustine book, it'd be City of God
@@GregoryBSadler That’s right, I checked my shelf. Silly mistake. If we don’t speak again, merry Christmas. I’ve been deleting some social media apps like Facebook Twitter and Twitch.
Gregory B. Sadler Apologies . I didn’t mean that as an inference about you. I’m relatively new to your channel, and I haven’t seen any content from you on aforementioned. I’m genuinely curious about your take on them. Most the philosophy channels I have watched on RUclips focus on those five (to a fault IMO) and I’m looking for fresh perspective.
Dr. Sadler, if you happen to see this and have time to respond, I would greatly appreciate it. I would like to give 1-2 books to a volunteer who I now consider to be a good friend. Last year, I gave him a copy of Arthur Schopenhauer's The Wisdom of Life of which he says made him a wiser being. Many of the books that come to mind our my favorite books. I considered Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit. At the moment, I'm considering The Meditations or The Myth of Sisyphus. Can you please recommend a great book that is similar to the Wisdom of Life. Something that is "mind-blowing", enlightening, yet simple to read? Thanks for your work and contributions... Best, Aaron
Dr. Sadler, have you read the philosophical works of Avicenna or any other great Muslim philosophers? If so, what are your thoughts about their ideas and contribution to the field of philosophy?
Interesting! Mine (only providing top 5, since top 10 would require a lot more thought) would be - Augustine's Confessions, Epicurus (the only three original texts that remained), Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and probably Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Do you mind me asking why you'd pick Augustine's De civitate dei rather than Confessiones?
Hello Professor, I want to ask you, from your experience in this field, is it better to read philosophy chronologically? I’ve finished Plato and Aristotle, and after that I’ll go for Augustine and the islamic philosophers. Do you think I should carry on like this? Thanks
Well, if you are reading chronologically, you're really skipping a lot by jumping from Aristotle to Augustine. You certainly can read in chronological order, but you ought to expect to go back quite frequently to books you've read.
No one likes Hobbes, Rousseau or John Locke? I had a good friend when I was younger who was deep in Philophy , especially Eastern Philophy and he really liked Hobbes.
And what one book would you bring? Leviathan is just pure nutty theological stuff in books 3-4. Locke's Essay? Interesting in parts, sure. What single book by Rousseau?
@@GregoryBSadler To be honest, I am not that knowleagable about Philosphy. My friend from my HIgh School and College Years was a real Philosphy genius. I was taught becasically in 9th great LIterature that Hobbes believed Man was born Evil, Rousseau believed that Man was born good and Locke was in between thinking that Man was a Blank Slate. That is probably a simplification of their Philosophies. I am a little ADD and too much of a TV Addict, but I have many, many great Books that I need to read- Fiction, non-Fiction, philosphy, etc. I did start reading Leviathan, but I put it down because it seemed to be going on and on without really saying anything. I will probably give that book another try. I prefer MOdern Authors who are not so Verbose, get to the Point, and try to make the writing simple enough so a non PhD can read the book.
"Frankly, I don't even know if Hegel got Hegel." The first time that Hegel ever made me laugh. Thanks
Paul Arthur it’s true though. Hegel’s work is almost equivalent to deciphering ancient Sumerian text.
@@Flux799 Hey, ancient Sumerian is still mostly just understanding the language and its contexts. Hegel on the other hand is buried in conceptually disjointed language that's impossible to deduct in a rigid manner.
“But the height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously been known only in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most bare-faced general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, and will remain as a monument to German stupidity.” - Edward Caird (1835 - 1908)
Yeah, Phenomenology of the Spirit is setting records for how many commas can be in one sentence. The commas, oh the commas!
I really like the fact that your videos are not rushed like most topical videos on youtube.
Demian Haki Yes, if anything, they're at the other extreme -- as some commenters tell me
Gregory B. Sadler Well, the short, quick videos certainly have their merit, but it's nice to settle into a lecture once in a while.
I like it too. Then I put the speed in 2x.
Just found this channel. You are instantly likeable.
+Adam0804 Thanks!
i really enjoy your channel ... thanks ALOT !
You're welcome
Gregory B. Sadler Please do a bookshelf tour
Mike Tyson.
That would take a very long time, I think
Unexpected selection, I have never heard of Blondel and am surprised by how many "christian" philosophers you have included. What about Wittgenstein or the British Empiricists?
What would also be interesting is a "thematic" list that considers the setting of living on a desert island. Heidegger is definitely a great choice then. Imagine yourself sitting in a tropic Todtnauberg hut. Maybe also something in line with Chalmers' "Constructing The World", like Carnap's "The Logical Structure of the World".
Probably much less surprising for someone who knows or follows my work, or who has watched any of my other personal videos.
I've already discussed Hume and Locke in previous comments here. Wittgenstein, I've done an entire video about previously
Gregory B. Sadler yeah I've seen that a lot of your videos center around christian themes, I'll visit them later. A book that just came to my mind, although I've not yet read much of it, but seems to be very promising, is Eihei Dogen's "The True Dharma-Eye Treasury", a 2000-page massive essay collection on Zen Buddhism. Have you talked about Buddhism in any of your videos or articles?
I generally don't. It's enough for me to stick with the stuff I'm working on, which will likely keep me very busy for a while
do you know which philosophers or books are about emotional intelligence/human nature?
Great list, but if I had to read Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in the bomb shelter, I might be be praying for a direct hit: he with the gift of rendering the inscrutable incomprehensible.
You’re commenting to a guy who has shot 300+ videos on that text. So you probably want to say something more like “I find Hegel too hard for me”
@@GregoryBSadlerHehe Indeed! I'm not in a bomb shelter, but since I'm in Australia and in lock down I should give him another shot. Your clips are great.
Without this philosophical magnum opus, he'll never make it on that island -- The Boy Scout Manual.
Never made it past being a cub scout myself
@@GregoryBSadler Can anybody call themselves a philosopher even without formal credentials? Excellent video thank you sir.
@@davidsoto4394 Anybody can call themselves anything really. It's whether others will buy in to it or not that matters
@@GregoryBSadler Excellent video.
@@davidsoto4394 i joined you in this conversation
Quite a catholic list.
Yep, I have catholic tastes in both senses of the term
1) Plato's Republic.
2) Aristotle's Politics.
3) Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics.
4) Rawl's A theory of Justice.
5) Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.
6) Macintyre's After Virtue.
7) Descartes Meditations
8) Aquinas' Summa theologica
9) Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembeling
10) Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.
I too am a fan of After Virtue. I teach portions of it in my philosophy classes. I truly see Incommensurability as the ethical problem of our time.
The Philosopher's Rant Can you explain incommensurability to me?
Hegels work is unreadable hahaah
My list (with some cheating)
Plato: Complete Works
Aristotle: Complete Works
Agostino: Confessions
Descartes: Collected Works
Ethics (Spinoza)
A Treatise of Human Nature
Critique of Pure Reason
Being & Time
Theory of Justice
The Concept of Law (Hart)
Lonergan Insight and Method in Theology
The title of my choice would read'' How to build a boat''.
That is technology, not philosophy - philosophy has always been considered to be abstract knowledge without specific technical how-to tips! 😅
@@MultiBOZA No it hasn't. Sorry to be a party pauper as I don't know if you made that remarks as a tongue in cheek humor. However, if you were being serious, then you are wrong...or rather most people are clueless to believe philosophy is just about abstract knowledge. In fact, one of the books selected by Dr. Sandler in this list is the Phenomenology of spirit by Hegel who set out in the book to show the concrete nature and requirements of philosophical musings
@Nick Trosclair Thought of it myself!
1. Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching
2. Plato's Symposium
3. Dante's Comedy
4. Shakespeare's sonnets
5. Montaigne's Essays
6. Hume's Enquiry
7. Thoreau's Walden
8. James's Varieties of Religious Experience
9. Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow
10. McCarthy's Blood Meridian
Gravity's Rainbow is a great choice. Like most of Pynchon's books they can be read over and over again and just keep getting better and better
Great list
@@PFMAGGAMFP I chose books I've found to be actually readable. Kant would be handy for a fire, though.
@@PFMAGGAMFP Heidegger. How about you? Are you a fan of the metaphysicians in general and/or have a favorite or two?
@@PFMAGGAMFP McCarthy is a very skilled writer and Blood Meridian stands at the "end" of philosophy (not to be mistaken with nihilism). I've found that the best way to learn philosophy is to write it oneself, otherwise you're just trying to memorize what someone else said. We are in charge of our own lives, after all. I'm not in Plato's camp per se, but I've always admired the power in the realization that one cannot learn what one doesn't already know. Teachers have charisma which lends itself well to entertainment, but wisdom isn't something that can be passed along. And good writers are very good magicians. We're all making all of this up as we go anyway. I do tend to relax a lot by reminding myself to try and enjoy the ride.
Just a question, do you like Schopenhauer?
I do, but he's not someone I read often
This would be my top 10 list of books on a desert Island:
Epictetus - Discourses
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Seneca - Hardship and Happiness
Seneca - Letters from a Stoic
Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics
Plato - Symposium
Plato - Republic
Kant - Critique of Pure Reason
St. Augustine - The City of God
The Bible
Nice.
Oh, now that I think about it, my list should be mostly Stoicism. In the harshness of a deserted island, I think some Marcus Aurelius would really come in handy 😂
a video I shot recently in response to a number of similar questions I've been getting for some time, this one prompted by thinking about the particular question asked me by an old college classmate and friend
Dude. How can u go to an island without Dostoevski ? ;)
Remember in the video, where I say: If it were not just Philosophy, the list would be different?
Gregory B. Sadler
Ah I see. So that would be an intresting topic as well :). Or have you already done something like that?
Ps:Great channel and work. Thank you very much!
Thanks -- no, this is the first list of this sort I've shot as a video
St.Augustine is by far one of my favorite philosophers. Without a doubt one of the most powerful in his prose and writing. Only other person that comes to being as powerful is Dostoevsky.
John Dostoevskys is one of the top 5 writers to ever exist, every sentence is sheer beauty
If I may ask, I wasn't raised in the Christian culture. I don't believe in supernatural agents. And I used to be a practicing (and reading) muslim.
Do you think I could see St. Augustine like you do ? (I've read Dostoevsky with great pleasure).
@@a1k131 I think so man.
@@ricardooliveira9774
Can you enjoy "the works" of Ebu Hamid Mohammad Ghazali ? He's a Muslim philosopher..
@@a1k131 Hey man, sorry for answer late.
It's really different. Al-Ghazali uses a sort of aristotelian philosophy whereas Augustine uses a Neoplatonism philosophy.
I haven't see much about Al-Ghazali honestly, but a Christian counter-part would be Thomas Aquinas, he uses aristotelian philosophy as well.
But for what I've seen Al-Ghazali focus more in metaphysics and the existence of God, causation, etc whereas Augustine is more about ethics, problem of evil his works are much more about self-reflection, much more poetic.
A lot of what you have would be on my list, specifically Plato's Republic, Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, Decartes' Meditations, and Aristotle's Metaphysics. My other five would be Augustine's Confessions, Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments, Locke's Two Treatises of Government, Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. These are not in any particular order of course.
I'd thought of Kierkegaard, Locke and Hume -- but it's tough to decide just what work of Kierkegaard, if I could just choose one, I would want (same problem with Nietzsche). Hume's Treatise was a tempting one as well.
Mine would probably be.
1. Eroticism - Bataille
2. Being and Nothingness - Sartre
3.Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche
4. Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky
5. Philosophy of the Boudoir - Sade
6. Phenomenology Of Spirit - Hegel
that's a killer list, love it
Studies in Pessimism - Schopenhauer
Take plenty of eyeglasses. Hegel is the Finnegan's Wake of philosophy.
It's a good idea to have some extra glasses there in any case
Gregory B. Sadler Good job. Wish you would list some of the 21st C. philosophers you would recommend.
ken thomas There isn't anyone in the 21st century at this point, whose works I'd include in the 10 I'd take along to a desert island
Ah, imagine getting to the island, having those books, and discovering you had broken your glasses and had none to spare.
I feel like some stoic philosophy would be good when you're on a desert island
And so which one book would you pick?
@@GregoryBSadler meditations by Marcus aurelius
@@plonzz That would be way down on the list. Epictetus' Discourses, Seneca's Letters, even one of Seneca's treatises would be better
@@GregoryBSadler Meditations feels more like a collection of poetically exquisite nothings, whereas Epictetus actually and concisely addresses specific issues. Epictetus > Marcus Aurelius any day
@@Recondite101 I think Marcus himself would recognize that Epictetus' Discourses are more meaty than the Meditations.
That said, Marcus' stuff is decent
Great list! Not really a fan of Descartes (I’m Pascalian that way) but I would definitely throw Thoreau’s Walden and Thus Spoke Zarathustra up there.
Hi Professor Sadler, I have to say that your list of philosophical works are impressive. I, myself, am very fond of Augustine's "City of God" and in many ways I think it is way ahead of its time. It's not perfect, but some of the things he touches on, even when he is speaking as though he does not know what to think about a matter, I find that his reasoning process is usually so spot on, so much so in fact that he often mentions the answer already (perhaps without even knowing) in the form of a question. As time has past, I have become more and more convinced that St. Augustine truly deserves the amount of praise and recognized influence he has earned. There are many modern-day philosophers who are not nearly as skilled thinkers, but merely have the benefit of living in a time and place where more information is open to them.
+TruthUnadulterated Yes, imagine what any of these guys would have been like had they access to today's information!
My List:
1) Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
2) Spinoza's Ethics
3) Descartes' Meditations
4) Shankara's Brahmasutra Bhashya
5) Harsha's The Sweets of Refutation
7) Heidegger's Being and Time
8) Plotinus' Enneads
9) Aristotle's Metaphysics
10) Nishida Kitaro's An Inquiry Into the Good
I think you're missing 6
Love it! I'm thinking that id bring works by literary philosophers like Camus, Dostoevsky, or Nietszche. But perhaps over time the literary flash may wear off and I would crave some really philosophical flesh, a system like you said
Well, I might end up doing a "10 literary works" video sometime
please do professor sadler! I would love to know your top 10 literary works. especially if it's something i haven't read yet.
I read Rlike's letters because of your rilke lecture, maybe 2 years ago and I've kept coming back to Rilke. thanks for these videos!
BORING. psued philosophers
The brothers karamazov, thus spake zarathustra, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Huis-Clos, and Spinoza's ethics
Oh and every book by James Joyce (:
I would bring Chicken Soup for the Soul, the Manual for Windows XP, Sharks Don't Get Cancer, the sequel Shark's Still Don't Get Cancer, and Schelling's Philosophy of Mythology.
Well, no accounting for taste, I suppose
I would actually put John Dewey's "Experience and Nature" at the top of my list!
Epicurus, Nietzsche, Camus, Tolstoy, Bakunin, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Marx, Thoreau, Benjamin.
No Anselm? Great writer, 2. Me, I'm going with his On Free Will and the following 2fers: Aquinas' commentaries on Metaphysics, De Anima, and NE, as well as a splendid 3-fer, Gail Fine's On Ideas: Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms. (4-fer, if you count the footnotes.) Notice that I've got all the branches covered, 2. Whoops, no logic. 'Captain, may I please take my copy of the Kneales' magisterial Development of Logic? And, while you're at it, if I slip you a 20, may I stowaway Geach and Anscombe's 3 Philosophers?'
I've only studied for a few years now, so my list is bound to change, but here it is:
1. Aristotles Metaphysics
2. Descartes Meditations
3. De Beauvoir's Second Sex
4. Platos republic
5. Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
6. Marx Capital
7. David Chalmers The Conscious Mind
8. Levi Bryant's The Democracy of Objects
the Investigations are such a fun read and have such high reread value I feel they are an underrated pick here in Sadler's comments
Liber librum aperit. (One book opens another)
It's hard to limit myself to so few, because I've enjoyed many thoughtful books - and even ones where I'm fairly certain the author is wrong I've enjoyed for the exercise.
I'd have to include one of Wylie's essays, like The Magic Animal, Generation of Vipers, or An Essay on Morals, because they've been such a loadstone in my thinking and I've spent so much time thinking about them and eventually thinking beyond and past them.
.
And on a desert island it seems Robinson Crusoe might be useful... or at least edifying...
I suppose some of the books that one has spent much of one's life with are like a kind of doorway to conversations with an old friend
Gregory B. Sadler
I think so. There are some I return to over and over again, and though the words on the page don't change, they do spark new thoughts, and it really is like a conversation with an old friend.
Most of them are philosophical, but not capital P Philosophy, per se. I'm thinking of things like Hesiod's "Works and Days" or Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat. Shakespeare will do for the literary minded.
.
I was going to post a list of more canon philosophy books last night but ran out of places, and hadn't even left the Hellenes!
Taking Plato into the Cave 3:01!
I consider that book list and your calm, reflective way of presenting them, true wealth. They bring me peace.
I had to do a similar thing in school last year, it was because we read Fahrenheit 451 and books are illegal in that universe but they didn't have to be philosophy. I chose the Bible, The Prince, on the Genealogy of Morality, The Spirit of the Laws, Plato's Republic, the Gulag Archipelago, The Rights of Man, and On the Origin of Species. I would probably change my list now that ive learned more
Interesting assignment there!
I'd cheat and take Complete Works Anthologies of Berkeley, Hume and Nietzsche -- all three of whom I consider some of the best most interesting writers in philosophy. After which I'd add two more: Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (just to see if I can finally get through it -- as I consider it to have some of the most exciting ideas in the history of human thought -- but written, unfortunately, in the most boring way possible) and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (to see if I can finally get a REAL sense of why so many consider it such a seminal work).
Well, that is indeed cheating.
Obviously, at some point, you're going to have to leave that island and reintegrate back into the human situation. Therefore, I would recommend Alfred Korzybski's "Science And Sanity." I think it might be the most important work ever written on this planet followed (at a distance) by Alfred North Whitehead's "Process And Reality." I liked your program. Thank you for your insights.
Yep, I've read it, decades ago. Wasn't as impressed by it as apparently you are. Glad you enjoyed the video
Dr. Sadler, a word of gratitude in making this video and your online work. Supremely rewarding and meaningful.
My list, since it was asked in the description,
1. Aristotle, Metaphysics.
2. Augustine, Confessions.
3. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
4. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
5. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
As is the case for yourself, the last five are perhaps more telling of my individual interests.
6. Pascal, Pensees
7. Heidegger, On the Way to Language
8. Leibniz, Monadology
9. Heraclitus, Collected Scripts
10. Descartes, Meditations
Glad you enjoyed it. Some overlap in our lists. So, these are the ones that you'd want to read over and over?
Yes, I do think I could find in these much to consider for the rest of my days. Further, I think I could have in these material enough to form some of my own stances and maintain in my work the type of dialogue amongst the thinkers.
But, ultimately, I do hope such a scenario never occurs as I would miss so many other works, including the literary as opposed to just the philosophical.
I'd take the Desert Islands essay collection by Deleuze :p
Please, who can tell what edition of the Meditations this is? The only french version that includes the objections and replies that I found was horrible GF Flammarion edition (horrible in terms of cover, paper, font..). This one seems to be old, is it still available? Gregory B. Sadler
It's published by Presses Universitaires de France in 1970, translated and edited by Florence Khodos. A real gem
Yes a gem, definitely. I'll see if I can find it somewhere on the web. Thank you!
BG and Evil
Rumi's Masnavi
The B Karamazov
V. Hugo's Laughing Man
Seneca's Dialogues
Ralph Waldo Emerson's journals and essays
...
However, I haven't read many of the classics you have mentioned, so this list is provisional.
By the way, has this list changed for you since you uploaded the video?
I know this video is older , but I was wondering if you have a recommended translation of "City of God." Henry Bettenson is the translation you have linked, and I'll use that link if that's the translation you recommend! It's been on my reading list for far too long. I read Confessions a while back and found it incredible. Being familiar with Plato, it was interesting to see those references, and the narrative of the story was outstanding too. But the thing that I found most incredible was was in the last chapters when he turned his search inward. The questions he asked and his insights... I really felt like he was making steps into the theory of the unconsciousness and psychoanalysis without explicitly naming them.
ruclips.net/video/tCyjm58NUos/видео.html
Whew. Just about fits my list. Aquinas and Plato makes one think deeply about what appears simple.
Thus Spoke?
My thoughts exactly. Why use your time in the playgrounds of thought if you had to pick. Even on a desert island the understanding of the will to power is relevent and even usefull.
Great list and discussion. Thanks!
+William S. You're welcome!
Great channel, thank you for sharing this interesting list. I see you're leaving out the Stoics, although you are part of the Modern Stoicism movement, (in a desert island I may take at least one text from Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus maybe Hadot's Inner Citadel). I also think Spinoza would be in my list, maybe Nietzsche too, but that is of course very personal.
You heard the criteria for why I would take the books I did, right?
Yes I did, great works in themselves that are systematic, and connect with other great works. That rules out the Stoics and Nietzsche I guess, works that you'd read in other circumstances. But Spinoza? it is systematic, great in itself and seems to me quite connected with many of the great authors in your list, answering Descartes' dualism and advancing Hegel's monism. I was only expressing a personal prefference toward those authors.
I'm not a fan of Spinoza. I think he's pretty overrated, quite frankly.
Of course, that doesn't mean that I think he's bad. He's got his interesting points, and I like the challenge of teaching him. But, I wouldn't place him as highly as many people seem to
I'm actually reading the Pensees right now and Pascal was way ahead of his time not only in philosophy, but for his theories in probability as well as some of his inventions. His thought really seems to be somewhat of a precursor towards the existentialist movement and I know he had an impact on the writings of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as well. I do believe people make way too much of his "Wager" and I don't think his intentions were to mean some sort of "fake it to make it" type thing...as people make it out to be. I honestly think he was meaning for the atheist to actually try it or be open to belief in God. I highly doubt a man of his intelligence would suggest that you could just slip one past God.
Yes, that's a funny way to think about it -- which I'd say a lot of people do fall into -- slip[ping] one past God. Kierkegaard was influenced by Pascal, but Nietzsche really didn't seem to like him (understandably so, given the incompatibilities between their perspectives)
Definitely picking one of SK's pseudonyms work personally as I will need some humor to survive.
Picking it as what?
I noticed you have Alasdair MacIntyre's "After Virtue". Thoughts on that book, communitarianism, and the man himself?
Perhaps down the line, in a video. In the mean time, I've got several videos on him you can watch, and a few writings as well, that you can find in Academia.edu
Thank you sir.
I'm by no means a philosopher (I've read on the side while studying History), but I'd probably include Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. I'd be hard-pressed to provide a definite work, but I'd have to include Wittgenstein and Hayden White, too.
Anyway, I haven't read a few of the ones you listed, so I'll have to get on that, soon.
Wittgenstein would be powerfull but too short for a deserted island :)
For the last 4 years I was required to read predominantly analytical philosophy, but I can say with some ‘certainty’ that not one of these so called analytical philosophers will make it to the desert island. It might also be more forceful to change the statement to ’10 Philosophical Works I’d safeguard for the future of humanity after the final destruction of civilisation’.
The problem with this type of list is that a lot of books are still on my ‘to read’ list but unfortunately still in the’ have not yet read’ pile, so some choices rest on assumptions:
Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit
Heidegger - Being and Time
Plato - Complete works
Aristotle - Metaphysics
Kant - Critique of Pure Reason (doubtlessly a, or even the, central work of Philosophy. But it’s endless complexity and at times abstractness together with the fact that there are very few living creatures with a complete comprehension of the whole book makes this a problematic choice. I can imagine the nightmare of teaching Kant to a punch of inquisitive intelligent students on a bad brain day :)
Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche - On the Genealogy of Morality, or Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols, however this uncertainty could easily be resolved by taking the complete ‘Werke’ .
Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations
Then I would have to decide between Hegel’s ‘Science of Logic’, his ‘Philosophy of Right’, Kant’s ‘Critique of Judgment’ and the works of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Schmitt, Derrida, Deleuze, Badiou, Zizek, Lacan and Tillich.
Well. . . I think I'd probably revise the list if it was ’10 Philosophical Works I’d safeguard for the future of humanity after the final destruction of civilization’. This was a more personal list reflecting my own interests to some extent.
One rule about this, though -- you can't take any "collected works" along. Otherwise, it would have been a much easier choice!
Then my Plato would probably have to be the Republic. But I still have to read the Parmenides and Gorgias which are favourites to some. My Nietzsche choice would then be ‘Beyond Good and Evil’
No Kierkegaard?! *Gasp* Well, having Pascal there helps make up for that. Slightly. :) Seriously though, this was a fascinating video. This may show my ignorance but when it comes to metaphysics how does one determine what is true? I mean lets take Aristotle's four causes way of conceptualizing reality or Aquinas distinction between act and potency. How does one know that these are the best ways to conceptualize things? I mean I know that modern philosophers moved away from Aristotle's way of thinking but I don't know why or even how one would go about disputing such things. I guess that is part of the disagreement too. I mean in history or science it is easy to dispute things. One goes back to the sources or one does another experiment. How does one do this in metaphysics? Just considering all the things in metaphysics that I don't understand or just know a little bit about hurts my head.
Well, there's no simple answer (or rather, there's plenty of deficient simple answers) to that question.
I tend to see it this way: Any metaphysics that is going to worth entertaining must do justice to the whole range of reality and our experience of it. It should be able to address its rivals and predecessors, and make some reasonable case for why it provides a superior perspective.
+Gregory B. Sadler This answer you gave sounds *exactly* like the type of answer I'm accustomed to providing. You sound like the type of person who cares about over-arching, encompassing philosophical conclusions. Socrates, apparently was the same way. I find this to be a quality in people who are given to having a desire to believe the right things as much as it is humanly possible to do.
Just discovered your work on RUclips. The 2020 Covid-19 outbreak has been great for exploring philosophy.
Am curious as to your selection. No Derrida, Baudrillard?
They're not good enough.
Henry Thoreau, Walden
Tbh I would bring Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, and at least one philosophical fiction!
Well, you'd certainly get something interesting with Hobbes. The entire second half of the work - books 3 and 4 - are his weird theology
@@GregoryBSadler True, but I find in Parts I and II, one of my favourite accounts of man and morality in relation to power and the conditions of sociability.
As for the fiction, probably something Goethe.
How to build a television set so I could watch reruns of Gilligan
Not philosophical
Just one question. Dou you like Nietzsche/What do you think of Nietzsche?
I've got a whole Nietzsche playlist, as well as a video discussing my Nietzschean phase. Watch some of those, and you'll find the answers
Thank you very much :) i will
thank you
@@ralphkelm3254 i love nietzsche's thinking.
The Republic had been my first pick as well :)
Hegel??!?!? only if its a last copy to bury on tbe island. it's going to be the last read...... gots to be entertaining, Symposium, Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus to revel in the absurdity of, well, you're on a desert island fuh fucks sake. Being and Time being the most influential work from the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.
Unless I missed it fast forwarding, why doesn't anyone ever include Will Durant in discussion or list of philosophers. Oh well.....
Because Durant is just a popularizer, whose history of philosophy is a fun read, but not particularly good.
If I was going to take a history of philosophy as one of the texts I'd want something more comprehensive, accurate, and scholarly than Durant. Is it fair to count the complete Copleston History of Philosophy as one work? Not sure what my complete list would be but I think I'd include that.
Late to the party but thought it was a cool exercise so I'll try it out:
1. Nietzsche's Dawnbreak
2. James' Pragmatism
3. Heidegger's Being and Time
4. Dewey's A Common Faith (some very moving passages there)
5. Wittgenstein's Investigations
6. Derrida and Bennington's Jacques Derrida / Circumfession (one of the most fun reads I've ever done, and worth coming back to)
7. Rorty's Philosophy and Social Hope
8. Proust's In Search of Lost Time (considering it's NOT cheating to bring multiple volumes, if the Summa is allowed then the Search is also allowed haha. Maybe in a deserted island I'd actually, finally, finish the whole thing...)
9. Joyce's Finnegans Wake (plenty of time to make sense of the whole thing)
10. Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse (good for thinking about death, something I might do a lot in a deserted island...)
(can you tell I did three semesters of lit in college? yeah, I figured)
Interesting list
This is one of my favourite videos. I liked to go back to it when I’m about to read one of the texts from this top ten list and in this case Aristotle metaphysics the WD Ross translation.
That's nice to read. Can't go wrong with Aristotle!
What do you think of something like the Enneads which is also pretty systematic? I've noticed that Neoplatonic stuff is seldom spoken of in comparison to other schools of Western philosophy. Why do you think Neoplatonism isn't given much attention even with its vast scope?
I think Plotinus is very cool, and if I was doing the "20 works. . ." , he would probably be on my list, or at least in contention.
Why isn't Neo-Platonic stuff discussed as much? It tends to get passed over when we teach philosophy (as used to also be the case with the Stoics and Epicureans), unless the instructor understands and likes it. Also, there's a bit more of a learning curve required in order to make sense of what is being discussed.
Interesting, so would you say that perhaps the difficulty is a bigger factor for it being passed over or is "dislike" or "distaste" a bigger factor based on your experience and experience you've had with your peers? Do philosophers today who still take interest in the classics as you do believe that Plotinus really did have genuine insights into things which others did not have? Do they think the criticisms he makes regarding Aristotle are well founded, considering Aristotle is taken so much more seriously and authoritatively? Sorry if that's too many questions lol, just curious. I personally am very into Plotinus because of the role his philosophical language and concepts play in the Nizari Ismaili Islamic school of thought (Definitely also a big contributor to other Islamic schools and Christianity as well) which I follow and so I've seen the insights that Plotinus has to be truly piercing.
Most of my peers in philosophy have never studied Plotinus or other neo-Platonists, period. They haven't got a distaste or dislike, since they'd have to know enough about his thought to have that reaction.
I'd say that when you're talking about "philosophers today who still take interest in the classics", you're actually talking about two very different groups.
There's the people who actually study the texts, keep up on the better research, and understand the history. An Aristotle scholar in that line is quite likely to know neo-Platonic stuff as well, and may well appreciate it.
Then there's the "great books" or "western civ" types, who usually have relied more on glosses and manuals rather than actually studying the text. They typically have some rather schematic and outdated "history of philosophy" stuck in their heads, one that says Aristotle is really great and the neo-Platonists not so much.
very interesting.......hmm. So it just gets passed over period. How unfortunate. But ya I can understand it, I'm reading a companion book by Lloyd Gerson right now that my mentor recommended and it's not at all easy but I found it made more sense when I look at what someone like Nasir Khusraw says for example in his works which basically use Neoplatonic concepts to illustrate three hyposteses of Ismaili thought: God, Universal Intellect and Universal Soul. But ya definitely something people should prolly look into more. It actually in that sense in very helpful in reconciling Islam and Christianity when it comes to the Trinity and the concept of tawhid though not completely since in Christianity I believe all the members of the Trinity are coequal whereas in Ismaili Islam, they are arranged in a hierarchy.
Fun concept for a video and got me thinking. I hope I don't get stuck on an island in my teens, as I don't have the requisite understanding to take on some of your texts. My list:
1) Principia Mathematica, Whitehead
2) Decline of the West, Spengler
3) Logical Investigations, Husserl (friend insists)
4) Aristotle's Politics
5) The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer (haven't read yet, but enjoy his essays)
6) An Inquiry, Reid
7) Copleston's History of Philosophy (could be a mistake, leaving me wanting)
8) Summa
9) Gramsci's Prison Notebooks
10) Vico's New Science
Descartes as a sorbet
to cleanse your philosophical palate. LOL
We have a saying here in Germany,
"Never read Goethe in English,
Never read Keats in German,
But never read Hegel in any language" LOL
I agree that the opening up of other vistas
by a writer or book
makes it more rewarding especially on a reread
as you can dive off in so many other directions
Having read Karl Popper's
"The Open Society and Its Enemies"
(sometimes called "The Open Society by one of its Enemies")
I have a bias against Plato and Hegel
and so tend to avoid them in my reading.
I want to understand Heidegger
but am put off by what Lévinas described as
a lack of ethics - which meant he became a Nazi
and served the Nazi state so
have preferred to read Lévinas
and find him rewarding.
Yes. There are lots of quips abut Hegel.
He looks like David foster Wallace as a chad
I'll have to take your word for that. Not a fan of the guy myself
Interesting video concept. I'll love to explore Scheler and Blondel first time I've heard of these works. Thanks Mr Sadler!
You’re very welcome
Because I put one of them twice, I would have to add plato's theory of forms.
Dr. Sadler, just found your channel. Thank you. I can certainly see your passion for Philosophy and it's contagious. I am new to the subject, have never taken any classes or the like, but would like to start with some reading. As per your recommendations here, I just picked up the following:
The Republic
The Metaphysics
Pensees
City Of God
Meditations On First Philosophy
Which one do I read first?
Also, should I possible start with an Introduction to Philosophy book first?
+El Pizza Guapo I always suggest starting with Plato, but not the Republic. Rather the Meno, Ion, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo
+Gregory B. Sadler Thank you for the reply. I'm assuming you're referring to the single volume, Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo (Hackett Classics).
That would work. You can, of course, find all of those dialogues for free, online
Of course, but for about $2 per book, no reason why I shouldn't just own them. Maybe the whole family will one day enjoy them.
Okay, then. Give us your 10-philosophers-anything-you'd-like list. Loving your channel.
Well, I did already
All I'd need are all 3 seasons of Rick and Morty
Wrong conversation
@@GregoryBSadler To steer towards the right one, I'd love to hear what Heidegger is "definitely wrong" about. He covers so much, so it's no wonder someone as well-versed as yourself would spot an important error. Then again, I'm fairly deep into Heidegger and haven't spotted anything that jumps off the page as "wrong."
@@boredtolife7879 Good luck with your studies then.
@@GregoryBSadler You as well with your teaching.
1) thus spoken Zarathustra.
2) a critique of pure reason.
3) problems of philosophy.
4) the incoherence of the incoherent.
5) proof by ibn sina.
Would you say your list changed from q young person to now? What were you most interested in reading at 23?
I hadn’t read many of those works at 23, so yes, there would have been a lot of different selections
Unfortunately, I think I need a desert island in order to examine Hegel and Heidegger as one should. Otherwise, just give me any ten of Bertrand Russell's books--a beautiful writer as well as a beautiful thinker. I would also like to take Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death," "Escape from Evil," and "The Birth and Death of Meaning." ...Kenneth Burke's "Language as Symbolic Action" and "Rhetoric of Motives." Every time I read Becker and Burke, I fell like Moses is splitting a sea in my head.
Anyway, I put Blondel's "Action" on my reading list. Thanks.
I'd actually debated about including Perelman's New Rhetoric.
As far as the Hegel goes, if you want to work through the Phenomenology at least, you might take a look at the Half-Hour Hegel series. I've shot 17 installments so far
Only one I agree with is Aristotle's Metaphysics. Wish you had picked a different dialogue from Plato. Anyway, you make great and interesting/helpful videos, keep it up!
Glad you enjoy them
A surface level understanding of Wang yangming and blondel have some overlap
Well, I'm pretty uninterested in surface level comparisons myself, to be honest. Anything can be compared to anything at the surface level, and that time is often better spent getting past a surface level
1. Heidegger- Being and Time
2. Sartre- Being and Nothingness
3. Camus- Myth Of Sisyphus
4. Nietzsche- Human All Too Human or The Gay Science
5. Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian or Suttree
6. Faulkner- Absalom Absalom!
7. John Milton- The Complete Poems
8. It’s hard to choose a favorite Dostoevsky, either The Brother’s Karamazov or Demons
9. Thomas Pynchon- Gravity’s Rainbow
10.Alexandre Dumas- The Count Of Monte Cristo
I liked your list. The only Aquinas I’ve read is ‘Confessions’ but I must admit I read it when I was too young. Have you read this one? Republic is a good book, I only read it maybe twice. I should read more Greek works. Looking forward to Summa Theologica someday. Some of the works I included were fiction but they contain philosophical themes. Blood Meridian is sometimes thought as a Gnostic text, I’ve read one paper where there is a Nietzsche influence, concerning the Judge. Absalom Absalom name derives from Absalom from the Bible and Gravity’s Rainbow is about science and WW2, the opening is very famous: “A screaming came across the sky.” Cheers, have a good day.
Aquinas didn't write Confessions. You're mixing him up with Augustine, who comes about 8 centuries earlier. And that's an excellent work, but if I was going to bring an Augustine book, it'd be City of God
@@GregoryBSadler That’s right, I checked my shelf. Silly mistake. If we don’t speak again, merry Christmas. I’ve been deleting some social media apps like Facebook Twitter and Twitch.
Myth of Sisyphus would be my top pick.
No Derrida, Baudrillard, Sartre, Focult or Camus.....I take it you’re not a fan of postmodernists , poststructuralists, existentialism or absurdism?
Bad assumption. But that's often the case when you assume, right?
Gregory B. Sadler Apologies . I didn’t mean that as an inference about you. I’m relatively new to your channel, and I haven’t seen any content from you on aforementioned. I’m genuinely curious about your take on them.
Most the philosophy channels I have watched on RUclips focus on those five (to a fault IMO) and I’m looking for fresh perspective.
Funny you are taking a bunch of books about society to a place where there is no society
And then, in some sense, there is
Dr. Sadler, if you happen to see this and have time to respond, I would greatly appreciate it.
I would like to give 1-2 books to a volunteer who I now consider to be a good friend. Last year, I gave him a copy of Arthur Schopenhauer's The Wisdom of Life of which he says made him a wiser being.
Many of the books that come to mind our my favorite books. I considered Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit. At the moment, I'm considering The Meditations or The Myth of Sisyphus.
Can you please recommend a great book that is similar to the Wisdom of Life. Something that is "mind-blowing", enlightening, yet simple to read?
Thanks for your work and contributions...
Best,
Aaron
Descartes’ Meditations along with the objections and replies would be a good one to go with. Definitely not the Phenomenology just by itself!
@@GregoryBSadler Thank you very much for your response. It is greatly appreciated.. Stay safe.
Best,
Aaron
Dr. Sadler, have you read the philosophical works of Avicenna or any other great Muslim philosophers? If so, what are your thoughts about their ideas and contribution to the field of philosophy?
I've read some of them, but I'm by no means a scholar in the field of Islamic philosophy. They've got some interesting ideas to examine
Interesting! Mine (only providing top 5, since top 10 would require a lot more thought) would be - Augustine's Confessions, Epicurus (the only three original texts that remained), Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and probably Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Do you mind me asking why you'd pick Augustine's De civitate dei rather than Confessiones?
Well, I did mention my reasons in the video for picking City of God. . .
you better get a good survival book in that island,otherwise those books will end up in ashes trying to warm your ass or cook your meal.
Who said that I wouldn't bring other books? Here's a video for you - ruclips.net/video/iJE3pkvH4s0/видео.html
Top tier list. Almost as expected until you pulled out the last two, definitely have to check those out.
They're definitely worth it
How far down this list would Being and Nothingness would fall for you?
It's not on this list
Have you wavered at all in your choices since you put this video up?
I'd revise some of them, perhaps. "Waver" isn't how I would describe that.
This a fire video bro 🔥🔥. The republic is one im going through right now. You recommend reading confessions or city of God First?
You'll reread both, if you want to develop a solid understanding, so which one you pick first doesn't really matter
Unfortunately i have not got philosophical books in my country for they r rare and expensive
Fortunately, you can find many of them on the internet for free
Hello Professor,
I want to ask you, from your experience in this field, is it better to read philosophy chronologically? I’ve finished Plato and Aristotle, and after that I’ll go for Augustine and the islamic philosophers. Do you think I should carry on like this?
Thanks
Well, if you are reading chronologically, you're really skipping a lot by jumping from Aristotle to Augustine. You certainly can read in chronological order, but you ought to expect to go back quite frequently to books you've read.
enneads? Plotinus?
Might make it into my top 20, not my top 10
Hi Sir, Iam new to philosophy. Can you pls explain why don't you choose "Thus spoke Zarathustra" ?
+abin raj Its not, in my view, as good or interesting of a work as these others. In fact, I don't even find it the most interesting work by Nietzsche
If Heidegger makes it to the list, why Kant wouldn't?
Because it's my list, obviously.
Have you read any Alain Badiou? Being and Event eg. What do you think about him?
He's all right.
Shit I need a few life time to catch-up.
Funny that you should include Blondel's : ]
Not at all, if you've read his works
It's next to unknown, apart from pros.
I'm one of those pros. I wrote my dissertation on Blondel
I have three of your top five... I have much work to do
He also has his own special terminology
Hi Gregory. Which translation of Augustine's City of God do you recommend?
I don't generally worry much about particular translations
No one likes Hobbes, Rousseau or John Locke? I had a good friend when I was younger who was deep in Philophy , especially Eastern Philophy and he really liked Hobbes.
And what one book would you bring?
Leviathan is just pure nutty theological stuff in books 3-4. Locke's Essay? Interesting in parts, sure. What single book by Rousseau?
@@GregoryBSadler To be honest, I am not that knowleagable about Philosphy. My friend from my HIgh School and College Years was a real Philosphy genius. I was taught becasically in 9th great LIterature that Hobbes believed Man was born Evil, Rousseau believed that Man was born good and Locke was in between thinking that Man was a Blank Slate. That is probably a simplification of their Philosophies.
I am a little ADD and too much of a TV Addict, but I have many, many great Books that I need to read- Fiction, non-Fiction, philosphy, etc. I did start reading Leviathan, but I put it down because it seemed to be going on and on without really saying anything. I will probably give that book another try. I prefer MOdern Authors who are not so Verbose, get to the Point, and try to make the writing simple enough so a non PhD can read the book.