(Part 2) Best philosopher biographies according to redditors

Derrida:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtLMNcpgYEs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvAwoUvXNzU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s8SSilNSXw

I'd urge you to actively avoid any other videos attempting to explain him.

Books: This is extremely simple, clear, and accurate, which is very high praise when it comes to Derrida. Also look up "Deconstruction in a Nutshell", and his interview with Julia Kristeva in "Positions". This is really good and in-depth but difficult. For something by Derrida himself, everyone starts with "Structure Sign & Play". "Différance", "The Ends of Man" and "Signature Event Context" are also good, albeit difficult, as is all of his work.

For Foucault I find Stanford, Wikipedia, pretty much any lectures on youtube about him, PartiallyExaminedLife, to be fine before you jump straight into Discipline and Punish. It's difficult though. Or you could get The Foucault Reader by Paul Rabinow which collects a lot of his writings from various works as well as interviews, the latter obviously being a lot more accessible.

Alan's entire philosophy was to be experienced - not just understood. In the koan, if you want to call it that, both people 'understand' something 'mystical' about reality, neither can experience it. So they get a physical whap across the head. They experience something real, and are freed from their intellectualism.

Read portions of what's available in the 'look inside" segment of his autobiography : https://www.amazon.com/My-Own-Way-Autobiography/dp/1577315847

I enjoyed Hans Sluga's audiobook on wittgenstein:

http://www.amazon.com/Wittgenstein-Hans-Sluga/dp/1405118482

These might be a little dry, but...

• Thinking, Fast and Slow had a pretty big impact. It helped me acknowledge some of the thought patterns and logical fallacies I was making. It had a very conversational tone, and I enjoyed the wittiness of it.
  
  
• Zeno and the Tortoise: How to Think Like a Philosopher was another big one. This armed me with some great ways to approach the world. It gave me some "mental tools" to use in certain situations to better understand the world around me. It's organized into many different short stories, so it's easy to digest a little bit at a time.

I can't really give you a proper answer. But there is this biography centered on their relationship which you may want to take a look: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Capital-Jenny-Birth-Revolution/dp/B00CVDS8ZS I didn't read it, so can't comment, but it has good reviews.

Also, I suspect on a personal level he was pretty cool about his companionships' class status, since not only Engels was a factory owner, a capitalist, which helped Marx with his financial woes throughout his life, but also there is this story about his meeting with Sir Mountstuart.

During his last years, Marx was known enough to incite curiosity on Princess Victoria, so Mountstuart went to have a lunch with Marx and reported back with this letter: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/bio/media/marx/79_01_31.htm

> In the course of conversation Karl Marx spoke several times both of your Imperial Highness and of the Crown Prince and invariably with due respect and propriety. Even in the case of eminent individuals of whom he by no means spoke with respect there was no trace of bitterness or savagery – plenty of acrid and dissolvent criticism but nothing of the Marat tone. … Altogether my impression of Marx, allowing for his being at the opposite pole of opinion from oneself, was not at all unfavourable and I would gladly meet him again.

The "Marat tone" is a reference to Jean-Paul Marat, the French revolutionary known for his radicalism: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Marat

Don't let school stop you from getting an education. I slept in every class but P.E. BS'd the answers THEY WANTED, and then studied real knowledge at home.

The sooner you realize there is no such thing as school but an indoctrination system the better you will be off in the long scheme of things. This started for me when I was 11. "Yeah okay, Teach, you want me to believe slaves made the pyramids and your career is going to take you places. I'll get right on that."

I had suicidal depression from 12-20. So I feel you. I placed all my energy that wasn't trapped under my emotional turmoil into compassion and inspiration for making the world a better place.

For relevance, my life story: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YMRRH92

Its free because I want to make sure other people going through any similar turmoil has someone they can relate to. I never had that growing up.

Stay strong, but don't feel bad for expressing your feelings. We must always express ourselves or we will burn from the inside out with needless stress.

The standard work on the subject is Ron Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon. If you want biographies of Gardner and 2 and Valiente, Philip Heselton has written them. Someone needs to write a history of the Eclectic Wiccan movement since the mid-1980's, but I don't know of one.

If you can't work through it with a professor in an academic setting, I'd recommend picking up some secondary sources. It's that daunting! Ray Monk's book, "How to Read Wittgenstein" may be helpful. James Klagge has a new introductory e-book coming out called "Simply Wittgenstein" on Wittgenstein's life and work. Both books are pretty affordable.


https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Wittgenstein/dp/0393328201

https://www.amazon.com/Simply-Wittgenstein-James-C-Klagge-ebook/dp/B01ENKELES?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&redirect=true&ref_=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl

If you're unfamiliar with Benjamin get Reflections, both A Berlin Childhood and One-Way Street are easy entrances into his eclectic work. I would suggest you read something like Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life first or alongside his writings or else much will be missed, and also because biography is crucial for grasping the (anti-systematic) vicissitudes of Benjamin's life/thought.

"Peter Schiff was right" + Hayek's (ahem, W.W. Bartley III's) The Fatal Conceit. I was probably a Hayekian minarchist for about 6 weeks. I would say things like "I believe everyone has a right to healthcare, because they have a right to life, ergo the State. And besides, more people alive equals a greater transmission of knowledge which will increase our collective intelligence and benefit us all in the long run".

And then one day I was all like "Fuck that, Rothbard is my God"

Edit: For the op.

It's even more surprising when you learn that Grayling himself wrote a short book on Russell a few years ago. I guess nothing made an impression?

Note that Hägglund's work on Derrida has been controversial, drawing criticism from Derrida-scholars such as John Caputo. If you want someone whose take on Derrida has been agreed with by pretty much everyone with a stake (including – with some qualifications – JD himself), take a look at Geoffrey Bennington's contribution to Jacques Derrida.

Have you read The Hero's Journey?

Witchfather: : A Life of Gerald Gardner, Volume 1--Into the Witch Cult https://www.amazon.com/dp/1870450809/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_hdzXAbYY4XB6G

Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol 2: From Witch Cult to Wicca https://www.amazon.com/dp/1870450795/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_YezXAbBF4FSV6

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Wow, deep as usual from C.S Lewis. Sigmund Freud would disagree. Unfortunately Sigmund claims he has never heard a call from God during his life.

Read The Question of God: C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VXLVBK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_JwTTAbD4VN532

It actually does! I was referring to this

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZCCMRWA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

(1) Keep it fresh by reading several shorter or more general works first. Things you can complete more easily, rather than having to wade through a large tome.... short books or essay collections.

(2) Browse articles on your interests on [Wikipedia philosophy](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy) or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(3) Read some general philosophy books like The Story of Philosophy or some individual philosopher biographies.

I'm looking forward to buying my first vehicle, sorting out my brain chemistry, getting an apartment, falling in love with my special lady, moving my cat down from Ohio, and writing a book. It's going to be quite a 2015!!!

Thanks for the contest!!!

EDIT: Derrrrrrp.

https://www.amazon.com/Heros-Journey-Joseph-Campbell-Collected/dp/1608681890

I think he bailed on the hair way too early. Sort of like how he bailed on anti-scientism way too early.

This one certainly makes him look a lot less obnoxious, and a little more like a non-nazi version of Lovecraft.

Books to look at if you have access to a library:

http://www.amazon.com/Michel-Foucault-Beyond-Structuralism-Hermeneutics/dp/0226163121/ref=pd_sim_b_10

http://www.amazon.com/Foucault-2-0-Beyond-Power-Knowledge/dp/1590512340

What types of examples do you need?

Alan Watts' autobiography is In My Own Way. However, it is within The Joyous Cosmology that he details his psychedelic experiences(s), if I recall correctly.

Aldous Huxley details his psychedelic experience(s) in The Doors of Perception.

Edit: Timothy Leary's autobiography is Flashbacks.

>I am still asking what the arguments are for metaphysical naturalism. Why believe that over theism?

Wouldn't the arguments against God's existence (found, say, in any philosophy of religion anthology) coupled with a eliminativist materialist arguments in the philosophy of mind, together count as a cumulative case for naturalism?

But why think naturalism and theism are the only two options. Why not turn to pragmatism which I consider an offshoot of naturalism.

And by the way, my old professor just published a book on Wittgenstein, so I finally have a short guide to recommend!

(Zeno and the Tortise: How to think like a philosopher](http://www.amazon.com/Zeno-Tortoise-Think-Like-Philosopher/dp/0802139175)

This is a pretty good introduction to some of what he calls the "tools" in a philosopher's "toolbox".

From Amazon:

> Walter Benjamin is one of the twentieth century's most important intellectuals, and also one of its most elusive. His writings--mosaics incorporating philosophy, literary criticism, Marxist analysis, and a syncretistic theology--defy simple categorization. And his mobile, often improvised existence has proven irresistible to mythologizers. His writing career moved from the brilliant esotericism of his early writings through his emergence as a central voice in Weimar culture and on to the exile years, with its pioneering studies of modern media and the rise of urban commodity capitalism in Paris. That career was played out amid some of the most catastrophic decades of modern European history: the horror of the First World War, the turbulence of the Weimar Republic, and the lengthening shadow of fascism. Now, a major new biography from two of the world's foremost Benjamin scholars reaches beyond the mosaic and the mythical to present this intriguing figure in full.

> Howard Eiland and Michael Jennings make available for the first time a rich store of information which augments and corrects the record of an extraordinary life. They offer a comprehensive portrait of Benjamin and his times as well as extensive commentaries on his major works, including "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility," the essays on Baudelaire, and the great study of the German Trauerspiel. Sure to become the standard reference biography of this seminal thinker, Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life will prove a source of inexhaustible interest for Benjamin scholars and novices alike.

More posts about Walter Benjamin.

>Just to clarify for myself - you are talking about those books that explain the core concept of the book before the actual book begins, right?

Yes, definitely. It's even better if each section of the book gets a mini-introduction, given how complex the whole book will be, but that'd be hard to find - sometimes there are commentaries, but not always. Both of those books look great, too! But I would definitely do some background research on the internet to see which Nietzsche secondary sources are best/most recommended by the professionals; check the recommendations in the SEP article, for instance.

>Do you think I should only get one of them and then as a second book a book by Nietzsche with that introduction by someone else that explain the core idea briefly?

The Nietzsche Reader has big chunks of each of Nietzsche's main books in it, so you wouldn't necessarily need to buy the books again (unless you were really keen on reading every line). I haven't read the other one but it looks great too. However I don't think it has primary material; it looks like a new philosopher's take on Nietzsche, one reacting to Heidegger's old interpretation. I personally prefer The Nietzsche Reader as a book to first introduce you to Nietzsche, since it has short expositions followed by primary material, and then you could move onto the revisionist interpretation one - but again that's only 'cause I used the Nietzsche Reader myself so it might just be bias lol.
Even better, you might be able to find a simpler introduction, one that sticks to the main ideas, depending on how much philosophical knowledge you already have.

At the end of the day, my advice is definitely to find a good (relatively simple) intro book if you haven't read Nietzsche before - that is essential. (Without a companion reader, reading Nietzsche is like reading Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, or Wittgenstein, in other words the hardest and most technical and/or obscure writers, so background is essential). Then I would pick specific primary texts based on what you find you like.

EDIT: I found [this one] (http://www.amazon.ca/Nietzsche-A-Very-Short-Introduction/dp/0192854143) online. Also, I think Walter Kaufmann was one of the biggest Nietzsche scholars so you could check out his work. And depending on your budget, you might just want to read the SEP article; that is a fantastic intro to Nietzsche's work from what I can see.

One book that is popular to help understand Nietzsche is Walter Kaufmann's Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. It usually comes up on this subreddit when people look for secondary texts on Nietzsche.

One dis-recommendation I would make is Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Tanner. The Oxford University Press "A Very Short Introduction" series is usually excellent, but I was not impressed with this particular title. It was the first book on Nietzsche that I read and frankly I found it pretty useless.

If you're starting off fresh with Russell, try A.C. Grayling's very short introduction in the Oxford series. Grayling is a philosopher in his own right, and this series is very helpful. Beyond this, I honestly couldn't be of much assistance, as I myself haven't read Russell. However, this should give you the gist of his thought and some direction on where to begin reading him. Best of luck!

A philosopher once said that "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato".

He wasn't being completely serious, but it's not far from the truth. If you want to understand Western philosophy, read Plato. In fact I would push it a step back and say that if you want to understand the roots of Western philosophy, look at the "debate" between Heraclitus and Parmenides, which is a lot of what Plato is concerned with.

These three thinkers aren't easy to just jump right in to though, even for people who have grown up in the tradition. I haven't read any introductory work on Plato, but I'll bet that this would be a good starting point. He's really the key to the whole enterprise, because a lot of what other Western philosophers are saying is in response to him, however indirectly.