
World Philosophy Day: 70 Philosophy Books Everyone Should Read - yorkshireminor
https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/70-philosophy-books-everyone-should-read-auid-1168?
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yesenadam
A good list, I liked especially the non-western-philosophy-canon sections, the
books I hadn't heard of.

A bit more explaining _why everyone should read them_ would be nice - I'm not
convinced in many/most cases that everyone should. "Buridan's monumental work
is the best introduction to late-medieval Ockhamist nominalism" doesn't go
very far in that direction. I don't think most people will get much at all
from attempting Spinoza, Hegel, Kant, Sartre, Popper, Frege, Wittgenstein's
_Tractatus_ etc. But then, offhand I can't think of a book I'd say "everyone
should read".

There's a welcome inclusion of some non-western traditions, but the odd
omission of the Chinese classics. I guess those guys - Confucius, Mencius, Lao
Tzu, Chuang Tzu etc - wrote well, so they have readers, not academic
interpreters so much. I feel very lucky to have discovered them as a teenager,
before getting into western philosophy. And come to think of it, I'd say
they're worth reading by 'everyone' much more than almost everything[0] on
this list, and are much more enjoyable to read.

[0]The ones I'd heard of, anyway. I look forward to checking out the ones I
hadn't.

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tomlock
"The Second Sex" by Simone De Beauvoir is on here twice. I'd recommend if
you're looking to read an existentialist book by the same author - check out
"The Ethics of Ambiguity" which is an attempt to form an existentialist
ethics, and is short, and good. Tbqh "The Second Sex" is a bit dry for modern
tastes - even though it is important. I'd recommend reading something like
Judith Butler's "Gender Trouble" if you want a better feel for modern
feminism.

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koolhead17
I would like to add few more books to the list:

1\. Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse

2\. On shortness of life by Seneca

3\. Letters to stoic by Seneca

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n4r9
Letters by Seneca is in the Ancient Roman section if I'm not mistaken.

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koolhead17
This is the goodreads link:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97411.Letters_from_a_Sto...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97411.Letters_from_a_Stoic)

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qnsi
It would be good if everyone read any 70 books, but 70 philosophy books look
excessive

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yorkshireminor
I mean, you've got a whole life to do it in, right? Or you could be like my
college professors and say the deadline is tomorrow ;)

