
Ask HN: Do you read philosophy? - mrkgnao
I wonder how HN readers &quot;nourish their minds&quot;, so to speak. Philosophy is something that I know almost nothing about, and am really curious to dip into.
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lukeHeuer
Over the years Stoicism has grown on me. I can't recommend it enough for
business and engineering types as it addresses a lot of the negative side
effects of tending to overthink things.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a great straight-forward read and seems to
be considered the gold standard on the subject.

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mbrock
Lately I've been going through Dreyfus's book about Heidegger's _Being and
Time_ , called _Being-in-the-world_ , and I've found it majorly inspiring and
wonderful. Now I rave about Heidegger to anybody who will listen, more or less
coherently.

Dreyfus has made important and influential critiques of "cognitivist" AI
grounded in Heideggerian arguments... which can be a fascinating angle to
approach existentialism for computer scientists.

I gladly recommend bringing a book of philosophy while travelling. You get new
impressions to somehow apply ideas to, which gives a new depth to the travels
and the book... plus you might form some interesting associations.

I read this Dreyfus Heidegger book a lot during a stay in rural Thailand, and
I had lots of time to reflect... And, for example, part of the book is about
this background of cultural habits that we rely on daily, and that only
manifests consciously when it turns unfamiliar—like when in a foreign culture.
So that was fun to think about.

Yeah, a relaxing vacation mixed with the mental stimulation of good
philosophy—add a cup of coffee and that's heaven...

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meric
Tao Te Ching. A verse on how to rule.

 _Rule a nation with justice.

Wage war with surprise moves.

Become master of the universe without striving.

How do I know that this is so?

Because of this!

The more laws and restrictions there are,

The poorer people become.

The sharper men's weapons,

The more trouble in the land.

The more ingenious and clever men are,

The more strange things happen.

The more rules and regulations,

The more thieves and robbers.

Therefore the sage says:

I take no action and people are reformed.

I enjoy peace and people become honest.

I do nothing and people become rich.

I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life._

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selmat
Good brief introduction is youtube channel School of Life:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/schooloflifechannel](https://www.youtube.com/user/schooloflifechannel)

Some of social philosophy essays I have read recently are:

Konrad Paul Liessmann - theory of ignorance: the errors of the knowledge
society (original: Theorie der Unbildung: die Irrtümer der
Wissensgesellschaft, 2006 )

Elias Canetti - Crowds and Power (original: Masse und Macht, 1960)

Georg Simmel - Philosophy of Money (original: Philosophie des Geldes, 1900)

edit: formatting

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ThomPete
If you like to ponder about things in general, getting into philosophy
learning some of the thinking that's been going on

If you are a person who like to do things instead of just reading about them,
philosophy will offer you a whole new way of thinking about what you do.

I have always tried to strike the balance between thinking and doing. I.e.
reflect on what I am doing.

Each to their own of course, but I can't recommend philosophy enough as long
as you are able to apply it to some extent.

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kleer001
My little library runs towards atheists, cognitive scientists, and eastern
philosophy. I also prefer practical application (yoga, meditation, self-
improvement, etc) and less academic (discussing, critiquing, history of, etc).

Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Douglas Hofstadter, Marvin Minsky, Tsai Chih
Chung, Alan Watts.

Pick up anything by any of these guys and you'll be off to the races.

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mathattack
I wish I had read more as a college student. This podcast has helped me catch
up. Makes my commute tolerable too.

[http://www.philosophizethis.org/](http://www.philosophizethis.org/)

Start at episode 1 and work your way up. It improves a lot around podcast 12
or 13 as the speaker finds his stride.

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chmielewski
You ought to.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is%E2%80%93ought_problem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is%E2%80%93ought_problem)

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Tomte
Will Durant's Story of Philosophy is a great start!

Bertrand Russell has also written a highly regarded introduction, though I
haven't read it.

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lucozade
Russell's History of Western Philosophy is good. It's by no means an easy read
but I thought it was very good at getting across the philosophical ideas as
well as their development over time.

Ironically it put me off of philosophy somewhat. I left it with the impression
that a worryingly large number of philosophical questions were either
tautological or just very clever word play.

