I'm a first year undergrad taking philosophy. This was really helpful. My lecturer said something similar to your point about interrogation. He said when reading Descartes Meditations imagine it is a booklet that has been given to you by a political party that you hate. That really helped me.
@@yeahimthatguy.5579 Probably so one'll have a sort of 'negative disposition' towards the text, thus resulting in one being able to catch any logic gaps---just being more critical of the text in general.
I am 13 and I have liked philosophy for quite a few months now, however I was severely hindered by the fact that I didn't know how to properly read philosophy books. My dad gave me the book "beyond good and evil" written by Nietzsche, and it was hard for me to read, almost impossible for me to understand. I tried your method, and I understood a lot more and now I understand the true genius of Nietzsche. Thank you very much Sir!
@@chainsawmay well, it was the only one laying around, but we did uncover Ayn Rand books laying in boxes. I am reading her book the new-left and will then read introduction to objectivist epistemology, and then fountain head. I am part Russian, and I know Russian well enough, but not enough for Dostoevsky. For that reason, I am developing it to the point that I could read him in the original. Once my Russian is good enough, I will read his books notes from the underground or maybe one of his other books with Nietzsche. I have heard that reading Nietzsche with Dostoevsky is a really good idea. Sorry for making this so long, but I am just so excited to share my ambitions with someone else 😊.
@@MB-pj8sb Same here. I am reading the republic(I am in book 1) and the style of writing is so different, and is quite hard to read. Not your usual fiction book. Would you like to discuss something?
@Caedmon Kline Well my dad was and to an extent is still really into philosophy, and he was a huge objectivist in college. In fact, he was in an objectivist club. He had one of Nietzsche's books laying around. Say, I am reading The Republic right now too. What book are you on? I am on book 1. Want to discuss it? Want to give me your Email and we start a discussion perhaps? Here is my Email: I know it is kind of dumb, but I made it when I was 11. Edit: I find it kind of funny how in Nietzsche's book Beyond Good and Evil, he kind of tells you how to read philosophy in his 6th note or paragraph. He says that you must ask yourself as to what morality the writer or writers are trying to aim at.
A friend once told me, that such works are instruments and that they are there to be used, also, qhen you write notes and so on, you can later see your thought process adn how ot changed, you literally can see the evolution of your thinking, which I think, is beautiful.
Wow, this was seriously helpful. In the first half of this last semester I was doing one slow, methodical read with a highlighter which worked but I admit was a bit painful. Second half of the semester I was getting a bit frustrated and was looking for ideas from methodologies other people use and your's worked the best for me. Thanks for sharing!
As someone with some experience in academic philosophy, these are great tips if you really care about philosophy! I often find interesting ideas when reading through philosophy texts, but if I don't mark them, I can have a really difficult time finding them later on. I often wish we can easily find a keyword / idea in paper tests, as opposed to electronic texts which have a ctrl+F search feature. using these methods is like a bookmarking method.
Great, glad to hear it. I also have a video series on BGE that I"m hoping to complete soon. You can check it out here: ru-vid.com/group/PLPCGA67J8M2IsvvxOMikV625KfxgFGJJP
Thank you so much! I've been reading material in preparation for a thesis, and have been going through the text VERY slowly, although I am gaining a strong grasp of the content. I'm off to buy a copy of the book I've been reading, and shall begin writing in my books from now on! Cheers!
Going straight form Yung Leans 'Pikachu' to this was like sprinting across concrete and then into quicksand. Respect for the insightful video tho bruvva.
I'm late to this Video but another important one, especially when getting into philosophy on your own time is to not be afraid of secondary literature. It often contextualizes works, which is useful if you don't have a grip on the history of philosophy (e.g why is kant so important) + it may mention criticism the author or other philosophers have which may change your perspectives on philosophers too (e.g marx's dialectic seemed convincing to me on first read but then I read but then I read in an introduction to dialectics a criticism Adorno had and it immediately made me reconsider my whole understanding of Marxist dialectic)
Thank you for this video. As someone interested in philosophy (and hopefully a philosopher student next year) this looks very exiting. I'm going to try this out with some articles I printed :)
Due to time, I got only through half of one of the articles, but it was a really different reading experience. I feel I retained much more. I used one of those pens that has four colors, using blue for structure, red to highlight important parts, green to sighlight parts I didn't understand, and black to make all the notes. I believe this can help to see all that I write more quickly. Thank you again for this information.
An optional source is to find a PDF online of these texts. Many PDF readers have options for book marks, notes, highliting, and sometimes a loud reading (if you don't mind a robotic voice) Personally I think that your computer reading a loud should only be used after you've read the text as a reminder in your head the knowledge you know.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this video. Just about every other video on the topic is vague, generalized garbage. This is all very concrete, very well-thought-out, and substantial. I will absolutely implement these -- especially the writing in the book with a pen. It's something I'd never considered.
This is very helpful, thank you. For the section on summarising what we’ve read, when you recommend we do this? When we’ve finished an important section, chapter or the entire book? Thank you.
Good question! I think summarizing each major section as you finish it is probably best. Make a few notes at least about it before moving on to the next section.
Thank you, professor! I'm a philosophy student in Argentina. I was wondering if you could tell me why you advise against using highlighters? I find them very convenient to color-code arguments/ideas. Thanks!
Used judiciously, highlighers are fine. Beginning students often over-use highlighters, which defeats the purpose. Also, you can write words in the margin with a pen, but not with a highlighter. Your method sounds good, but do you need a system (which color stands for what) before you begin reading? Or do you only use highlighters on 2nd or later readings of a text?
@@dallinthomas746 Yes, I think so. But Nietzsche's aphoristic style, writing in short snippets that gradually converge on a theme, makes him hard to approach with a method like this. You may find it helpful in reading the individual parts of Beyond Good and Evil. Good luck!
How do you teach all of these different philosophies given their conflicting views. The summation creates an incoherent worldview. It's enough to make a person go crazy
I will SERIOUSLY try to use your tips for the kind of books I HATE but MUST read for the sake of EXAMS... And No they are not phylosophy books they are novels...And I Hate them... ABSOLUTELY! Feel disgusted any time I MUST READ IT. SO BORING! Tons of text with almost zero ideas. Only description of nature, "love" and kissing... I hope your tips will work for me.
If anyone wants a CHRONOLOGICAL ROADMAP into philosophy, Eastern and Western combined, here's my compilation. - Ancient Indian philosophy - 1. Vedic philosophy (2000 BCE) 2. Samkhya sutras of Kapila (~1500 BCE) atheistic school of dualism. 3. The Principal Upanishads (bw 1000 to 600 BCE) 4. Charvaka philosophy of Brihaspati (pre-1000BCE) - world's oldest atheistic and materialistic philosphy. The original Brihaspati Sutras didn't survive. 5. The Nyaya Sutras of Aksapada Goutama (7th century BCE - World's oldest complete book on logic and epistemology) 6. Bhagvad Gita (~500 BCE) 7. Mimansa Philosophy - the principal text woukd be Mimamsa sutra of Jamini (4th-century BCE) 8. Vaisheshika sutra of Kanada ( 7th century BCE - among others these sutras hypothesised the breakdown of matter into atoms and subatoms - Anu and Paramanu) 9. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (bw 500BCE - 400 CE) 10. Samkhyakarika of Ishvar Krishna (~350 CE) 11. Jain philosophy - outlined in the Tattvārthasūtra of Umaswati (possibly between 2nd-century and 5th-century CE) 12. Buddhist philosophy - important texts include those of the Mahayana sect - Mahaprajnaparamita sutra, Maha Ratnakuta sutra, Sandhinimochana sutra, Amitabha sutra, Vimalakriti sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Shurngama Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Mahaparinirvana sutra, and Saddharma pundarika sutra. 13. Sociopolitical philosophy - Arthashastra of Chanakya (4th century BCE) 14. Ajivika philosophy - the original scriptures are lost. Hellinistic - 1. Thales of Miletus (624/623-548/545 BCE) - the father of ancient Greek philosophy. 2. Pythagoras (570 BCE) 3. On Nature by Parmenides (560 BCE - 510 BCE ) 4. Anaxagoras (500 BC-428 BCE) - the first to establish a philosophy in its entirety in Athens. 5. Zeno (490 BC-430 BC) 6. Empedocles (490 BC-430 BC) 7. Socrates (470 - 399 BCE - all of him. This man's THE man ) 8. Democritus (460 - 370 BCE - famous for his atomifc theory among others) 9. Plato, (born 428/427 - 348/347 BCE) 10. Aristotle (384-322 BCE ) Classical Chinese philosophy - 1. Daodejing of Lao Tzu (5th century) 2. Analects of Confucius (475-220 BCE) 3. Zhuangzi (476-221 BCE) 4. Mencius (3rd century BCE) 5. Xun Kuang (314-235 BCE) Classical Roman philosophy - 1. Lucretius (88- 55 BCE) 2. Cicero (106 - 43 BCE) 3. Seneca the Younger (BCE 4- 65 AD) 4. Pliny The Elder (23-79) 5. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (121-180) 6. Porphyry of Tyre ( 233- 305) 7. Augustine (354-430) 8. Hypatia (370-415) 9. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524) Islamic philosophy - 1. Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (854 CE - 925 CE) Famed doctor, chemist, and philosopher. First person to describe smallpox and measles as separate diseases and author of the first book on pediatrics. 2. ArA ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila (The Views of the People of The Virtuous City) by Al-Farabi (872-951 AD) 3. Saadia Gaon (882 CE - 942 CE) 4. Yahya ibn Adi (893 CE - 974 CE) Logic theorist and doctor 5. Avicenna (980 CE - 1037 CE) Persian Polymath that is often regarded as the single greatest thinker of the Islamic Golden age. 6. Ihya Ulum al-Din - The Revival of Religious Sciences by Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111 AD) 7. Ibn Rushd (1126-1198 AD) - aka Averroes. 8. Sohrevardi (1154 CE - 1191 CE) Founder of the Islamic school of Illuminationism. 9. Tafsir Al-Kabeer of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 CE - 1209 CE) 10. Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 AD) the first Islamic postmodern and feminist thinker. Medieval European and Renaissance era philosophy - 1. Augustine (354-430) 2. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524) 3. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) - the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God 4. Scholasticism - 13th and 14th century - Some of the main figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury (“the father of scholasticism"), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (1265-1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy; 5. Humanism - important works include those by Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 - 4 May 1406), Petrarch (1304 - 1374), Michael de Montaigne (1533 - 1592), Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457), Rudolph Agricola (1443-1485), Mario Nizolio (1488-1567), Juan Luis Vives (1493-1540), and Petrus Ramus (1515-1572). 6. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) - the most important Renaissance Platonist. Modern Philosophy - 1. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) 2. Rationalists - Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) 3. Empiricist - George Berkley (1685-1753), John Locke (1732-1704), David Hume (1711-1776) 4. Political philosophy - Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Jean Rousseau (1712-1778), Voltaire(1694-1778), Giambattista Vico (1668 - 1744), Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Giuseppe Mazzini (22 June 1805 - 10 March 1872), Karl Marx (1818-1883), Fredrich Engels (1820-1895). 5. Adam Smith (1723-90). 6. The German idealists - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), G W F Hegel (1770-1831), F W J Schelling (1775-1854), 7. Existential philosophers - Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Simone de Beauvoir, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Albert Camus (1913-60) 8. Analytic philosophers - Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), George Edward Moore, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Moritz Schlick, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) 9. Neoconfucianism - Xiong Shili 10. Neo-Vedanta - Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan 11. Kyoto school of thought - founded by Kitaro Nishida Contemporary philosophy 1. Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) 2. Cornel West (b. 1952) - pioneered the school of “neopragmatism” 3. Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949) 4. Gayatri Spivak (b. 1942) 5. Gu Su (b. 1955) 6. Postmodernist philosophers - Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Derrida 7. Structuralism/Poststeucturalism - Michel Foucault, Jaques Derrida I may have missed many but this is all too much to finish anyway. 😂 Good luck everyone! 🙂
