From: holmes@opal.idbsu.edu (Randall Holmes)
Subject: Re: Request for critiques of Objectivism, and for intro's to philosophy
Organization: Boise State University Math Dept.
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:19:12 GMT

In article <BuJyoq.75v@quake.sylmar.ca.us> brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder) writes:
>In article <1992Sep12.220522.17755@wuecl.wustl.edu> jaf@wucs1.wustl.edu (Andy Fingerhut) writes:
[...]
>One general recommendation I can offer is that it almost always more 
>enlightening to read the original works than commentaried by other
writers.

Amen!

>That said, I suggest the following:
>
>"The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant - A good overview to get you
oriented.

I suggest Bertrand Russell's history of philosophy.

>"Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant - This should  give you a taste of
>what Rand is so upset about.  It's hard to get through, but even if you just
>read a bit, you will get the idea of where he's coming from.

Kant is also dealing with some real problems, though, which are better
understood from a historical perspective.  Read Descartes.

>"The Portable Nietzsche" translated byWalter Kaufmann - This is a good
>collection of Nietzsche's work.  I really like the "Viking Portable Library"
>collections in general.  I also recommend that you avoid translations by 
>folks other than Walter Kaufmann, his translations are much better than some
>others I have read.

I think that it is much more plausible to cast Nietzsche as the Enemy
than Kant; but Rand was originally a dsiciple of Nietzsche.

>"What does it All Mean?" by Thoman Nagel - This is a very short book which 
>gives a good summary of the important philosophical issues from a pretty
>conventional modern viewpoint.
>"Arthur Schopenhauer - Essays and Aphorisms" from Penguin Classics - This 
>should be more Schopenhauer than you can stomach.  The Penguin Classics
>series is quite good in general.  I have a couple dozen of them.
>"On Liberty" by John Stewart Mill - It's a pretty straight forward view of
>utilitarianism.
>"Confessions" by St. Augustine - Where did the Christians get such strange
>ideas?  Read this and find out.
>"A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls - Judge for yourself whether Rand's 
>critique was correct.  Typical modernist muddled thinking on social
issues.

I agree; loony.

>"Tractatus Logico Philosophicus" by Ludwig Wittgenstein - A simple exposition
>of Wittgenstein's early views.  See whether the linguistic analysis positions
>make any sense or not.

The Tractatus does not exemplify a linguistic analysis position. (The
latter, exemplified by later works of Wittgenstein, are indeed
nonsensical).  It involves application of mathematical logic to
philosophy, a much more promising route.  Wittgenstein did not do a
very good job, however.  Read Bertrand Russell, _Principles of
Mathematics_, or _Principia Mathematica_; but this is very technical
stuff.  Along the same lines, read W.V. Quine, any book of essays and
_Word and Object_.  This is sensible stuff, but always very technical
(the applications to daily life are not clear).  Quine never wrote
about ethics, alas.  Read Karl Popper on philosophy of science.

>"Being and Nothingness" by Jean Paul Sartre - Shows the kind of thinking
>being done in the Existentialist school.

I suggest _Being and Time_, by Martin Heidegger.  This is terribly
hard to read, but Heidegger is (technically) better, and occasionally
the real issues comne through:  it can be very scary.

>I also recommend reading collections by Plato and Aristotle to help get a 
>grounding in their perspectives (I have several and I wouldn't recommend
>one over another.)

An early modern philosopher not mentioned is Spinoza; read _Ethics_
with a commentary to tell you what the terminaology really means.  It
can't be all bad; Peikoff even gives it a good word!

>
>
>How much of Rand's writings have you read?  I wouldn't say that by reading
>just Atlas and the "Philosophy: Who Needs It?" pamphlets you can get a very
>thorough view of Rand's views in much depth (though you probably have a good
>overview now).
>
>Good luck!
>
>--Brian
>
>
>


-- 
The opinions expressed		|     --Sincerely,
above are not the "official"	|     M. Randall Holmes
opinions of any person		|     Math. Dept., Boise State Univ.
or institution.			|     holmes@opal.idbsu.edu