Nice! Love the long form video! Would love to see a video at some point just briefly explaining the main points of different schools of thought. Also, further down the line, I’d love to see you collab with Useful Charts and make a philosophy chart from beginning to end. That would be a fun series to watch!

Barnes & Noble currently still has on its shelf copies of various Copleston volumes. They published by Image Books, Doubleday. As mentioned, there are numerous various printings available in used bookstores for fairly cheap, especially if you get the out of print mass market versions that were published by Image in 1963. Imo, Copleston’s History of Philosophy is the best chronological overview ever published-it is both fairly rigorous and still accessible enough for determined undergrads. Anthony Kenny’s multi volumes of History of Philosophy are also good, as is the Adam’s volumes. But another good, and a bit more accessible than Copleston, series- out of print-is A History of Western Philosophy by W.T. Jones. Again, use libraries or get them used. It’s 4 volumes, I think: The Classical Mind, The Medieval Mind, Hobbes To Hume, and then it’s either one or two volumes on Kant thru Sartre.

My favorite bona fide philosopher has got to be good old Bertrand Russell. He was a gem.

Sorry to hear your shock news, Jared. When I first found your channel I subscribed for the Journalling videos. Your content and style is highly intellectual, which I love. You’re a natural academic with a fabulous and accessible teaching style. I was sad when I heard your story about needing to leave academia. I spent 25 years in academia and loved it. Every blessing for a fabulously successful future. If Ryan Holliday can make it, so can you. You have a he talent to make it.

Highly reccomend the Hackett Publishing Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources. Gives you access to a lot of primary texts from the rationalists and empiricists as well as covering women such as emilie du chatelet and Margaret Cavendish.

While I certainly think people should read what they find most interests them, it will create some problems for the reader if they skip significant periods of philosophy. For instance, on the issues of substance, if one begins with the early moderns, some debates will remain opaque as the entire discussion of forms and their conceptual evolution from Plato to Descartes has been neglected. Without familiarity of this development, the question of whether, say, Descartes is the starting a new modern scientific project or the last of the medieval scholasticism projects hinges on the issues surrounding forms, hylomorphism, and identity-key concepts related to views on substance up to the period in question. The view one holds here colors one’s entire view for later period topics. In short, it’s just best, imo, not to skip thru the history of philosophy as if it were a salad bar buffet.

Great video! 🙏

I started reading political philosophy books as a start towards a more compelling way to adress democratic values and a way to at least argue it and plato's republic is a great argument proof

Brilliant. As an old man, I wish this list would have been available fifty years ago. Thank you. I subscribe to your Substack and pray you will unpack some of your presentation in the future, especially the influence of philosophy on early Christianity.

@_jared Good evening from the state of Virginia, Jared. I am so sorry to hear the news that you no longer have that job. My feeling, however, is it honestly is an opportunity. My friend Pam returned to mind as, upon losing her job several years ago, she decided to start her own editing company and penned her debut novel. I hope her success will serve to inspire and motivate you to some extent. I cannot wait to see your future videos and hope I will be able to support you on Substack (financially speaking, long story short myself...) sooner than later. I am sending best wishes to you as well as your family, Andrea S.

Thanks!

Coming out hot as a full-time youtuber, are we Jared?

Thanks Jerod - I just spent my monthly allowance in less than an hour - efficient I suppose.. 🥸

For the mentioning of History of Philosophy, what about A.C Graylings book?

For Chinese philosophy maybe I'd suggest Karyn Lai (I think she's working with Adamson on the Chinese Philosophy part of the podcast). There's a very good book that has a kind of overview of Chinese and Indian philosophies that's called World Philosophy by David E. Cooper (I think he's the Philosophy of Gardens guy), which is what I've used for my classes whenever I cover those Eastern traditions. I know of other resources, but they're in Spanish :/ As for Buddhism, I can suggest Jay Garfield and Walpola Rahula. Also, Ben Ani Scharfstein has a history of philosophy from the Upanishads to Kant, which is divided by subject and compares different philosophers both East and West for that subject (like, Uddalaka from the Upanishads and Parmenides on ultimate being).

A lot of Philosophers find her polarizing but I feel Ayn Rand expands on Aristotle's ethics to be more thorough and comprehensive. I just find her philosophy gives a lot of clarity while many others muddy the waters and are vague for no good reason. If you find Nietzsche interesting, I think you will feel the same about Rand.

Just randomly caught this video, love it. I'm a retired academic, did math logic in the 70s, wrote a decent-but-not-earth-shattering thesis, spent 6 years doing post-docs and instructorships, and finally got onto the tenure ladder at a Midwest Jesuit university. Several times I thought of chucking the academic grind, but couldn't imagine the alternatives. I made it through to retirement, praise be, with my passion for research more or less intact. One of my hobbies, now that I can be a grad student again, is pondering how adjectives work in natural language. Looking forward to more of your content!

this is very good, it thrills my heart and aches my wallet! so many good editions!!!!!

Excellent panorama!!! Thank you, Jared.

So sorry to hear. It happened to me in october last year. Although very uncertain times, it was for me the "push" I needed to start my own company. I wish you the best of luck form the Netherlands.

I always recommend Hagel phenomenology of spirit to my friends as a joke. 😂😂😂

When it comes to 20th century continental philosophy, Foucault is an easy read that most people can just pick up and read as beginners. I'd recommend Discipline and Punish, and the History of Sexuality vol 1.

You stayed away from the post-structuralists and postmodernists (Derrida, Foucault etc). Probably a wise move too!

this guy must HATE derrida

"These three great Masters remained individuals. Once in a while somebody was impressed by their writings, but it remained intellectual, so there is no hope in the near future of Lieh Tzu, Chuang Tzu or Lao Tzu being born again in China, or their influence in any way changing the course of China’s history, because in fact they have never been of any great importance in China’s mind. Confucius and Lao Tzu were contemporaries. Confucius had even gone to meet Lao Tzu, because Lao Tzu was certainly a man of tremendous qualities. Confucius was a great thinker, but only a thinker. He had nothing as far as his own inner consciousness is concerned, no experience, no idea who he is, but he had planned for the society perfectly well, a very mannered, cultured society. Hearing that Lao Tzu was nearby, living in a cave beyond the lake, he went to see him. A few of his disciples also went, but he told them, “You wait outside the cave.” They said, “Why? It will be good, we can listen.” He said, “You don’t understand. I will tell you the reason later on. Let me go first. If I feel it right I will call you in.” They stayed outside, Confucius went in. Lao Tzu was sitting silently. He did not say to Confucius even to sit down, and Confucius was man of manners, etiquette. He had not expected that a great sage, Lao Tzu, would not even ask. He did not say hello or even hi - even that short form, “hi.” He simply sat down, looking at Confucius, and Confucius said, “Sir, don’t you believe in manners?” Lao Tzu laughed. He said, ‘I thought you knew all the manners - what is the need for me to tell you? If you feel like sitting, you will sit down! You are not a man who does not know manners. If you like to stand up, it is my etiquette not to disturb you. You can stand up!” Confucius said, “But you… you did not even say hello.” Lao Tzu said, “I said it. You could not hear it. It was a test: I said it silently. I wanted to know whether the famous philosopher Confucius understands silence or not. So you understand only words - that much is decided! And you have expectations. You cannot sit down on your own, you have to be told. This cave does not belong to me. When I came here, nobody said ‘sit down,’ because nobody was here. Why should I say it? It is not my cave, nothing belongs to me. Just the way I am sitting, you can sit down. You are not a child to be told.” Confucius had never met such a man. And on each point he was rebuffed badly. Then Lao Tzu said, “If you really want to learn anything, first go and renounce all the idiots you have collected as your disciples. You don’t know anything and you have thousands of disciples. It is hilarious! You just go and tell them the truth, that you don’t know anything, and then come, because I teach only if somebody does not know. If he knows it already, why should he bother me? An old man… Leave me alone!” Confucius came out, and he had not the courage to say to his disciples that he did not know. He had thousands of disciples, he was the most famous man at that time. Very few people knew about Lao Tzu. Confucius has remained a shadow over the whole of Chinese history. It is only somewhere in the footnotes you can find the name of Lao Tzu. Confucius was not courageous enough to say “I do not know.” The disciples said “You didn’t ask us to come in. He said, “It was good that I didn’t ask you to come in. And please don’t ask the reason. That man is not a man; he is a dragon. He is dangerous, avoid him as far as possible. This is my first and last meeting with that old guy!” And he was perspiring. It was a cold morning and the cave was very cool, but he was perspiring. The disciples said, “But why are you perspiring?” He said, “I am alive - that’s enough! Just take me away from here.”"

Islamic Philosophy is incredibly fascinating! I would recommend having a strong understanding of Platonic/Neo-Platonic Metaphysics, and Aristotelian Logic. As well as the Quran and Hadith Literature. The four philosophers that I would recommend jumping into are Ibn Arabi, Ibn Cina (Avicenna), Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sudra. It is mental gymnastics, to say the least, to wrap your head around illuminationism and the arguments on contingency/necessity.

I would suggest adding something regarding Hamann and and his rather trenchant takedown of the modernist project exemplified by his friend, Kant.

Thanks for the helpful vid. I’m teaching my first undergrad philosophy course this Fall and I’ve been thumbing through Anthony Kenny’s history of philosophy, put out by Oxford. I’m curious if you have looked at it, and if so, how it stacks up against the other histories you recommended.

I would add Justice as Fairness - A restatement by John Rawls. Much more accessible than his Theory of Justice. I would also add The Social Contract by Rousseau. I think those two are great bookends to social contract theory

Things will work out. Based on the things you share on this platform, I guess you won't be out of work in any sense of it, and there are hopefully plenty of folks out there who would be fools not to offer you an option back into employment in one of your areas of expertise. I defended my thesis almost exactly a year ago and am trying to shoulder the challenging role of a young academic in an uncertain world of temporary employment relationships and various restraints. Hope this channel can also serve as a showcase for how your experiences could be useful would you consider returning to academia.

great video, thanks.

Do a Chomsky video pls

If I could offer 1 additional suggesting from contemporary philosophy that I think people would find very helpful in understanding these other books is "little manual for Knowing" When getting my philosophy degree, little manual was indispensable in terms of assessing + understanding the impact of the implicit epistemology I had acquired from growing up in the modern West.

I wish there were a philosophy book that could let me off the hook, that's all.

A good abridgement of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is called “How to Flourish,” which condenses its main arguments down in a way that’s more accessible for beginners. In fact, its translator presents the same excerpts in her own Ancient Philosophy courses.

Excellent video. Thank you greatly. This video is a resource I've hoped to find as I begin my self-study of philosophy. I am curious what you think of Will Durant's THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY as a single-volume overview. It has loads of gaps, but it's quite accessible and offers the novice reader a great introductory list of voices and titles. Just curious what you (or any of your viewers) think about Durant's text. Thanks again for the work you're creating. It's greatly appreciated.

27:32 Actually Mill's the subjection of woman os a better introduction to feminism than the second sex

You seem moderately unhateable

I think Anthony Kenny's history of philosophy books are also pretty nice for a beginner. We used one of these books for my history of ancient philosophy class as a guide.

great video

Mr. Cornwell is my favorite author and is one of the few authors who can give me a rollercoaster of emotions. I've never read any of his books that I didn't like. Wolf-Hall is in my to-read pile.

I wonder if you could do a small Into to Philosophy series on KZbin, I know I would watch it. Videos, not super long, going over a text and its main points and clearing up specific arguments which can be confusing

It will be ok u are charming ! 0:49

Is it a problem that I found myself out of my depth reading ayer? I've tried to read Language, Truth, and Logic and I couldn't get through it.

Great set. Thanks for making it! Maybe one day i'll get some or all done & come back here to review & comment

I've been creating a guide to study philosophy that seem interesting to my future students. the three main matters are 1. science, philosophy and society; this include the three main branches of philosophy a) ethics b) epistemology c) metaphysics. 2. philosophical currents; for example, idealism 3. pedagogy; this include learning teories and some didactics research. What do you think?

Like your Channel: No fuzz, straight to the point. Thanks for that. supporting this. A PS: you should do readings, i'd buy it without a thought... just sayin' ... and PPS: Aurelius.. my way to go anywhere... thx

Philosophies of India, Heinrich Zimmer. Great overview of the major Indian philosophies. Unfortunately he died before finishing the book and the end is an edit of his annotations by Joseph Campbell. But it's a great introduction on Indian philosophy.

Good luck to you in your new endeavor.

Really appreciate the time and care put into this video - my experience with philosophy is lacking in breadth. I do have one suggestion though. In respect to this being a recommendation list for beginners, I personally think Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals is a better recommendation for beginners than Beyond Good and Evil. BGE is actually my favorite work of Nietzsche’s, but I believe GOM to be a better introduction to his thought because of it being limited in scope with the topics the book covers. With BGE, you have a critique of dogmatic perspective in philosophy and the faith it’s predicated on, a chapter on how to become the perspectival philosopher Nietzsche has in mind for the philosophers of the future, a diagnosis of the religious neurosis and related modes of perspective, a chapter of miscellaneous aphorisms, the historical development of morality, the commonly accepted prejudices in academia, the blind morality in modernity’s “higher man”, and Nietzsche’s opinion on what actually constitutes virtuous morality. As someone who has tried to get friends in Nietzsche, I’ve noticed in large they really struggle with BGE. But with GOM covering Nietzsche’s theory on the two morality valuation systems and their development throughout history, a discussion on the historical development of bad conscience and the tools of the psyche which are used in relation to the phenomena of bad conscience, and a deep dive into what constitutes the meaning of ascetic ideals and how that meaning is contingent on the individual’s value system, I find that beginners have a much easier time chewing on this book. And, in regards to illustrating how Christianity and the religious essence of platonism has heavily influenced modern morality, I think this book fits the bill much better given its limited scope. Again, just wanted to say I really enjoyed the video. Just wanted to share my experience with trying to get people into Nietzsche, as I think his writings are very valuable