Philosophical Resources

Try this

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Arguments-Important-Western-Philosophy/dp/144433638X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520530780&sr=8-3&keywords=philosophy+arguments

Reply to Saphsin Outstanding, thank you!

The Philosopher's Toolkit is an excellent book to start with.

Reply to Maw I am going to firmly disagree with that. Back in 2011 or 2012, right around the time the second edition came out, I was TAing a class that used that as the primary text. A lot of the undergrads had complaints about the layout and after going through it with several of them I too became gradually concerned about the pedagogical aim of the book. It is steeped in the Western analytic tradition and does a poor job deviating from that. The authors also gloss over topics with such rapidity that it's not only easy for casual students to get lost but provides more committed newcomers to philosophy the wrong set of tools - as it were. Despite good intentions, the book facilitates the "armchair philosophy" approach common in undergrads wherein, after they read a two page conspectus on Hegelian philosophy they now assume they know all there is to know about Hegel.

Part of the broader issue with these types of books is that, by trying to provide a well rounded introduction to philosophy, they fail to appreciate a lot of the complexity of various ideas and the benefits of engaging with the complexity as a newcomer. That book was a bit of a turning point in my career as it convinced me that the concept of a philosophy "text book" is rubbish. That text book approach is far more conducive to an American University system looking to churn out degrees than it is an adequate or valuable approach to philosophical topics.

I think "diving in" is the best way. Find some topic you're particularly interested in, look up names of philosophers working on that topic, and have a go at some of the material.

If it's not interesting then it's not worth your time -- because interest is what's going to motivate you to keep going in the first place. But, if it is interesting to you then Plato is a great place to start, I think.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a favorite online resource, for me, because it makes it easy to find further work after giving a cursory introduction to some topic.

Quoting Issac Scoggins

I see myself as a novice philosopher. I was wondering what kind of resources I can get and use to further my education?

Every philosophical text is a commentary on indefinitely many other philosophical texts. Follow the trail of citations, including self-citations, each author leaves in his work. There's usually a substantial list of references in contemporary or near-contemporary works. Typically the meaning of any one philosophical text becomes clearer after you've read more broadly in the relevant literature.

Use resources like the Philosopher's Index and JSTOR to search for primary sources and reviews.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is better than any general online reference I know of.

Tufts and MIT have collection of ancient Greek and Roman texts available online, though not all of them belong to the philosophical canon.

You might keep an eye on the website or blog of the American Philosophical Association.

Check the links provided on philosophy department websites, like this one from the University of Chicago.

Some professors have their own blogs online, and many papers and canonical texts are available online.

ALso have a look for History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps.. Series of podcasts from Kings College London, each about 20 minutes, with guest lecturers.

Also the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (different from the Stanford mentioned above).

Reply to Larynx I am not a teacher by any means, much less a teacher of philosophy, so perhaps my viewpoint is myopic. I would think, however, that in a typical philosophy class, a professor would review key concepts and in conjugation with required reading, in order to clarify ideas in a structured way as to not overload the student. Perhaps my view is warped, because I first read The Philosopher's Toolkit after having already familiarized myself with many of the philosophical tools, so it wasn't a cumbersome read for me.

I think it also depends on what a novice philosopher is attempting to get out of reading introductory resources. Do they want to to understand key concepts from Hegel, or Hume, or other past philosophers? Than I would agree that this isn't a good book for that, and would suggest they skip Chapter 5. But if they want to understand important methods, basic ideas, etc. I think the book will prove valuable.

Any type of introductory book will, by necessity, be simplified in order to explain unique, new, or complex concepts and issues to a beginner. The book also provides "Further Reading" examples that further explain the tools, often from the very source of the concept. I'd be curious to know what you would consider to be a superior resource(s) for introducing philosophy.

Reply to Maw Honestly, I think the approach you ended up taking is exactly right, or more appropriate to the actual "doing" of philosophy at the very least. "Toolkit" is like so many of those introductory books in that it supposes a position of (pseudo)neutrality on the basis that such a position can provide students with the most comprehensive view possible. But philosophy is one of those fields in which comprehension takes time, and the 'view from above' along with the desire to take such a view is constantly subject to scrutiny. As a result I think the approach you took is far more valuable pedagogically: read some philosophy, explore, engage, test the waters - then when you encounter a book like Toolkit you can begin to assess either the concepts in isolation from each other, or maybe encounter a glimpse of the something that you already have to tools to investigate further.

I guess another way of putting, and something I said to an undergraduate back in that course, is basically: no one just hands you a toolkit in philosophy - you have to craft the tools yourself. Now sure, that can often involve guidance. And we should not assume that those tools are reified or static objects (something I think texts like Toolkit assume, even in a loose sense). However once you craft your tools you often can familiarize yourself with the tools of others is a far more meaningful way. Which is important, because if one builds there base from a text like Toolkit they'll often have to go through the more tedious process of unlearning a lot of what was offered as a "tool" when encountering the actual complexity of different authors and ideas (Hegel and Hume are perfect examples of figures which are extremely difficult to explain quickly or in an introductory way, and almost guarantee the unlearning process).