Good books on philosophy

[Zeuzzz]

Any recommendations? I'm particularly interested in the philosophy of science and always have been since doing a module on it with my physics course.

And I dont want the usual silly philosophical arguments I see in most books on philosophy, ie, reality is an illusion everything is a dream so therfore [enter crackpot theory here] is true in this regard. I mean a respected academic book written by someone considered an expert that looks into some of the really interesting specific philosophical questions of mind/brain, epistemology, fecundity, awareness, aesthetics, ethics, etc. The lot.

Because whenever I think I've got a good book about all the main deep philisophical issues, they always seem to start with these really good philisophical points, but then just use them to back up some sort of crackpot pontification.

 

[MarekM]

If you want to read a broad overview of some common problems of philosophy, I enjoyed Man is the Measure by Reuben Abel.

If you're looking for something more specific, I always like reading David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

 

[Phaedrus74]

Any recommendations? I'm particularly interested in the philosophy of science and always have been since doing a module on it with my physics course.

And I dont want the usual silly philosophical arguments I see in most books on philosophy, ie, reality is an illusion everything is a dream so therfore [enter crackpot theory here] is true in this regard. I mean a respected academic book written by someone considered an expert that looks into some of the really interesting specific philosophical questions of mind/brain, epistemology, fecundity, awareness, aesthetics, ethics, etc. The lot.

Because whenever I think I've got a good book about all the main deep philisophical issues, they always seem to start with these really good philisophical points, but then just use them to back up some sort of crackpot pontification.

I suggest you read the original articles by Popper and Kuhn and follow the argument from there. (I will not suggest you inflict Kant on yourself, unless you have a masochistic streak)

Apart from that there are several good textbooks on philosophy of science and epistemology. If you want to know how it ties in with perception and contemporary theories of cognition the subject you want to look up is "philosophy of mind", I have a good anthology at home, but the title escapes me.

Note however that this is not entry level stuff!!
Also: Don't read books ON philosophy, read the original articles, it's the only way in which you might come to grasp the extent of the debate. And you might even learn, for instance, what arguments brought Berkeley tot the conclusion that reality is an illusion (Spoiler: the argument is rather more involved than you might think).

Good luck!

 

[qayak]

I mean a respected academic book written by someone considered an expert that looks into some of the really interesting specific philosophical questions of mind/brain, epistemology, fecundity, awareness, aesthetics, ethics, etc. The lot.

Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett.

The Science of Good and Evil by Michael Shermer

Everyday Ethics: Inspired Solutions to Real-Life Delemmas by Joshua Halberstam

Theatre of the Mind: Raising the Curtain on Consciousness by Jay Ingram

The Burning House by Jay Ingram

An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks

 

[Soapy Sam]

How Things Work (Vols 1 & 2)

The Penguin Dictionary of Science

The Oxford English Dictionary

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