/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11216304]

What are some great philosophical texts that doesn't require preliminary reading of other works (such as the greeks) to be fully understood?

[Anonymous No.11216305]

>>11216304
the bible

[Anonymous No.11216314]

There aren't any works that couldn't be understood with a few simple google searches to get context.

[Anonymous No.11216369]

>>11216305
There is a reason why I added the qualifier "great".

[Anonymous No.11216406]

Presocratics.

[Anonymous No.11216420]

You'll never "fully understand" anything, deal with it

[Anonymous No.11216458]

>>11216304
Some of Plato's dialogues, Confessions (only the end is really philosophy tho), Meditations, the works from the empiricists (Locke, Berkeley and Hume)

From the top of my head these are the ones I can think of, there is probably many more tho

[Anonymous No.11216461]

>>11216304
The Greeks

[Anonymous No.11216463]

>>11216461
only right answer

[Anonymous No.11216500]

>>11216304
Descartes
Hume

[Anonymous No.11216520]

>>11216304
wittgenstein's magnum opus

[Anonymous No.11216642]

[Anonymous No.11216669]

Discourses of Epictetus are fairly easy, although I'd suggest having read some familiarity with Stoicism beforehand to fully appreciate it, even through a bio of Epictetus' life. It's hard hitting stuff.

[Anonymous No.11216672]

>>11216304
Spinoza's Ethics

[Anonymous No.11216703]

>>11216461
Yup

the only works of philosophy that i can think of that are essentially "stand-alone" are the Greeks and the tao te ching, and even some stuff in the Greeks needs context. the rest of western philosophy builds on the foundations that the Greeks laid and don't even fucking try to read eastern philosophy in a vacuum because it's all so massively intertwined with establishing religious and societal doctrines.

[Anonymous No.11217105]

>>11216420
I don't think you fully understand.

[Anonymous No.11217186]

>>11216304
>doesn't require preliminary reading of other works (such as the greeks) to be fully understood?
how can it then be great

[Anonymous No.11217215]

>>11216420
>“I shall only remark, that it is by no means unusual, in ordinary conversations, as well as in written works, that by carefully comparing the thoughts uttered by an author on his own subject, we succeed in understanding him better than he understood himself, because he did not sufficiently define his concept, and thus not only spoke, but sometimes even thought, in opposition to his own intentions.”
Kant, CPR (312-316;369-372)

>>11216304
Greeks--Montaigne to an extent but it would be better to have still read the ancients. Shakespeare's good, and so is Plutarch.

[Anonymous No.11217704]

One of the most famous sayings in philosophy is that it's all just a footnote on Plato.
You could try some Stoics, empiricists, Descartes, Hume. Forget about anything after Kant.

[Anonymous No.11217744]

Phenomenology of Perception

[Anonymous No.11217763]

Most of analytic philosophy, stop confusing /lit/ for academia.

[Anonymous No.11217805]

>>11216369
>There is a reason why I added the qualifier "great".
These are the words of the ·Teacher [or Preacher; LAssembler; Cof a group], a son of David, king in Jerusalem [Can allusion to Solomon].

2
The ·Teacher [or Preacher; LAssembler; 1:1] says,
“·Useless [Meaningless; or Absurd; or Enigmatic; or Transient; TVanity; LVapor; Bubble; Cand so throughout this book]! Useless!
Completely useless!
Everything is useless.”

3
What do people really ·gain [profit]
from all the ·hard work [toil] they do ·here on earth [Lunder the sun]?
Things Never Change

4
·People live [LA generation goes], and ·people die [La generation comes],
but the earth ·continues [endures; remains] forever.
5
The sun rises, the sun sets,
and then it ·hurries back [Lpants] to where it rises again [Ps. 19:5–6].
6
·The wind [LIt] blows to the south;
it ·blows [Lgoes around] to the north.
·It blows from one direction and then another [LThe wind goes round and round].
·Then it turns around and repeats the same pattern, going nowhere [LThe wind keeps blowing in circles].
7
All the rivers flow to the sea,
but the sea never becomes full.
The rivers return to the place from which they flow.
8
Everything is ·boring [wearisome],
·so boring that you don’t even want to talk about it [Lbeyond words].
·Words come again and again to our ears,
but we never hear enough [LThe ear is never satisfied with hearing],
nor ·can we ever really see all we want to see [Lthe eye with seeing].
9
·All things continue the way they have been since the beginning [LWhatever is will be again].
What has happened will happen again;
there is nothing new ·here on earth [Lunder the sun; v. 3].
10
·Someone might say [LHere is a common expression],
“Look, this is new,”
but ·really it has always been here [it was already here long ago].
It ·was here before we were [existed before our time].
11
·People don’t remember what happened long ago [LThere is no remembrance of the past],
·and in the future people will not remember what happens now [Lnor will there be any remembrance of what will be in the future].
·Even later, other people will not remember what was done before them [LThere is no remembrance of them among those who will exist in the future].

[Anonymous No.11218008]

>>11216305
>the bible
>great philosophical text
kek

[Anonymous No.11218057]

>>11216304
The Foundation for Exploration

[Anonymous No.11218070]

>>11217215
Funny how Kant recognized that

[Anonymous No.11218071]

>>11217763
you gotta read Frege and Russel (at least) to get Quine

[Anonymous No.11218076]

>>11216642
requires an understanding of dialectics and phenomenology