I wanna start - how to be a philosopher?

Question

I’m a new student, recently I’m interested with philosophy and the origin of some word like: what is evil - what is goodness? And I wanna learn about whether philosophy conflicts with psychology or not . I need some books for starter please suggest some , thank you.

Perhaps a place to start would be with what Descartes, among others, termed 'First Principles'. For him the FP was "I think, therefore, I am." For me, it is "I experience (myself experiencing), therefore, I am." This would help with melding psychology and philosophy, giving them both the same place to start from. And with no need for the metaphysical (un-experience-able).

@virmaior I want to know everything about philosophy and the art of argument and I wanna become a philosopher. — Heman hisamadiny, Mar 04 '18 at 08:06
My only advice would be to avoid following a curriculum and to pursue your own interests. Other than that it's just a matter of endless reading and thinking. Just be very sceptical about what you read for most of it will be nonsense. Deciding which bits are nonsense and which are not is the entire task. — , Mar 04 '18 at 11:22
Possible duplicate of What are the foundations of philosophy? — Chris Sunami, Mar 05 '18 at 18:36

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '18 at 11:02

I'd make two points. The first is that you can't do everything at once, so you should recognise that acquiring a competence in philosophy will be a slow process. A single text or a set of guides will at best give you a picture of the field. They will tell you what philosophy is, or how it is understood on sites such as this, or in a particular tradition, but not how to do philosophy.

The other point is that in my view the best way into philosophy is through reading texts that (nearly) everyone recognises as philosophical master texts : say, Descartes' Meditations (esp. I & 2) and Plato's Republic. In these books you can see philosophy, not just summarised but in action. If you have the makings of a philosopher, books such as these will put you on the right path to doing philosophy and not just reading about it.

I wanna start - how to be a philosopher?

1 Answers1