Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello everyone! Just wanted to post a short greetings to the guild. Just by skimming through a few threads, I can tell I'm going to like it here. Its funny, because just a week ago, I picked up a copy of "Philosophy for Dummies." Now I have a place to discuss that as well and the many other books I am going to be reading.

Speaking of books, would anyone care to suggest anything basic?

I suggest you all read 1984- so I can have people to discuss it with xd

I can't really contribute much to this, but what about The Trial? It's an awesome book in general, and it's fun to analyze. That's about it, since I read strange stuff like Kant and Machiavelli (I dont' think I spelled that right).

I would say the best place to start is with an 'intro to logic' book of some sort. Or rather, an intro to reasoning book. This will make you more familiar with basic fallacies reasoning, so you can easily fend off the more weakly constructed arguments. Such as Ad Hominem, Ad Populum, Genetic Falacies, ect... basic fallacies.

From there, you may want to move onto a basic textbook of sorts. Do some reasearch and find something you feel comfortable with and that you can understand. Or try to pick something that seems popular and successful "by and large" with existing students of philosophy. Basicly you'd be looking for books that talk about a variety of areas of philosophy. Main intro textbooks will talk about Ethics, Metaphysics, and, and Epistemology all breifly, breaking the ice on the subjects to you, as well as going over common arguments associated with them.

Once you've got a good basic education in philosophy then, you could probably being to tailor what you read to your specific interests, and work your way up to reading specific philosophers successfully and effectively. Make no mistake though, there is no substitute for a good teacher, whom you can ask for clerification about the text. Which is why I recommend a class on philosophy above all else.

That movie waking life has many great concepts inside, but a very poor poor preview..the art was horrible because of the carttoon drawing's over the real people. They are actually in the process of making a new one, unless it already came out, you should check into it. But i do agree it was a excellent film...

I would also add that everyone should see the movie: "The Journey of Man." It is a science view of things.... quite interesting, but does have a lot of religious dipictions, because philosophy and religion go hand in hand as everyone knows....

I've been on a more moderistic sideof things. Stranger in a Strange Land is an amazing book, as are 1984, Farenheit 451, A Brave New World, and I here Catch 22 and The Catcher in the Rye are good.

I've also stumble accross a book called The Matrix Warrior; Being the One. It's good so far, and is rather enlightening, though I don't agree with everything.

As for movies, Super Size Me and What the Bleep Do We Know are very good, and I highly recomed them.

Edit: Animal Farm! I forgot Aninimal Farm. What is wrong with me? Read Animal Farm.

Currently, I am reading Sophie's World, and even though I find it somewhat confusing I am able to understand the overall meanings. The book listing are quite helpful, my gratitude to those who poosted. Hopfully these books will help me and others to fully understand philosophy.

" Cogito, ergo sum. " - Descartes

" I think, Therefore I am."