Philosophy

 

Philosophy is a vast and demanding subject-matter, and in more way than one: there is a tremendous quantity (and quality) of litterature, philosophy's scope is close to infinite (there are very few things that aren't likely to interest philosophers, qua philosophers, at one moment or another), and the world being a complex place, to say the least, philosophers may have a tendency to develop complex speach. In other words, standing before Philosophy is a rather humbling experience. "What can I say, when so much has already been said with such talent and intelligence?", one might be inclined to ask. Nevertheless, I doubt that questions of this kind give an accurate representation of philosophy's nature and value. Indeed, life gains in beauty and meaning when we try to understand, for ourselves, who we are, how we ought to live, what reality consists in etc., and I'm not sure that such a philosophy needs originality in order to be valuable to ourselves or to those we share it with. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a contribution, but our main concern ought to consist in making sure that our philosophical beliefs are justified, coherent, informative and true to who we are. Only when all that is assured, originality becomes a virtue, and quite a relative one at that: some work that has already been done may serve just as well, and as long as we understand them and take their implications seriously, we have the right to adopt those views as our own. Virtue is also to be found in showing respect and gratefulness for efforts prior to our own, and there is no shame in letting oneself be inspired by them - it's rather a proof of intelligence and appropriate humility.

Although I find philsophy stimulating as a whole, ethics and moral philosophy have allways been my main interests within this field. Hence, a large proportion of the resources to be found here will have to do with ethical questions, when I get around to it. However, because philosophy has just as much to do with the way we think as with the nature of the questions by which we concern our little heads, it is quite important to pay attention to how we build our views - that is, if we want them to be philosophical views. That is why I include some stuff concerning critical thinking.

 

A Short and Simple Introduction to Ethics (I wrote this little text a couple of years ago, during a stressful period, in order to give some relief to my poor mind. I've seen better writings, of course, but I make it availible because someone might find it amusing, or even marginally useful. Besides, it is short, so it won't waste too much of your time!)

 

Links

Project Gutenberg - E-texts

Adelaide eBooks - E-texts

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Encyclopedia articles

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Encyclopedia articles

The Sceptic's Dictionary - Critical thinking

Logical Fallacies - Critical thinking

Charlatans - Critical thinking (French)>

EpistemeLinks - Links

Virtual Library - Links

Philosophy Pages - Various helpful info

Ethics updates - Ethical resources

GoodHumans - Amusing initiative

World Scripture - Religious texts

World Congress of Philosophy - Research papers

Human Nature Review, Similarminds, OutOfService, InternationalPersonalityItemPool, ThePersonalityProject - "Know thyself"

Quotes: My favourite quotes (English & French), BrainyQuote, The Quotations Page - "It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read a book of quotations." Winston Churchill

 

Selection of classic texts (Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Epictet, Marcus Aurelius, Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Bentham, Mill...) within Ethics - Under construction

Selection of extra-ethical classic texts - Under construction

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