Name: Anonymous 2009-01-29 6:39
I've just discovered the wonderful world of philosophy and formal logic. My interest was piqued by a philosophy major friend of mine, whom I hadn't seen in quite a while and who engaged me in a wonderful little friendly debate the other day.
So I've got two topics for this thread:
Firstly, what books would you guys recommend for me to actually get into this, assuming I know nothing on the topic? I know some of the bigger names like Kant and them, but I doubt they'd be a good basic starting point, right?
Also, I'm not going to need any real fancy math that I can't pick up as I go, am I? The highest level course I've taken was Calculus, and I only got about half way through it before I dropped it (aced all the tests, never had time for the ridiculous amounts of busywork). From there I basically taught myself things only as I needed them. I do have some experience with Boolean systems, though, which from what I've seen will help, but again, my knowledge is pretty basic.
Secondly, I'm just curious what kind of philosophies you all identify with.
Like I said, I'm brand new to the scene, but from some light googling and Wikipedia browsing, I've found myself to fit squarely with Secular Humanism. But as I was looking into that, I also came across Objectivism, which seems to describe my thoughts as well, even though people seem to say the two are opposed on a couple fronts. But it's late, I'll look into it further tomorrow afternoon. I only scratched the surface, so I'm probably not getting the whole picture.
So I've got two topics for this thread:
Firstly, what books would you guys recommend for me to actually get into this, assuming I know nothing on the topic? I know some of the bigger names like Kant and them, but I doubt they'd be a good basic starting point, right?
Also, I'm not going to need any real fancy math that I can't pick up as I go, am I? The highest level course I've taken was Calculus, and I only got about half way through it before I dropped it (aced all the tests, never had time for the ridiculous amounts of busywork). From there I basically taught myself things only as I needed them. I do have some experience with Boolean systems, though, which from what I've seen will help, but again, my knowledge is pretty basic.
Secondly, I'm just curious what kind of philosophies you all identify with.
Like I said, I'm brand new to the scene, but from some light googling and Wikipedia browsing, I've found myself to fit squarely with Secular Humanism. But as I was looking into that, I also came across Objectivism, which seems to describe my thoughts as well, even though people seem to say the two are opposed on a couple fronts. But it's late, I'll look into it further tomorrow afternoon. I only scratched the surface, so I'm probably not getting the whole picture.