-
Welcome
to BookAndReader! We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!
Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.
A Good Philosophy Book that asks Really good Questions for Discussion?
- Thread starter frederick
- Start date
Blindsided
Member
Good philosophy book? I'd go with John Stewart Mill's On Liberty or Utilitarianism or David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
I majored in philosophy in college, and those were my two favorite authors and my favorite works.
For your topic, I would go with Mill's On Liberty, you should be able to get some really good questions from that really easily. Check out his harm principle argument, it basically states that people should be free to do whatever they want as long as they aren't harming others. There are many arguments for and against this principle.
I majored in philosophy in college, and those were my two favorite authors and my favorite works.
For your topic, I would go with Mill's On Liberty, you should be able to get some really good questions from that really easily. Check out his harm principle argument, it basically states that people should be free to do whatever they want as long as they aren't harming others. There are many arguments for and against this principle.
SFG75
Well-Known Member
Studies in Semantics in Generative Grammar; Noam Chomsky. This would be an excellent book to debate whether or not we are "hard wired" for language acquisition, or if we develop the tools to create language over time. This is a mind blowing book, just to warn you.
Understanding Human Nature; Alfred Adler. A great book on how we can use psychological principles to create a system of ethics. What is noticeably absent is religion, a topic bound to create discussion!
The Prince, The Art of War, & On War. These would facilitate a great discussion on "realpolitik" actions and whether or not the ends justifies the means. Personally, I think Sun Tzu would have whooped on Clausewitz and Machiavelli. Toss in Steven Pinker's myth of violence TED talk and you can really get a discussion going!
If you want to get a metaphysics specialist to throw his/her coffee in your face, find anything by John Dewey on the subject. They will terribly appreciate how he sought to shrink it to the "pragmatic" worldview. Better yet, defend his position.
Understanding Human Nature; Alfred Adler. A great book on how we can use psychological principles to create a system of ethics. What is noticeably absent is religion, a topic bound to create discussion!
The Prince, The Art of War, & On War. These would facilitate a great discussion on "realpolitik" actions and whether or not the ends justifies the means. Personally, I think Sun Tzu would have whooped on Clausewitz and Machiavelli. Toss in Steven Pinker's myth of violence TED talk and you can really get a discussion going!
If you want to get a metaphysics specialist to throw his/her coffee in your face, find anything by John Dewey on the subject. They will terribly appreciate how he sought to shrink it to the "pragmatic" worldview. Better yet, defend his position.