Category: Books

Hi there!

This article is dedicated to my friend Lefteris, who is a great developer and a curious open-minded spirit! So, Lefteris I decided to make an article for you to reference the greatest human mind works of all times and readings that will transform the way you understand the world and live in it! Here we go! May this journey be exciting to you as it is still exciting to me!

Ancient Greeks

If someone wants to dive to the fountains of human mind he has to start from the old classics. In the west, Greeks dominated and still are dominating fields like philosophy, arts and literature! So, you have to read thoroughly the following:

• Philosophy
• Poetry, ancient theatre
• History

The ancient Greeks preferred poetry over novel writing and used prose only in politics and philosophy. So, you already know and have studied Homer and Hesiod at school. Apart from these you have to study a little bit of lyric poetry, especially Pindar the greatest of all. After finishing with epic and lyric poetry, you can dive to their mix which is dramatic poetry and comedy. In the former belong writers like Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides and in the latter Apistophanes.

Then, you have to start reading the infamous Presocratics! Start your journey with Pythagoras (favorite!!). Continue with Xenophanes and Parmenides (favorite!!) and Zeno! Parmenides exact opposite is Heraclitus (favorite!!). After studying these scripts I think you will start seeing world with new perspective!

So, moving on to Anaxagoras and Empedocles (Nietzsche’s eternal return is based on his theories) and finally the Milesian philosophers: Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes.

Of course, you have to pay tribute to Democritus and Leucippus, the atomists!

Finally, buy the anthology of philosophers writings and lives by an ancient writer: Diogenes Laertius. You will enjoy this one because it includes anecdotes from their lives that we do not find elsewhere!

Now, we dive to really deep waters. You should read one of the greatest philosophers of all times, the infamous Plato! Plato is THE FAVORITE philosopher of mine. His pen has given us some of the greatest works human mind is capable of writing! I cannot say enough! READ HIM ALL!

After Plato comes the second best for some philosopher of all times: Aristotle! The same applies here! Read him all!

Theophrastus is a good addition here!

Epicurus is the final of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greece. After reading him, you can dive to some of Sceptics and Stoics. They come in schools more or less, I do not know exactly if you can find separate texts to read. They come at the decay of Greek philosophy and society in general. Epictetus is one of the greatest and lots of his works survived through ages.

Plutarch comes after these philosophers with his biographies.

So, I think we have an almost complete list of Greek philosophers here.

Historians that you should read are these: Thucydides, Herodotus and Xenophon.

In addition, you should also read extensively the best rhetors like Demosthenes and Aeschines. Also, you should read the fables of Aesop

Romans

Romans succeeded Greeks in philosophy and arts but they never surpassed them! Nonetheless, they left us some great writings especially in moral philosophy. Here are the greatest of them:

• Philosophy: Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Seneca, Sextus Empiricus
• Poetry: Virgil, Horace, Ovid
• History: Tacitus, Suetonius, Livy

One of the last of Romans is Boethius.

Neoplatonists

Here the territory is dominated by one of the greatest philosophers ever lived on this puny planet:

Plotinus

DO NOT READ HIM before Plato!

Although I have not read him yet either, here are some of the others you can possibly read to complete your knowledge: Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus,

and more modern: Michael Psellos and Gemistus Pletho! Neoplatonism has influenced Christianity a lot! To be honest philosophy and religion are fighting or embracing each other since dawn of time!

Christian philosophy and Middle ages

In the middle ages, somehow everything is blurry and decadent thus the Dark ages alternate name. Here, we find one of the greatest minds of all times and one of my favorite too, although he was a Roman (354 – 430AC) is Saint Augustine. His works are monumental! JUST READ HIM as much as you can: you will be amazed!

After Augustine,  you can read the following great minds:

John Scotus Eriugena, Anselm, Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Meister Eckhart, Ockham, Nikolaus Cusanus, Martin Luther and finally Calvin.

These are the Christian philosophers that I think will deepen your thoughts about religion and especially our religion!

Modern philosophy

Starting with the Renaissance read the following:

Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio and Dante Alighieri. Marsilio Ficino stands out too here.

Also, study the works of the greatest painters and sculptors like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael (favorite!!) and Donatello. You can even visit Italy and see their works still standing magnificently through the ages beating time eternally!

One of my favorite also is Caravaggio!

Continue with Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas More, Paracelsus, Michel de Montaigne, Giordano Bruno, Jacob Bohme and Francis Bacon.

In the 17th century, we have the following great philosophers:

Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Blaise Pascal (all of these were great mathematicians too). Nicolas Malebranche too.

You should also study Francois de La Rochefoucauld and Jean de La Bruyère. Futhermore, John Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Christian Wolff and one of my favorites: Immanuel Kant.

David Hume, too.

We entered 18th century, but nonetheless do not mind the chronological order. I am not following it strictly, I just write them down from memory!

Ok, here we are in the Enlightment age and after this. There is a booming here especially with German philosophy and French come following. As I said before my task is not to organize the philosophers in groups or schools or anything. Just give you a roadmap. You will find your way eventually. But, please start with a really big philosopher! That is my suggestion! Pick one big to start with!

So, we have the following names:

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Hegel and Schelling,

Novalis,

Lessing, Krause, Jacobi, Schleiermacher, Schlegel,

moreover some who were also poets like: Schiller, Goethe and Holderlin.

After these one of my favorites: Arthur Schopenhauer.

The colossus of the century is this one and you have already started reading him: Friedrich Nietzsche.

At this point, I will visit the other European front: French philosophers!

One of the best of the best in my opinion (top 3 favorite too!!): Marquis de Sade. READ EVERYTHING YOU FIND!!

Then, we have a lot of known writers such: Diderot, d’ Alembert, Codillac, Condorcet, Comte.

Useful readings will be also Babbage (to read about the roots of our profession too!) and Adam Smith. David Ricardo too.

At this point one of my favorite philosophers is the Danish Soeren Kierkegaard and novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Each one of these two is a whole world to explore!! Study them thoroughly and you will be rewarded.

Other great novelists are Leo Tolstoy and Knut Hamsun. Yoy should also study some of the greatest works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Close your journey with some of the works of Lenin in order to get a wide perspective of these philosophical and political works. To complete the socio-political-economical area read some of the works of the anarchists and utopists like Bakunin, Kropotkin and Proudhon and Saint-Simon, Fourier and finally Owen.

Apart from these, Tocqueville and von Stein. Also, Max Weber and in physical philosophy Darwin and von Baer.

Finally, in psychological philosophy you should read Fechner and Freud.

As regards to history you should read Ranke and Burchhardt.

Additions: Mill, de Saussure, Emerson and William James

20th century

Let’s start with these:

Marcuse, Adorno, Habermas, Fromm and Benjamin, some of Frankfurt school!

Russell, Husserl, Bergson, Bataille, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Jaspers and Krishnamurti.

In psychology, Jung and Piaget and if you feel bold enough Lacan.

In economy, Keynes.

Althusser, Barthes, Eco, Derrida, Strauss, Foucault, Deleuze, Hyppolite, Ricoer, Camus and Sartre.

Finally, Noam Chomsky and Paul Boghossian.

Religion and mythology

We cannot complete our tour if we do not dive into the teachings and writings of the world’s religions.

The Bible, the Quran, Upanishads and Vedas, epic of Gilgamesh, Enuma Elis, The book of the dead and whatever you can find about ancient Greek mythology and religion.

Eastern philosophy

Chinese philosophy: Laozi and Confucius, Mozi and Zhuang Zhou.

In addition to buddhism above: Mahabharata and Ramayana. Arthashastra by Kautilya.

Finally, we cannot finish without mentioning the study of Zen buddhism. Here we have the works of D.T. Suzuki. Surely, there is an extensive bibliography too. You can research further by yourself!

Conclusion and advice

So, dear Lefteris this is a rough guide to human knowledge through ages!

I will quote Karl Jaspers here again because HE is the professor, not me (excuse my Greek language, I do not possess the english translation but the text is not so difficult):

Οι φιλόσοφοι διαφέρουν μεταξύ τους σημαντικά τόσο στο ύφος όσο και στο ύψος. Τον βίο μου τον χαρακτηρίζει ένα φιλοσοφικό πεπρωμένο, που συναρτάται με το γεγονός ότι στα νειάτα μου εσπούδασα έ ν α μεγάλο φιλόσοφο και σε π ο ι ό ν φιλόσοφο εμπιστεύθηκα τον εαυτό μου.

Μπορούμε να πούμε πως ένα μεγάλο έργο περιέχει τα πάντα. Ξεκινώντας από ένα μεγάλο διανοητή μπορούμε να καλύψωμε όλον τον χώρο της φιλοσοφίας. Με την ουσιαστική διείσδυση μέσα στο υψηλό έργο μιας ζωής, κερδίζομε το κέντρο από το οποίο, και έναντι του οποίου, φωτίζονται όλα τα άλλα. Η μελέτη αυτού του έργου εφέλκει όλα τα άλλα. Σε σχέση μ’ αυτό, προσανατολιζόμαστε στο σύνολο της ιστορίας της φιλοσοφίας, μαθαίνομε τουλάχιστο να βρίσκωμε μέσα σ’ αυτήν το δρόμο μας, αποκτούμε τη γνώση των πρωτοτύπων κειμένων καθώς και μια ιδέα για τα άλλα φιλοσοφικά έργα. Η εμπεριστατωμένη μελέτη ενός φιλοσόφου μας εμποδίζει από το να υπερεκτιμήσωμε τη γνώση μας για τις θεωρίες που μελετήσαμε με λιγώτερη εμμονή.

Ο νέος θα επιθυμούσε πολύ μια συμβουλή σχετικά με το ποιον φιλόσοφο να διαλέξη. Αλλά την εκλογή πρέπει να την κάμη ο καθένας μόνος του. Δεν μπορούμε παρά να του δώσωμε ωρισμένες ενδείξεις και να τον καταστήσωμε προσεκτικό. Η εκλογή είναι μια ουσιώδης απόφαση. Ίσως ακολουθήση ύστερα από πολλές ψηλαφήσεις. Μπορεί, μέσα στη διαδοχή των ετών, να επεκταθή. Παρά ταύτα υπάρχουν συμβουλές. Μια παλαιά συμβουλή λέγει πως πρέπει κανείς να μελετήση τον Πλάτωνα και τον Καντ, διότι έτσι θα φθάση σε όλα τα ουσιώδη. Συμφωνώ μ’ αυτή τη συμβουλή.

Δεν πρόκειται για εκλογή, όταν αφήνεσαι στον συνεπαρμό γοητευτικών αναγνωσμάτων όπως του Σοπενχάουερ ή του Νίτσε. Εκλογή σημαίνει μελέτη με όλα τα μέσα που έχει κανείς στην διάθεσή του. Σημαίνει επέκταση στο σύνολο της ιστορίας της φιλοσοφίας, ξεκινώντας από το σημείο μιας μεγάλης εκδήλωσής της. Ένα έργο που δεν οδηγεί προς αυτόν τον δρόμο, είναι ατυχής εκλογή, μολονότι εν τέλει κάθε φιλοσοφικό έργο, αν μελετηθή πραγματικά, πρέπει να είναι αποδοτικό.

Η εκλογή ενός μεγάλου φιλοσόφου για τη μελέτη του έργου του δεν σημαίνει και τον περιορισμό σ’ αυτόν. Αντίθετα, όταν μελετούμε ένα μεγάλο φιλόσοφο, πρέπει να κοιτάζωμε όσο γίνεται γρηγορώτερα για έναν άλλον, εντελώς διαφορετικόν από τον πρώτο. Διότι ο περιορισμός σε ένα φιλόσοφο θα έχη ως συνέπεια τη μεροληψία, έστω κι αν πρόκειται για τον πιο αμερόληπτο φιλόσοφο. Δεν ισχύει στον φιλοσοφικό λογισμό η θεοποίηση ενός ανθρώπου, ούτε η αναγωγή του στον ένα και μοναδικό ή αποκλειστικό διδάσκαλο. Αντίθετα, το νόημα του φιλοσοφικού λογισμού έγκειται στην ανοικτότητά του έναντι της αλήθειας στο σύνολό της; όχι της ισοπεδωτικής και αφηρημένης γενικής αλήθειας, αλλά της αλήθειας που πολυμερίζεται μέσα στις υψηλές πραγματοποιήσεις της.

Εισαγωγή στη φιλοσοφία, σ. 310-311

I wish you the best luck to you and your inquiries!