I came across this series, and it always amazes me how I can pick a book at random and still be glued to it. It might be that I am easily entertained, but my gosh how much fun it is!

Notice how many of the recommendations posted in this thread are listed.

Yea that series is definitely full of gems. I've been wanting to acquire either that series or the Harvard Classics, but I can't find a good set of either for a reasonable price.

Did you buy them or just check them out of the library?

I check them out of the library.

Honestly I don't find amazones price too stiff. It's a set of books that wont loose it's relevance, in my time atleast, and the volumes can be reread with great benefits.

imo, the real value in the series is that it gives such a strong foundation.

I'm about halfway through The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's an entertaining and unpretentious approach to practical philosophy.

In my opinion, philosophic discussion in general (especially outside of academia) would be a lot better if everyone read the following:

Critique of Pure Reason-- Kant
Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding-- Hume
Phenomenology of Spirit-- Hegel
Foundations of Arithmetic-- Frege
Problems of Philosophy-- Russell
Tractatus-- Wittgenstein
Investigations-- Wittgenstein
Blue and Brown Books-- Wittgenstein
On Certainty-- Wittgenstein
Intention-- Anscombe
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind-- Sellars
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature-- Rorty
Davidson's articles
Naming and Necessity-- Kripke
Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language-- Kripke
Mind and World-- McDowell

Yes, philosophy discussions would probably proceed more smoothly if everybody (especially outside of academia) were to become philosophy majors.

which philosopher is "easiest" to read in terms of they write with great clarity and style? need something to read but i have no interest in reading anything dense unless i'm getting paid for it!

You really can't go wrong starting with Plato. His influence on Western Philosophy is immense. You might also want to read a bit about the Pre-Socratic philosphers who influenced Plato. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Socratic_philosophy

Peter Singer.

If you want easy, go with plato but get a modern translation, like 1980's+, that makes it very very easy to read.

I'm reading "the Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann. It cvers a lot of areas. The first section is a reasonable introduction to complex adaptive systems, which why I bought it.
The next section go onto describes quantum theory. Later sections go onto topics such as conservation. These later sections aren't as good, in my opinion, but it's worth a read.

No chance. These are some of the least accessible texts (to the layman) out there. It's almost certain that if everyone read these the points made within would be minced to pieces. People would be better served to simply read something that explains basic fallacies and the dialectic method. Hell, most people don't understand the simple fact that disproving my argument does nothing to prove (or further validate) your argument (i.e. find flaw in argument for god's existence =/= no god).

Everybody knows this. They just only know it when its their argument being disproven.

Global catastrophic risks, edited by Nick Bostrom and Milan Cirkovic

Very interesting read on these important subjects. Includes topics like AI, nanotechnology, climate change, totalitarianism, cognitive biases etc. Nick's homepage at www.nickbostrom.com is very good too.

Taking animals seriously: Mental life and Moral status, David DeGrazia

My favorite one about animals and a fairly easy and quick read. Also introduces coherentialism, an ethics system of taking core values and trying to build other values on them coherently.

Ancient Traces, by Michael Baigent.

This book I suggest everybody - EVERYBODY - read it.

You posted religious propaganda garbage in the SMP book thread? I thought those guys were messing with you about logic in that other thread but now it all makes sense.

*facepalm* Did you even read the synopsis?

What does this book say about humans living during the times of dinosaurs?

Read it and find out.

The book is about challenging the scientific and academic orthodoxy.

lol. You posted a book about humans living during the time of dinosaurs on SMP book thread and say "EVERYBODY should read this."

From the link you posted on where to buy your joke-of-a-book:
This is SMP book thread, not RGT propaganda thread. Read the title.

Stop the immaturity and ignorant accusations, it's not a book about religion.

It's also not about science, maths or philosophy and even if this conspiracy theorist hack does touch on something that falls into any of those camps his writing is certainly no "gem".

Here's a guy who read it asking someone who (probably) didn't what it's about. What is it about, then? You guys must know best.

I have only read his book about the Dead Sea Scrolls and essentially his point seemed to be that the apocryphal books told the true story and that they somehow discredit the canonical stories of the birth of Christianity. To believe that the hidden scrolls tell the truth shows a staggering willingness to believe anything that even smells of conspiracy and to think that the canonical story of the birth of Christianity needs anything beyond its own ludicrous narrative to discredit it shows complete lack of critical faculties.

As for this book; whenever an unqualified gentleman so low on the literary totem pole that he felt Dan Brown was stealing ideas from him writes a book which suggests a view that differs from the scientific communities by so much that anyone could walk away from it thinking that dinosaurs may have lived with humans I think we are justified in viewing it with a little skepticism.

Consider my vote to be a -1 for this book and leave it at that.

Some of these works are rock solid. LOL at Tractatus. Seriously? For non-philosophers I could only recommend Problems of Philosophy (which is about a two hour read) and Hume's Enquiries here. And the reason I'd recommend them is because both authors are exceptionally good communicators. When you read this sort of thing your first reaction should be "This is so incredibly easy I can't believe anybody thought I was so stupid as to tell me this" and then "If that's the case why didn't I think of this before then?".

I've got 3-4 good recommendations for my interests from this thread. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned much to do with Evolutionary psychology yet. I've only read this and I found it really interesting. Can anybody suggest what I should read next in that subject? I thought about getting this but I think maybe that's a step too far at the moment. Anybody recommend something between the two?

I haven't read this yet (as it's not out) but I've been looking forward to this for ages now. For the last 2 years I've had a look to see if it's out yet and it keeps getting pushed back another few months, which is really irritating.