Is any of those history of philosophy books worth it? I've been wanting to get a general view on philosphy and the most prominent philosophers, but which should I read? Or should I just forget about it?

>>21956112 (OP)

Frederick Coplestone’s history of philosophy is fantastic 



He does a great summary of each philosopher

>>21956112 (OP)

IMO they're not really worth your time. You should just jump into books you want to read.

They're fine as a starting point but it would be poor to think you can become educated on philosophy by reading one.



Coplestone's is good but long, Anthony Kenny's is a more modern and concise vision, Bryan Magee's is baby mode but the most 'simple' starting point if one is a true layman.



I started with Magee's when I begun reading philosophy and do not regret it.

One must know the power and divinity of Monad himself.

>>21956112 (OP)

why not just pick a philosopher you're interested in and take a look at their writings? the idea of getting a grand overview is silly. Just explore the history and look at a bunch of stuff and see what grabs and moves you.



what topics are you interested in?

I did go for it and started with the Greeks, but there is so much to read and I am very busy with life right now; it seems like it will take me decades to get a grip on all these thinkers... So, I'd like to build this base knowledge on them asap and hopefully feel less anxious about how little time I have to dedicate to it and how long it will take me to read through all of their works.

Relax bro

>>21956112 (OP)

You want to read the Jonathan Barnes edition of the Complete Works of Aristotle. 

You really do...

These are the best but somewhat hard to acquire. I've been collecting them as they appear at my local used book store (I have four)

Getting the grand overview is by far the best way to get acclimated and nearly every decent university has a course like this.

>>21956112 (OP)

there's a history of philosophy podcast on spotify. its been going for more than 10 years with 400 episodes that average 20 minutes an episode. he advertises that he skips nothing.

This is gonna sound unromantic and pseud as fuck but I unironically think the best starting point for someone who doesn't know anything about philosophy is just to look through philosophers' articles on Wikipedia.

>>21956112 (OP)

From GBWW



RED (Philosophy and Theology):

Vol. 7: Plato

Vol. 8: Aristotle I

Vol. 9: Aristotle II

Vol. 12: Lucretius / Epictetus / M[arcus] Aurelius

Vol. 17: Plotinus

Vol. 18: Augustine

Vol. 19: Thomas Aquinas I

Vol. 20: Thomas Aquinas II

Vol. 30: Bacon

Vol. 31: Descartes / Spinoza

Vol. 33: Pascal

Vol. 35: Locke / Berkeley / Hume

Vol. 42: Immanuel Kant

Vol. 46: Hegel



http://www.theworldsclassics.org/p/the-great-books-of-western-world-gbww.html



John Calvin and Nietzsche were also added during the 1990 rerelease along with a bunch of relatively minor 20th century thinkers such as William James. They were included under speculative science iirc.
