Do I need to study the history of philosophy first?

No. Most people come to philosophy through a question, not a period, and it is better to start there. History matters because the questions have been worked on before, so that a reader who knows what Hume said about induction does not have to rediscover it, but the history is best learned a question at a time.

Which philosophy book should a beginner read first?

A short one that argues. Plato’s Apology (Socrates’ defence at his trial) and Meno are both under an hour’s reading and are the classic starting points; Descartes’ Meditations and Mill’s On Liberty follow well. All are free in the library or linked from it.

Is philosophy only Western philosophy?

No. Systematic philosophy developed independently in India, in China and in Greece, and later in the Islamic world, and each tradition has its own classics. This section treats them together, branch by branch, and has a page for each tradition and its schools.

Philosophy for beginners: where to start

What philosophy is

Philosophy asks the most general questions there are and tries to answer them by argument. What exists? What can we know? How should we live, and what do we owe one another? What makes an argument good? What is a mind, and how does it fit into the world? Other disciplines take answers to some of these for granted; philosophy is where they are examined.

The method is the same everywhere: say exactly what you mean, give your reasons, and see what follows, including what follows that you would rather not accept. It is less a body of doctrine than a practice, which is why the best way to begin is to do some of it.

How the questions divide

The questions fall into a few great families, the branches of philosophy. Metaphysics asks what there is. Epistemology asks what we can know. Logic asks what follows from what. Ethics asks how to live and act, and political philosophy how we should live together. Aesthetics asks about beauty and art. Around them sit the philosophies of particular things: mind, language, science, religion, law, education and technology.

The same questions were asked, and answered differently, in India, China and Greece, and later in the Islamic world and elsewhere. A beginner loses nothing by reading across traditions from the start; the contrasts are often the quickest way to see what a question really is.

How to read it

Read slowly, and more than once. A philosophical text is an argument, and the first job is to find it: what is being claimed, and why. Write the main claim in a sentence, list the reasons, and then ask whether the reasons are true and whether the claim follows from them. If a passage seems obviously wrong, assume first that you have misread it; if it still seems wrong, say exactly where it goes wrong. That last step is philosophy.

A first path

These are short, and each is in the library with the key passages and a note on why it matters:

Plato, Apology: Socrates tests the oracle’s claim that no one is wiser than he, and explains why “the unexamined life is not worth living”.
Plato, Meno: why knowledge is worth more than a lucky true opinion.
Plato, the allegory of the cave: the most famous image in philosophy, about appearance, reality and education.
Descartes, the piece of wax: what the mind knows when everything the senses report has changed.
Mill, On Liberty, chapter II: why we should allow even the opinions we are sure are false to be expressed.
Zhuangzi, the happy fish: a short dialogue on how anyone can know another’s experience.
The blind men and the elephant: a parable, found in Buddhist, Jain and Hindu sources, about partial views.

Where to go next

Choose the question that held you longest and follow it to its branch; every branch page has a reading path of its own. If you prefer to follow people rather than problems, the philosophers are listed from A to Z and on a timeline. And if a word stops you, the glossary defines it in a sentence.

Where to start in philosophy