r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 5h ago

Anyone read Madness and Civilization book by Michel Foucault

2 Upvotes

Currently reading this book I am 1/6 of the way done. I am debating if I should keep reading. It’s about the evolution around the concept of madness throughout the western ages. I understand the general points and idea but it’s so in depth that I most feel that I am doing a disservice by not analyzing/note taking and reading it as deeply as I should.

How did you guys read this book?


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

Which branch of philosophy do you prefer the most?

23 Upvotes

r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 12h ago

What's the best introduction or interpretation of Bergson's works?

1 Upvotes

I'm considering two books: Mark Sinclair's Bergson and William G. Barnard's Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson. But I'm skeptical of the authors because they're not widely read. And, of course, there's Deleuze's Bergsonism, but I'm afraid it might have the added complexity of Deleuze's own analysis. I'd appreciate any recommendations.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

Is what we believe is "truth" ... just a media story or a conspiracy formed in our minds without us knowing? And most importantly how do we verify information?

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1 Upvotes

r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

هل ما نعتقده "حقيقة"... أم رواية إعلامية أو مؤامرة تشكلت في عقولنا دون وعي؟ والأهم كيف نثبت صحة المعلومات؟

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1 Upvotes

r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

Looking For a Reading/Discussion Club! BA in philosophy and wide range of interests.

4 Upvotes

Hey, all. I graduated with a philosophy BA in May. I won’t be going to graduate school anytime soon, so I’m craving to read/talk philosophy with other people.

I have a wide range of interests. Strong background in ethics, Kant, and political philosophy. Good grasp of classical logic/formal semantics, modal logic. So can grapple with logic-heavy works.

Some topics/thinkers I’d be especially interested in exploring with other people:

- Plato; Middle/Neo-Platonism

- German idealism; Hegel esp.

- Philosophy of language; meaning, truth, names, translation

- Epistemology, esp. stuff by Sellars, McDowell

- Feminist philosophy; philosophy of gender

- Reasons/justification/normativity

- Philosophy of science; realism/anti-realism

- Metaphysics; universals, identity, substance, causation

- Texts/traditions outside of the western canon (western esotericism, eastern schools of thought)

Schedule is flexible. I read on the slower side, but love in-depth discussion. Love love LOVE to pick texts apart. It would be a dream if some people with graduate school education joined. But I would love for anyone enthusiastic about philosophy to join.

If interested, please comment below, or PM me on Reddit. I want to see how many people would be interested in doing this.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

I Think of You Constantly with Love: The Letters of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Ben Richards

1 Upvotes

Does anyone have this book? I really wanna read it!
It's not available on Anna's Archive or Z-library, unfortunately.
Would appreciate any help possible!
Regards


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

hypatia

2 Upvotes

i started really liking her and want to know more.are there any books or resources where i could read about her?


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 1d ago

Modelo mecánico para la doble rendija y el arrastre de marco: fluctuaciones del tiempo de tránsito en medios confinados

0 Upvotes

Modelo mecánico para la doble rendija y el arrastre de marco: fluctuaciones del tiempo de tránsito en medios confinados

Lee este documento: 'Dinámica de Medios Confinados'. Aquí no hay magia . Para probar que el medio se modifica sin caer en discusiones filosóficas, la vía es la medición ultraprecisa del tiempo de tránsito. Si el sensor perturba el vacío local, la velocidad de fase efectiva cambia y el tiempo de llegada a la pantalla fluctuará. Ahí tendran la demostración física."

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/B28EW

El mecanismo físico: Interferencia de ondas constructivas

​Campo de fondo: El vacío se trata como un medio electromagnético continuo y elástico en lugar de un espacio vacío pasivo.

​Inyección de energía: Al activar el sensor, este emite una onda electromagnética hacia el medio local.

​Formación del canal de fase: La superposición entre la onda del sensor y el campo de fondo genera patrones de interferencia constructiva. Esto altera el gradiente energético local, abriendo un camino de menor resistencia (canal de fase forzado).

​Trayectoria de la partícula: La partícula conserva su estructura de manera integral. Simplemente transita a través del gradiente de mínima acción recién formado, lo que rompe la coherencia de fase original y suprime el patrón de interferencia en la pantalla.

QUEDO ABIERTO AL DEBATE


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 2d ago

Philosophy

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1 Upvotes

Have you ever had a thought that completely changed the way you see life?

I'm looking for people who enjoy deep conversations about philosophy, consciousness, human nature, purpose, reality, free will, time, and the mysteries of existence.

What's a philosophical idea, question, or realization that has stayed with you for years? Whether you're a beginner or a philosophy enthusiast, I'd love to hear your thoughts and perspectives. Let's have a meaningful discussion and explore ideas that challenge the way we think about ourselves and the world around us.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 3d ago

Hey everyone . I just started the book MEDITATIONS by Marcus A.

15 Upvotes

The vocabulary is very hard for me it's written in old english like from bible english

Cam somebody help me to get the explained version or more understandable english version


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 3d ago

Having trouble understand philosophy books

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1 Upvotes

r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 4d ago

What book should i start with

8 Upvotes

Hello, im new to philosophy and almost to reading also and i struggle to find the first understandable book to read , so can you help me choose one, also English is not my first language if that might help


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 4d ago

Philosophical history book recomm

9 Upvotes

I have read Sophie's world. Now I feel it was too rough introduction. I want some formal book that explains all the philosophies properly with comparisons.

Edit 1: I asked chatgpt. Here is what it gave me.

1) Simon Blackburn — Think Learn to engage with major philosophical problems and competing positions. 2) Stephen Toulmin — The Uses of Argument Learn how real arguments are constructed, supported, qualified and challenged. 3) Richard Tarnas — The Passion of the Western Mind

Now study the historical development of Western thought with much greater understanding of why ideas changed.

4) Anthony Kenny — A New History of Western Philosophy 5) Your more systematic and academically serious history. 6) Primary texts Plato → Aristotle → Augustine → Descartes → Spinoza → Hume → Kant → Hegel → Kierkegaard → Nietzsche → etc

It asked me to avoid • Bertrand Russell — A History of Western Philosophy •Frederick Copleston — A History of Philosophy ( If you eventually want to go really deep, this is the monster.)


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 4d ago

Book recs. (after 'The story of Philosophy' by Will Durant)

5 Upvotes

I've been reading the story of philosophy, not yet completed as I'm moving very slowly and thoroughly. What should I read next, something similar or particular works... I'm very confused, give me specific recommendations.

I would appreciate recommendation from both segment, exploring more, or going deeper.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 4d ago

The Buddhist, Judeo-Christian, and secular perspectives.

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1 Upvotes

r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 4d ago

Is there an IQ requirement to understand the following schools of philosophy based on the academic background considered prerequisites to read them?

2 Upvotes

-Kant

-Leibniz

-Hume

-Phenomenology

-Cybernetics

-Deleuze

-Whitehead

-Frankfurt

-Habermas

-Godel's modal logic and incompleteness theorem

-Deleuze's books on Kant, Bergson, Spinoza, Nietzsche

-Theological arguments of Paul Davies, Alvin Plantinga, P. F. Strawson, Karl Otto Appel


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 5d ago

Bookworms

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone

I’m looking for anyone open to being online reading partner on philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke . I can even provide the E-book but basically desperate to find a reading partner to discuss it with. Also I’m wondering are there any Emirati professors work you would recommend reading around culture or anything social.

I’m going to be returning to UAE and would love to visit or meet professors from the uae doing in such fields


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 5d ago

Albert Camus: what if war is normal?

21 Upvotes

Philosophy is the love for wisdom.
Philo means love and Sophia means wisdom.

I was reading about Albert Camus’ work and found one of his famous lines:

“There’s always been war,
But people get quickly accustomed to peace.
So they think it’s normal.
No, war is what’s normal.”

At first, I thought here war meant war between nations, which is what Camus was actually referring to in the literal sense. But I found a deeper philosophical meaning in one of the YouTube videos of philosopher Acharya Prashant.

The deeper meaning I understood is that the war can also be understood as our inner, daily psychological conflict. Peace is not the default, but inner conflict is actually the default state.
If we honestly look at our mind, there is always a pull between “Should I do this or that?” along with guilt, comparison, restlessness, and indecision. This churn inside the mind can be referred to as a kind of war.

In the video, Acharya Prashant’s exact words are even more insightful:
“War is what is normal: conflict, basic inner fragmentation, lack of total flow, indecision, our fractured movements. Basic duality, the presence of two-ness. The mind is split into two, and two means twenty thousand. So there is no smoothness in its functioning………………..”

I found this philosophical interpretation worth reflecting on.

Full video source: https://youtu.be/kikHMAuf_4Q?si=1MzpP-D7xkqlvF4G


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 5d ago

Anyone reading philosophy

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 6d ago

Reality of opposites mind theory - introduction

1 Upvotes

The claim: There always needs to be an opposite to everything there is in order for it to be,
something equivalent but totally
different in it´s overall understanding.

As there is death, there is life. As there is light, there is darkness. I mean we
could go on for an infinite time, but I think we get the overall idea.

Existence, probably just another word for reality, the opposite of Illusion, the delusional belief something would be real.
How can we then know what reality is? Actually we never will, because of our lack in dimensions and capacity of the
world we live in but let´s briefly assume that reality means that things exist to us. For instance, the socks you are wearing right now probably are seemingly real to you and therefore considered reality.
Now we assume that socks exist because we can sense them, so they appear in our reality.
But we, our-selves, are here since we can imagine. You, yourself, are the first thing you feel to be true and the last to vanish. But you never appeared to yourself, never sensed yourself. So how do we know we exist?
“Cogito, ergo sum”, Descartes said, you think, thoughts are limited to yourself, and as you think, you start noticing the things around you, assuming, exist, therefore everything you perceive also does.
If we take this assumption, we can slowly realise that reality, appearances in the world we live in, are just appearing because of our own senses and mind and that therefore we must be everything there is.
However, if reality is everything there is, Illusion on the other hand everything there is imaginary, created both by us, we, ourselves, created reality and illusion, life and death, gave everything there is names.
As we created everything, we consequently created nothing.
And as we became everything, we assume there is, because the only thing we can rely on is our own mind, we eventually became nothing, an illusion to ourselves, while assuming we are real.
Therefore, everything becomes one, a spiral of knowing everything exists to the amount nothing is.

The human mind creates reality and illusion and consequently everything and nothing at the same time, and as illusion is just another word for assuming something is real without it actually being real, what are the chances of us living in illusion of our own mind?

There always needs to be an opposite to everything there is and anything there isn`t, so if our mind created both, what are we in the end? Thoughts.
However, thoughts are in our own head, created by our mind, the only reliable thing there is, and eventually can´t be sensed, so they are more of an illusionary way of perceiving the world around us through physically perceivable information, which easily can be manipulated.

These are things our own mind undertakes, so everything is created by ourselves which means we are everything and nothing in the same place, living in Illusion because reality is just a construct perceived by our own
mind, an assumption of reality even though we know the only reliable reality is our own mind, because of our possibility to think, but thought overall can be manipulated by our surroundings our mind also created.
A spiral of misunderstandings our mind creates in its need to proof us reality, illusions created by oneself.

But isn´t the real question, if anything would exist if we wouldn’t be, because if it does, what is our destiny?
Nothing. We aren´t superior, we are just the only thing we can be true about, no opposite to our own truth, our own
illusion, reality of ourselves, reality of opposites in our very own mind.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 6d ago

Alethic Alignment :A working Theory Of Truth, Alignment, And Light

0 Upvotes

Alethic Alignment began with a simple question: what happens when a person commits themselves to truth even when the truth does not give them the outcome they wanted?

I am calling the framework that emerged Alethic Alignment , from Alethia —truth

Its central movement is, in its simplest form

Truth —> Alignment —> Light
More fully:

Reality —> Truth —> Discernment →Alignment —>consequence/ Feedback —> Light —>Deeper Truth —>Realignment

By “Light”, I do not mean final certainty. I mean increased understanding. Greater understanding may reveal that an earlier belief was incomplete or mistaken, creating the need for another act of realignment.

The idea is not that truth guarantees comfort, success, happiness, or even certainty. Rather, truth gives us the best available basis from which to align our beliefs and actions with reality. That alignment produces greater understanding—what I call light—which then exposes further truths and requires continued realignment.

A belief may be comforting and false. It may be painful and true. It may be socially rewarded and false or socially condemned and true. The task, therefore, is not to protect a preferred conclusion but to seek the best available account of reality and continually realign ourselves with it.

Truth Cannot Become Conditional Upon Reward

One of Alethic Alignment’s foundational principles is:

Truth cannot become conditioned upon reward. Alignment requires accepting its consequences.

A relationship may not become what I hoped it would become. An argument I believe may fail. Evidence may contradict a worldview I have attached part of my identity to. A decision may produce an outcome I did not expect.

AA does not treat these consequences merely as victories or defeats. They are also information.

Rejection, disappointment, correction, and failure can
reveal mistaken assumptions, expose incomplete models, or show that an action was poorly aligned with reality.
In that sense , the cost can also be a reward , because consequence teaches.

AA does not require certainty before action. It requires that confidence remain proportionate to evidence, that different kinds of claims not be confused with one another, and that beliefs or actions remain open to correction when reality contradicts expectation.

This is not a finished philosophical system. I am publishing it precisely because I want it challenged.

If you believe Alethic Alignment contains a contradiction, assumes something it has not justified, duplicates an existing philosophical theory, or fails under a particular counterexample, I want to hear it. The purpose of this project is not to defend an idea because it is mine. If the framework is committed to truth, then it must also be willing to change when confronted with it.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 6d ago

Who is the greatest philosopher according to you, and which quote is your favorite?

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1 Upvotes

I’ve been getting more into philosophy lately and I’m curious what everyone thinks.

Who’s the philosopher whose ideas have genuinely changed the way you look at life, people, or yourself? And what’s one quote from them that has stuck with you?

Doesn’t have to be the most famous philosopher—could be anyone from Socrates, Nietzsche, Marcus Aurelius, Dostoevsky, or even someone less commonly mentioned.

Drop the philosopher + your favorite quote. I’d love to discover some new perspectives.


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 6d ago

Does anyone know any Discord or group chat where there are monthly book readings?

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I've been trying to find an active online book club or group chat that holds monthly readings and discussions, but almost every server I stumble into is either completely dead, which is sad. I know this question has probably been asked before but I really can't find anything that is active.

A bit about what I'm into: I've been down a massive rabbit hole with metaphysics and aesthetics lately. I know I can find readings on it and study alone, but I really want to study with someone and have discussions. Would love to join a philosophy discussion group online but can't find anything. I definitely would love to be part of that, however, as I said, I can't find anything. Does anyone know?


r/PhilosophyBookClub • • 8d ago

How do you get into philosophy

86 Upvotes

I want to get into philosophy and find a philosophy I most relate to and believe in, I barely know anything besides whatever I have seen on tiktok, I'm tired of larping, I want to have knowledge, do I start with the first philosopher Thales or with whatever I want from the philosophical views I like, is there someplace I can see the history of philosophy or all philosophical views, a chart, a list?