Advice required

[asthmatic camel]

I've made a determined effort to wade through the JREF's philosophy topics, but often find the terminology a barrier to comprehension. Could one of you philosopher types recommend a decent introduction to the subject ? I'd be most grateful.

Regards,

AC.

[Yahweh]

I'm always happy to help (if you need any additional information, PM me).

A good way to get an introduction to Philosophy would be simply following the posts of fellow Philosophers Stimpson J. Cat (also a physicist), Interesting Ian (the immaterialist), Yahweh (the Philosophy teacher/God of Armies), and others (seeing as how there is absolutely no decent Intro to Philosophy on Google...).

An introduction to Philosophy is a bit difficult, but I think the first place to start is logic. This list of logical fallacies (http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html) shows you everything you need to know about things that are not logic. Second is the terminology, but dictionary.com can help you out with that.

First thing to know about Philosophy, it is NOT defined as "asking questions that have no answers".

As far as Philosophy goes, I dont think you need to know a whole lot to get started. The most required is first and foremost to have an interest in Philosophy.

You'll be surprised how helpful Dictionary.com is with defining Philosophical terms.

[Some Friggin Guy]

First thing to know about Philosophy, it is NOT defined as "asking questions that have no answers".

Never going to let me live that one down, are ya?:)

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Some Friggin Guy
Never going to let me live that one down, are ya?:)
Oh my bad, it wasnt intended as an insult. It just kept playing through my head over and over, and believe me when I say I've heard it said more than once in my classrooms. Over and over and over...

[Some Friggin Guy]

I didn't take it as an insult. nor was I offended. I was simply amused by the fact that it obviously does come up quite often with you. I can certainly understand your frustration from it, as well.

I will say that the definition, however, is at least somewhat applicable when dealing with certain "religious" or transendental philosophies, which are, unfortunately labelled with the same word as "your" philosophy (ethics, etc. The word "your" used here only to differentiate.)

I think both you and I can easily agree that the word philosophy is used to describe far too many different things, which makes it confusing for people.