The Love of Knowledge and Wisdom

Philosophy includes five fields of study:
esthetics; ethics; metaphysics; logic and politics

Foreword:  Philosophy, as the reader knows, has been defined as “the love of knowledge and wisdom”; it is generally divided into five fields of study:  esthetics (the ideal form of beauty); ethics (the ideal form of conduct); logic (the ideal form of reasoning); metaphysics (that which is above nature, including religion); politics (the ideal form of government).  The list belows covers only those that I’ve read (or re-read) within the past decade (omitting endless classics including Marcus Aurieus, Epictetus, Plato, Aristotle, my beloved Voltaire and so many others, the 80% that I read before I began to take notes), and, from the recent decade, only those which seemed worthy of mentioning (as especially good or disturbingly bad).  So please do not think that this list represents my view of the philosophic books most worthy of your attention.  It is, rather, a list of examples or samples.  For those not familiar with philosophy, I importune you to try it; begin with that lovely introduction, The Story of Philosophy (by the august historian, Will Durant); it is a written in a breezy, easy-to-follow style; you’ll love it.

Age of Reason – Paine
Analects of Confucius
Art of Living – Epictetus – Lebell
As A Man Thinketh – Allen
Authentic Confucius – Chin
Baghavad Gita
Buddhism Concise History
Can Man Live without God – Zacharias
Causes of Anti-Semitism – Blech
Confucius Wisdom – Wilson
Dialogues of Natural Religion – Hume
Discourses – Epictetus
End of [Violent] Faith – Harris
Enquiry on Human Understanding – Hume
Gnostic Bible
God the Evidence – Glynn
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim – Mamdani
Guide to the Bible – Easley
Islam – Bloom and Blaire
Jesus Other Gods – Zacharias
Greatest Minds – Durant
Happiness Hypothesis – Haidt
Hinduism – Johnson
History of God – Armstrong
Humanism – Lamont
Koran
Language of God – Collins
Lao Tzu – Hendricks
Lotus and Cross – Zacharias
Man without a Country – Vonnegut
Market for Liberty – Tannehill
Mere Christianity – Lewis
Misquoting Jesus – Erman
Paths to God – The Gita – Dass
Stoics’ Loving Guide to Living
Symbols of Buddhism – Levenson
Tao – Cleary
Torah – Sharfstein
Upanishads
Torah Translation – Scharfstein
Treatise on Tolerance – Voltaire
Walden – Thoreau
What Kind of World – Lord
Why Not a Christian – Russell
World’s Living Religions – Baum

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