Best eastern philosophy books according to redditors

In honour of the new movie, Wiley-Blackwell has made some philosophy and Star Wars pieces available. This one is from the newly released Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy, which is available for only $15 from Amazon here and contains a number of great articles which introduce philosophy via Star Wars. I highly encourage the volume, especially to younger (e.g. high school) students who may be interested in philosophy.

As a heads up: THIS IS A COMPLETELY SPOILER-FREE SUBREDDIT; any spoilers will be met with a permanent ban.

While the plurality of Hinduism is well understood, the massive cultural appropriation of Hinduism by Abrahamic traditions is not.

And many of the Swamijis in their quest for more disciples or who do not understand, say Christianity, pull out the, 'ekam sat, vipraha vadanti' quote trying to equate all religions.

At a certain point, you have to qualify what/who is a Hindu and who is not. If everything is Hindu, the word losses it's meaning.
Is ISIS Hindu? Is paganism Hindu?

I recommend to the discerning reader to become familiar with Rajiv Malhotra's writings on this topic. https://www.amazon.com/Being-Different-Challenge-Western-Universalism-ebook/dp/B005UQ3YT8

Kant's Transcendental Idealism by Henry Allison is an excellent resource for understanding the Critique of Pure Reason.

Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

★★★★★ - Awesome!

It's a very general overview of Chinese philosophy, starting with Confucius and working its way to modern day interpretations.

One thing that really struck me was Confucius' idea of "revivalistic traditionalism".

>Revivalism is a movement to effect positive social change in the present by rediscovering the deep meaning of the texts, practices, and values of the past. Many of the great progressive social movements of history have been revivalistic, including the American civil rights movement. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. called on Americans to actually live up to the principles of freedom, equality, and human dignity central to the Christian tradition and to Western democratic thought rather than merely pay lip service to them...

Honestly, I thought that would be a really valuable thing to have as socialists/anarchists. One of the most common critiques of the Left in general is our dedication to the examination of situations 100+ years ago to look for insights into the modern day. Well, rather than doing that, we can take from Marx whatever is valuable, we can take from the classical liberal philosophers whatever we find valuable there, we can take from the ancient Greek philosophers, etc...

The point is we have a lot of material to help us build our ideal world that doesn't necessarily have to be on the foundation that Marx laid down...or Kropotkin, in my case as an anarchist. That material was developed over literally thousands of years from the ideas of Confucius and the Greek philosophers to today. There are insights in there to inform today and I think we're doing a disservice to ourselves by focusing so much on Marx.

Star Wars and Philosophy

An abandoned blog on Sith rhetoric

As Corax said (u/ecleptomania) a Third Book will likely be out soon. Welcome to r/sithorder u/jade_pill! May your ambition, passion, and strength break your chains

Ramayana by C. Rajagopalachari if you want to start out simple. It was written for the younger generation and the English is quite unique.


Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana if you want a modern retelling of The Ramayana.


The Immortals of Meluha if you want a twisted take on some myths(this is not mythology of old but a reimagination using some concepts and characters. Another unique English warning would probably do good here).

Get the Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari.

Best option for people wanting to read Mahabharata in simple English.

Same for Ramayana.

For Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Kemp Smith and Guyer/Wood are both good options, but I would recommend the Pluhar translation.

If you want to try to read the Critique, you should first read Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. He wrote it to introduce the project of the Critique, and it does an excellent job at this. It's available in the Cambridge collection edition as part of Theoretical Philosophy After 1781 or on its own.

Secondary literature would also be a good idea. The best reference is Allison's Kant's Transcendental Idealism. Allison interprets Kant a very specific way on a number of contentious issues. For excellent references which adopt some alternate views, see Guyer's Kant and Kant and the Claims of Knowledge. All of these would be excellent secondary references and of great help in approaching the Critique. Guyer's Kant is probably the easiest read, so might be a good place to start.

For Descartes, you should get the first two volumes of the Cottingham edition called The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. The Discourse is an excellent place to start. With it you should also read The World and at least some of the Rules for the Direction of the Mind; perhaps the first six or so, or more if you find them interesting. These are all in the first volume. After these, you should read his Meditations, which are in volume two.

sigh

Some more recent releases are:

Deirdre McCloskey - Bourgeois Equality

Jeffrey Tucker - Right Wing Collectivism

William Irwin - The Free Market Existentialist

Tyler Cowen - The Complacent Class

Roderick Long - Rituals of Freedom: Libertarian Themes in Early Confucianism

Peter Boettke - Living Economics

Jacob T. Levy - Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom

Arnold Kling - Specialization and Trade

George H. Smith - Freethought and Freedom

Benjamin Powell -The Economics of Immigration

Michael Munger - Tomorrow 3.0

Lindsey & Teles - The Captured Economy

Brennan & Jaworski - Markets without Limits

Coyne & Hall - Tyranny Comes Home

Douma & Magness - What Is Classical Liberal History?

Hart et al. - Social Class and State Power

I might suggest taking a look at Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy by Bryan Van Norden He's sort of a controversial figure himself because he comes at academia from the perspective of wanting to tear down the biased western institution that prevents proper study of "Eastern" thought. However, he is an expert in his field and keeps that stuff in other books. The one I've linked was one of the most useful introductory texts I found for studying the traditions native to China and those from elsewhere that were integrated into Chinese culture. Many other texts begin by talking about ancient divination practices that are only kind of relevant to the philosophical traditions that sprang up later and are frankly some of the most boring things I've ever read.

Likewise, I've suggested Seven Taoist Masters countless times. It's a narrative and technically only focuses on a specific school of Daoist thought, but it's much more accessible than reading something like the Dao De Jing. It'll teach you about Daoist ideas such as immortality, internal alchemy, and meditation. It's also less likely to make you into an arrogant fortune cookie, as is unfortunately the case with people who start with the DDJ.

Buddhism in China is different than Buddhism in India is different than Buddhism in Tibet. I'd suggest taking a look at the recommended reading on the /r/buddhism subreddit for this and going from there.

Avoid blogs, avoid "spiritualists" like Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle. They are not good introductions to these topics if what you're looking for is accurate descriptions of how they developed and have been practiced for thousands of years. You might like what they're selling, but what they're selling is tangentially influenced by these traditions, but they're far from the same.

Yes. Trust me when I say that you'll need second literature if you are willing to understand one line of, for instance, the Critique of Pure Reason. There are good introductory books on Kant out there that can help you.

If you know almost nothing about his philosophy, I recommend Scruton's or Wood's books that approach his whole philosophy without any details, making it accessible. A good start. At the same time you could give the Prefaces A and B, and the Introduction of the first Critique a try.

For what I call "intermediary literature", there is Gardner's "GuideBook", and having "A Kant Dictionary" by your side would help a lot.

Some might recommend Allison's defense of Kant's Transcendental Idealism, I think it is great, started to read it some weeks ago, but as well as Strawson's The Bounds of Sense or Heidegger's Kant and the Problems of Metaphysics, it is way advanced.

The most important thing is that you (or any other who is reading this and is also interested in Kant) are motivated, that you don't quit when read at the first time and understand barely nothing. With effort and persistence it gets better.

p.s.: I do not intend to advertise for Amazon, you can read the synopses and reviews and buy somewhere else.

https://smile.amazon.com/Introduction-Classical-Chinese-Philosophy-Norden/dp/1603844686?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Doesn't come up to the modern day though.

There is a decent lecture series online.

As for books i think M. Hiriyanna and [Surendranath Dasgupta] (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12956) are alright.

This may not quite be what you are looking for, but Hinduism has two great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. I recommend the translations by C. Rajagopalachari: (link). There may be a few words that you may not understand, and will have to google.

Start with the Ramayana - the story is simpler. Mahabharata is a more complex story, and is the context in which the Bhagavad Gita is delivered.

I'm not sure what you've read thus far, but the three most important books in the Daoist canon are, in generally agreed upon order:

1. The Tao Te Ching (Dao De Ching, Daodejing, &c.). My favorite translation is the done by Addiss and Lombardo, but there are certainly other good translations.
   
   
2. The Chuan Tzu (Zhuangzi) I'm partial to the translation by Hamill and Seaton, though I admit that may be because it was my first exposure to Daoism. It doesn't strive for accuracy, but has taken some liberties in making the text accessible to most readers by doing away with pedantry.
   
   
3. The Lieh Tzu (Liezi) My favorite translation is the one by Eva Wong, though it also was going for readability above accuracy. I'm currently reading a much more accurate translation done by Thomas Cleary which has, thus far, been rather good.

Indian Philosophy (outside Buddhism - which is gaining some popularity), those that went to a more academic direction, seems to be relatively unrecognized. Very few seem to engage with Early Modern Indian Philosophy - philosophers like Sri Harsha and all. Prof. Jonardon Ganeri is a good source to look more into.


Other Indian Philosophers from the 1900s are relatively unknown too (relatively unknown even among relatively unknowns). Examples are, AC Mukherjee, KC Bhattacharya, Dyaya Krishna, Satchitananda. That said I don't know how well regarded they are on Indian Universities, or how well known are they, but at least I can barely find them to be talked about anywhere in the Internet. I don't even find many philosophers specializing on Indian philosophy to be talking much about them. I mostly discovered them through Jay Garfield. And these guys were actually trying to engage internationally - with texts from Western philosophers like Kant, Hegel, and talking about them in terms of Advaita Vedanta.


https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/b26076/ramchandra_gandhi_and_contemporary_indian/eirmn3h/?context=3


That said, I haven't really read all them. I have read a paper on KC Bhattacharya's work; it was interesting. But nothing much else. So I can't pick out one and say if one of them is a hidden gem and which one it is.


I am also interested in Vaddera Chandidas: https://www.amazon.com/Desire-Liberation-Biography-Vaddera-Chandidas-ebook/dp/B07FYBSWHM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=


Who is quite hyped up by Raghurajmaru and also in the free sample. But I am finding the description quite vague - it kind of sound Buddhist but I am not sure what unique arguments do he make. There isn't enough details to make me confident about purchasing it, and I didn't find any reviews and such either (may be if someone here knows more about it, that would be nice). Now, if the praises by Raghurajmaru and others for Chandidas are justified, then he could be another hidden gem, or may be not.

Ultimately, almost all of Eastern philosophy is underrated by Western standard as others said.

Roderick Long argues in his book Rituals of Freedom that the early Confucians would have pursued these kinds of libertarian policies. He considers the Taoists too primitivist for his taste, but I think the anarchism implied in Laozi and Zhuangzi is a fuller expression of libertarianism than the limited government/social tolerance of Kongzi (Confucius) and Menzi (Mencius).

> Considering Lynch's views on and practice of transcendental meditation and especially the importance of transcending, has someone tried to delve deeper into that aspect and apply this to his works, Twin Peaks in particular?


I did:

David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE a metaphor for meditation and enlightenment?

Still watching the first season of Twin Peaks, but I've already seen a few scenes that might have a TM interpretation (whether Lynch intended them to be interpreted that way or not is another question).

However, with INLAND EMPIRE, I think came pretty close to what Lynch had in mind as THIS is something he HAS said in public about it:

"We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe."

(this isn't actually a direct quote from the Upanishads, but from a book about the Upanishads by a friend of his who put the text of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad into short story form: Eternal Stories from the Upanishads)

No problem at all.

The texts I have are Moss Roberts' translation of the Daodejing, Ziporyn's translation of Zhuangzi, and then Ivanhoe and Van Norden's Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy.

The Ivanhoe/Van Norden book has the Daodejing and other works in it so it's probably not worth the money until you've gone through the Daodejing maybe (and want to compare translations), but if you're mostly just interested in the Zhuangzi strain of Daoism the Zhuangzi texts are probably more than enough. Though confusing, they're not quite as abstract as the Daodejing itself (and the commentary in Ziporyn's text helps a lot).


http://www.amazon.com/Dao-Jing-Book-Way-Laozi/dp/0520242211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301237538&sr=1-1 and


http://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Essential-Selections-Traditional-Commentaries/dp/0872209113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301237406&sr=8-1


http://www.amazon.com/Readings-Classical-Chinese-Philosophy-Ivanhoe/dp/0872207803/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301237612&sr=1-1

There's no one accepted position on cosmology in ISKCON yet. There's a book, however, that might unify all our divergent views and reconcile them with cosmology of Bhagavatam (one of our main doctrinal texts).

The universe that we see is only one part of the Vedic cosmos, the Sisumara system, and we see it because Sisumara acts as an interface in each and every interaction we have in this world, delivering us our karma and making things perceptible to us. This interface becomes perceptible, too, and, based on these perceptions, we construct our current "scientific" model of the solar system, stars, planets, Moon travel etc.

In Vedic sense, however, since all these perceptions are physical, we never ever leave our current level of existence, which is "Earth", and never ever reach the Moon level of existence, which is "mind", where there are neither senses nor sense objects. In that understanding we've never traveled to the Moon even if our physical experience shows that we had (or faked it, as some would argue).

Distances to the Sun or the Moon given in Bhagavatam are not physical but show the amount of transformations one needs to perform to change from, say "mind" level to "body" level of existence, like the amount of effort you need to transform your desires into reality, so to speak.

This explanation is based on the theory of Sankhya - one of the six traditional schools in Hinduism. Its practical application used to be yoga but since no one can do it properly anymore and resorts to stretching exercises instead, Sankhya has become largely forgotten. Turns out it can still be useful in describing Vedic cosmos.

It looks like this is the companion book to their Pre-Qin book, which I used to teach an intro class on classical Chinese philosophy. That book is the most complete/convenient book on Warring States thought, so it looks like this would fulfill the same need with Dynastic thought. Although, based on the table of contents, it doesn't look like the 20th century chapter would be that complete or critical of the CCP.

https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&language=dv&field_sarga_value=1

for online reading.

https://www.amazon.in/Ramayana-C-R-C-Rajagopalachari/dp/8172764820/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=valmiki+ramayana&qid=1564479253&s=gateway&sr=8-17#customerReviews

It sounds like you're interested in Chinese (and eastern) philosophy and thought. I'd recommend starting with this:

An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy, Karyn Lai, Cambridge (2008).

And then seeing which schools of thought you are most interested in. Certain schools of thought are more of a hot topic right now than others, particularly in ethics and political philosophy, so which one you end up liking will affect what you have to work with. I don't want to mention ones that are a particularly big deal for fear of biasing you. You can explore these further than Lai's book describes by using this:

Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, P.J. Ivanhoe, Bryan W. Van Norden, Hackett (2006).

I am not very familiar with Chinese Philosophy though, so I would cross check these recommendations with somebody actually involved in the subject. It is a dying field in the west so it would be great if you ended up interested in pursuing it so we can win some great thinkers back and do some cool collaborative research.

141 is my number. I recently found out about Ramayana and would love to read it. Here are some used ones under $5.

Ok, so assuming I'm mainly interested in viewing this from a more Confucian perspective rather than Buddhist atm, and that I want to firmly start with one book and then either leave it at that or maybe move on to the first more advanced modern suggestion, which one should I read? It sounds like either Van Norden or Philip Ivanhoe just based on the order that you suggested it in.

Online, dreamhawk.com for me is a good interpretation. You can also try James Dekorne’s website. For books I have Brian Browne Walker’s edition.
http://www.jamesdekorne.com/GBCh/GBCh.htm
https://www.amazon.com/I-Ching-Book-Changes-ebook/dp/B0050O7T0U

When you cast a reading, remind yourself that yijing is for you, your guidance, your actions. Not somebody else’s.

Hiriyanna's outline of Indian philosophy is quite good.

https://www.amazon.in/Outlines-Indian-Philosophy-M-Hiriyanna/dp/8120810996

I also began with Radhakrishnan's 2 volume set on Indian philosophy:

https://www.amazon.in/Indian-Philosophy-Second-Introduction-J-N-Mohanty/dp/0195698428

Outside of Marx, people within the social anarchist tendency have been incorporating Critical Realism as a theoretical framework.

Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy by Andrew Collier

David Graeber has written about critical realism in this essay.

While I can understand reading Plato's and Aristotle's complete works, there's no point in doing the same for Cicero or Seneca. It's simply a waste of time. If you truly decided to go through with this plan, you'd be dead by the time you reached Plutarch.

If you're at all interested in modern philosophy, you need to get to Kant as quickly as possible. You don't need to have read the entire corpus of ancient and medieval philosophy to understand what's going on today. Also, primary texts alone won't cut it. Don't underestimate the complexity of these ancient texts simply because they're so old.

With that, here's what I would suggest:

1. The magnificent Leo Strauss recorded a bunch of lectures on different texts by Plato and Aristotle. Some of these recordings are incomplete but for Plato you can find the complete recordings of his lectures on The Republic, Gorgias, Protagoras, Laws, Thucydides and Meno. For Aristotle, you'll find his recordings on his Ethics, his Politics and his Rhetoric. Listen to them while you read these texts.
   
   
2. Put Seneca and Cicero aside for a while, they'll only slow you down right now. You can come back to them later.
   
   
3. You'll need some background to understand what Kant is doing. For that purpose, read Descartes mediations, Locke's Essay concerning human understanding and Hume's Enquiry concerning human understanding. The one philosopher missing in this list is Leibniz. It's not easy to point to one particular work of his, since he published mostly essays. Also, his thinking is much "wackier" and harder to get than the other one's here. With that in mind, get his collected essays and a secondary text on Leibniz. The routledge books are usually fine although I've heard very high praise for Bertrand Russel's A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz.
   
   
4. You'll now have the necessary background to get into Kant. I suggest you read at the very least his Critique of pure reason, Prolegemona, Grounding for the metaphysics of morals and critique of practical reason. All of these are tricky but absolutely crucial texts. WIthout them, nothing that comes after Kant will make much sense. For the CPR, get Gardner's Guidebook to the CPR. Also, here are two really great recorded courses on the CPR. The first is by J. Bernsetin and the second by Richard D. Winfield. Once you feel comfortable with Kant, go for the ultimate secondary text, Allison's Kant's Transcendental Idealism. For Kant's works on ethics, consider Allison's Commentary on Kant's Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals. Also, get Allen Wood's magnificent book Kantian Ethics.
   
   ------------
   
   You now have a solid foundation in the three fundamental thinkers of western philosophy. Now, all the doors are open. You could go further and either start reading Hegel and Adorno or alternatively you could just straight to Husserl and Heidegger. All these four thinkers require Kant as a basis but with Heidegger, the background reading in Aristotle will start to pay off. You could also go for Kierkegaard and Nietzsche if you're into existentialism.
   
   
   Alternatively, if you want to specialize in medieval thinking, refocus your studies on Aristotle, read Plotin and Augustine, get Edward Feser's books on Thomas Aquinas, learn Latin and get to work reading the Summa.
   
   One more thing: If you're really serious about reading basically the complete works of Plato, Aristotle and other greek thinkers, you'll need to learn Attic Greek. My favourite textbook is Mastronarde's, although if you want to go straight to reading texts, consider Reading Greek.

The classic contemporary defense of transcendental idealism, and exegesis of Kant's CPR, is Henry Allison's *Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation and Defense".

One of the best summaries of Indian Philosophy...

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Indian-Philosophy-Chatterjee/dp/8129111950

The rapturous states are signs of high concentrative abilities, enjoy. However, this is just a factor of awakening.

Being present is. That is enlightenment. Not trying for anything, but being at total peace, acceptance of all the flow of phenomena, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

If you are interested in some detailed talks on the 7 factors of awakening according to the Buddha, consider listening to Joseph Goldstein's talks on The Satipatthana Sutta, parts 27-35, and # 27 is here. Joseph is ridiculously modest. Do not let that fool you into thinking he does not know. He teaches in that tone.

If you want more stories of high yogis, try Miracle of Love. It's about Neem Karoli Baba, Ram Dass and Krishna Das's teacher.

Also, Be Love Now has a number of stories about modern saints/yogis.

Also, Osho has quite a lot to offer. His book, Tantra might be of interest to you. I went through an extensive kundalini awakening and Osho's talks and books helped me a lot through those times.

I'll say, you are correct in seeing that what you've experienced so far is not "it," not enough. That is wisdom. Carry on.

There's probably a few ways you could go about expanding your knowledge base. The two that seem most fruitful are

1. Reading for a deeper understanding of the topics that you're already familiar with.
   
   
2. Ranging more broadly into other areas that may interest you.
   
   If (1), then I'd probably suggest one of two courses. Either, (a) read the stuff that influenced the existential thinkers that you've listed, or (b) read some literature dealing with issues related to the thinkers you've listed.
   
   For (a) I'd suggest the following:
   
   

• Anything by Kant
  
• (In the case of Kierkegaard) Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit or his Aesthetics
  
• (For Nietzsche) Emerson's essays, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation, or Spinoza's Ethics
  
• Maybe some Freud for the later thinkers? Civilization and its Discontents is really good.
  
  For (b) it's really a mixed bag. I'd suggest going through the SEP articles on the thinkers you've listed and looking into some good secondary literature on them. If you're super interested in Nietzsche, I'd definitely suggest reading Leiter's Nietzsche on Morality. I really couldn't tell you more unless you told me something more specific about your interests.
  
  If (2), then I suppose I'd suggest one of the following:
  
  
• Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy for a good, broad introduction to Chinese Thought
  
• The Analects of Confucius. This translation is excellent
  
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
  
• Heidegger's Being and Time
  
• Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception
  
• Some of Rilke's work
  
• Unamuno's Tragic Sense of Life
  
  Again, it's hard to give you better directions without more information on what you're actually interested in. I've just thrown a bunch of stuff at you, and you couldn't possibly be expected to read, say, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation over break and be expected to really understand it.

I think it could be interesting for you to check out the Critical Realist school of the philosophy of science. It has primarily (but not exclusively) influenced the various social sciences and there emerged as a powerful alternative to empiricist/positivist and interpretive approaches to research.

Andres Colliers book Critical Realism is a good introduction to the central ideas. You could then continue on with Andrew Sayers Method in Social Science.

Also check out this short paper on how a researcher can analyze data with a critical realist methodology. It also provides a summary for some of the basic concepts of CR: http://www.academia.edu/1255275/In_Search_of_Mechanisms._Conducting_a_Critical_Realist_Data_Analysis

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Readings-Classical-Chinese-Philosophy-Ivanhoe/dp/0872207803/ref=sr_1_1


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|




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