Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Anσnymσus Posts Allowed => Topic started by: Änσnymσus on June 08, 2012, 11:45:31 AM
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What should a traditional Catholic read, assuming he has never read any philosophical works?
I am not interested in philosophies contrary to Catholic teaching.
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This is an excellent question!
Whatever you do, at all cost, avoid studying modern philosophy, at least until you have a foundation in Thomistic or Aristotlean studies.
John Vennari offers a course by Dr. Raphael Waters that I've heard is very good. I think it's on sale now, but you can order sample CDs to check it out. Waters has a colloquial, English style (he's from Australia) and puts a lot of humor into his work, which helps to get you through the difficulties.
Another very good one is Brother Francis of the St. Benedict Center, whose course in 8 parts is called Philosophia Perennis, since it is from the ancient world through the present, IOW, timeless. It's based on St. Thomas and Aristotle/St. Augustine. The school is the Saint Augustine Institute of Catholic Studies.
You should start at the beginning and work your way through, systematically, because it builds on a foundation, and if you try to skip parts you will not be able to understand the later material. The first courses are Logic, which right away is different from what you'd get in a modern college, because it's not mathematical symbols, but is centered on precise use of the mind in perspectives of intellectual concepts. The modern penchant for reducing Logic to symbols of abstraction has been the beginning of the end of the study of philosophy for college students. What comes from that has been no good, and so it should be abandoned, as a failed experiment, kind of like the Novus Ordo failed experiment.
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Here is a one hour video that puts modern philosophies in context of modern history and the baneful effects they produced:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxZn_gEi0MI&feature=endscreen&NR=1
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If you're not interested in philosophy contrary to Catholic teaching, there goes most every book you can read.
No pre-Christian philosopher was correct 100% of the time. Where they differ is how close they got to the Truth.
It also depends on your motives - is your study for self-improvement? Or to be able to debate, etc?
If it's the former, this is what has worked for me:
Seneca - Moral Essays and Epistles
Marcus Aurelius - "Meditations"
Epictetus - Enchiridion and other writings
Pascal - Pensees
Take a look at the following Chinese philosophers:
Confucius
Mencius
Lao-tzu
Chuang-tzu
Han Fei-tzu
Yang-tzu
Definitely read the 4 books of Confucianism if you want to know that basis of Oriental culture for the past 2,000 years.
PM the user Vladimir if you are interested in the Chinese philosophy and want some book suggestions (quality of translation varies).