Reading List and Study Plan

This appendix gathers the best books and resources for going deeper, arranged by level and topic, and offers a twelve-week study plan that uses this guide together with primary texts. Each chapter of the guide also ends with its own specialized reading list.

How to read philosophy

Philosophy is read differently from fiction or news. A few habits make an enormous difference:

1. Read slowly, and more than once. A first pass for the overall shape; a second pass for the argument.
2. Find the thesis. What is the author trying to establish, and against whom?
3. Reconstruct the argument in standard form (see Reconstructing real arguments). Number the premises. Supply what’s missing.
4. Summarize each section in a sentence or two, in your own words. If you can’t, you haven’t understood it yet.
5. Look for the key distinctions and examples. Philosophers’ examples (the Gettier cases, the brain in a vat, the shipowner) are where arguments are tested.
6. Evaluate only after understanding. Apply the principle of charity. Ask what the strongest objection is, and how the author might reply.
7. Use secondary sources, especially the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, to see how others read the text, but read the primary text first.
8. Write. A short written response (one page: summary, one objection, one reply) teaches more than several hours of rereading.

The philosopher Jim Pryor’s online “Guidelines on Reading Philosophy” and “Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper” are excellent, brief, and free.

Level 1: Start here

Accessible books that require no background. If you read only five books, choose from this list.

Epistemology

• Jennifer Nagel, Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014). The best short overview of the field.
• Duncan Pritchard, What Is This Thing Called Knowledge? (Routledge, 4th ed. 2018). Clear, short chapters, ideal for self-study.
• Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912). Over a century old and still one of the finest introductions. Free online.
• Simon Blackburn, Truth: A Guide (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Logic and argument

• Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments (Hackett, 5th ed. 2017). Short and practical.
• Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Think Again: How to Reason and Argue (Oxford University Press, 2018).
• Graham Priest, Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 2017).

Science and evidence

• Samir Okasha, Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 2016).
• Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (Random House, 1995).
• Gerd Gigerenzer, Calculated Risks / Reckoning with Risk (2002).
• David Spiegelhalter, The Art of Statistics (Pelican, 2019).

Mind and reasoning

• Julia Galef, The Scout Mindset (Portfolio, 2021).
• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011). Read with the caveats in Chapter 14.
• Steven Pinker, Rationality (Viking, 2021).

Knowledge in society

• Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age (Yale University Press, 2019).
• Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, Calling Bullshit (Random House, 2020).
• Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit (Princeton University Press, 2005). About 70 small pages.

Reading map: Nagel’s Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction

Jennifer Nagel’s Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014) is the best short book on the subject, and a natural companion to this guide. Read a section of Nagel, then the matching guide sections for more detail, further arguments, and exercises. The guide draws on Nagel’s arguments and examples in the places listed here, always with a citation.

Topics this guide covers that Nagel’s short book does not (or only briefly): logic and argument (Ch. 3), language and definitions (Ch. 4), justification’s structure (Ch. 6), perception, memory, and introspection (Ch. 7), probability and statistics (Ch. 9), philosophy of science (Ch. 10), theories of truth (Ch. 11), social epistemology (Ch. 12), intellectual virtue (Ch. 13), cognitive biases (Ch. 14), fallacies (Ch. 15), and practical method (Ch. 16).

Level 2: Textbooks and classics

Epistemology textbooks

• Robert Audi, Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge (Routledge, 3rd ed. 2011).
• Richard Feldman, Epistemology (Prentice Hall, 2003).
• Noah Lemos, An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2020).
• Richard Fumerton, Epistemology (Blackwell, 2006).

Logic textbooks

• Irving Copi, Carl Cohen, and Victor Rodych, Introduction to Logic (Routledge, 15th ed. 2019).
• Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Robert Fogelin, Understanding Arguments (Cengage, 9th ed. 2014).
• Ian Hacking, An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
• P. D. Magnus and others, forall x (free open textbook).

Philosophy of science

• A. F. Chalmers, What Is This Thing Called Science? (4th ed. 2013).
• Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality (University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed. 2021).
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).
• Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (1963).
• Carl Hempel, Philosophy of Natural Science (1966).
• Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie, The Book of Why (2018).

Psychology of reasoning and judgment

• Thomas Gilovich, How We Know What Isn’t So (1991).
• Keith Stanovich, The Bias That Divides Us (MIT Press, 2021).
• Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber, The Enigma of Reason (Harvard University Press, 2017).
• Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Superforecasting (Crown, 2015).
• Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach, The Knowledge Illusion (Riverhead, 2017).

Social epistemology and ethics of belief

• Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice (Oxford University Press, 2007).
• Paul Boghossian, Fear of Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2006).
• Onora O’Neill, A Question of Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
• Quassim Cassam, Vices of the Mind (Oxford University Press, 2019).
• Jonathan Rauch, The Constitution of Knowledge (Brookings, 2021).

Level 3: Advanced and specialist

• Timothy Williamson, Knowledge and Its Limits (Oxford University Press, 2000).
• Ernest Sosa, A Virtue Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2007).
• Laurence BonJour and Ernest Sosa, Epistemic Justification (Blackwell, 2003).
• Alvin Goldman, Epistemology and Cognition (Harvard University Press, 1986) and Knowledge in a Social World (Oxford University Press, 1999).
• Alvin Plantinga, Warrant: The Current Debate and Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford University Press, 1993).
• Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations (Harvard University Press, 1981), ch. 3.
• Barry Stroud, The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism (Oxford University Press, 1984).
• Keith DeRose, The Case for Contextualism (Oxford University Press, 2009).
• Duncan Pritchard, Epistemic Luck (2005) and Epistemic Angst (2015).
• Jason Stanley, Knowledge and Practical Interests (Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Jennifer Lackey, Learning from Words (Oxford University Press, 2008).
• Michael Titelbaum, Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2022).
• Peter Lipton, Inference to the Best Explanation (Routledge, 2nd ed. 2004).
• Bas van Fraassen, The Scientific Image (Oxford University Press, 1980).
• Judea Pearl, Causality (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2009).
• Susan Haack, Evidence and Inquiry (1993; expanded ed. 2009).
• Linda Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
• Edward Craig, Knowledge and the State of Nature (Oxford University Press, 1990).
• Crispin Wright, Truth and Objectivity (Harvard University Press, 1992).

Anthologies and reference works

• Ernest Sosa, Jaegwon Kim, Jeremy Fantl, and Matthew McGrath (eds.), Epistemology: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2008). The standard collection of classic papers.
• Sven Bernecker and Fred Dretske (eds.), Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2000).
• Matthias Steup, John Turri, and Ernest Sosa (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2014).
• Alvin Goldman and Dennis Whitcomb (eds.), Social Epistemology: Essential Readings (Oxford University Press, 2011).
• Sven Bernecker and Duncan Pritchard (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (Routledge, 2011).
• Paul Moser (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2002).
• Keith DeRose and Ted Warfield (eds.), Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader (Oxford University Press, 1999).

Primary texts by period

Read these in the original (in good translations), with this guide’s history chapter as a map.

Ancient

• Plato, Meno, Theaetetus, Republic Books V–VII, Apology.
• Aristotle, Posterior Analytics I.1–3 and II.19; Nicomachean Ethics Book VI; On Sophistical Refutations.
• Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, Book I (trans. Annas and Barnes).
• Cicero, Academica.

Medieval and Renaissance

• Augustine, Against the Academics.
• Al-Ghazālī, Deliverance from Error.
• Montaigne, “Apology for Raymond Sebond” (Essays, II.12).
• Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Book I (the idols).

Early modern

• René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), with selected Objections and Replies.
• John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Book I, Book II chs. 1–8, Book IV.
• George Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713).
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748).
• Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764).
• Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783); “What Is Enlightenment?” (1784).

Nineteenth century

• John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859), ch. 2; A System of Logic (1843), Book III.
• W. K. Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief” (1877).
• Charles Sanders Peirce, “The Fixation of Belief” (1877); “How to Make Our Ideas Clear” (1878).
• William James, “The Will to Believe” (1896); Pragmatism (1907).

Twentieth century

• Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912).
• G. E. Moore, “A Defence of Common Sense” (1925); “Proof of an External World” (1939).
• A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936).
• Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (1963), ch. 1.
• W. V. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” (1951); “Epistemology Naturalized” (1969).
• Wilfrid Sellars, “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind” (1956).
• Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty (1969).
• Edmund Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” (1963).
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).
• Alvin Goldman, “What Is Justified Belief?” (1979).

Non-Western traditions

Indian

• Jonardon Ganeri, Philosophy in Classical India (Routledge, 2001).
• Bimal Krishna Matilal, Perception: An Essay on Classical Indian Theories of Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 1986).
• Stephen Phillips, Epistemology in Classical India: The Knowledge Sources of the Nyāya School (Routledge, 2012).
• Nāgārjuna, The Dispeller of Disputes (Vigrahavyāvartanī), trans. Jan Westerhoff (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Islamic and Iranian

• Al-Ghazālī, Deliverance from Error (al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl).
• Suhrawardī, The Philosophy of Illumination, trans. John Walbridge and Hossein Ziai (1999).
• Mehdi Ha’iri Yazdi, The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence (SUNY Press, 1992).
• Peter Adamson, Philosophy in the Islamic World (Oxford University Press, 2016), and the related podcast series.
• For Persian readers: ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Uṣūl-e falsafeh va ravesh-e re’ālism (The Principles of Philosophy and the Method of Realism), with commentary by Morteza Motahhari, and Motahhari’s Mas’aleh-ye shenākht (The Problem of Knowledge) present epistemology from within the Islamic philosophical tradition. Many of the Western classics listed above (Russell, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Popper, Kuhn, Kahneman) are available in Persian translation.

Chinese

• Bryan Van Norden, Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Hackett, 2011).
• Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings, trans. Brook Ziporyn (Hackett, 2009).
• Xunzi: The Complete Text, trans. Eric Hutton (Princeton University Press, 2014), especially ch. 21, “Undoing Fixation.”

Comparative

• Peter Adamson’s A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps (book series and podcast) covers classical Indian, Islamic, Byzantine, African, and European philosophy.

Free online resources

Encyclopedias

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu). Authoritative, regularly updated, free. Start with the entries “Epistemology,” “The Analysis of Knowledge,” “Skepticism,” “Foundationalist Theories of Epistemic Justification,” “Social Epistemology,” and “Bayesian Epistemology.”
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (iep.utm.edu). Often more introductory.
• PhilPapers (philpapers.org). An index of the research literature, with bibliographies by topic.

Courses and videos

• Wireless Philosophy (Wi-Phi): short animated videos by professional philosophers, including a series on critical thinking.
• Crash Course Philosophy: accessible video introductions.
• Coursera, “Think Again: How to Reason and Argue” (Duke University; Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Ram Neta).
• Coursera, “Introduction to Philosophy” (University of Edinburgh), including a unit on epistemology by Duncan Pritchard.
• “Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World” (University of Washington; Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West): lectures and case studies available online.
• The Digital Inquiry Group’s Civic Online Reasoning curriculum (from the team formerly at the Stanford History Education Group): free lessons on lateral reading and source evaluation.

Podcasts

• Philosophy Bites (David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton): short interviews with leading philosophers.
• A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps (Peter Adamson).
• Very Bad Wizards and Hi-Phi Nation for lively discussions of philosophy and psychology.

Practice

• Good Judgment Open (gjopen.com): a public forecasting platform where you can make probabilistic predictions and receive Brier scores.
• Clearer Thinking (clearerthinking.org): free interactive tools, including calibration training.
• Kialo: a platform for mapping pro and con arguments on debated questions.
• Argdown: a simple text syntax for argument maps.

A twelve-week study plan

About 4–6 hours a week. Each week: read the guide chapter(s), one primary text or article, do the “Check your understanding” questions before opening the answers, and complete the practice task.

After twelve weeks, review your belief journal from week 1. Which beliefs have you revised? Which are you now more (or less) confident in, and why?

Keeping it up

Mastery comes from use, not from reading. Some ways to keep practicing:

• Keep the prediction journal going, and check your calibration every few months.
• Join or start a reading group. Argument with others is the natural environment of reasoning (see The argumentative theory of reasoning).
• Teach someone. Explaining the Gettier problem or Bayes’ theorem to a friend will show you what you don’t yet understand.
• Return to the interactive explorer that accompanies this guide (the index.html file at the root of this repository) for a map-based view of the concepts and self-check questions.
• Revisit the checklists in Chapter 16 until they become habits.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

— Albert Einstein, quoted in Life magazine (1955)