I know extremely little about philosophy; only the bits that come up is Mises’ work (I haven’t read much of any other Austrian yet as I’m new to the school). However, I do think it is interesting, so can anybody recommend a good book that would introduce me to the basic branches (epistemology, ethics, logic etc.), the various schools (rationalism, empiricism, idealism etc.), a brief history of philosophy, and a summary of the major arguments? Perhaps that’s asking a lot of one book. I wouldn’t mind if you gave me 10 books, to be honest. I enjoy reading. 
Well, don’t be put off by this book if you’re not a Christian but “Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview” by J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig gives a great introduction to philosophy. It goes over many branches of philosophy and the major schools, giving the pro’s and con’s, arguments for and against for each.
If you’re not a Christian though, I warn you that it has a Christian slant. For example, the introduction talks about the importance of philosophy for Christianity, the sections often end with a discussion of why this particular topic is important for Christianity and maybe which view represents the Christian world-view better. Most all of it is neutral which explaining the topics but the authors obviously favor the arguments for the existance of God in the Philosophy of Religion section.
If you’re a Christian, buy it. If not, I would see if you can borrow it through your local library system.
Another option is to go to plato.stanford.edu and browse around.
“The History of Western philosophy” by Bertrand Russel.
Avoid this one.
If I were you, I would start reading philosophers. Some are not that difficult, even for a beginner. You can start with Locke, for instance; even with the political one*.*
You will lose time reading introductions, history-of-philosophy-s, etc.
In terms of time, you are right, this is a monstrous book to read, not just because it’s long but because of the style, etc.
However if you DO want a good book covering the entire history of western philosophy, without regards to time, then that’s what you want.
Roger Scruton’s “Modern Philosophy” is definitely one of the better introductions to philosophy. There’s no history of philosophy in the book, however.
Start by reading philosophers, check. And Russell was… Although I would start with The Problems of Philosophy, also by Russell, I don’t agree that history and introductions are wastes of time. Philosophers make assumptions that all readers will be familiar with the canon as it existed in their time, and that is no longer reasonable with our education system. Having an idea of where philosophers fit can make reading them more understandable.
Sophism.[|-)]
Thanks for all the recommendations. After browsing the Amazon reviews for the various books suggested, I’ve decided on Roger Scruton’s “Modern Philosophy”. As far as detailed histories go, W. T. Jones’ “A History of Western Philosophy” series seems like the defining work, but they’re quite expensive and probably go into details I don’t need to know right now, so I’ll just pick up a more brief history.
I like to read introductions and histories to get perspective and context for various works and thinkers. I did it before I started studying Austrian economics and it helped tremendously, so I’m just going with my tried and tested method.
I would recommend you two authors. I think the best history of philosophy in english is Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy (9 volumes).
On other hand the best one-book history of philosophy is Julian Marias, History of Philosophy. I think this book fulfills all your requirements. Besides it is very easy to find, just go to Amazon.
I am beginning my PhD on Aristotle, and if you are interested the best history of greek philosophy is Guthrie, History of Greek Philosophy (6 volumes).
This place online is neat…Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
I started from scratch with a used philosophy 101. I would say this gave me a sense of direction. I tend to feel that all disciplines are philosophies of some sort.
Theory and History is a read that influenced the way I want to study, and is less difficult than Human Action.
A many booksellers offer classics at a discount rate. A nice combo I picked up was the Poetics/Nicademean Ethics by Aristotle. My hardcover of Plato’s Republic I found new for a buck.
What kind of philosophy are you most interested in?
Some of them jokers would tell you that you must first learn logic.
Well that isn’t a bad idea actually. Logic is really important.
Logic, ethics and epistemology seem interesting. Honestly, aesthetics and metaphysics seem boring and much less relevant to me. They’re the main branches of philosophy I’m interested in, but in terms of the philosophy of certain topics, I’m most interested in the philosophy of science, economics (of which the Mises Institute provides plenty), and law.
Epistemology is extremely important and more simple then most people would think. Ethics is probably the most important field of all. Aesthetics I find irrelevant because I’m an total subjectivist when it comes to aesthetics, so it seems rather pointless as a philosophical field to persue (although one could argue that subjectivist economics crosses paths with aesthetics).
Articles by Hoppe on epistemology, rationalism vs empiricism, and ethics:
http://mises.org/esandtam/esam.pdf
http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae3_1_16.pdf
http://www.hanshoppe.com/publications/econ-ethics-10.pdf
These may make more sense after you’ve developed a good grip on the application of praxeology towards economics. Hoppe approaches these other topics all from a praxeological perspective.
Don’t waste your money. Go to a public library or to a highschool and ask for any book called something like Fundamentals of Philosophy or Introduction to Philosophy. Tell the librarian you want something intended for highschool students.
Make your way up to the specifics reading the introductory books. After the general overview look for books in history of philosophy, epistemology, logic and sichology. That would cover all you need to get you up and running. I always hang around the bookstores that sell used books, and I find much better material than in Amazon. And usually the clerks have no idea they are selling important books at a fifth or tenth of the price. For example, I bought “We the living” by Ayn Rand at a tenth of the price.
If you read spanish I reccommend you “Diccionario de filosofia abreviado” by Ferrater Mora. Reading a dictionary is arid, but you can do it taking one or two articles a day. If you are really brave you should buy the unabridged edition: “Diccionario de filosofia”.