Common threads · 6 books
Substance, ideas, knowledge, and possible worlds. Compare metaphysical systems by the problems they solve and the commitments they ask us to accept.
Books, curator notes, and what to read next.
René Descartes
Follow the six meditations in order. Mark where doubt gives way to claims about the self, God, and the external world.
Next: Ethics
Benedictus de Spinoza
Begin with the definitions and propositions on substance, then connect the account of nature to emotion and freedom.
Next: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
George Berkeley
Berkeley challenges matter as an explanation of experience. Reconstruct his argument before treating idealism as a slogan.
Next: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Immanuel Kant
Use this shorter work to orient the question of possible knowledge, then return to the longer Critique with its map in mind.
Next: Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant
Begin with the prefaces and introduction, then the Transcendental Aesthetic. Ask what makes experience possible.
Next: On the Plurality of Worlds
David K. Lewis
Lewis defends possible worlds as real. Compare the explanatory payoff with the cost of accepting such a large ontology.
Also includes Meditations on First Philosophy
Trace disputes about knowledge and reality across rationalist, empiricist, and critical philosophy. Read each system as a response to a problem rather than a label.
Also includes Meditations on First Philosophy
Illusion, appearances, bodies, and the external world. Compare six ways of asking what perception actually gives us.
Also includes Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
A demanding author study: what can we know, what should we do, and what may we hope? Begin with the shorter guides before taking on the three Critiques.
