Common threads · 7 books
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.
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: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke
Focus on Books II and IV: where ideas come from, and how far those ideas can support knowledge.
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: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume
Read Hume's treatment of causation and induction slowly. Separate habits of expectation from demonstrative proof.
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
After the Prolegomena, return to the prefaces, Transcendental Aesthetic, and arguments about causation. Test how Kant answers the problems raised by Hume.
Also includes Meditations on First Philosophy
Substance, ideas, knowledge, and possible worlds. Compare metaphysical systems by the problems they solve and the commitments they ask us to accept.
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.
More paths featuring David Hume
Compare arguments about God with accounts of religious experience and faith. Read the disagreements without treating belief or disbelief as the starting verdict.
