Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. One good option is the edition by Richard Tuck published by Cambridge University Press. The famous chapter about the state of nature is part 1, chapter 13.
Plato, Republic 453–66. Plato’s abolition of the family—or should one rather say his introduction of a new, non-biological concept of the family?—and his reasons for it.
Chapter 6: Of ‘isms’
Lucretius, Of the Nature of Things, translated by R. E. Latham, introduction by John Godwin, Penguin Books. Lucretius, a Roman of the first century bc, put the doctrines of Epicurus into Latin verse with the clear intention of converting his compatriots if he could. Godwin’s introduction begins: ‘This book should carry a warning to the reader: it is intended to change your life.’ The original title is De Rerum Natura.
Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. Numerous editions: a good bet is Roger Woolhouse’s edition, published by Penguin Books, which also contains Berkeley’s Principles of Human Knowledge.
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason. Still the best translation is that by Norman Kemp Smith, published by Macmillan. But beginners beware: this is very hard reading.
Sanchez, Quod Nihil Scitur. This is highly specialized stuff, but since I mentioned it in the text I give the details here: edited and translated by Elaine Limbrick and Douglas Thomson, published by Cambridge University Press.
Descartes, Meditations. Many editions available. But just in case you find yourself getting interested in Descartes try (in its paperback version) The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, translated by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch, published by Cambridge University Press (2 vols). The Meditations are in ii. 3–62.
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Again, this is specialized material. But it would be a pity never to have read at least the first twelve sections of book 1, as far as the point where Sextus explains what the Sceptical philosophy is for. R. G. Bury’s translation is published in the Loeb Classical Library by Harvard University Press.
Chapter 7: Some more high spots: a personal selection
Descartes, Discourse on the Method. Numerous editions: see the recommendation for Descartes’s Meditations just above. The Discourse on the Method is in i. 111–51. Parts of Descartes’s Treatise on Man, from which the illustration on p. 81 was taken, are on pp. 99–108.
Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History. An excellent translation is that by H. B. Nisbet and published by Cambridge University Press under the title Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction. Pp. 25–151 give you all you need.
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species. To be recommended is the edition by J. W. Burrow published by Penguin Books. If you haven’t time for the whole of it, at least read chapters 1–4 and 14 (the closing chapter).
Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals. Translating Nietzsche’s resonant and inventive German is a tricky business; that may be why so many English translations are available. The two I can recommend are those by W. Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, published by Vintage Books, and by Douglas Smith, published by Oxford University Press in their World’s Classics series. (But if you can comfortably read Nietzsche in German don’t even think about reading him in any other language.) The central passage about the activities of the ‘ascetic priest’ is 3.10–22.
Chapter 8: Freedom of the will
The introductory works by Nagel and Blackburn (see the first section of the Further reading) both have chapters on the freedom of the will.
Descartes, Meditations, especially Meditation IV. See under Chapter 6 above for details. The other work of Descartes referred to is The Principles of Philosophy Part I, paras 40, 41.
Fischer et al., Four Views on Free Will (Blackwell, 2007). This book takes the form of a debate, four writers each stating and defending their preferred position. There is a helpful introduction. I suggest starting with chapters 1 and 4.
Thomas Pink, Free Will: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2004). Readers will quickly recognize the themes of this chapter, with material on the nature of will and action. More on the history of the topic, hence also more on theological aspects. (Don’t be discouraged if you find some of this hard reading, especially towards the end.)
Chapter 9: What’s in it for whom?
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty. This and Mill’s essay Utilitarianism (see above under Chapter 5) are in a volume in the Everyman’s Library series published in London by J. M. Dent & Sons and in New York by E. P. Dutton & Co.
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women. Available in a volume called John Stuart Mill: Three Essays, introduction by Richard Wollheim, published by Oxford University Press; or by itself in a very inexpensive version from Dover Publications.
Anon., Bŗhādaranyaka Upanishad. As with the Katha Upanishad (see above under Chapter 4), an accessible edition is Patrick Olivelle’s translation of the main Upanishads in the Oxford University Press World’s Classics series.
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. The translation by H. M. Parshley is one of the most handsome volumes in the Everyman’s Library series, published by David Campbell Publishers Ltd.
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. This is where the quotation in the text comes from. Someone having their first go at Marx should look to some anthology of his writings, perhapsThe Marx–Engels Reader, ed. R. Tucker, published by Norton and Co. But beware: Marx, especially early Marx, often isn’t easy to read—a consequence of habits of thought and style he got from Hegel.
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation. A notable example of a book devoted to the morality of human relationships with animals, published by New York Review Books in 1975. Tom Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights (University of California Press, 1983) is another. Don’t overlook Animal Rights by David DeGrazia in this same Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press.
Further reading
My time is up. But I promised to leave you with the names and addresses,
