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The Top 4 Philosophy Books for Beginners (With Synopses)

Texts that shaped my critical thinking & changed the way I live.

Jon Hawkins
The Apeiron Blog
7 min readJul 1, 2020

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

For an outsider who has never studied it before, Philosophy can seem like a difficult practice — it often contains compound jargon that makes things appear alienating and hard to follow.

At times, Philosophy doesn’t make much sense.

But, once you’ve studied it, you’ll realise this isn’t the case at all. Philosophy is coherent, logical and, when followed from start to finish, makes complete sense.

It also exposes you to important truths of the Universe & morality that could change your perceptions of the world, and influence the way you live.

Philosophy, like anything, is hard to start. But once you’re past the first hurdle, the practice gets easier and easier.

To make the first step easier, here are the top 4 Philosophy books beginners should start with.

Note: these are the best Philosophy texts for beginners, not the best of all time.

“What Does it All Mean” by Thomas Nagel

Thomas Nagel is one of the most influential Philosophers of the 20th Century.

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Published in The Apeiron Blog

An easy to read philosophical space that aims to elicit discussion and debate on matters of the universe.

Written by Jon Hawkins

Asking questions, seeking answers. I write articles which help you better understand the universe and your place in it.

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