 | Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings (Penguin Classics) by Rene Descartes
Buy new: £5.61 / Used from: £1.46 The father of modern philosophy. Philosophy begins in doubt. Descartes shows from a first-person perspective how we doubt belief in an external world. 'I think therefore I am' is all I can be sure of.
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 | Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
Buy used from: £14.99 The classic work of transcendental philosophy. Logical demonstration that we live in the phenomenal world, whilst noumenon (things-in-themselves) remains beyond reason.
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 | Kant: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Roger Scruton
Buy new: £4.76 / Used from: £1.68 Introduces Kant's complex ideas in a concise format. Excellent overview of Kant's central method of transcendental deduction.
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 | The View from Nowhere by Thomas Nagel
Buy new: £14.14 / Used from: £12.86 Modern analysis of subjectivity and objectivity. Neither viewpoint are reducible to the other. Both have a necessary place for us to live and understand the world.
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 | Tao Te Ching by Lao zi
Buy used from: £22.95 Ancient Chinese work describing the Tao: the hidden source of the phenomenal world. Provides guidance for living naturally with Tao. Red Pine's translation also includes useful commentary.
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 | Tao: The Watercourse Way (Arkana) by Alan Watts
Buy used from: £28.49 Very clear commentary on the meaning of Tao and Taoist practice.
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 | The World as Will and Representation - Volume 1: v. 1 by Arthur Schopenhauer
Buy new: £8.69 / Used from: £6.99 Schopenhauer took Kant's method, simplified it and saw the connection with Eastern philosophy. I am not totally convinced by his argumentation, eg his criticisms of Kant, but this book is insightful.
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 | A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Oxford Philosophical Texts) by George Berkeley
Buy new: £14.24 / Used from: £3.98 Berkeley's classic work refuting materialism. Even today it's difficult to argue against Berkeley's position. Dancy's commentary in this version are very useful.
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 | The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge Classics) by Karl Popper
Buy new: £9.72 / Used from: £7.95 I add this because of its logical criticism of induction. If a valid model of the world is to be constructed from a transcendental foundation, some form of induction is needed, however.
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 | Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Routledge Classics) by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Buy new: £7.39 / Used from: £5.20 Wittgenstein followed Kant and Schopenhauer exploring the limits of knowledge. "What can be said at all can be said clearly; and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence."
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 | Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology by Edmund Husserl
Buy new: £22.64 / Used from: £26.47 Husserl's classic introduction to transcendental phenomenology, based on the Cartesian method.
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 | Maitreya's Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being by Jim Scott
Buy new: £12.95 / Used from: £2.99 A curious work of transcendental metaphysics from the northern buddhist perspective. It provides many valuable insights.
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