Why, the philosophyforum, of course!!!
Someone linked this website on another thread (can't remember) : People with online papers in philosophy
Some books can probably be found online; search engines will help.
The whole knowledge of philosophy... what do you mean by those words?

Then pick up a book like, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. Or An Introduction to the History of Western Philosophy, by Anthony Flew (which is a good deal more advanced). Both will give you some background. Another good thing to do for you is to study critical thinking. You can find many sites on critical thinking on the Net. I advise you since philosophy is critical thinking as applied to philosophical problems. And trying to philosophize without critical thinking and logic is like trying to row a boat without oars.

If it is possible, take a course.

Read! Read! Read! I'd start out with some modern if I were you. Pick up a book by Peter Singer, perhaps. He's a modern utilitarian. very easy to read and comprehend. it'll get you into the philosophical mode of thinking. whatever book you pick up, don't be afraid to ask questions on the material! In my experience, this is a great place to do so.

I like Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy. His literary style is extraordinarily good, and although some have criticized him for freely expressing his opinions about the various philosophers instead of being "objective", I rather regard that as an advantage, as he has no "pretend" objectivity about them. With Russell, you know basically how he feels about each one.

In other words, there is no false pretense that they are all equally good or worthwhile. Some philosophers have said some pretty silly things, and Russell is willing to say so.


If, instead of an overview of philosophy, one wanted to be introduced to some major issues and start doing philosophy, I highly recommend Philosophy and Contemporary Issues by John R. Burr and Milton Goldinger, any edition, so you can sometimes find an old edition quite cheap (I rather like the collection in the 5th edition). It is a collection of essays on different topics (e.g., free will versus determinism, existence of god, etc.), written by different people who actually believe what they are arguing for, with introductions to each section by Burr and Goldinger. And one gets essays arguing against each other (e.g., you get someone arguing that the problem of evil shows there is no omnipotent, omniscient, all good being, and someone who argues that the problem of evil does not show that there is no such god, etc.). They are accessible and understandable by intelligent people with no background in philosophy. It is intended to get one into issues quickly, and does not teach the history of philosophy.

There are a few books that are especially good for people who want to get a gist of the basic framework of philosophy as well as an introduction to philosophical texts, etc.

One of the best introductory books I have come across when I was an undergraduate was Twenty Questions: An introduction to Philosophy by Bowie, Michaels, and Solomon. I have the 6th edition, and I also got the instructors edition, which has additional reference information. Essentially, Twenty Questions gives you prevalent philosophical issues, like "does religion give my life meaning" or "what does science tell me about the world." From within the context of that question, the authors produce four page essays for each topic citing about a dozen primary articles. So if you wanted to read up on the question "What is the meaning of death," you could read the essay (which are very well written and extremely cogent for beginners), and then read the supplementary material they used to prove their points. So within the previous question, you could read Plato's The Death of Socrates, Chuang-Tzu's A Taoist on Death, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on in that particular question, ranging from classical works to bio-ethical questions raised only in the last few years. But go look at the table of contents on amazon.com, an impressive list of primary questions.

Another book of similar quality is The Philosopher's Handbook: Essential Readings from Plato to Kantby Stanley Rosen. Everything from social and political philosophy (page 5) to the philosophy of science (page 577) is covered, with utterly phenomenal introductions (substantially longer and more intricate than the twenty questions book).

The good news is that with both of these books, you are at least pretty certain to come across 20 Questions in either one of your survey courses to philosophy or even your capstone courses. So not only do you get the information from the start, but you may very well encounter the book in your actual coursework, making your study of the book a double benefit. Also, I find that these broad survey books with the supplemental information provided after the intro essays are very good in showing you how to construct a philosophy paper in general. Philosophy departments seldom teach you academic composition aside from the occasional logical reasoning course or even logic requisite courses (and even in that case, you have to strain the extra stuff out to get what you want in this regard). If anything, look at the book to get ideas on how to optimize papers when you start dealing with multiple textual analyses.

If you have a slightly more familiar sense of basic questions in philosophy, pick up any companion series. I am very fond of Blackwell companions. I collected about half of the series, and I have never been unsatisfied with anything any of the contributors have had to say. Take for example one of my favorite Blackwell books, A Companion To Ancient Philosophy by Gill and Pellegrin