Hey JW

Is your enjoyment specific to logic or is it more wide spread? I appreciate logic but never really ran with it.

Welcome!

With this being one of the first Philosophy Courses I have taken, right now I would say that my enjoyment is with the Logic, but my course mentions some philosophers and the work that they did, so I'm thinking the next time I am in the bookstore, I will look up a philosopher and get my FIRST recreational Philosophy Book! Any suggestions?

welcome to the forum jwass52!

Logic is an espeically interesting aspect of philosophy and I'm sure you are enjoying the class you are taking right now. Propositional logic is really hard to get down at first (at least for me it was), but the more you go along with it, you can see how the proofs can help you out in practical applications in all matters of life. Preciate logic is especially very fascinating becuase it deals with the more abstrqact principles set down in propositional logic.

Book wise, if you like logic alot, you may want to check out Logic: Key Concepts in Philosophy by Lawrence Goldstein, et. al. Its part of a books series by Continuum and they are really insightful. It is a very good read when you get the fundamentals of logic down, becuase you will know what they are talking about and the symbolization they use. And even though the book goes a tad bit more into the areas of predicate logic, you would defintely like how they give practical explainations about the concepts that you utilize in logic. very good book.

If you are looking for a general book, you may want to try Twenty Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy by G. Lee Bowie, et. al. I actually used this for my senior capstone in university and it is a great book. It gives you literally twenty questions in philosophy like "Am I free to choose what I want to do" and "What is the meaning of death" and "Does religion give my life meaning?" From those questions, the author gives you a very brief essay on about 5-10 excerpts from important philosophical texts which underline the core concepts of the questions. The authors then, after the brief essay, give you the excerpts so that you can read them yourself.

But anyway, welcome to the forum and have a blast!

From the very center of the world of oft' unspoken, emotionalized logic, the heart of Japan, I send you my greetings and a big WELCOME !! Hang in there with your studies, and press onward ! I hope to see you 'round. KJ