Letters To A Young Philosopher, Number 1: Beginning Your Studies Rightly

is there some right or best starting point for studying philosophy?

Beginnings turn out to be hard for many people. Where to start? How to start? What to start with? How much? How often? What order? People often place themselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure to somehow get matters right before they even get underway.

Starting off this series in earnest with my first real post to you in Letters To A Young Philosopher could fall into that same dynamic. But it won’t! I know that spiral of worry very well, including how counter-productive it inevitably turns out to be. And I know one main way to avoid or escape it, which is simply to take the plunge and start, however wobbly that beginning might feel.

Since this topic is one that perennially proves useful to consider, although there’s many others we could begin with, why not approach it at the start? One good reason would be the fact that among the most common questions I get asked by people who want to study philosophy is: “Where should I begin?”