Why Read Philosophy? Where to Start? Where to Go?

Buy me a coffee: A non-philosopher’s attempt to persuade you that reading philosophy is beneficial to all other literary endeavors. I also offer a starting point and a reading list. A wise sage for your journey: My survey/landscape recommendations: 1. The Story of Philosophy, Durant 2. A History of Western Philosophy, Russell 3. Plato at the Googleplex, Goldstein My primary source recommendations: 1. Republic, Plato 2. Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle 3. The Prince, Machiavelli 4. Complete Essays, Bacon 5. Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes 6. Leviathan, Hobbes 7. Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza 8. Pensées, Pascal 9. Ethics, Spinoza 10. Second Treatise of Government, Locke 11. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke 12. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley 13. An Enquiry Concerning H