Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida

Forrest E. Baird was Professor of Philosophy at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA from 1978 until he retired in 2021. He taught a wide range of courses focusing on the history of Western intellectual thought as well as logic and philosophy of religion. Baird has a B.A. from Westmont College, an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. His most recent publication is How Do We Reason: An Introduction to Logic (IVP, 2021). His other works include Human Thought and Action: Readings in Western Intellectual History (UPA, 1992) and Introduction to Philosophy: A Case Study Approach (Harper & Row, 1981, co-authored with Jack Rogers).

Preface
Timeline

PART I: ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Socrates and Plato
Euthyphro
Apology
Crito
Phaedo (72c–83e, 114e–118b)
Republic (Book I, 336b–342e, 347b–e; Book II, 357a–362c, 368a–376e; Book III, 412b–417b; Book IV, 427c–445e; Book V, 449–462e, 473b–e; and Books VI–VII, 502c–521b) 59

Aristotle
Physics (Book II, complete)
Metaphysics (Book I, 1–4, 6, 9; and Book XII, 6–9)
On the Soul (Book II, Chapters 1–3; and Book III, 4–5)
Nicomachean Ethics (Books I–II; Book IV, 3; Books VI–VII; and Book X, 6–8)

PART II: HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY

Epicurus
Letter to Menoeceus
Principal Doctrines

Epictetus
Handbook (Enchiridion)

Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus
Outlines of Pyrrhonism (Book I, 1–13)

Plotinus
Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus (selections)
Enneads (Ennead I, Tractate 6)

PART III: CHRISTIANITY AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

Augustine
Confessions (Book VIII, 5, 8–12; and Book XI, 14–28)
City of God (Book XI, Chapter 26; and Book XII, Chapters 1–9)

Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy (Book V, Chapter 6)

Anselm (and Gaunilo)
Proslogion (Preface; Chapters 1–4)
Gaunilo and Anselm: Debate (selections)

Hildegard of Bingen
Scivias (Book I, Vision 4, 16–26)

Moses Maimonides
The Guide for the Perplexed (Part II, Introduction)

Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologica (selections)

William of Ockham
Summa Logicae (On Universals Part I, Chapters 14–16)

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Oration on the Dignity of Man (in part)

PART IV: MODERN PHILOSOPHY

Francis Bacon
Novum Organum (Preface, Book I, Chapters 3-4, 7-8, 11-12, 14, 19, 22, 24-25, 31, 36, 38-44; Book II, Chapter 10)

René Descartes
Meditations on the First Philosophy
Correspondence with Princess Elizabeth (selections)

Thomas HobbesLeviathan (selections from Chapters 1–3, 6, 9, 12–15, 17–18, 21)

Blaise PascalPensées (selections)

Baruch SpinozaEthics (Sections I and II)

John LockeAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding (abridged)

Gottfried LeibnizDiscourse on MetaphysicsThe Monadology

George BerkeleyThree Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

David HumeAn Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Jean-Jacques RousseauThe Social Contract (Book I)

Immanuel KantProlegomena to Any Future MetaphysicsGroundwork of the Metaphysics of MoralsOn a Supposed Right to Lie From Altruistic Motives

Mary WollstonecraftA Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Chapter 6)

PART V: NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY

G.W.F. HegelPhenomenology of Spirit (B, IV, A: "Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness: Relations of Master and Servant")
Lectures on the History of Philosophy ("The Final Result")

John Stuart MillUtilitarianism

Søren KierkegaardFear and Trembling (Problema I: "Teleological Suspension of the Ethical")
Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Section II, Chapter 2, "Subjective Truth, Inwardness; Truth Is Subjectivity")

Karl MarxTheses on Feuerbach
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 ("Alienated Labor")
Manifesto of the Communist Party (Chapters 1 and 2)
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Preface)
Notes on Bakunin’s Statehood and Anarchy (selections)

William JamesPragmatism (Lecture II: What Pragmatism Means)

Friedrich NietzscheThe Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 1–3)
The Gay Science (selections)
Twilight of the Idols (selections)
The Anti-Christ (First Book, 2–7, 62)

PART VI: TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
Edited by Hans Bynagle

Edmund HusserlPhenomenology (Encyclopaedia Brittanica article)

W.E.B. Du BoisThe Souls of Black Folks (Chapter 1)

Bertrand RussellThe Problems of Philosophy (Chapters 1 & 15)

Martin HeideggerIntroduction to Metaphysics (Chapter 1: "The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics") 1101

Ludwig WittgensteinTractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Preface Sections 1–3.1431,4, 4.06, 4.1, 5, 5.6, 6.4–7) 1131
Philosophical Investigations (Paragraphs 1–47, 65–71, 241, 257–258, 305, 309) 1139

A.J. Ayer
Language, Truth and Logic (Preface and Chapter 1: "Elimination of Metaphysics")

Jean-Paul SartreExistentialism Is a Humanism

Simone De BeauvoirThe Second Sex (Introduction)

Willard Van Orman QuineTwo Dogmas of Empiricism

Jacques DerridaOf Grammatology ("The Written Being/The Being Written")