I doubt this compares to Jimmy Durante or The Velvet Crooner, but occasionally I get asked what I would recommend to those with some philosophical background who wish to read more philosophy. Here are a few suggestions.
John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty."http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/jsmill-lib.html
乔治·奥威尔,1984年。http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
这些都是与我们的政治危机最相关的哲学和文学作品。政府权力的界限是什么?真理受制于政府的命令吗?是否存在不受政府控制的活动范围?暴政的问题有解决的办法吗?一个自由民主国家应该遵循哪些规则?未来真的是一只永远踩在人脸上的靴子吗?我们有选择吗?我保证这会让你比现在更关心时事....
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, tr. W. D. Ross.http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html
Epictetus, Discourses and Enchiridion, tr. W.A. Oldfather.http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html;http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html-- other translators.
Aristotle and Epictetus are fascinating exemplars of philosophy. By defining what's up to us and what's not up to us in radically different ways, these two powerhouses spin conceptions of philosophy and the good life that are in some respects identical, in others diametrically opposed. Can a philosopher also be a politician? Aristotle says yes, with some compromises, Epictetus says no. Does luck affect happiness? Again, Aristotle yes, Epictetus no. What role does philosophy play for happiness? You'll have to read them to find out -- and I guarantee that your personal relationship with philosophy will emerge transformed.....
伯特兰·罗素，《哲学问题》http://www.ditext.com/russell/russell.html
This modern classic, composed while Russell was spending hours every day writing out the derivations for Principia Mathematica, distills into a few chapters some of the major epistemological, ontological, and linguistic problems that have occupied philosophers for centuries. You may not agree with Russell's suggestions, but if you want an eminent introduction to some of the problems (and proposed solutions) that have inspired philosophers recently, look no further. Some trivia: Bertrand Russell was John Stuart Mill's Godson ... and the reading list for San Francisco State University Philosophy Dept.'s graduate exam was lifted directly from this book's bibliography, FYI....
Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy.
Friedrich Waismann, Introduction to Mathematical Thinking: The Formation of Concepts in Modern Mathematics.
好吧，如果你想了解最先进的、哲学友好的元数学介绍，请阅读最新版的Boolos和Jeffrey的《可计算性与逻辑学》。但是，如果你想了解历史上最伟大的数学家、逻辑学家和哲学家之一，在他能力的巅峰时期，对数学对哲学的影响进行深思熟虑而又固执己见的研究，他们说，这是胡说八道。
Russell explains his perspective on the revolution in philosophy, logic and mathematics ushered in by German mathematician/philosopher Gottlob Frege in the last half of the 19th century. And he does this very well, given that he wrote this book while imprisoned during World War I for being a pacifist! Who says philosophers aren't activists? Russell himself was the great synthesizer who not only pointed out problems with Frege (such as the so-called "Russell's paradox") but united Frege's approach with the work of other pioneering mathematicians such as Guiseppe Peano. This was a tremendous creative achievement, indicative not only of premiere philosophical acumen, but also the creativity of a first-rate artist. Like Frege, Russell advocates logicism, the view that all mathematics can be derived from axioms that are not themselves mathematical but rather logical, meaning all of mathematics can be reduced, as it were, to logic. Regardless of your reaction to logicism, which many consider doomed by the work of Kurt Godel, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy is a worthy read, even though it was written before Godel's results. (Come to think of it, what was Russell's reaction to Godel? Somebody recommend a book on that!) When I recently surveyed some friends who do academic work in the sciences, this was a philosophy book everyone seemed to have read.
Less well known is Waismann's book, but I choose it for three reasons. First, Waismann nicely complements Russell and was writing after Godel's results, so that he provides an epilogue to Russell. Second, Waismann was at one time or other a colleague of Wittgenstein, Schlick, Godel, Carnap, and other members of the Vienna Circle, and claims to have been influenced by Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics. This in itself makes for good reading, IMHO. Third, he asks the very interesting (though potentially misleading) question, are mathematical.truths discovered or invented? And he opts for the latter, after considering a variety of topics from 'natural number' to 'ultrareal' and 'hypercomplex number'. This should interest any Wittgensteinian number theorists lurking about, though personally I'm suspicious of any alleged dichotomy between invention and discovery in mathematics....
Both books are published by Dover, so they're cheap! But they are not for the fainthearted: if functions, numbers, relations and sets make you poop your pants, steer clear!
(Okay, so my list is nowhere near as sexy as Borges or Debord, but at least we agree on Orwell....)
Of course there are so many more books to read ... this is just a sample I thought people here might find interesting....
Peas,
-paul

Can anyone offer any solace as to the closings of these outstanding and favorite bookstores? I hadn't heard yet about Acorn books. Distressing to see these gems disappear. I can't help but wonder how one will come across the accidental, possibly life changing great read while perusing those bookshelves? I still miss card catalogues in libraries, perhap I'm anachronistic.

I have been reading (but have not yet finished) Jonathan Haidt's book, The Happiness Hypothesis (Basic Books). It is really, really interesting--well-written, thougthful, and philosophically insightful. Jonathan is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Virginia. Many years ago (too many to admit), he took an introductory ethics course from me at Yale University. He was a wonderful student!

我还要推荐索伦·克尔凯郭尔的一部作品;《非此不彼》是一本非常值得一读的书。《恐惧与颤抖》、《当代》、《爱的作品》也是很好的读物。干杯!

I always love hearing and talking about books, but being a former independent bookseller, I was disapointed that the links to all the books listed go to Amazon.com. Your guest was from Powell's. Couldn't you have linked to their site or at least BookSense.com? It just seems a bit crass to have a guest from one of the truly fine independent bookstores that still survive and then link to one of the big mass marketers. Is this perhaps an ethical question or just one of good manners?

"I have taken one of his sentences as a personal motto: "The true is a moment of the false." Whether that's insight, obfuscation, or high horse blow hardness, I will leave you, gentle reader, to judge."
Isn't that just Hegel? Sounds like Hegel. Of course that doesn't answer our question....

Debord，《奇观社会》:“在一个颠倒的世界里，真实是虚假的瞬间。”
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit (?): "In a world that is upside down, the false is a moment of the true."
If I recall correctly, Hegel was talking about philosophy as the upside-down world, while Debord was talking about the spectacle, which permeates all activity, including philosophy itself.

我最喜欢的哲学书籍之一是大卫•埃德蒙兹(David Edmonds)和约翰•艾迪诺(John Eidinow)所著的维特根斯坦《扑克》(Wittgenstein’s Poker)，它讲述了一个相当有趣的人类故事(因此是一个不错的夏季读物)。它讲述了20世纪两位最伟大的思想家路德维希·维特根斯坦和卡尔·波普尔的生活，从他们在维也纳的起源到他们在剑桥大学的传奇交锋。

我春天读的书，也可以是夏天读的书，是芭芭拉·塔奇曼的《遥远的镜子》，《悲惨的14世纪》。在大瘟疫爆发、天主教会的分裂、骑士精神的衰落期间，整个法国(主要是)都有狂欢之旅……不是严格意义上的哲学，而是大量关于宗教和其他精神事务的历史信息。现在我还没读完威廉·詹姆斯的《宗教体验的多样性》另一个有趣的阅读充满了第一人称的叙述，你猜对了，各种各样的宗教经验!啊,夏天!