Beginner’s Syllabus: Philosophy

On where to start with reading philosophy from someone who studied it at uni...

One of the reasons I started this Substack — beyond keeping my writing muscles warm and indulging my love of research — was to share some of the knowledge I was lucky enough to access through my time at university. I’ve always wanted to make philosophy feel less intimidating, more conversational. It's a subject that gets a bad rep for being abstract or overly dense (which, to be fair, it often is — I studied it for three years and still hesitate when asked to define it). It sits somewhere between pure faith and hard science, offering frameworks for thinking that aren’t quite provable, but still deeply meaningful.

At one point, philosophy was science — or at least the best version of it we had. Now it’s more like a companion to it: speculative, exploratory, unfinished. But instead of getting bogged down in definitions or diving straight into the deep end with Kant or Hegel (who, frankly, even admitted they’re hard to read), I wanted to share some more accessible entry points. This isn’t about being pretentious or academic — just about opening doors. Philosophy after all is just speculative thought and we can all do it (please do not google philosophical logic!).

Below, you’ll find a mix of beginner-friendly texts, companion reads, and online resources to help you figure out where your interests might lie. And I shall provide a link to those were free texts are available (which is most of them that are over 100 years old!)

Core Accessible Philosophers

Plato

If you’re looking for a place to begin with philosophy, Plato is a surprisingly great entry point. Though he’s one of the oldest thinkers in the Western tradition, his dialogues read more like literature than dense academic theory. His ideas can be a little fantastical (especially compared to his more grounded student, Aristotle), but that’s part of the appeal — they’re bold, strange, and often deeply human.

I read all of these via the Pengiun or Oxford editions but you can also find versions online.

The Republic This is arguably Plato’s most famous work — and my personal favourite. While it’s technically a philosophical text about justice, the ideal society, and the nature of the soul, it reads like a dramatic thought experiment. Expect allegories, utopias, and some very intense discussions about morality, education, and who should rule. It's philosophy, yes, but it’s also compelling storytelling.

You can read online for free here.

The Symposium A lively, wine-soaked dinner party where each guest gives a speech about love. Some speeches are poetic, others philosophical, and Socrates (as always) steals the show. It’s a beautiful, strange, and surprisingly moving meditation on the nature of desire.

You can read online for free here.

Apology, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and Laws These shorter dialogues give a fuller picture of Socrates’ life, death, and legacy.

Apology is Socrates’ defence speech at his trial — defiant, witty, and tragic.

Phaedo recounts his final moments, delving into the soul and the afterlife.

Phaedrus explores love, rhetoric, and the soul in a wandering, poetic style.

Laws, written later in Plato’s life, is a more rigid, serious take on governance — less idealistic than The Republic, but fascinating in its detail.

And if you do not believe in dualism and want something more materialistic you could check our Aristotle (he’s a little more complex than Plato but you will find his influence in pretty every philosophical work)

Mencius — Mencius

Another philosopher I always find myself returning to is Mencius — one of the great thinkers in the Confucian tradition. I read the penguin edition of this work (he’s not widely translated and the translation is not 100% fair on the original but it’s a start)

What makes Mencius stand out is his view of human nature. While Confucius focused on ritual, order, and virtue through social harmony, Mencius introduced the idea that humans are inherently good — that we’re born with the seeds of compassion, righteousness, and wisdom already within us. His philosophy isn’t just a moral code, it’s a kind of optimism. He believed our ethical development was a matter of cultivation, not coercion — that goodness isn’t forced from the outside but grown from the inside.

Martha Nussbaum — Upheavals of Thought

Martha Nussbaum is one of the most influential philosophers of our time, and honestly, one of the most readable too. Her work bridges ethics, literature, political theory, and emotions — all with a clarity that makes complex ideas feel surprisingly human. If you’re someone who wants philosophy to speak to real life — not just abstract puzzles — she’s a brilliant place to start.

Nussbaum writes about love, vulnerability, grief, and the role of emotion in ethics — topics often overlooked in Western philosophy. Her book Upheavals of Thought is an emotional heavyweight, exploring how feelings like compassion and anger are not irrational leftovers from our animal side, but central to how we navigate morality. It’s dense, but full of insight.

Either way, you’ll come away with a sense that philosophy doesn’t just ask “what is true,” but “how should we live — and feel — in the world we share?”

Bertrand Russell — A History of Western Philosophy

Bertrand Russell is a bit of a giant in philosophy — not just for his original contributions, but for how clearly he explains everyone else’s. He had a hand in just about every corner of the field: logic, ethics, metaphysics, politics, education, religion — you name it.

If you’re new to philosophy and want a sweeping overview that won’t leave you drowning in jargon, A History of Western Philosophy is a great place to start. It’s not a textbook — it’s opinionated, witty, and surprisingly readable. Russell doesn’t just summarise what each thinker believed, he tells you what he thinks about it.

Gottlob Frege — On Sense and Reference

Gottlob Frege isn’t necessarily the first name that comes up when you think of philosophy as a beginner — but he’s one of the most quietly influential figures in modern thought. A logician by trade and a philosopher by consequence, Frege laid the groundwork for much of analytic philosophy, especially in the philosophy of language, logic, and mathematics. If you’ve ever heard the idea that meaning isn’t just what a word points to, but how it points — that’s Frege.

His most famous distinction is between sense and reference (Sinn und Bedeutung) — basically, that words don’t just refer to things in the world, but also carry a kind of cognitive content, or sense, which helps us grasp their meaning. (Think: “the morning star” and “the evening star” — both refer to Venus, but don’t feel interchangeable. That’s Frege's whole point.)

Frege’s writing can be dense — it’s formal and logical, and often assumes a background in mathematics or symbolic logic. But his influence is huge. Without him, we wouldn’t have philosophers like Russell, Wittgenstein, or even contemporary debates in linguistics and AI. So if you’re feeling brave maybe try picking him up if you want to get into the philosophy of language.

Companion Pieces

As I said, often philosophy can be indigestible and it’s easier to grasp core ideas from companion pieces. So series I found useful when I was at uni and was always a point of reference for essays were:

The Cambridge Companion

and

Blackwell Companions to Philosophy

Companion works are great to get a glimpse of different essays on topics that may interest you.

Routledge Philosophy GuideBook

These are more simple than the companions but cover just as much grounds. They’re typically written by one writer so they feel more cohesive.

Very Short Introductions

These are perfect for just getting your teeth into different branches and seeing what you might like!

I also had this penguin dictionary which I swore by and took with me everywhere I went during my degree! Here is the online version but if you are serious about philosophy I recommend getting one (you can get them on world of books for cheap) because theres nothing like flipping through a dictionary. They are also formatted really nicely!

Online Resources

For every course I’ve taken and any independent research I do, I always turn to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It was a staple recommended by my lecturers throughout university. I won’t sugarcoat it—they’re pretty long and not exactly easy on the eyes. I used to print the articles as PDFs and annotate them to make the reading process more manageable. But honestly, everything you could possibly need is there. Key terms are hyperlinked, which makes it easy to dive deeper into related topics, and the bibliographies are fantastic for further reading. If you’re not ready to invest in expensive books, this resource alone offers a wealth of solid knowledge about philosophers and their ideas.

For some of the books/philosophers I mentioned above, these are their pages:

Plato

Nussabaum

Frege

Russell Mencius

These tools are some of the most accessible ways to start learning philosophy. Sure, you could jump straight into heavyweight texts like Critique of Pure Reason if you want, but building a foundation by understanding core concepts like dualism and materialism etc will make it much easier to grasp what thinkers like Kant are actually saying.

Everything I write here is free, always. But if you ever feel moved to support this tired writer trying to survive the 9–5, you’ll find a link at the bottom of each newsletter.