Can anybody recommend a good philosophy book too read

[Give me vicodin]

ive improved on the social and natural sciences on the MCAT verbal, by practicing and reading the new yorker...can anybody recommend a good philosophy book to read to improve that area?

thanks

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[SN2ed]

Moral Issues and Global Perspective, Editor Christine Koggel. That's a nice read right there. It will have a variety of authors, as well as, talk about some medically relevant issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and other topics.

 

[Give me vicodin]

thanks, i just bought darwins dangerous idea, the recommendation from lorelei

 

[spyderracing32]

Read one of the classics. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke is very good, organized very logically, and will give you a serious workout in reading a philosophical text.

 

[TamarMD]

Does the MCAT have philosophical texts? I haven't purchased any MCAT verbal prep books as of yet and so I don't really know what to expect. Does anyone know if philosophy/humanities majors score higher than average on the verbal section?

 

[GoldShadow]

Humanities majors outscore everyone else on VR.
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2007/mcatgpabymaj07.htm

 

[spyderracing32]

Yea humanities should beat everyone on VR. I'm a phil major and while I smiled a little when I read about the relation of epistemology to morality in one of the EK101 passages, it doesn't really help with a lot of the "How would this author feel about..." type questions. Also, academic philosophy is a lot more focused on the (very) careful assessment of an argument in order to form a counter-argument, and you can't really concern yourself with minutiae on the VR section. Reading philosophy, at best, will familiarize you with the style of writing (which is very different from anything you would read casually or have to read for a social sciences course).

I would, however, assume that philosophy majors probably outscore most on the writing section.

 

[ecoli]

I'm reading some 18th century philosophers (not original texts, but about their thinking) like Smith, Voltaire, Hume... Makes me wish I had taken more philosphy classes.

I'm also getting into some philosophy of science, like Popper.

 

[nsx]

Kant's critique of pure reason...but start with the interpretation by Gardner, much more accessible.

 

[spyderracing32]

I'm reading some 18th century philosophers (not original texts, but about their thinking) like Smith, Voltaire, Hume... Makes me wish I had taken more philosphy classes.

I'm also getting into some philosophy of science, like Popper.

Hume is really great. It seems you're in the political philosophy vein, in whcih case you should definitely read some Locke. He had a great influence on all of the enlightenment thinkers.