Duration: 4 to 5 years

Time required: 8 hours a week

General instructions: Do not advance until you finish all the reading materials in the current level. Books inside a

level can be read in any order unless indicated. Take into account that logic and methodology books usually require

more time if you don’t have a mathematical background. Most of the material can be found online.

About: I am a professor of Epistemology in Mexico (@alfredtarski), some of my students with different backgrounds

have asked me for a short reading list on analytic philosophy. Well, it got out of my hands, but I hope it may be useful

for some folks interested in learning a bit more of this fascinating tradition. 

Unfortunately I haven’t read 100% material. Some of the books are recommendations from friends,

especially @logicalanalysis. All suggestions are welcome.

———-

Level 0

Duration: 6 months

Objective: Read fun stuff to get started (not necessarily philosophy). Start getting familiar with some of the basic

problems of philosophy.

- Taleb -The Black Swan

-  Barrow - The infinite book  

- Sider & Conee  Riddles of Existence  

- Blackmore - Conversations on Consciousness

- Pinker - The Language Instinct

- Baggini -  The Philosopher’s Toolkit

- Smullyan - Forever Undecided

- Russell - Problems of Philosophy

- Baggini - The pig that wants to be eaten

- Clark - Natural Born Cyborgs

- Doxiadis - Logicomix

- Bruce & Barbone - Just the arguments

- Williamson - Tetralogue

-Cornman & Lehrer - Philosophical Problems and Arguments

———–

Level 1: Introductory textbooks (and more)

Duration: 6 months

Objetive: Get a general idea of the most important problems in different areas of analytic philosophy with books that

don’t require previous knowledge. Get a basic knowledge of first order philosophy. 

Epistemology: Pritchard - What is this thing called knowledge?

Language:  Lycan - Philosophy of Language, Austin - How to do things with words.

Mind: Churchland - Matter and Consciousness, Searle - The Mystery of consciousness.

Logic:   Varzi -  Outline of Logic (or any primer in first order logic), Priest - Logic a very short introduction (in that

order).

Math: Colyvan - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics.

Science: A. Chalmers - What is this thing called science?, Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Metaphysics: Loux - Metaphysics.

————–

Level 2: Some previous requirements

Duration: 6 months

Objectiv: Fill some gaps necessary to get to more advanced topics by reading  a couple of books.

Dewitt - Worldviews,

Hacking - An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic

Gamut - Logic, Language and Meaning v. 1

Brock & Mares - Realism and Anti Realism.

Articles from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (iep.utm.edu): Frege’s Philosophy of Language, A Priori and a

Posteriori, Chinese Room Argument, The Hard Problem of Consciousness,  “The Brain in a Vat” Argument,

Internalism and Externalism in Epistemology, Internalism and Externalism in the Philosophy of Mind and Language,

Theories of Explanation, The Infinite, Russell’s Paradox, Truth, Scientific Change

————–

Level 3: Intermediate Textbooks

Duration: 1 year

Objective: To get a grip of manyo f the same topics of level 1, but with a more detailed presentation. Learn the

basics of the meta-mathematics of first order logic. Optional: the student may want to check some of the sources

cited in these textbooks when they seem interesting. 

Metaphysics: Lowe - A Survey of Metaphysics.

Epistemology:  Pollock - Contemporary Theories of Knowledge, Casullo - A Priori Justification. 

Mind: Kim - Philosophy of Mind, Clarke - Mindware, Cummins -  Mental Representation.

Language:  McGinn - Philosophy of Language, Birner - introduction to pragmatics.

Mathematics: Shapiro - Thinking about Mathematics, PollardPhilosophical Introduction to Set Theory.

Logic: Sider - Logic for philosophy

Science: Rosenberg - Philosophy of Science, Peter Godfrey Smith -Theory and Reality.

Philosophical Methodology:  Papineau - Philosophical Devices,  Daly - An Introduction to Philosophical Methods. .

——————

Level 4: Lectures (and more)

Duration: 3 months

Objetivo: Enjoy yourself by engaging in new ideas with a couple of lectures. Start learning a little bit more of the

math necessary to do philosophy. 

Millikan - Varieties of Meaning

Fodor - The Elm and the Expert

Kripke - Naming and Necessity

Chalmers - Constructing the World

Putnam - The Threefold Chord

Dennett - Sweet Dreams

Sosa - Knowing Full Well

Jackson - From Metaphysics to Ethics

Segal - A Slim book about narrow content

Priest - Beyond the limits of thought

Lewis - On the Plurality of Worlds.

Philosophical methodology: Steinhart - More Precisely (begin)

—————

Level 5: Articles from the SEP

Duration: 3 months

Objetive: Get bored. At the same time, get an idea of the positions in many important discussions by reading articles

from he Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  (http://plato.stanford.edu). Articles should not be studied in detail (it’s

not necessary to understand 100% of them), but should be read to get a general idea of several debates.

Finish More Precisely. 

-Metaphysics: Identity over time, Free Will, Mereology, Nominalism, Essentialism, Essential vs. Accidental Properties,

Transworld Identity, The Metaphysics of Causation,  Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Properties, Events, Types and Tokens,

Supervenience, Possible Objects, Possible Worlds, Actualism, Impossible Worlds, States of Affaires, Modal

Fictionalism,  David Lewis’s Metaphysics, Location and Mereology, Truth,  The Correspondence Theory of Truth,

Temporal Parts, Personal Identity, The problem of the many.

-Epistemology: Naturalized Epistemology, Social Epistemology, Virtue Epistemology, Formal

Epistemology, Foundationalist Theories of Epistemic Justification, Coherentist Theories of Epistemic Justification,

The Analysis of Knowledge, Reliabilism, The Ethics of Belief, Evidence, Epistemic Contextualism, Epistemic

Paradoxes, Epistemic Basing Relation, Internalistic vs Externalistic Conceptions of Justification, Epistemic Closure

Principle.

-Mind: Externalism about mental content, The Mind/Brain Identity Theory, Consciousness, Functionalism,

Teleological Theories of Mental Content, Intentionality, Mental Causation, Causal Theories of Mental Content,

Representational theories of Consciousness, Consciousnes: Higher Order theories, Qualia, Qualia: The knowledge

argument, Connectionism, The Language of Thought Hypothesis, Anomalous Monism. Zombies, Collective

Intentionality, The Chinese Room Argument, Behaviorism, Dualism.

-Science: Scientific Realism, Abduction, Constructive Empiricism, Models in Science, Scientific Progress, Structural

Realism, Science and Pseudo-Science, Induction, Historicist Theories of Scientific Rationality, The

Incommensurability of Scientific Theories, Scientific Progress, Scientific Explanation, Underdetermination of Scientific

Theory, Scientific Reduction, philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology.

-Language: Philosophy of Linguistics, Reference, Rigid Designators, Theories of Meaning, Meaning Holism,

Pragmatics, Two-dimensional Semantics, Descriptions, Convention, Anaphora, Logical Form, Non-existent objects,

Metaphor, Defaults in Semantics and Pragmatics, Indexicals, Propositions, Tense and Aspect, idiolects, Innateness

and Language.

-Math: Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics, Abstract Objects, Ontological Commitment, Formalism,

Explanation in Mathematics, Constructive Mathematics, Philosophy of Mathematics, Fictionalism in the Philosophy of

Mathematics, Set Theory, Continuum Hypothesis, Indispensability arguments, Frege’s Theorem and Foundations for

Arithmetic, Principia Mathematica, Philosophy of Probability

-Logic: Classical Logic, Logical Consequence, Modal Logic, Free Logic, Relevance Logic, Intuitionistic Logic, Deontic

Logic, Informal Logic, Temporal Logic, Inductive Logic, Many Valued Logic, Paraconsistent Logic, Logic and Artificial

Intelligence, Non-Monotonic Logic, Dialtheism, Logical Pluralism, Epistemic Logic, The Logic of Conditionals,

Quantifiers and Quantification.

-Authors: Gottlob Frege, Paul Grice, Bertrand Russell, David K. Lewis, Willard van Orman Quine, Wilfrid Sellars,

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Vienna Circle,  Rufolf Carnap (in construction), Karl Popper, Charles Sanders Peirce, Richard

Rorty, Donald Davidson, George Edward Moore, John Langshaw Austin, Gilbert Ryle, Thomas Kuhn.

Philosophical methodology: Steinhart - More Precisely (finish).

————-

Level 6: More Advanced Books.

Duration: 1 year

Objective: Go on. It’s too late to reconsider. In this level not all of the books are surveys, some of them defend

particular positions (but also reconstruct several antagonistic positions). 

Metaphysics:  Williamson - Modal Logic as Metaphysics

Epistemology: DeRose - The case for contextualism.

Language: Soames - Philosophy of Language

Mind: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind,  Kallestrup - Semantic externalism.

Science:  Suppes - Representation and Invariance of Scientific Structures  caps 1, 2, 3, 4.

Logic: Hunter - Metalogic.

Math: Shapiro - Philosophy of Mathematics: Structure, Russell -Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy.

Philosophical Methodology: Williamson - The Philosophy of Philosophy.

—————-

Level 7: The sources

Duration: 1 year

Objective: Read the most important articles in each area using anthologies. In the optional material at least the

introductory chapter or introduction wrote by the compiler should be read. 

Mind: Chalmers - Philosophy of Mind,  Papineau - Teleosemantics(optional)

Epistemology:  Sosa & Kim - Epistemology, Goldman - Social Epistemology (optional)

Metaphysics: Sosa & Kim - Metaphysics, Correa & Schnieder -Metaphysical Grounding (optional).

Math: Putnam & Benacerraf - Philosophy of Mathematics

Logic: Jacquet - Philosophy of Logic.

Science: Lange - Philosophy of Science an Anthology

Philosophical Methodology: Knobe & Nichols - Experimental Philosophy (optional), DePaul - Rethinking Intuition,

Bashour -Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism and Its Implications.

————-

Congratulations, you’re an analytic philosophers now (even though you’ve never read Wittgenstein’s Tractatus). You

can now begin to learn other philosophy stuff (perhaps the history of early modern philosophy or post-structuralism?)

—————

Where to continue? An incomplete list of suggestions: 

Metaphysics: Chalmers - Metametaphysics, Barcan Marcus - Modalities, Sider - Writing the Book of the World,

Ladyman - Everything Must Go, Sider - Four Dimensionalism, Mumford - Powers, Sider - Four Dimensionalism,

Stoljar - Physicalism, Schmitt - Socializing Metaphysics, Maudlin - The Metaphysics Within Physics, Bob Hale -

Necessary Beings. 

Mind: Millikan - Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories, Fodor - The Language of Thought, Fodor - The

Modularity of Mind, Block - Consciousness Function and Representation, Dretske - Naturalizing the Mind, Clark -

Supersizing the Mind - The Architecture of the Mind, Searle - Intentionality, Carruthers - The Architecture of the Mind,

Stich - From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science, Dennett - The intentional Stance, Clarke - Associative Engines,

Ludlow & Nagasawa - There’s Something About Mary.

Logic: Manzano - Model Theory, Kozen - Automata Theory, Priest - In Contradiction, Beall & Restall - Logical

Pluralism, Garson - What Logics Mean, Popkorn - First Steps in Modal Logic, Van Benthem -Modal Logic for Open

Minds, Rayo - Absolute generality, Priest - An introduction to non-classical logics.

Epistemology: Haack - Evidence and Enquiry, Williamson - Knowledge and its Limits, Greco - Knowledge as

Achievement, Goldman - Epistemology and Cognition, Kornblith - Knowledge and its place in Nature, Stanley -

Knowledge and Practical Interest, Bonjour - The Structure of Empirical Knowledge,  Stich - The Fragmentation of

Reason, Lackey - The Epistemology of Testimony, Goldman - Social Epistemology, Craig - Knowledge and the State

of Nature, DeRose - Skepticism, Plantinga - Warrant and Proper Function.

Math: Maddy - Second Philosophy, Hartry Field - Science Without Numbers, Potter - Set Theory and its Philosophy,

Balaguer - Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics, Lakatos - Proofs and Refutations, Frege - The Foundations

of Arithmetics, Dummett - Frege: Philosophy of Mathematics,  Cohen - Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis.

Language: García-Carpintero & Maciá - Two Dimensional Semantics, Yablo - Aboutness, Stalnaker - Context, Keefe

- Theories of Vagueness, Dummett - Frege: Philosophy of Language, Along & Leonardi - The Philosophy of David

Kaplan, Lewis -Counterfactuals. Soames - Beyond Rigidity, Lewis - Convention, Brandom - Making it Explicit, Grice

- Studies in the way of words.

Science: Goodman - Fact, Fiction and Forecast, Maudlin -Philosophy of Physics, Sterlny - Sex and Death, Hacking -

Representing and Intervening, Van Fraassen - The Scientific Image, Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery,

Feyerabend -Against Method, Thagard - Computational Philosophy of Science,Cartwright - The Dappled World,

Kitcher - Science Truth and Democracy, Laudan - Progress and its Problems.

Classics from the first half of the 20th century: Anscombe - Intention, Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico Philosophicus,

Wittgenstein -Philosophical Investigations, Sellars - Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, Russell & Whitehead

- Principia Mathematica, Carnap - The Logical Construction of the World, Quine - Word and Object, Quine

- Ontological Relativity, Quine - From a logical point of view.