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  1. It depends on which philosophers we are talking about. If these are the ancient Greeks-Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Diogenes, Epicurus, Plutarch, etc., then most of them can be read by yourself. The most important thing is not to be distracted while reading. In other words, an audiobook is not 100% suitable for this purpose. You should focus on your work, read thoughtfully and slowly, and if you don't understand something, then reread it.

    Some philosophers of the 20th century can be read as ordinary fiction, because authors like Sartre, Camus, Frome do not claim to have a philosophical meaning. It's just a pretentious, sorry, piss-off.

    Philosophers in harder, like Hegel, Wittgenstein, Russell, Heidegger, Hume, etc. it is better to read first in the original language(if you know the language), and secondly, always with the interpreter — a person who has dedicated a significant part of his life to the study of a work, and who can explain the hidden subtexts and strange conclusions.

    Let me explain. First, the original language may contain words that are very difficult to translate into Russian. A classic example is the concept of “Das man” in Heidegger. “Man” in German is an impersonal pronoun of the third kind. There is no such thing in Russian at all. I will explain what is available here and introduce it using the example of a more familiar language – English. There is an analog of this word, it is written and read in the same way as the word “one” – one. Example of a sentence: “One should never be late” — “It's bad to be late”.In ordinary speech, such translations are acceptable, they are close to the truth, but in philosophical works this can lead to misunderstandings. And if the translator is quite an asshole, then most likely you will not want to read such a work.

    Now about the reading order. I think you understand that it doesn't make sense to take up a physics textbook for universities if you don't know enough about the school curriculum in this subject. The same situation awaits you with philosophical works — almost all philosophers make references, and some even build their works on the basis of what was before them. In this regard, the recommended reading sequence is something like this: Plato's “State” and “Symposia”, Aristotle's “Metaphysics” (preferably interpreted in someone else's, because Aristotle himself is very difficult to read), (… skip the Middle Ages, you still won't understand) = > Descartes ' “History of Western Philosophy” = > > Kant's “Critique of Pure Reason” + a dispute between rationalists and empiricists(this is not the name of a specific work, just listen to a lecture on YouTube), and then you can read the philosophers you are interested in and understand most of what is happening.what they write. Again, don't forget about interpreters, sometimes they are very important)

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