Progression Paths (What to Read Next) 🧶
Use this when you are unsure what to read after your current thinker.
How to Choose a Path¶
Pick one primary goal for the next 4 weeks:
- Build foundations
- Improve ethical judgment
- Understand political order
- Study critique and ideology
- Improve logical precision
Then follow one path below.
Path A: Foundations First¶
- Plato - Republic
- Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics
- Confucius - Analects
Outcome: You gain common philosophical vocabulary and core framing questions.
Path B: Ethics and Character¶
- Epicurus - short letters/doctrines
- Epictetus - Enchiridion
- Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
- Mill - On Liberty (ethics in social life)
Outcome: You build personal decision tools and clearer value trade-off analysis.
Path C: State and Legitimacy¶
- Hobbes - Leviathan
- Locke - Two Treatises (or selections)
- Rousseau - The Social Contract
- Kant - Groundwork (for autonomy and duty context)
Outcome: You compare security, rights, and civic freedom models.
Path D: Critique and Ideology¶
- Hume - Enquiry
- Marx - Communist Manifesto
- Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Outcome: You challenge assumptions in morality, economy, and culture.
Path E: Logic and Language¶
- Aristotle - logic selections
- Frege - "On Sense and Reference"
- Russell - The Problems of Philosophy
- Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations
Outcome: You sharpen argument structure and concept precision.
Cross-Path Rule¶
At the end of each 4-week block:
- Write one comparison note between two thinkers.
- Write one objection to your favorite argument.
- Decide whether to continue same path or switch.