General Philosophy
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If you're completely new
to philosophy, you might
want to get your feet wet
with one or both of the
following books:

Sophie's World

The Questions of Life
Reading Lists:

Check out the Univeristy
of London external
programme's Student
Handbook for a useful
course syllabi for about
25 different philosophy
courses.
Favorite Philosophy
Links:

American Philosophical
Association

EPhilosopher

Ethics Portal at The
Philosopher's Magazine

Ethics Updates Page at
the University of San
Diego

EpistemeLinks.com

Film-Philosophy

Filosfía y Derecho.com
(philosophy & law)
(Their "biblioteca-e" has links
to online works in many
languages)

Guide to Philosophy on
the Internet

Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy

Logical Fallacies (at
Fallacy Files.org)

Pathways to Philosophy
(online tutored courses,
and a lot of other info)

Philosophical Humor
(hosted by U. of Arizona's
David Chalmers)

Philosophy Around the
Web

Philosophy in Cyberspace

Philosophy News.com

Philosophy Pages

Royal Institute of
Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy

The Philosopher's
Magazine (TPM)

The Tanner Lectures on
Human Values
(excellent source of online
lectures by many of the big
names in modern ethical
philosophy)

University of London
Philosophy Program

Voice of the Shuttle
(philosophy and
humanites links)

Yahoo! Directory:
Philosophy
The rest of the Rights Philosophy Forum is dedicated specifically to the
philosophy of ethics and human rights. But that's hardly an isolated area.
Most philosophers rightly insist that the areas of philosophy are incredibly
interconnected. Ethical principles may be based in turn on principles of
metaphysics or the philosophy of mind. Often, what one is willing to
"accept" as a premise in ethics is precisely what someone else is
debating hotly in epistemology.

First, it might help to have a look at some of the major branches of
philosophy (there are several other specialties, and sub-fields of
specialties, as well):

Logic

Epistemology

Metaphysics

Ethics

Philosophy of mind

Philosophy of language

Philosophy of Religion

Political Philosophy

Eastern Philosophy


Now you might want to check out some of the classic philosophers, in
order of appearance:

Note: some of these philosophers are also listed on the Top 20 page of the RPF, the
difference being that the Top 20 section focuses primarily on their ethical and
political views which have influenced rights philosophy. Also note: there are
obviously several philosophers not mentioned; I've tried to only list the most
influential/most-often mentioned to make this list more accessible.


Pre-Socratics:

Thales

Heraclitus

Parmenides

Zeno

Democritus

Pythagoreans


Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle


Post-Aristotle

Epicurus

Stoics

Scepticism

Neo-Platonism


Medieval

Augustine

Aquinas

Ockham


Renaissance

Bacon

Hobbes


Rationalism

Descartes

Spinoza

Leibniz


Empiricism

Locke

Berkeley

Hume


Enlightenment

Voltaire

Rousseau

Kant


Post-Kantian

Hegel

Schopenhauer

Nietzsche

Marx

Kierkegaard

Bentham

Mill

James


Analytical Philosophers

Frege

Russell

Moore

Wittgenstein


Continental Philosophers

Bergson

Husserl

Heidegger

Ortega y Gasset

Sartre

Merleau-Ponty