Reddit mentions of An Introduction to Political Philosophy

I think you will learn the most by reading five textbooks, such as A History of Philosophy, volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; or something like Metaphysics: The Fundamentals, The Fundamentals of Ethics, Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, and An Introduction to Political Philosophy.

If what you have in mind is more of a "Great Books" program to get your feet wet with some classic works that are not too difficult, you could do a lot worse than:

• Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, often published together under the title The Trial and Death of Socrates. Socrates is so important that we lump together all Greek philosophers before him as "the Presocratics," and this cycle of dialogues is a great window on who he was and what he is famous for.
  
• The Basic Works of Aristotle. "The philosopher of common sense" is not a particularly easy read. Cicero compared his writing style to "a flowing river of gold," but all the works he prepared for publication are gone, and what we have is an unauthorised collection of lecture notes written in a terse, cramped style that admits of multiple interpretations. Even so, one can find in Aristotle a very attractive system of metaphysics and ethics which played a major role in the history of philosophy, and holds up well even today.
  
• René Descartes, Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes is called the father of modern philosophy, not so much because modern philosophers have widely followed his particular positions (they haven't) but because he set the agenda, in a way, with his introduction of methodological scepticism.
  
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. I think Elizabeth Anscombe had it right in judging Hume a "mere brilliant sophist", in that his arguments are ultimately flawed, but there is great insight to be derived from teasing out why they are wrong.
  
• If I can cheat just a little more, I will lump together three short, important treatises on ethics: Immanuel Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, and Anscombe's paper "Modern Moral Philosophy".

There are lots of critiques. In fact, to some extent, they all critique each other. Occasionally you can google around for book reviews.

Maybe a relatively inexpensive textbook like this would give you the lay of the land before you hop in.

Also, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is free. So just reading the liberalism, republicanism, and libertarianism sections might suffice for an overview. Then you could read individual entries of authors. So there's Marx and Rawls and Locke, etc.

You can browse or search the encyclopedia here.

> "because you believe that is right". I don't see a big difference.

That is a lot of presumptions there, you don't see it because you hardly know me, a random redditor on the internet. However, I'm an utilitarian when it comes to decision making.

Regardless, there are reason why some actions are perceived to be right. You would see why had you put a little more thoughts into it. Reading books/wikipedia/standford philosophy encyclopedia would help too.

An Introduction to Political Philosophy by Jonathan Wolff is a great book to start in my opinion.

I'd recommend reading Wolff's introduction to political philosophy.

I just bought this book for kindle. It seems alright, I'll check out "taking sides" as well. Thanks for the help. :)

This isn't modern, but I'd recommend this book I read for the Philosophy of International Order class I took awhile back, it covers the history of western political philosophy in a pretty objective way, for the most part. I think seeing the development of political philosophy might be more helpful than just jumping into modern times.

[book in question]
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/019929609X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1456905875&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=intro+to+political+philosophy&dpPl=1&dpID=41g5XpBgoSL&ref=plSrch)

For a general overview of the concepts involved in political philosophy Wolff's "An Introduction to Political Philosophy" is superb. Not sure how it compares to Kymlicka but it's the same sort of thing in that it doesn't assume prior knowledge.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Political-Philosophy-Jonathan-Wolff/dp/019929609X

I can help with a few of those.

An excellent introduction to political philosophy that takes a historical view is this one by Jonathan Wolff. One that looks at contemporary political theory only is this one by Adam Swift. I recommend reading both of them. They both have excellent suggestions for further reading. I will also recommend this book on contemporary political philosophy by Will Kymlicka, which is one of my favourite books. It's not quite as accessible as the previous two books, but Kymlicka's writing is clear and powerful.

You will likely find some useful readings on social classes and equality in this syllabus^PDF from a class taught by a Canadian sociologist.