Want to learn about a specific topic? Here I've organized reading lists that might appeal to the curious Naturalist.
Ethics:
Ethics is perhaps the most important of all philosophical studies, as it can help us live well, happily, and successfully. The following two authors have what I consider to be the sum of wisdom of the Greek tradition in ethics.
Enlightenment Philosophy:
The Enlightenment was the rebirth of reason in the western world. Following the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment consisted of the most brilliant scholars in Europe advocating liberal democracy, independence, reason, and science. These virtues directly manifested themselves in the American Revolution.
- The Portable Enlightenment Reader (The Viking Portable Library)
- The Portable Voltaire
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: and Selections from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: The Posthumous Essays of the Immortality of the Soul and of Suicide by David Hume
The Founding Fathers:
The wonderful thing about the Founding Fathers of the United States is that they had a variety of political, religious, and philosophical viewpoints yet they set aside their differences and compromised to work towards a shared goal of independence.
- http://www.foundingfathers.info/
- http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/brief-biography-thomas-jefferson
- The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes
- "Ye Will Say I Am No Christian": The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values
- Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives) by Christopher Hitchens
- Thomas Jefferson: Statesman of Science by Silvio A. Bedini
- Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) by Christopher Hitchens
- Revolutionary Deists: Early America's Rational Infidels by Kerry S. Walters
- The Portable Thomas Jefferson (The Viking Portable Library)
- Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
- Examination of the Prophecies by Thomas Paine
- The Thomas Paine Reader
- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Religion:
- Theological Books
- The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists and Believers (and Everyone in Between) by John R. Shook
- Elements of Pantheism by Paul Harrison
- DEIST: So that's what I am! by Chuck Clendenen
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails by John W. Loftus
- Scriptural debate
- The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (and Why Inerrancy Tries to Hide It) by Thom Stark
- Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them) by Bart D. Ehrman
- Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus) by Bart D. Ehrman
- Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman
- Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition? by Robert M. Price
- Religious History
Science:
- Psychology
- The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan
- The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker
- Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals (P.S.) by Hal Herzog
- The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain by Tali Sharot
- The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good by David J. Linden
