The hardest philosophers to read

who are some of the hardest philosophers to read rather its their use of language, word structure, grammar, or complexity of ideas, or even the way its written

who are some of these people that you would put as being some of the hardest philosophers to read

Given the OP, Heidegger should be a breeze.

Damn near anyone who originally wrote in German. Bonus points for during the 1800s.

Kant.

Aristotle is tough, especially when compared to the other giant of Greek philosophy, Plato, whose dialogues are works of art. IIRC, what we have from Aristotle are not polished works written for general audiences, but lecture notes.

I think something like Whitehead and Russell’s Principia Mathematica would not be easy to understand.

Note there are free downloads if you do a Google Search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=whitehead+russell+principia+mathematica+download

Yeah, but Russell in general (and maybe Whitehead too) was a pretty clear and readable writer when he tried to be.

I found Kant readable, though a tough slog. Hegel was absolutely incomprehensible. I just gave up. A lot of the modern French guys are just word salad. At least Hegel was trying to say something meaningful, though I couldn’t be bothered to find out what it was.

Neither kan I.

How weird. One of my majors was in philosophy (and I’m employed, no less!), and a major thesis compared Kant’s Metaphysics with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Kant was by far the more difficult to work with, and contrary to Thudlow, I found Aristotle to be relatively accessible. Perhaps it’s the different translators?

Further, even though college was a couple decades ago, and even though I’ve long since pickled most academic memories from the time period, and even though I never was good at remembering quotations, two of Aristotle’s stood out then (I think my first signature here was one of them) and are still with me today:

When I’m feeling cynical:
*“The utter servility of mankind comes out in his preference for a bovine existence.” *

When I’m feeling sublime:
“Happiness is the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”

what makes Hegel hard…is it his use of obscure vocabulary or is it something else?

Me too! As the faculty – the faculty! – put it, “philosophy is the best second major.”

(As for the question at hand, lemme relay what one professor said: “yeah, nobody here is going to teach Spinoza; I don’t think students are ready for him until grad school.”)

No joke. I know I didn’t get 10 pages in when I tried.

I remember when we went finally finished Heidegger I was relieved. Of course we immediately started into Husserl, and after about 15 pages I decided the chick across the hall really wasn’t that hot, and dropped the class.

Oh, dear God. It’s just… Hegel.

I mean, just look at it:

That’s how he talks. Now imagine that in German.

I still have nightmares after trying to read that stuff in college. I literally didn’t understand a word of it.

You know how everyone wants to use their time machine to kill Hitler? Well, screw that. I’m going back to punch Hegel in the face. That would feel so sweet.

This. Philosophy was also one of my college majors, and it was during our study of Hegel that I began having migraines.

Hardest to read? Every Philosophy grad student, ever.

My Swiss friend says that when he took a philosophy course at the ETH they were advised to read Kant in French translation because that was easier.

Russell and Whitehead is not philosophy. It was supposedly the foundations of math. I don’t think anyone reads it for that (or anything else) these days. Certainly i never did.

I agree that it’s probably someone German.

I’m sure he’s not the hardest, but David Chalmers is a wild-haired Australian who plays music and looks like he surfs so I would’ve thought he’d be less dry.