Before the 1970s analytic philosophy hadn’t yet escaped from logical positivism. But even Ayers saw through that. Now analytic philosophy has been liberated. Here are some mandatory texts:
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus. My favorite, even if he is utterly wrong. He corrected some of this in Philosophical Investigations.
Russell, Bertrand. Problems of Philosophy. Once you get past Russell’s being in love with himself, it’s actually a good book.
Lewis, David. On the Plurality of Worlds. Not an easy read, but Possible Worlds Semantics is such a huge breakthrough.
Husserl, E. Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy. Not sure if Husserl is analytic or continental. I’ve seen both use him.
Plantinga, Alvin. God, Freedom, and Evil. You don’t have to accept his free will defense. I like his discussions on the difference between logical and physical impossibilities. But more importantly, this is an initiation into his next volume.
Plantinga, Alvin. The Nature of Necessity. Third hardest book I’ve ever read, but one of the most powerful.
Poythress, Vern. Logic: A God Centered Approach. Flawed in many ways, but he does a good job in decoding what all the symbols mean.
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. John Locke and the Ethics of Belief.
Loux, Michael. Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction.
Kripke, Saul. The Nature of Necessity. The 20th century classic in analytic metaphysics.
Chisholm, Roderick. On Metaphysics. First introduced me to the Problem of Theseus’s Ship.
Rowe, William. Thomas Reid on Freedom and Morality. Covers a lot of issues that come up with free will.
Van Inwagen, Peter. Metaphysics. It’s not often you see a materialist defend free will.
Swinburne, Richard. Evolution of the Soul. Once you get past his evolutionary assumptions, there are some great insights on the mind-body problem.
Moreland, JP. Universals.
Outlaw Huguenot 