I might be able to help a bit. I've studied philosophy for a short time at university, as well as some other subjects (cognitive science, logic, literature). The starting courses in each subject always had some introductory books, most of them which were quite good. Note that I haven't tried any other literature of the sort, and as such I have no basis for comparison. Just saying there might be better ones out there, but I haven't read them, so I wouldn't know.
Books in the introductory course in philosophy were:
-
The Elements of Moral Philosophy, by James & Stuart Rachels (fifth edition). I found this one to be especially good. It goes through a lot of the major contemporary theories in ethics, while presenting them in a way that's easy to understand (with plenty of examples and case studies). It also outlines and faces some of the foundational problems that the field of ethics need to deal with. Here's some excerpts of the chapter names: 1. What is Morality?; 2. The Challenge of Cultural Relativism; 3. Subjectivism in Ethics; 4. Does Morality Depend on Religion?; 5. Ethical Egoism (etc.)
-
Western Ethics: An Historical Introduction, by Robert L. Arrington. Very good, though I haven't read all of it. Pretty thick book that presents many of the greater philosphical movements in (western) history, with focus on the individual philosophers that started them. It gives some historical overview of each philosopher, then goes into some depth in their respective beliefs and theories (mainly concerning their ethics, and metaphysics only where it's relevant in order to grasp the ethics). The book starts with Socrates and the Sophists, and proceeds in chronological order with history, up until the twentieth century. Philosophers included are: Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Aquinas, Hobbes, Spinoza, Butler, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Bentham, Mill and Nietzsche. Many of them are presented with a focus on one of their major works. For example, with Aristotle it's the
Nichomachean Ethics, with Kant
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. As such, it's very benificial to read those chapters in combination with the original works/treatises.
The rest of these I haven't read very much of, or it's been a very long time since I even did read them. And that's why, sadly, I don't have much to say about them. I recall them being comprehensive and interesting, though.
-
An Introduction to Political Philosophy, by Jonathan Wolff (revised edition). Seems to be straightforward in describing the various philosophical issues with state, rule, justice and the like. Pretty short.
-
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, by Brian Davies. Like the above, but discussing the various philosophical issues about religion instead. I recall that it discussed things such as different arguments for the existance of God, God and morality (Euthyphros Dilemma), God and evil. All the classical questions about religion, really. Of course, it's all done with a proper, philosopical outlook that evaluates the different agruments in a reasonable, neutral way.
-
Introduction to Aesthetics: An Analytic Approach, by George Dickie. This one I have read very little of. Nobody seemed particulary fond of it though, including the teachers/professors. Anyway, it's quite obviously about the philosophy of aesthetics. It's presented in an historical way, which I found quite dull when I read it (what little I did read). But I admit I haven't given it a fair chance. Ironic, because it would probably be a highly relevant read for me or anyone else here, considering this is an ART FORUM and all, where we tackle questions concerning "what is beautiful" on a daily basis!
Anyway, that's all for the introductory course I took in philosophy. There were some other books, but they were all in swedish, so they're hardly anything you can recommend on an international forum. I also did the advanced course, but that one was more about reading original philosophical works (
A Theory of Justice by Rawls,
Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle,
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Kant). However, there were also two introductory books which I found to be very good:
The Philosophy of Social Science: an Introduction, ("revised and updated") by Martin Hollis, and
An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics by Alexander Miller. I can give more thoughts and descriptions of them if requested. They're probably not very well suited for beginning ones philosophical studies with, which is why I'll leave it at that for the moment.
Hope that helped, and good luck with your studies!