Best Philosophy Books of All Time
This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
Fivebooks, 18 Books
Fivebooks interviewed hundreds of philosophers, these are the philosophy books that come up again and again
There seems to be 68 philosophers they interviewed in making this list.
A C Grayling, A N Wilson, Adrian Moore, Andrew Copson, Andrew Hui, Anil Seth, Anne Heller, Anthony Gottlieb, Arash Abizadeh, Arthur Ammann, Bryan Van Norden, Brink Lindsey, Catherine Conybeare, Carlos Eire, Carlos Fraenkel, Christian B Miller, Chris Kutarna, Claire Fox, Daniel A. Bell, Dallas Denery, Donna Dickenson, Edward Skidelsky, Emily Thomas, Emrys Westacott, Esi Edugyan, Graham Oppy, Jamie Lombardi, Jenny Davidson, Jonathan Glover, Jonathan Powell, Jonathan Sumption, Jonathan Wolff, Julian Baggini, Keith Frankish, Kenneth Bartlett, Kathryn Schulz, Laura Dassow Walls, Luciano Floridi, Mark Bloomfield, Mark Peterson, Mary Fulbrook, Mary Warnock, Melissa Lane, Michael Gervais, Michael Peel, Michael Puett, Nigel Warburton, Nick Clegg, Paula Fredriksen, Peregrine Worsthorne, Peter Singer, Philip Davis, Rebecca Goldstein, Richard Harries, Robert Kelsey, Robert McCrum, Roman Krznaric, Sarah Bakewell, Simon Blackburn, Simon Critchley, Simon Yarrow, Stephen Breyer, Susan Blackmore, Susan Jacoby, Timothy Garton Ash, Timothy Stanton, Tim Crane, Ursula Martin
This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 220 | The Republic | Plato | -379 | Greek | Ancient greek | |
| 110 | Walden | Henry David Thoreau | 1854 | American | English | |
| 1744 | Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion | David Hume | 1779 | British | English | |
| 742 | On Liberty | John Stuart Mill | 1859 | British | English | |
| 1911 | Mencius | Mencius | -300 | Chinese | Classical chinese | |
| 30 | Middlemarch | George Eliot | 1871 | British | English | |
| 1027 | Meditations on First Philosophy | Rene Descartes | 1641 | French | Latin | |
| 344 | Leviathan | Thomas Hobbes | 1651 | British | English | |
| 400 | The Nicomachean Ethics | Aristotle | -334 | Greek | Ancient greek | |
| 457 | Critique of Pure Reason | Immanuel Kant | 1781 | German | German | |
| 621 | Analects | Confucius | -479 | Chinese | Classical chinese | |
| 2285 | Consciousness Explained | Daniel Dennett | 1991 | American | English | |
| 77 | The Plague | Albert Camus | 1947 | French | French | |
| 133 | Confessions | Augustine | 397 | Roman | Latin | |
| 8128 | Down Girl | Kate Manne | 2017 | American | English | |
| 582 | Man's Search for Meaning | Viktor Frankl | 1946 | Austrian | German | |
| 152 | The Prince | Niccolo Machiavelli | 1532 | Italian | Italian | |
| 2138 | Tractatus Theologico Politicus | Baruch de Spinoza | 1670 | Dutch | Latin |