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.

View: List Grid Table
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