The Greatest Philosophical Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
5968 Imperial China, 900–1800 F. W. Mote 1999 Chinese English
5993 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
5996 The Coddling Of The American Mind Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff 2018 American English
5999 After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre 1981 British English
5998 The Dialectic Of Sex Shulamith Firestone 1970 American English
6001 The Classical Style Charles Rosen 1971 American English
6004 Nietzsche And Philosophy Gilles Deleuze 1962 French French
6004 Inner Experience Georges Bataille 1943 French French
6004 The Lord Chandos Letter And Other Writings Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1902 Austrian German
6004 Die Niederschrift Des Gustav Anias Horn Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
6004 Divagations Stéphane Mallarmé 1897 French French
6004 Les Métamorphoses Du Cercle Georges Poulet 1961 Belgian French
6004 Master And Man Leo Tolstoy 1895 Russian Russian
6004 My Feminine Brother Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6004 Note Conjointe Charles Péguy 1914 French French
6004 Notebooks Joseph Joubert 1883 French French
6004 The Pine Wood Notebook Francis Ponge 1947 French French
6004 The Story Of My Wife Milán Füst 1942 Hungarian Hungarian
6004 Theatre Of The World Frances A. Yates 1969 British English
6004 Things Seen Victor Hugo 1887 French French
6004 Three Women Robert Musil 1924 Austrian German
6004 Van Gogh Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
6085 Sundog Jim Harrison 1984 American English
6094 The Secret History Of The World Jonathan Black 2007 British English
6091 Herr Gustafsson Himself Lars Gustafsson 1983 Swedish Swedish
6101 Le Jeune Homme De Sable Williams Sassine 1979 French French
6101 Unity And Struggle Amilcar Cabral 1979 Guinean Portuguese
6120 The Web That Has No Weaver Ted J. Kaptchuk 1983 American English
6124 Inland Gerald Murnane 1988 Australian English
6131 The Fool In Christ Gerhart Hauptmann 1910 German German
6134 The Dance Of Life Havelock Ellis 1923 British English
6136 Iron John Robert Bly 1990 American English
6157 The Rise And Fall Of The Man Of Letters John Gross 1969 British English
6160 The Star Of Redemption Franz Rosenzweig 1971 German German
6162 Arguably Christopher Hitchens 2011 British English
6171 The Fantastic Tzvetan Todorov 1970 French French
6174 Philosophy and Civilization John Dewey 1931 American English
6177 Notebooks Albert Camus 1935 French French
6179 The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1828 British English
6185 The Second Tree From The Corner E. B. White 1954 American English
6199 Metaphors We Live George Lakoff, Mark Johnson 1980 American English
6200 The Elegies Of Oxopetra Odysseas Elytis 1991 Greek Greek
6217 The Origin Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
6221 Justice Michael J. Sandel 2007 American English
6222 Power Politics Martin Wright 1946 British Unknown
6227 The Chinese Enlightenment Vera Schwarcz 1986 Unknown English
6231 The Way Of All The Earth John S. Dunne 1972 Unknown English
6235 Petrolio Pier Paolo Pasolini 1992 Italian Italian
6253 The Craftsman Richard Sennett 2008 American English
6256 Omensetter's Luck William H. Gass 1966 American English
6258 Moments Of Being Virginia Woolf 1976 British English
6261 At The Existentialist Café Sarah Bakewell 2016 British English
6265 So Laßt Uns Denn Ein Apfelbäumchen Pflanzen Hoimar von Ditfurth 1985 German German
6281 The Mirror and the Lamp Meyer Howard Abrams 1953 American English
6283 Sur La Scène Intérieure Marcel Cohen 2013 French French
6314 The Fifth Gospel Mario Pomilio 1974 Italian Italian
6327 Systematic Theology Wolfhart Pannenberg 1988 German German
6331 Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism R. H. Tawney 1926 British English
6334 A Preface to Morals Walter Lippmann 1929 American English
6336 The Worldly Philosophers Robert Heilbroner 1953 American English
6338 Centesimus Annus Pope John Paul II 1991 Vatican City Latin
6342 Kriminalgeschichte Des Christentums Karlheinz Deschner 1986 German German
6342 Repetition Peter Handke 1986 Austrian German
6352 The Shallows Nicolas Carr 2010 American English
6353 The Historian’s Craft Marc Bloch 1949 French French
6353 The Perennial Scope Of Philosophy Karl Jaspers 1949 German German
6366 Studies in Iconology Erwin Panofsky 1939 German English
6370 The Journal Of Raïssa Maritain Raïssa Maritain 1974 French French
6370 The Candle Of Vision George William Russell 1974 Irish English
6373 The Promise of American Life Herbert Croly 1909 American English
6374 The Feeling Of What Happens Antonio Damasio 1999 Portuguese English
6377 Asterios Polyp David Mazzucchelli 2009 American English
6379 Jumpers Tom Stoppard 1972 British English
6381 What Is Property? Pierre-Joseph Proudhon 1840 French French
6381 An Essay On Universal History, The Manners, And Spirit Of Nations Voltaire 1756 French French
6381 Of The Geometrical Spirit Blaise Pascal 1658 French French
6381 über Den Zwischenkiefer Der Menschen Und Der Tiere Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1820 German German
6381 Enquiries Into The Course Of Nature In The Development Of The Human Race Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 1797 Swiss German
6381 Nouveau Christianisme Bernardin de Saint-Pierre 1821 French French
6381 The Life Of Jesus Critically Examined David Friedrich Strauss 1835 German German
6381 Statism And Anarchy Mikhail Bakunin 1873 Russian Russian
6381 Friedrich Hebbels Tagebücher Friedrich Hebbel 1885 German German
6381 Grundfragen Der Soziologie Georg Simmel 1917 German German
6381 Literature And Revolution Leon Trotsky 1924 Russian Russian
6403 Crossing The Threshold Of Hope Pope John Paul II 1994 Italian Italian
6410 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6414 The Portable Jung Carl Jung 1971 Swiss English
6421 The Laws Connie Palmen 1991 Dutch Dutch
6424 The Lonely Crowd David Riesman 1950 American English
6427 Theory And History Of Ideological Production Juan Carlos Rodríguez 1993 Spanish Spanish
6431 Ideas and Opinions Albert Einstein 1954 German English
6432 La Jeune Parque Paul Valéry 1917 French French
6435 Sex And Temperament In Three Primitive Societies Margaret Mead 1935 American English
6441 The Magic Barrel Bernard Malamud 1958 American English
6456 Social Choice And Individual Values Kenneth Arrow 1951 American English
6459 Science and Civilisation in China Joseph Needham 1954 British English
6468 Disputers Of The Tao A. C. Graham 1989 British English
6471 The Day Of Judgment Salvatore Satta 1977 Italian Italian
6480 The Stoic Theodore Dreiser 1947 American English
6484 Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris 1988 American English
6486 The Philosopher's Stone Colin Wilson 1969 British English
6493 A Voice From The South Anna Julia Cooper 1892 American English
6506 The Origins Of Totalitarian Democracy J. L. Talmon 1952 British English
6508 The Triple Mirror of the Self Zulfikar Ghose 1992 Pakistani English
6508 Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture Apostolos Doxiadis 1992 Greek Greek
6514 The Control Revolution James R. Beniger 1986 American English
6516 Language, Truth, And Logic A. J. Ayer 1936 British English
6521 The Escaped Cock D. H. Lawrence 1929 British English
6524 Le Coq Et L'arlequin Jean Cocteau 1918 French French
6528 The Painter Of Battles Arturo Pérez-Reverte 2006 Spanish Spanish
6534 La Gloria Giuseppe Berto 1978 Italian Italian
6540 Black Feminist Thought Patricia Hill Collins 1990 American English
6542 F Dumitru Radu Popescu 2000 Romanian Unknown
6545 Saigyō Kaden Kunio Tsuji 1982 Japanese Japanese
6548 Heirs To The Great Sinner Sheikh San’on Erkin A’zam 2004 Unknown Unknown
6555 Alchemy Of The Word Jan Parandowski 1951 Polish Polish
6564 Avalanche Blaga Dimitrova 1980 Bulgarian Bulgarian
6574 Combats Pour L'histoire Lucien Febvre 1953 French French
6575 Phenomenology Of Perception Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1945 French French
6586 Women Philippe Sollers 1983 French French