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
9226 Poems Jorge Luis Borges 2010 Argentinian Spanish
9230 El Traductor Salvador Benesdra 1998 Argentinian Spanish
9245 The Complete Dramatic Works Of Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett 1986 Irish English
9250 Sor Juana Or, The Traps Of Faith Octavio Paz 1982 Mexican Spanish
9252 The Entrepreneurial State Mariana Mazzucato 2013 British English
9310 Wholeness And The Implicate Order David Bohm 1980 British English
9313 Exterminate All The Brutes Sven Lindqvist 1992 Swedish Swedish
9354 The Old Garden Hwang Sok-yong 2000 Korean Korean
9364 A Dark Night's Passing Naoya Shiga 1937 Japanese Japanese
9366 The Conspiracy Paul Nizan 1938 French French
9374 Stolen Spring Hans Scherfig 1940 Danish Danish
9375 Saint Leon William Godwin 1799 British English
9375 Saint Irvyne Percy Bysshe Shelley 1811 British English
9375 Monos And Daimonos Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1830 British English
9375 The Sense Of The Past Henry James 1917 American English
9509 Political Order And Political Decay Francis Fukuyama 2014 American English
9517 Memoirs Raymond Aron 1983 French French
9517 Nations And Nationalism Ernest Gellner 1983 British English
9517 Spheres Of Justice Michael Walzer 1983 American English
9528 Feminists Theorize The Political Judith Butler, Joan Wallach Scott 1992 Multiple English
9594 The Gospel According To Jesus Christ José Saramago 1991 Portuguese Portuguese
9622 Abisul Luminat Nicolae Balotă 2018 Romanian Unknown
9627 The Less Noble Sex Nancy Tuana 1993 Unknown English
9633 The Collected Works of Paul Valéry Paul Valéry 1957 French French
9634 The Future Of Democracy Norberto Bobbio 1984 Italian Italian
9634 Resources, Values And Development Amartya Sen 1984 Indian English
9637 Being There Andy Clark 1996 Unknown English
9638 Unbearable Weight Susan Bordo 1993 American English
9641 Time's Arrow Martin Amis 1991 British English
9657 Nedokoro No Kyoudai Kenzaburō Ōe Japanese Japanese
9676 Eros Invincible Ricarda Huch 1931 German German
9687 Development As Freedom Amartya Sen 1999 Indian English
9697 The Information James Gleick 2011 American English
9702 Astonishing the Gods Ben Okri 1995 Nigerian English
9703 The Book Of Peace Christine De Pizan 1413 French French
9705 Black Skin, White Masks Frantz Fanon 1952 French French
9724 Outlaw Culture bell hooks 1994 American English
9725 실격당한 자들을 위한 변론 김원영 2018 Korean Korean
9764 Call Me Ishmael Charles Olson 1947 American English
9772 Democracy For Realists Christopher H. Achen, Larry Bartels 2016 American English
9799 Axiomatic Maria Tumarkin 2018 Australian English
9807 The Childhood Of Jesus J. M. Coetzee 2013 South African English
9810 Skating To Antarctica Jenny Diski 1997 British English
9817 The Forty Rules of Love Elif Shafak 2009 Turkish Turkish
9819 The Precipice Toby Ord 2020 British English
9825 The Opposite Of A Person Lieke Marsman 2017 Dutch Dutch
9826 Tristano Dies Antonio Tabucchi 2004 Italian Italian
9848 Entre Les Deux Il N’y A Rien Mathieu Riboulet 2006 French French
9857 The Subjection of Women John Stuart Mill 1869 British English
9857 Democratic Vistas Walt Whitman 1871 American English
9857 The Meaning of Truth William James 1909 American English
9857 Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1817 British English
9857 Nationalism Rabindranath Tagore 1917 Indian English
9883 The Wall Jean Paul Sartre 1939 French French
9887 The Hour Of Our Death Philippe Ariès 1981 French French
9893 The Whole Shebang Timothy Ferris 1997 American English
9905 The Demon Haunted World Carl Sagan 1995 American English
9909 The Capitalist Revolution Peter Berger 1986 American English
9919 The Greek Commonwealth Alfred Eckhard Zimmern 1911 British English
9924 The Problem Of Atheism Augusto Del Noce 1964 Italian Italian
9948 The Book Of Skulls Robert Silverberg 1972 American English
9970 Care of the Soul Thomas Moore 1992 American English
10002 Where Tigers Are At Home Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès 2008 French French
10009 The End Of Nature Bill McKibben 1989 American English
10020 Race Matters Cornel West 1993 American English
10037 The Future In The Present C. L. R. James 1977 Trinidadian English
10044 Distinction Pierre Bourdieu 1979 French French
10052 Tragic Sense Of Life Miguel de Unamuno 1912 Spanish Spanish
10059 Die Totalitäre Erfahrung Karl Dietrich Bracher 1987 German German
10060 Campo De Retamas Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio 2013 Spanish Spanish
10066 The Silences Of Hammerstein Hans Magnus Enzensberger 2008 German German
10077 To Shape A New World Tommie Shelby, Brandon M. Terry 2018 American English
10082 Disciplined Minds Jeff Schmidt 2000 American English
10101 My Life As A Russian Novel Emmanuel Carrère 2007 French French
10104 Orwell And Politics George Orwell 2001 British English
10115 The Taming of Chance Ian Hacking 1990 Canadian English
10116 The God Delusion Richard Dawkins 2006 British English
10125 The Winds Of Change Eugene Linden 2006 Unknown English
10204 Slouching Towards Utopia Bradford DeLong 2022 American English
10213 Prisoner Of Love Jean Genet 1986 French French
10216 What's Bred In The Bone Robertson Davies 1985 Canadian English
10241 Teacher in America Jacques Barzun 1945 French English
10241 The Whig Interpretation of History Herbert Butterfield 1931 British English
10241 A History of Philosophy Frederick Charles Copleston 1946 British English
10241 Religion and the Rise of Western Culture Christopher Dawson 1950 British English
10241 The Great Chain of Being Arthur Lovejoy 1936 American English
10241 Persons and Places George Santayana 1944 American English
10241 The New Science of Politics Eric Voegelin 1952 Austrian English
10236 The Apology Eve Ensler 2019 American English
10280 Naming And Necessity Saul Kripke 1980 American English
10283 The Ascent Of Man Jacob Bronowski 1973 British English
10305 Dear Departed Marguerite Yourcenar 1974 French French
10305 Mimesis Erich Auerbach 1946 German German
10305 Brecht On Theatre Bertolt Brecht 1964 German German
10305 Man, Play And Games Roger Caillois 1958 French French
10305 Theory Of Peasant Economy Alexander V. Chayanov 1925 Russian Russian
10305 Film Form Sergei Eisenstein 1949 Russian Russian
10305 The Sacred And The Profane Mircea Eliade 1957 Romanian French
10305 Mechanization Takes Command Sigfried Giedion 1948 Mixed English
10305 The Social History Of Art Arnold Hauser 1951 German German
10305 What Is Called Thinking? Martin Heidegger 1954 German German
10305 The Gnostic Religion Hans Jonas 1958 German English
10305 The Conquest Of Bread Petr Kropotkin 1892 Russian French
10305 Critique Of Everyday Life Henri Lefebvre 1947 French French
10305 Ornament And Crime Adolf Loos 1908 German German
10305 Reform Or Revolution? Rosa Luxemburg 1900 German German
10305 Eros And Civilization Herbert Marcuse 1955 German English
10305 The Gift Marcel Mauss 1925 French French
10305 Sense And Non Sense Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1948 French French
10305 Perspective As Symbolic Form Erwin Panofsky 1927 German German
10305 Character Analysis Wilhelm Reich 1945 German German
10305 The Course In General Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure 1916 Swiss French
10305 The Philosophy Of Money Georg Simmel 1900 German German
10305 The Social Teachings Of The Christian Churches Ernst Troeltsch 1912 German German
10305 History Of The Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
10305 Worlds In Collision Immanuel Velikovsky 1950 American English
10305 The Need For Roots Simone Weil 1949 French French
10381 Another Day In The Colony Chelsea Watego 2021 Unknown English
10396 Essays On Music Theodor Adorno 2002 German English
10397 For Marx Louis Althusser 1965 French French