The Greatest Philosophical Books of All Time

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
12083 The Day I Began My Studies In Philosophy Margareta Ekström 1989 Swedish Unknown
12129 The Sparrow Mary Doria Russell 1996 American English
12174 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
12190 The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction Alan Jacobs 2011 American English
12206 Laurus Eugene Vodolazkin 2012 Russian Russian
12211 Jesus Of Nazareth Pope Benedict XVI 2007 German German
12219 The Victim Saul Bellow 1947 American English
12286 To Change The World James Davison Hunter 2010 American English
12298 Ape And Essence Aldous Huxley 1948 British English
12311 The Obstacle Is The Way Ryan Holiday 2014 American English
12325 Simone De Beauvoir Deirdre Bair 1990 American English
12325 The Ant And The Peacock Helena Cronin 1991 British English
12325 The Island Gustaw Herling 1958 Polish Polish
12325 Judge On Trial Ivan Klima 1991 Czech Czech
12325 Shylock John Gross 1992 British English
12325 Overcoming Law Richard A. Posner 1995 American English
12325 Zola Frederick Brown 1995 Unknown English
12325 Toward The End Of Time John Updike 1997 American English
12469 Figuring Maria Popova 2019 American English
12495 The Mind's I Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett 1981 American English
12503 Signature In The Cell Stephen C. Meyer 2009 American English
12514 The Gates Of Ivory Margaret Drabble 1991 British English
12613 The Christian Imagination Willie James Jennings 2010 American English
12629 Wandering Lu Xun 1926 Chinese Chinese
12708 The Revenge of Gaia James Lovelock 2006 British English
12717 Drowning Yu Dafu 1921 Chinese Chinese
12725 The Shock of the New Robert Hughes 1980 Australian English
12833 A Chorus Of Stones Susan Griffin 1992 American English
12833 The Straight Mind Monique Wittig 1992 French French
12895 Orphan Of Asia Zhuoliu Wu 1945 Taiwanese Chinese
12988 If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Eliezer Yudkowsky 2025 American English
13228 Flower In A Sea Of Sin Zeng Pu 1905 Chinese Chinese
13245 God, Sexuality, And The Self Sarah Coakley 2013 British English
13296 Mary Shelley W. H. Lyles 1974 American English
13306 Moment In Peking Lin Yutang 1939 Chinese English
13311 風蕭蕭 Xu Xu 1947 Chinese Chinese
13315 Schubert’s Winter Journey Ian Bostridge 2015 British English
13360 The Pure and the Impure Colette 1932 French French
13360 Two Essays on Analytical Psychology Carl Jung 1921 Swiss German
13360 The Nude Kenneth Clark 1956 British English
13360 The Great Tradition F. R. Leavis 1948 British English
13360 Culture and Anarchy Matthew Arnold 1869 British English
13360 The Lives Of The Poets Samuel Johnson 1779 British English
13360 Past And Present Thomas Carlyle 1843 British English
13360 Eupalinos, Or The Architect Paul Valéry 1921 French French
13360 On Having No Head Douglas Harding 1961 British English
13360 Silence John Cage 1961 American English
13360 Zanoni Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1842 British English
13360 Transcendental Magic Eliphas Levi 1854 French French
13360 The Holy War John Bunyan 1682 British English
13360 The Epicurean Thomas Moore 1827 American English
13360 The Descent Of Man Charles Darwin 1871 British English
13360 The Methods Of Ethics Henry Sidgwick 1874 British English
13360 Democratic Vistas And Other Papers Walt Whitman 1871 American English
13360 The Spice Box Of Earth Leonard Cohen 1961 Canadian English
13505 Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman 1988 American English
13511 Prophecy Without Contempt Cathleen Kaveny 2016 Unknown English
13522 Island Aldous Huxley 1962 British English
13523 Perception And Misperception In International Politics Robert Jervis 1976 American English
13558 The Black Swan Thomas Mann 1953 German German
13560 The Fall of Hyperion Dan Simmons 1990 American English
13556 Part Of The Solution Ulrich Peltzer 2007 German German
13600 Civilization Georges Duhamel 1918 French French
13600 Les Bêtes Pierre Gascar 1953 French French
13600 God Was Born In Exile Vintilă Horia 1960 Unknown Spanish
13600 The Mercy Of God Jean Cau 1961 French French
13600 The Roving Shadows Pascal Quignard 2002 French English
13712 The Aerodrome Rex Warner 1941 British English
13712 The Greek Way Edith Hamilton 1930 American English
13729 Oscar And The Lady In Pink Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2002 French French
13749 The Enchantments Of Mammon Eugene McCarraher 2019 American English
13759 The Art Of Loving Erich Fromm 1956 Unknown German
13765 Anathem Neal Stephenson 2008 American English
13800 Blumenberg Sibylle Lewitscharoff 2011 German German
13800 Dancing On Our Turtle's Back Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 2011 Canadian English
13817 Morality Jonathan Sacks 2019 British English
13879 Thrown Kerry Howley 2014 American English
13924 An Image Of Africa Chinua Achebe 1975 Nigerian English
13937 What It Means To Be Human O. Carter Snead 2020 Unknown English
13941 The Noonday Demon Andrew Solomon 2001 American English
13941 Daring Greatly Brené Brown 2012 American English
13964 Arbeit Und Struktur Wolfgang Herrndorf 2013 German German
14043 Die Stunde Zwischen Frau Und Gitarre Clemens J. Setz 2015 Austrian German
14070 Erste Erde Epos Raoul Schrott 2016 Austrian German
14086 The Burnout Society Byung-Chul Han 2010 German German
14110 Enneads Plotinus -270 Greek Greek
14122 Life 3.0 Max Tegmark 2017 Swedish English
14122 The Mask Of Apollo Mary Renault 1966 British English
14180 The Rhetoric of Fiction Wayne C. Booth 1961 American English
14180 Facial Justice L. P. Hartley 1960 British English
14194 Julian Gore Vidal 1964 American English
14201 Syntactic Structures Noam Chomsky 1957 American English
14408 Humanity Jonathan Glover 1999 British English
14434 The Age Of Extremes Eric Hobsbawm 1994 British English
14457 The Romantic Generation Charles Rosen 1995 American English
14457 The Image Men J. B. Priestley 1968 British English
14457 The White Man’s Burden William Russell Easterly 2006 Unknown English
14498 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14629 The Gutenberg Galaxy Marshall McLuhan 1962 Canadian English
14679 Letters To A Young Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa 2002 Peruvian Spanish
14697 Mushotoku Mind Taisen Deshimaru 2012 Japanese English
14720 The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Volume Ii Edward Gibbon 1781 British English
14725 De Anima Aristotle -350 Greek Ancient greek
14730 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14751 On The Ends Of Good And Evil Marcus Tullius Cicero 45 Roman Latin
14729 Musonius Rufus Musonius Rufus, Cynthia King -30 Mixed Greek
14757 The Nazarene Sholem Asch 1939 Polish Yiddish
14769 The Symposium Xenophon 361 Greek Ancient greek
14778 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
14784 Fear and Trembling Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
14787 Patterns of Culture Ruth Benedict 1934 American English
14820 Summulae De Dialectica John Buridan, Gyula Klima 1350 French Latin
14819 Logic And Knowledge Bertrand Russell 1956 British English
14831 21 Lessons For The 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari 2018 Israeli English
14827 Abhinavagupta Abhinavagupta 1016 Indian Sanskrit
14865 The Book Of Tea Kakuzō Okakura 1906 Japanese English
14855 Anatomy Of Criticism Northrop Frye 1957 Canadian English
14871 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14934 Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said Philip K. Dick 1974 American English
14946 Adrift On The Nile Naguib Mahfouz 1966 Egyptian Arabic