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
14957 Lucky Per Henrik Pontoppidan 1898 Danish Danish
14961 The Sovereignty Of Good Iris Murdoch 1970 British English
14984 Freedom Orlando Patterson 1991 Jamaican English
14984 How We Die Sherwin B. Nuland 1994 American English
14984 Beyond Freedom and Dignity B. F. Skinner 1971 American English
14984 The Dancing Wu Li Masters Gary Zukav 1979 American English
14984 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli 2015 Italian Italian
14984 The Spirit Level Richard Wilkinson 2009 British English
14984 Call Me Zebra Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi 2018 American English
14984 The Baroque Cycle Neal Stephenson 2003 American English
14984 The Tyranny Of Distance Geoffrey Blainey 1966 Australian English
14984 Wonderful Life Stephen Jay Gould 1989 American English
14984 In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat John Gribbin 1984 British English
14984 Treasury Of The True Dharma Eye Kazuaki Tanahashi 2010 Japanese Japanese
14984 The Body Yasuo Yuasa 1987 Japanese Japanese
14984 Understanding Comics Scott McCloud 1993 American English
14984 The Golden Mean Annabel Lyon 2009 Canadian English
14984 A Swim In A Pond In The Rain George Saunders 2021 American English
14968 End Zone Don DeLillo 1972 American English
14984 The Question Of Palestine Edward W. Said 1979 American English
14984 The Crisis Of Narration Byung-Chul Han 2023 German German
14984 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
15590 The Making Of A Counter Culture Theodore Roszak 1969 American English
15682 Literature And Existentialism Jean Paul Sartre French French
15682 The Human Agenda Roderic Gorney Unknown English
15729 Altneuland Theodor Herzl 1902 German German
15736 Deliver Us From Love Suzanne Brogger 1976 Danish Danish
15741 The Faber Book Of Aphorisms W. H. Auden 1962 British English
15753 Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut 1961 American English
15752 The Passions Of The Mind Irving Stone 1971 American English
15792 Critique Of Religion And Philosophy Walter A. Kaufmann 1958 American English
15791 Runaway Horses Yukio Mishima 1969 Japanese Japanese
15781 A Book Of Five Rings Miyamoto Musashi 1645 Japanese
15773 Crime And Punishment Dostoyevsky 1866 Russian Russian
15818 The Wisdom Of Insecurity Alan Watts 1951 American English
15828 The Cunning Of History Richard L. Rubenstein 1975 American English
15825 A History Of Political Theory George Holland Sabine 1937 American English
15799 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15829 The Fable Of The Bees Bernard Mandeville 1714 British English
15813 Virginia Woolf's Diaries Virginia Woolf 1977 British English
15823 The Mystery Of Being 1 Gabriel Marcel 1949 French French
15868 The Death Of The Past J. H. Plumb 1969 British English
15872 John Berger And Me Nikos Papastergiadis 1975 Unknown English
15860 Shobogenzo Dōgen 1231 Japanese Japanese
15871 The Masks Of God, Volume 4 Joseph Campbell 1968 American English
15903 Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation Alfred Adler 1907 Austrian German
15903 Philosophy of Modern Music Theodor Adorno 1949 German German
15903 The Engineering of Consent Edward Bernays 1947 American English
15903 The School and the Child John Dewey 1902 American English
15903 The Masters and the Slaves Gilberto Freyre 1933 Brazilian Portuguese
15903 Uncertainty Principle Werner Heisenberg 1927 German Unknown
15903 Psychology of the Unconscious Carl Jung 1912 Swiss German
15903 A Critique of the Theory of Evolution Thomas Hunt Morgan 1916 American English
15903 Function of the Orgasm Wilhelm Reich 1927 Austrian German
15903 Theory of Games and Economic Behavior John Von Neumann 1944 American English
15903 Behaviorism John Watson 1924 American English
15903 Rules Of Sociological Method Emile Durkheim 1895 French French
15903 Milinda Panha Unknown -100 Mulitple Pali
15903 The Fundamental Wisdom Of The Middle Way Nagarjuna, Jay L. Garfield -150 Unknown Sanskrit
15903 A Guide To The Bodhisattva Way Of Life Santideva 700 Indian Sanskrit
15903 An Inquiry Into The Good Nishida Kitarō 1911 Japanese Japanese
15903 Watsuji Tetsuro's Rinrigaku Watsuji Tetsuro 1937 Japanese Japanese
15903 Averroes George F. Hourani 1961 American English
15903 Tattvachintamani Gaṅgeśa 1321 Indian Sanskrit
15903 The Padārthatattvanirūpaṇam Of Raghunātha śiromaṇi Karl H. Potter 1957 Unknown Sanskrit
15903 Gadādhara's Śaktivāda Gadādharabhaṭṭācārya 1650 Unknown Sanskrit
15903 Idealism And The Endgame Of Theory F. W. J. Schelling 1800 German German
15903 Treatise Of Zera Yacob Zera Yacob 1667 Ethiopian Ge'ez
15903 Mi'raj Al Su'ud Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti, Hunqick J. 1615 Malian Unknown
15903 The Apriori Foundations Of The Civil Law Adolf Reinach 1913 German German
15903 The Literary Work Of Art Roman Ingarden 1931 Polish German
15903 The Selected Letters Of William James William James 1920 American English
15903 The Air Conditioned Nightmare Henry Miller 1945 American English
15899 The Retreat To Commitment William Warren Bartley 1962 American English
15885 Winds Of Doctrine George Santayana 1913 American English
15889 God Emperor Of Dune Frank Herbert 1981 American English
15903 In Defence Of Politics Bernard Crick 1962 British English
15903 Discourse On Colonialism Aimé Césaire 1950 French French
16495 Sun & Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
15890 At The Mind's Limits Jean Améry 1966 German German
16509 Science Of Logic G. W. F. Hegel 1812 German German
15880 Myths To Live By Joseph Campbell 1972 American English
15903 The Elementary Forms Of The Religious Life Emile Durkheim 1912 French French
15903 Rules For Radicals Saul D. Alinsky 1971 American English
16504 O Sonho De Um Homem Ridículo Fyodor Dostoevsky 1877 Russian Russian
15903 Amiel's Journal Henri-Frédéric Amiel 1883 Swiss French
16498 An Apprenticeship Or The Book Of Pleasures Clarice Lispector 1969 Brazilian Portuguese
16511 On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense Friedrich Nietzsche 1873 German German
15893 Space Trilogy C. S. Lewis 1938 British English
15902 The Ages Of The World F. W. J. Schelling 1815 German German
16496 The Chain Of Chance Stanislaw Lem 1976 Polish Polish
16566 The Fall Of The King Johannes V. Jensen 1900 Danish Danish
16594 Profiles Of The Future Arthur C. Clarke 1962 British English
16570 Tous Les Hommes Sont Mortels Simone de Beauvoir 1946 French French
16576 The Wisdom Of Life And Counsels And Maxims Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
16583 Schopenhauer As Educator Friedrich Nietzsche 1874 German German
16562 The Critique Of Aesthetic Judgement Immanuel Kant 1790 German German
16573 Tolkien On Fairy Stories J. R. R. Tolkien 1947 British English
16517 Reflections On The Psalms C. S. Lewis 1958 British English
16571 Screwtape Letters Clive Staples Lewis 1942 British English
16660 The Seven Who Were Hanged Leonid Andreyev 1908 Russian Russian
16721 Diary Of A Seducer Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
16662 Values, Objectivity, And The Social Sciences Gresham Riley 1974 American English
16712 Faust, Part Two Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1832 German German
16686 De L'inconvénient D'être Né Emil Cioran 1973 French
16620 The State In Capitalist Society Ralph Miliband 1969 British English
16676 O Sztuce Miłości Erich Fromm 1956 German Polish
16609 La Femme Rompue / L'âge De Discrétion / Monologue Simone de Beauvoir 1967 French French
16744 Concluding Unscientific Postscript To Philosophical Fragments, Volume 1 Soren Kierkegaard 1846 Danish Danish
16678 Psychology And Alchemy C.G. Jung 1944 Swiss German
16683 The Ethics Of Ambiguity Simone de Beauvoir 1947 French French
16748 Twilight Of The Idols, Or How To Philosophize With A Hammer Friedrich Nietzsche 1889 German German
16769 The Sleepwalkers Arthur Koestler 1959 British English
16654 The Pilgrim's Regress C. S. Lewis 1933 British English
16765 Sun And Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
16698 El Príncipe Nicolás Maquiavelo 1532 Italian Italian
16648 Kleine Weltgeschichte Der Philosophie Hans Joachim Störig 1950 German German
16746 Manalive G. K. Chesterton 1912 British English
16741 Las Confesiones Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 Genevan French
16735 The Essays Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English