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
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
889 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
902 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
907 Hyperion Friedrich Holderlin 1797 German German
911 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
930 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
932 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
934 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
935 Martin Eden Jack London 1909 American English
939 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
952 Two Treatises of Government John Locke 1689 British English
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
959 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
960 The Gift Vladimir Nabokov 1938 Russian Russian
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
974 The Poems of John Keats John Keats 1817 British English
980 News from Nowhere William Morris 1890 British English
988 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
996 Journey by Moonlight Antal Szerb 1937 Hungarian Hungarian
997 Julie, or the New Heloise Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1761 French French
1004 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
1011 Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
1012 Invitation To A Beheading Vladimir Nabokov 1935 American Russian
1016 Poems Of C. P. Cavafy C. P. Cavafy 1935 Greek Greek
1018 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1019 The Interior Castle Teresa of Avila 1588 Spanish Spanish
1024 Some Prefer Nettles Junichiro Tanizaki 1929 Japanese Japanese
1025 Ambiguous Adventure Cheikh Hamidou Kane 1961 Senegalese French
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1030 Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes 1641 French Latin
1032 The Epistle To The Romans Karl Barth 1919 Swiss German
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1041 On War Carl Von Clausewitz 1832 German German
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1044 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1046 Justine Marquis de Sade 1791 French French
1051 The Phenomenon Of Man Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1955 French French
1054 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
1058 Memories, Dreams, Reflections Carl Jung 1963 Swiss German
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1076 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1079 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1080 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
1081 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1082 The Abolition of Man C. S. Lewis 1943 British English
1083 Upanishads Unknown -799 Indian Sanskrit
1088 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1102 I Ching China -1000 Chinese Chinese
1108 Chaka Thomas Mofolo 1925 South African Sesotho
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1112 The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake William Blake 1827 British English
1122 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 1988 British English
1123 The Symposium Plato -385 Greek Ancient greek
1125 Philoctetes Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1135 The Tunnel Ernesto Sábato 1948 Argentinian Spanish
1139 The Unquiet Grave Cyril Connolly 1944 British English
1147 Dialectic Of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer 1944 German German
1156 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1159 Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 1963 German English
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1170 Capitalism and Freedom Milton Friedman 1962 American English
1174 As A Man Grows Older Italo Svevo 1898 Italian Italian
1178 Nathan the Wise Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1779 German German
1187 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French
1188 The Quest for Community Robert Nisbet 1953 American English
1190 The Spirit Of The Laws Montesquieu 1748 French French
1192 The Politics Aristotle -350 Greek Ancient greek
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1197 Light Years James Salter 1975 American English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1212 A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1226 What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1902 Russian Russian
1229 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake 1789 British English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1238 The Age of Anxiety W. H. Auden 1947 British English
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1255 Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 1970 American English
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
1258 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 Albanian Albanian
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
1267 Billy Budd Herman Melville 1924 American English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1283 Cybernetics Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
1290 Lilith George MacDonald 1895 Scottish English
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1298 The Days of His Grace Eyvind Johnson 1960 Swedish Swedish
1297 Poetics Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1311 Boredom Alberto Moravia 1960 Italian Italian
1320 God and Man at Yale William F. Buckley, Jr 1951 American English
1321 A Question of Power Bessie Head 1973 Botswanan English
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1327 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1332 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1336 Peter Schlemihl Adalbert von Chamisso 1814 German German
1342 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1357 I and Thou Martin Buber 1923 Austrian German
1358 The Principle Of Hope Ernst Bloch 1954 German German
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1364 Fragments Heraclitus -500 Greek Ancient greek