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
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1375 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1389 On The Orator Marcus Tullius Cicero -55 Roman Latin
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1399 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1403 The Outsider Colin Wilson 1956 British English
1412 The Constitution of Liberty Friedrich von Hayek 1960 Austrian English
1416 Rights of Man Thomas Paine 1791 British English
1426 Mars Fritz Zorn 1977 Swiss German
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1430 The Wandering Jew Eugène Sue 1844 French French
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1438 Masnavi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1258 Persian Persian
1441 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1447 Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 German German
1449 Corpus Aristotelicum Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1452 History And Class Consciousness Georg Lukacs 1923 German German
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1459 The City of God Augustine 413 Roman Latin
1462 An American Dilemma Gunnar Myrdal 1944 Swedish English
1465 Narcissus And Goldmund Hermann Hesse 1930 German German
1466 Don Juan Lord Byron 1819 British English
1470 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1939 French French
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
1476 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
1477 An Essay on the Principle of Population Thomas Robert Malthus 1798 British English
1483 Tono Bungay H. G. Wells 1909 British English
1487 Kokoro Natsume Sōseki 1914 Japanese Japanese
1508 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1515 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1516 Heinrich of Ofterdingen Novalis 1802 German German
1523 Guzmán de Alfarache Mateo Alemán 1599 Spanish Spanish
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1528 The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius 524 Roman Latin
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1533 Dreamtigers Jorge Luis Borges 1960 Argentinian Spanish
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1539 On the Genealogy of Morality Friedrich Nietzsche 1887 German German
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
1545 Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan 1964 Canadian English
1546 Poems Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1847 American English
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1558 Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater 1885 British English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1572 Nature and Destiny of Man Reinhold Niebuhr 1941 American English
1574 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1576 The Hidden Persuaders Vance Packard 1957 American English
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
1592 Niels Lyhne Jens Peter Jacobson 1880 Danish Danish
1601 The Ego and the Id Sigmund Freud 1923 Austrian German
1601 Three Treatises Martin Luther 1520 German German
1600 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1620 Sister Outsider Audre Lorde 1984 American English
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1632 The Roots of Heaven Romain Gary 1956 French French
1642 Song Of Myself Walt Whitman 1855 American English
1644 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1647 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1657 Essays and Aphorisms Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1663 The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson 1963 British English
1667 The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1677 A Theory of Justice John Rawls 1971 American English
1681 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1692 Till We Have Faces C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1706 The Principia Mathematica Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell 1910 British English
1717 The Clown Heinrich Böll 1963 German German
1721 Pragmatism William James 1907 American English
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1727 Down There J. K. Huysmans 1891 French French
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
1745 Couples, Passersby Botho Strauß 1981 German German
1746 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion David Hume 1779 British English
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1763 Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher 1973 British English
1764 Tales Of The Hasidim Martin Buber 1949 German German
1773 Doctor Glas Hjalmar Soderberg 1905 Swedish Swedish
1778 The Strudlhof Steps Heimito von Doderer 1951 German German
1781 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1782 The Wild Ass's Skin Honoré de Balzac 1831 French French
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
1788 Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw 1919 British English
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1800 The Deptford Trilogy Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1802 Kallocain Karin Boye 1940 Swedish Swedish
1803 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1814 Christ Recrucified Nikos Kazantzakis 1948 Greek Greek
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1825 Studies In The History Of The Renaissance Walter Pater 1873 British English
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1832 Paradiso José Lezama Lima 1966 Cuban Spanish
1835 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
1836 Grendel John Gardner 1971 American English
1840 Mysteries Knut Hamsun 1892 Norwegian Norwegian
1841 Kafka's Other Trial Elias Canetti 1969 Bulgarian German
1850 On Germany Germaine de Staël 1810 French French
1854 The Courage to Be Paul Tillich 1952 German English
1855 The Order of Things Michel Foucault 1966 French French
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1862 On Aggression Konrad Lorenz 1963 Austrian German
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French