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
2392 Satantango László Krasznahorkai 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
2396 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2402 The Poems Of John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester John Wilmot 1680 British English
2410 The Fear Of Freedom Erich Fromm 1941 German English
2418 A Mathematician's Apology G. H. Hardy 1940 British English
2420 Natural Right and History Leo Strauss 1953 American English
2421 Phaedrus Plato -370 Greek Ancient greek
2422 Galileo Bertolt Brecht 1938 German German
2424 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2425 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2434 Modern Times Paul Johnson 1983 British English
2445 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2448 Bostan Saadi 1257 Persian Persian
2462 Poems Of William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant 1821 American English
2469 Hyperion Dan Simmons 1989 American English
2471 Roll, Jordan, Roll Eugene Genovese 1974 American English
2474 Essays And Criticism William Hazlitt 1823 British English
2487 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2490 The Moon And Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham 1919 British English
2496 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
2507 The Abyss Marguerite Yourcenar 1968 French French
2508 Metaphysics Aristotle -347 Greek Ancient greek
2516 Hippolytus Euripides -428 Greek Ancient greek
2520 Waiting For God Simone Weil 1950 French French
2525 The Everlasting Man G. K. Chesterton 1925 British English
2527 Life of Christ Giovanni Papini 1921 Italian Italian
2535 The Way of a Pilgrim Unknown 1884 Russian Russian
2547 Stories Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
2547 Bosnian Chronicle Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
2547 Death in Rome Wolfgang Koeppen 1954 German German
2553 Disobedience Alberto Moravia 1948 Italian Italian
2552 The Last Temptation of Christ Nikos Kazantzakis 1955 Greek Greek
2557 Alamut Vladimir Bartol 1938 Slovenian Slovene
2558 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2563 The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Edmund Husserl 1936 German German
2567 Poesías Completas Antonio Machado 1940 Spanish Spanish
2568 Apologia Pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1864 British English
2568 The Idea Of A University John Henry Newman 1852 British English
2571 Childhood Nathalie Sarraute 1983 French French
2572 A Longing For The Light Vicente Aleixandre 1979 Spanish Spanish
2574 The Hedgehog and the Fox Isaiah Berlin 1953 British English
2578 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2581 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2598 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2596 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
2602 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2604 The Conservationist Nadine Gordimer 1974 South African English
2606 Poems And Prose Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1797 British English
2609 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2616 The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman Andrzej Szczypiorski 1986 Polish Polish
2621 Main Currents in American Thought Vernon L. Parrington 1927 American English
2624 The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell 1949 American English
2626 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
2627 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
2634 Logical Investigations Edmund Husserl 1900 German German
2636 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2639 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2642 Perpetual Peace Immanuel Kant 1795 German German
2647 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2648 Gemini Michel Tournier 1975 French French
2653 Suicide Emile Durkheim 1897 French French
2665 The Mismeasure of Man Stephen Jay Gould 1981 American English
2666 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2681 The Czar's Madman Jaan Kross 1978 Estonian Estonian
2685 The Managerial Revolution James Burnham 1941 American English
2687 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2699 Existentialism And Humanism Jean Paul Sartre 1946 French French
2706 The Works Of Thomas Lovell Beddoes Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1851 British English
2709 Les Caractères Jean de La Bruyère 1688 French French
2710 Alan Turing Andrew Hodges 1983 British English
2711 Reasons And Persons Derek Parfit 1984 British English
2716 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2721 Revelations Of Divine Love Julian of Norwich 1395 English Middle english
2722 Perelandra C. S. Lewis 1943 British English
2723 A Man For All Seasons Robert Bolt 1960 American English
2724 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2725 The Discovery Of Slowness Sten Nadolny 1983 German German
2736 Philosophical Writings Novalis 1798 German German
2739 Dark Night of the Soul St. John of the Cross 1578 Spanish Spanish
2750 The Worm Forgives The Plough John Stewart Collis 1947 British English
2771 The Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist Friedrich Nietzsche 1888 German German
2770 The Book Of Divine Consolation Meister Eckhart 1308 German Middle high german
2777 The Art Of Worldly Wisdom Baltasar Gracián 1647 Spanish Spanish
2780 Mist Miguel de Unamuno 1914 Spanish English
2785 The Philosophy Of Symbolic Forms Ernst Cassirer 1929 German German
2796 The Theory Of Communicative Action Jürgen Habermas 1981 German German
2797 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
2806 The Art of Memory Frances A. Yates 1966 British English
2816 The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels 1979 American English
2824 Bint F. Bordewijk 1934 Dutch Dutch
2850 Dictionary of the Khazars Milorad Pavic 1984 Serbian Serbian
2852 The Counterlife Philip Roth 1986 American English
2864 Endgame Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish French
2869 Strophic Poems Hadewijch 1250 Dutch Middle dutch
2873 The Moral Essays Giacomo Leopardi 1832 Italian Italian
2875 River of Fire Qurratulain Hyder 1959 Indian Urdu
2882 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2883 Physics And Beyond Werner Heisenberg 1971 German German
2888 Hadji Murat Leo Tolstoy 1912 Russian Russian
2890 The Traveller Oliver Goldsmith 1764 Irish English
2903 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
2921 Discourses Of Epictetus Epictetus -108 Greek Greek
2924 The Poems of Walt Whitman Walt Whitman 1855 American English
2935 The Better Angels Of Our Nature Steven Pinker 2011 American English
2936 The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution C. P. Snow 1959 British English
2952 Exit, Voice, And Loyalty Albert Hirschman 1970 American English
2956 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
2959 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2961 Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci 1948 Italian Italian
2963 The History Man Malcolm Bradbury 1975 British English
2974 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2979 Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer 2013 American English
2994 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
3000 The Rise of the West William H. McNeill 1963 American English
3001 Monsignor Quixote Graham Greene 1982 British English
3002 The Savage Mind Claude Lévi-Strauss 1962 French French
3004 The Monkey's Wrench Primo Levi 1978 Italian Italian
3007 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3010 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3055 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English