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
3055 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3063 The Language Instinct Steven Pinker 1994 American English
3065 Three Guineas Virginia Woolf 1938 British English
3066 Montaillou Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1975 French French
3081 Flappers And Philosophers F. Scott Fitzgerald 1920 American English
3086 Summer in Baden-Baden Leonid Tsypkin 1980 Russian Russian
3087 The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony Roberto Calasso 1988 Italian Italian
3090 On Death and Dying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 1969 Swiss English
3091 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3096 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3100 Diary Of A Mad Old Man Junichiro Tanizaki 1961 Japanese Japanese
3108 Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche 1886 German German
3115 Principia Ethica George Edward Moore 1903 British English
3119 The Mortal Wound Raffaele La Capria 1961 Italian Italian
3120 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3151 The Complete Poems Of San Juan De La Cruz San Juan de la Cruz 1618 Spanish Spanish
3154 Notes of a Native Son James Baldwin 1955 American English
3164 Gender Trouble Judith Butler 1990 American English
3170 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3174 The Thirtieth Year Ingeborg Bachmann 1961 Austrian German
3181 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 1966 British English
3183 Flicker Theodore Roszak 1991 American English
3182 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3184 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3191 The Age of Reason Thomas Paine 1794 British English
3192 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3194 The Lives of a Cell Lewis Thomas 1974 American English
3195 The Crock Of Gold James Stephens 1912 Irish English
3196 The Gospel Of Thomas Marvin W. Meyer 100 Unknown English
3197 The Autobiography Of A Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 Indian English
3200 The Perennial Philosophy Aldous Huxley 1945 British English
3201 The Pillar And Ground Of The Truth Pavel Florensky 1914 Russian Russian
3204 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3208 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3210 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew
3222 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
3223 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3229 Growing Up Absurd Paul Goodman 1960 American English
3231 The Strategy Of Conflict Thomas Schelling 1960 American English
3233 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 2005 American English
3234 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3236 The Man Died Wole Soyinka 1972 Nigerian English
3237 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3240 Sweet Dreams Michael Frayn 1973 British English
3244 Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 1849 American English
3245 The Transcendent Unity Of Religions Frithjof Schuon 1953 French French
3250 Lost in the Cosmos Walker Percy 1983 American English
3258 A Fine And Private Place Peter S. Beagle 1960 American English
3263 Die Reise Bernward Vesper 1977 German German
3278 Holy Week Louis Aragon 1958 French French
3282 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
3283 What Is Life? Erwin Schrödinger 1944 Austrian English
3290 On Being And Essence Thomas Aquinas 1256 Italian Latin
3293 Looking Backward, 2000 1887 Edward Bellamy 1888 American English
3294 Sonnets Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
3295 Cyropaedia Xenophon -370 Greek Ancient greek
3296 Maps Nuruddin Farah 1986 Somali English
3299 The Works Of Philodemus Philodemus -50 Greek Greek
3302 The Cocktail Party T. S. Eliot 1950 British English
3307 Camp Concentration Thomas M. Disch 1968 American English
3308 The Theater and Its Double Antonin Artaud 1938 French French
3322 Confusion Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
3323 Reveries of a Solitary Walker Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
3323 By the Open Sea August Strindberg 1890 Swedish Swedish
3323 Memoirs of My Nervous Illness Daniel Paul Schreber 1903 German German
3323 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3323 Insatiability Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1930 Polish Polish
3323 The Return of Philip Latinowicz Miroslav Krleža 1932 Croatian Croatian
3323 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
3323 Arcanum 17 André Breton 1944 French French
3323 L'Abbé C Georges Bataille 1950 French French
3372 The Green Child Herbert Read 1935 British English
3374 Juan De Mairena Antonio Machado 1936 Spanish Spanish
3378 Zadig Voltaire 1747 French French
3382 Poems Miguel de Unamuno 1907 Spanish Spanish
3383 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3384 Wandering On The Way Zhuangzi, Victor H. Mair -369 Chinese Classical chinese
3390 Selected Poetry Of Francisco De Quevedo Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
3408 The Glass Bees Ernst Jünger 1957 German German
3416 The Housekeeper And The Professor Yōko Ogawa 2003 Japanese Japanese
3421 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3423 Common Sense Thomas Paine 1776 British English
3426 The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi 1944 Canadian English
3427 Count Julian Juan Goytisolo 1970 Spanish Spanish
3438 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
3440 Ideas Have Consequences Richard M. Weaver 1948 American English
3449 The Satin Slipper Paul Claudel 1929 French French
3451 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
3452 The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom 1987 American English
3469 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
3476 The Black Obelisk Erich Maria Remarque 1956 German German
3486 Descent Into Hell Charles Williams 1937 British English
3490 Democracy and Leadership Irving Babbitt 1924 American English
3496 Institutes of the Christian Religion John Calvin 1536 French Latin
3499 Reflections of a Russian Statesman Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev 1898 Russian Russian
3511 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3514 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
3515 In the American Grain William Carlos Williams 1925 American English
3516 The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Erving Goffman 1959 American English
3517 Bureaucracy Ludwig von Mises 1944 Austrian English
3518 Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin Friedrich Holderlin 1800 German German
3521 Balzac Stefan Zweig 1946 Austrian German
3523 The Good Society Walter Lippmann 1937 American English
3525 Looking Back Norman Douglas 1933 British English
3527 Poetry and the Age Randall Jarrell 1953 American English
3528 Love in the Western World Denis de Rougemont 1939 Swiss French
3530 Behemoth Franz Neumann 1942 German English
3547 Samuel Johnson Walter Jackson Bate 1977 American English
3550 The Improvement of Human Reason Ibn Tufayl 1170 Arabic Arabic
3560 Insight Bernard Lonergan 1957 Canadian English
3566 Mystery and Manners Flannery O'Connor 1969 American English
3576 The Possessed Elif Batuman 2010 Turkish English
3581 Selected Poems Andrew Marvell 1681 British English
3594 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3593 The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years Chinghiz Aitmatov 1980 Kyrgyz Russian
3595 Les Destinées Alfred de Vigny 1864 French French
3596 Time of Silence Luis Martín-Santos 1962 Spanish Spanish
3600 Debt David Graeber 2011 American English
3606 A Throw Of The Dice Will Never Abolish Chance Stéphane Mallarmé 1897 French French
3620 Correspondence Voltaire 1751 French French