The Greatest Books of All Time on Philosophy

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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
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
75 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
207 Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis 1946 Greek Greek
220 The Republic Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
229 Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville 1835 French French
245 Nausea Jean Paul Sartre 1938 French French
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
275 The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
316 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
369 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
371 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
388 The Complete Works of Plato Plato -387 Greek Ancient greek
403 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
408 The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus 1942 French French
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
431 Memoirs From Beyond the Grave François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1849 French French
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
461 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957 American English
485 Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss 1955 French French
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
518 The Odes Horace 23 Roman Latin
527 The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
529 Life Is a Dream Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1635 Spanish Spanish
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
543 Discourse on Method Rene Descartes 1637 French French
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
585 Tao Te Ching Lao Tsu -300 Chinese Classical chinese
592 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
646 The Varieties of Religious Experience William James 1902 American English
653 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274 Italian Latin
654 The Praise of Folly Erasmus 1511 Dutch Latin
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
682 The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper 1945 British English
689 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1791 American English
728 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
730 Petersburg Andrei Bely 1913 Russian Russian
736 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Edward FitzGerald 1859 British English
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
769 A Voyage To Arcturus David Lindsay 1920 Scottish English
797 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
816 The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke 1759 British English
828 Lost Horizon James Hilton 1933 British English
863 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems Galileo 1632 Italian Italian
872 Pallieter Felix Timmermans 1916 Belgian Dutch
883 Thaïs Anatole France 1890 French French
902 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
907 Hyperion Friedrich Holderlin 1797 German German
932 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
939 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
999 Chevengur Andrey Platonov 1928 Russian Russian
1025 Ambiguous Adventure Cheikh Hamidou Kane 1961 Senegalese French
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1054 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
1068 The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 1948 American English
1076 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1080 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
1083 Upanishads Unknown -799 Indian Sanskrit
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
1102 I Ching China -1000 Chinese Chinese
1123 The Symposium Plato -385 Greek Ancient greek
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1139 The Unquiet Grave Cyril Connolly 1944 British English
1156 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1178 Nathan the Wise Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1779 German German
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American 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
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1357 I and Thou Martin Buber 1923 Austrian German
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
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
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1447 Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 German German
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1459 The City of God Augustine 413 Roman Latin
1465 Narcissus And Goldmund Hermann Hesse 1930 German German
1476 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
1515 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1528 The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius 524 Roman Latin
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German