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
3323 Reveries of a Solitary Walker Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
3323 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3323 Tarr Wyndham Lewis 1918 British English
3323 Insatiability Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1930 Polish Polish
3323 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
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
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
3440 Ideas Have Consequences Richard M. Weaver 1948 American English
3452 The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom 1987 American English
3499 Reflections of a Russian Statesman Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev 1898 Russian Russian
3501 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
3511 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3518 Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin Friedrich Holderlin 1800 German German
3525 Looking Back Norman Douglas 1933 British English
3550 The Improvement of Human Reason Ibn Tufayl 1170 Arabic Arabic
3560 Insight Bernard Lonergan 1957 Canadian English
3571 The Day After Judgement James Blish 1971 American English
3595 Les Destinées Alfred de Vigny 1864 French French
3620 Correspondence Voltaire 1751 French French
3630 Life Of Quintus Fixlein Jean-Paul Richter 1796 German German
3636 Goat Song Konstantin Vaginov 1927 Russian Russian
3637 Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial Sir Thomas Browne 1658 British English
3637 Why I Am Not a Christian Bertrand Russell 1927 British English
3637 Oh, These Times Catherine the Great 1790 Russian Unknown
3637 The Temptation To Exist Emil Cioran 1956 Romanian French
3637 The Memoirs Of Princess Dashkova Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova 1840 Russian Russian
3637 Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne 1643 British English
3637 Van Loon's Lives Hendrik Willem van Loon 1942 Dutch English
3637 The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo 1942 Indian English
3637 Laughter Henri Bergson 1900 French French
3637 Cause, Principle, And Unity Giordano Bruno 1584 Italian Italian
3637 Sämtliche Werke Des Wandsbecker Boten Matthias Claudius 1775 German German
3637 Der Siebente Ring Stefan George 1907 German German
3637 Theory Of Colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1810 German German
3637 On The Marble Cliffs Ernst Jünger 1939 German German
3637 The Language Of The Third Reich Victor Klemperer 1947 German German
3637 From Caligari To Hitler Siegfried Kracauer 1947 German German
3637 Gallows Songs Christian Morgenstern 1905 German German
3637 The Prophecies Nostradamus 1555 French French
3637 The Origins Of Intelligence In Children Jean Piaget 1936 Swiss French
3637 The Sexual Revolution Wilhelm Reich 1936 German German
3637 The Seven Lamps Of Architecture John Ruskin 1849 British English
3637 The Papalagi Erich Scheurmann 1920 German German
3637 Out Of My Life And Thought Albert Schweitzer 1931 German German
3637 A Stroll To Syracuse In The Year 1802 Johann Gottfried Seume 1803 German German
3637 An Outline Of Occult Science Rudolf Steiner 1910 Austrian German
3637 The History Of The Abderites Christoph Martin Wieland 1774 German German
3806 Critique Of Cynical Reason Peter Sloterdijk 1983 German German
3807 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
3809 Wittgenstein's Nephew Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
3833 The Obsolescence Of Man Günther Anders 1956 German German
3843 The Fractal Geometry Of Nature Benoît Mandelbrot 1977 French English
3850 Fourth Mansions R. A. Lafferty 1969 American English
3953 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
3954 The Axion Esti Odysseas Elytis 1959 Greek Greek
3954 The Life And Opinions Of Zacharias Lichter Matei Călinescu 1969 Romanian Romanian
3954 Ασκητική Nikos Kazantzakis 1927 Greek Greek
4080 The Life Of Jesus Ernest Renan 1863 French French
4101 Aegypt John Crowley 1987 American English
4106 Summerhill Alexander Sutherland Neill 1960 British English
4124 Either Or Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
4152 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4153 American Genius Lynne Tillman 2006 American English
4169 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
4171 Dissipatio H.G. Guido Morselli 1977 Italian Italian
4179 Prometheus Carry van Bruggen 1919 Dutch Dutch
4217 Epistles Horace 20 Latin Latin
4228 Each Day Catches Fire Imants Ziedonis 1978 Latvian Latvian
4228 Introduction To The Sociology Of Music Theodor Adorno 1962 German English
4263 Essays of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1862 American English
4264 The Importance Of Living Lin Yutang 1937 Chinese English
4279 Fallen Leaves Vasily Rozanov 1913 Russian Russian
4291 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4293 Conversations With Igor Stravinsky Robert Craft 1959 American English
4295 The Castle franz kafka 1926 German German
4372 Frost Thomas Bernhard 1963 Austrian German
4402 The Revolt Of The Angels Anatole France 1914 French French
4416 Diary Witold Gombrowicz 1986 Polish Polish
4420 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
4421 Memoirs Of The Author Of A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman William Godwin 1798 British English
4421 Life Of John Sterling Thomas Carlyle 1851 British English
4421 Guide To Kulchur Ezra Pound 1938 American English
4445 Chronicles of Wasted Time Malcolm Muggeridge 1972 British English
4482 The Private Papers Of Henry Ryecroft George Gissing 1903 British English
4613 Civilisation Kenneth Clark 1969 British English
4658 Man And Superman George Bernard Shaw 1903 British English
4673 The Spiritual Teaching Of Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi 1972 Indian Tamil
4688 The Myth Of The Eternal Return Mircea Eliade 1949 Romanian French
4688 Christianity And Culture T. S. Eliot 1939 British English
4688 Christ And Culture H. Richard Niebuhr 1951 American English
4688 The Idea Of The Holy Rudolf Otto 1917 German English
4688 In Search Of The Miraculous P.D. Ouspensky 1947 Russian English
4688 The Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna Mahendranath Gupta 1902 Indian Bengali
4688 Major Trends In Jewish Mysticism Gershom Scholem 1929 German German
4734 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4754 Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism Chogyam Trungpa 1973 Multiple English
4758 The Faculty of Useless Knowledge Yuri Dombrovsky 1976 Russian Russian
4759 Claros Del Bosque María Zambrano 1977 Spanish Spanish
4800 Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson 1836 American English
4822 The Poet And The Lunatics G. K. Chesterton 1929 British English
4865 The Foundations Of Arithmetic Gottlob Frege 1884 German German
4878 The Golden String Bede Griffiths 1954 British English
4900 On Occult Philosophy Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 1531 German Latin
4900 The Discovery Of Freedom Rose Wilder Lane 1943 American English
4946 A Short History Of Decay Emil Cioran 1949 French French
4993 The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb 2007 Lebanese English
5026 Dying As A Country Dimitris Dimitriadis 1978 Greek Greek
5042 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
5104 Антихрист Emilian Stanev 1939 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5106 Saving The Appearances Owen Barfield 1957 British English
5106 Zen Flesh, Zen Bones Paul Reps, Nyogen Senzaki 1957 Multiple English
5123 Creation Gore Vidal 1981 American English
5158 Coleridge Richard Holmes 1989 British English
5228 The Green Face Gustav Meyrink 1916 German German
5287 Gandhi's Truth Erik H. Erikson 1969 American English
5292 Notes On The Cinematographer Robert Bresson 1975 French French