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
14023 Generation Of Vipers Philip Wylie 1942 American English
14041 Durcheinandertal Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1989 Swiss German
14067 Sanin Mikhail Artsybashev 1907 Russian Russian
14088 La Part De L'autre Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2001 French French
14093 The Disciple Paul Bourget 1889 French French
14111 Epistulae Pliny the Younger 100 Roman Latin
14120 They Flew Carlos Eire 2023 Unknown English
14122 The Mask Of Apollo Mary Renault 1966 British English
14138 Beyond This Horizon Robert A. Heinlein 1942 American English
14174 Autobiography Bertrand Russell 1967 British English
14176 To Be A Machine Mark O'Connell 2017 Irish English
14194 Julian Gore Vidal 1964 American English
14212 The Opinions Of Jerome Coignard Anatole France 1893 French French
14212 Plato And Platonism Walter Pater 1893 British English
14232 Einstein's Dreams Alan Lightman 1992 American English
14232 Quicksilver Neal Stephenson 2003 American English
14331 Changing Planes Ursula K. Le Guin 2003 American English
14376 Gaston De Latour Walter Pater 1896 British English
14383 The Chess Master Ah Cheng 1984 Chinese Chinese
14387 On The Branch Pierre de Coulevain 1904 French French
14409 The Life Of Reason George Santayana 1905 American English
14434 The Function Of The Poet, And Other Essays James Russell Lowell 1893 American English
14434 The World Of Mathematics James R. Newman 1956 American English
14479 Adventures In Friendship David Grayson 1910 American English
14498 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14517 Brev Från Nollpunkten Peter Englund 1996 Swedish Swedish
14519 Memoir From Antproof Case Mark Helprin 1995 American English
14519 The Coast Of Utopia Tom Stoppard 2002 British English
14629 The Elm Tree On The Mall Anatole France 1905 French French
14641 Somos Luces Abismales Carolina Sanin 2018 Colombian Spanish
14642 The Spirit Of American Literature John Albert Macy 1913 American English
14649 A Night In The Luxembourg Remy de Gourmont 1906 French French
14666 The Finkler Question Howard Jacobson 2010 British English
14694 Interpretations Of Literature Lafcadio Hearn 1915 British English
14694 Seven Great Statesmen In The Warfare Of Humanity With Unreason Andrew Dickson White 1915 American English
14719 Almagest Ptolemy 150 Greek Greek
14722 Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws Philo of Alexandria 50 Jewish Greek
14730 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14753 Outlines of Pyrrhonism Sextus Empiricus -180 Greek Greek
14750 Musashi Eiji Yoshikawa 1935 Japanese Japanese
14751 On The Ends Of Good And Evil Marcus Tullius Cicero 45 Roman Latin
14729 Musonius Rufus Musonius Rufus, Cynthia King -30 Mixed Greek
14730 The Territorial Imperative Robert Ardrey 1966 American English
14770 The Symposium Xenophon 361 Greek Ancient greek
14778 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
14785 Fear and Trembling Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
14788 The Harmony of the Worlds Johannes Kepler 1619 German Latin
14788 The Three Hundred Tang Poems China 1763 Chinese Chinese
14817 Restaurant At The End Of The Universe Douglas Adams 1980 British English
14821 Summulae De Dialectica John Buridan, Gyula Klima 1350 French Latin
14819 Logic And Knowledge Bertrand Russell 1956 British English
14832 The Book Of Why Judea Pearl, Dana Mackenzie 2018 American English
14830 Abhinavagupta Abhinavagupta 1016 Indian Sanskrit
14852 Memoirs Of A Dutiful Daughter Simone de Beauvoir 1958 French French
14865 The Book Of Tea Kakuzō Okakura 1906 Japanese English
14889 What Is Metaphysics? Martin Heidegger 1929 German German
14897 The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution Bernard Bailyn 1967 American English
14897 Hypatia Charles Kingsley 1853 British English
14896 Archy And Mehitabel Don Marquis 1927 American English
14872 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14886 Black Spring Henry Miller 1936 American English
14922 Life, The Universe And Everything Douglas Adams 1982 British English
14929 Surprised By Joy C. S. Lewis 1955 British English
14947 The Coming Of Age Simone de Beauvoir 1970 French French
14958 Lucky Per Henrik Pontoppidan 1898 Danish Danish
14961 The Sovereignty Of Good Iris Murdoch 1970 British English
14984 Freedom Orlando Patterson 1991 Jamaican English
14984 The Metaphysical Club Louis Menand 2001 American English
14984 Payback Margaret Atwood 2008 Canadian English
14984 The Dancing Wu Li Masters Gary Zukav 1979 American English
14984 Shadows on the Hudson Isaac Bashevis Singer 1997 American Yiddish
14984 Call Me Zebra Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi 2018 American English
14984 The Baroque Cycle Neal Stephenson 2003 American English
14984 The Beauty Of Everyday Things Soetsu Yanagi 2019 Japanese Japanese
14984 Wittgenstein Jr. Lars Iyer 2014 British English
14984 Treasury Of The True Dharma Eye Kazuaki Tanahashi 2010 Japanese Japanese
14984 The Body Yasuo Yuasa 1987 Japanese Japanese
14984 The Bounds Of Sense P. F. Strawson 1966 British English
14984 Cultural Amnesia Clive James 2007 Australian English
14984 The Golden Mean Annabel Lyon 2009 Canadian English
14984 A Psalm For The Wild Built Becky Chambers 2021 American English
14984 The Coming Wave Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar 2024 English
14984 The Crisis Of Narration Byung-Chul Han 2023 German German
14984 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
14984 Affinities Brian Dillon 2023 British English
15560 Confessions Of A Book Lover Maurice Francis Egan 1919 American English
15584 Accepting The Universe John Burroughs 1920 American English
15588 The Making Of A Counter Culture Theodore Roszak 1969 American English
15610 The Greening Of America Charles A. Reich 1970 American English
15610 The Primal Scream Arthur Janov 1970 American English
15632 Planet Magnon Leif Randt 2015 German German
15633 Beasts, Men And Gods Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski 1922 Polish Polish
15645 The Days Of A Man David Starr Jordan 1922 American English
15650 Where The Blue Begins Christopher Morley 1922 American English
15654 The Outline Of Literature John Drinkwater 1923 British English
15672 Religious Perplexities L. P. Jacks 1923 British English
15680 The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Buddhist Wisdom Gill Farrer-Halls British English
15751 The Tree Of Knowledge Pío Baroja 1911 Spanish Spanish
15785 Critique Of Religion And Philosophy Walter A. Kaufmann 1958 American English
15795 The Harz Journey And Selected Prose Heinrich Heine 1826 German German
15817 The Mystery Of Being 1 Gabriel Marcel 1949 French French
15898 Philosophy of Modern Music Theodor Adorno 1949 German German
15898 Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature Niels Bohr 1932 Danish English
15898 Science and Hypothesis Henri Poincaré 1902 French French
15898 Science and the Modern World Alfred North Whitehead 1925 British English
15898 Experience and Education John Dewey 1938 American English
15898 An Introduction to Metaphysics Henri Bergson 1903 French French
15898 First Principles Herbert Spencer 1862 British English
15898 The Guide for the Perplexed Moses Maimonides 1190 Jewish Arabic
15898 Works of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1700 German Latin
15898 The life and letters of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1817 American English
15898 The Caxtons Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1849 British English
15898 The New England Mind Perry Miller 1939 American English
15898 Milinda Panha Unknown -100 Mulitple Pali
15898 The Fundamental Wisdom Of The Middle Way Nagarjuna, Jay L. Garfield -150 Unknown Sanskrit
15898 An Inquiry Into The Good Nishida Kitarō 1911 Japanese Japanese
15898 Watsuji Tetsuro's Rinrigaku Watsuji Tetsuro 1937 Japanese Japanese
15898 Averroes George F. Hourani 1961 American English
15898 Tattvachintamani Gaṅgeśa 1321 Indian Sanskrit
15898 The Padārthatattvanirūpaṇam Of Raghunātha śiromaṇi Karl H. Potter 1957 Unknown Sanskrit