A collection of over 120 philosophy reading lists organised by topic

One of the most common questions people ask when learning about philosophy is: “what should I read first?” Unfortunately, it can also be a difficult question to answer. Philosophy is an incredibly broad subject and there is no single starting point that will be best for everyone. The best place to start will depend heavily on your preferred learning style, the topics you’re interested in, and the amount of time and energy you’re willing to spend reading. Instead of recommending a single “best” starting point, these lists aim to provide reading recommendations that will suit a broad range of learning styles. Where available, each list aims to contain:

  • a short, beginner friendly introduction – these are usually a safe bet for total beginners, or for people reading primarily out of curiousity or for pleasure
  • a longer, more comprehensive introduction – these are typically books that would be suitable for an undergraduate philosophy course
  • an philosophical anthology – these feature a collection of important readings on a particular topic
  • a philosophy handbook or companion – these are collections of up-to-date articles on a topic. They tend to be more comprehensive and are aimed at an academic audience. They’re usually an excellent starting-point for students doing research for essays.
  • a couple of classic works – most lists also contain a few classic works of philosophy. These tend to vary significantly in length and difficulty.

This variety aims to provide options to suit many different learning styles. If you tend to find classic works of philosophy difficult to understand, there’s usually a short, beginner-friendly introduction to the topic available instead. If you prefer more depth, you can choose a more comprehensive introduction, a relevant handbook, or pick up one of the classics. It’s also worth noting that these are not personal recommendations. These lists were created by browsing through hundreds of community recommendations, philosophy course syllabi, and encyclopedia article bibliographies. More infomation on each of these lists can be found by following the link above each list.

There are over 120 reading lists below, simply choose a topic to get started.

Table of Contents

Topics

This section features reading lists on various philosophical topics.

Introductions to Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher – Julian Baggini
  • What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy – Thomas Nagel
  • Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy – Jostein Gaarder
  • Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy – Simon Blackburn
  • A New History of Western Philosophy – Anthony Kenny
  • The Trial and Death of Socrates – Plato
  • Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
  • Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes

Epistemology

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction – Jennifer Nagel
  • Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge – Robert Audi
  • Epistemology: An Anthology – Sosa et al.
  • Theaetetus – Plato
  • Discourse on the Method/Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – David Hume

Memory

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Memory: A Very Short Introduction – Johnathan K. Foster
  • Memory: A Philosophical Study – Sven Bernecker
  • Theories of Memory: A Reader – Rossington & Whitehead
  • The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory – Bernecker & Michaelian
  • Theatetus – Plato
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – David Hume

Perception

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Perception: A Very Short Introduction – Brian Rogers
  • Philosophy of Perception : A Contemporary Introduction – William Fish
  • Vision and Mind: Selected Readings in the Philosophy of Perception – Noe & Thompson
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Perception – Mohan Matthen
  • The Problems of Philosophy – Bertrand Russell
  • The Phenomenology of Perception – Maurice Merleau-Ponty
  • The Problem of Perception – A. D. Smith

Skepticism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction – Duncan Pritchard
  • Skepticism in Philosophy: A Comprehensive, Historical Introduction – Henrick Lagerlund
  • Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader – DeRose & Warfield
  • The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism – John Greco
  • Meditations on First Philosophy – Rene Decartes
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – David Hume
  • On Certainty – Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism – Barry Stroud

Ethics

Ethics is the study of concepts involving practical reasoning: good, right, duty, obligation, virtue, choice, etc. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Elements Of Moral Philosophy – James Rachels & Stuart Rachels
  • The Fundamentals of Ethics – Russ Shafer-Landau
  • Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues – Steven Cahn & Peter Markie
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant
  • Utilitarianism – John Stuart Mill
  • Practical Ethics – Peter Singer

Animal Ethics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Ethics and Animals: An Introduction – Lori Gruen
  • The Animal Rights Debate – Francione & Garner
  • The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics – Tom L. Beauchamp & R.G. Frey
  • The Animal Ethics Reader – Susan J. Armstrong & Richard G. Botzler
  • Animal Liberation – Peter Singer
  • The Case for Animal Rights – Tom Regan

Applied Ethics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter – Peter Singer
  • Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues – Lewis Vaughn
  • Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics – Andrew I. Cohen & Christopher Heath Wellman
  • The Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics – Hugh LaFollette
  • A Companion to Applied Ethics – R. G. Frey & Christopher Heath Wellman
  • Ethics in Practice: An Anthology – Hugh LaFollette
  • Practical Ethics – Peter Singer

Bioethics

Bioethics is the branch of ethics that investigates problems specifically arising from medical and biological practice. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Basics of Bioethics – Robert M. Veatch
  • Principles of Biomedical Ethics – Tom L. Beauchamp & James F. Childress
  • A Companion to Bioethics – Helga Kuhse & Peter Singer
  • The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics – Bonnie Steinbock
  • Bioethics: An Anthology – Kuhse, Schüklenk & Singer

Consequentialism

Consequentialism is the view that the rightness (or wrongness) of an action is determined entirely by its consequences. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Consequentialism – Julia Driver
  • Consequentialism and Its Critics – Samuel Scheffler
  • The Oxford Handbook of Consequentialism – Douglas W. Portmore
  • An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation – Jeremy Bentham
  • Utilitarianism – John Stuart Mill
  • The Demands of Consequentialism – Tim Mulgan

Deontological Ethics

Deontological ethics refers to ethical views that judge actions primarily based on notions of duties or rights. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Kantian Ethics – Allen W. Wood
  • Deontology – Stephen Darwall
  • The Blackwell Guide to Kant’s Ethics – Thomas E. Hill Jr.
  • Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant
  • The Right and the Good – David Ross

Effective Altruism

Effective Altruism is a social movement which was influenced by the philosopher Peter Singer and aims to do the most good in the world. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Doing Good Better – Will MacAskill
  • The Most Good You Can Do – Peter Singer
  • The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity – Toby Ord
  • 80,000 Hours: Find a Fulfilling Career that Does Good – Benjamin Todd
  • Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues – Greaves & Plummer
  • Famine, Affluence, and Morality – Peter Singer

Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics is the branch of ethics concerning issues relating to the environment. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction – Robin Attfield
  • Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction – Dale Jamieson
  • The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics – Allen Thompson & Stephen M. Gardiner
  • Environmental Ethics: An Anthology – Andrew Light & Holmes Rolston III

Friendship

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Friendship – A. C. Grayling
  • The Philosophy of Friendship – Mark Vernon
  • Friendship: A Philosophical Reader – Neera Badhwar
  • Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, with Selections from Republic and Laws – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • On Friendship – Alexander Nehemas

Happiness

All ethical views ascribe some value to happiness, however there is considerable disagreement about what happiness actually is. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Happiness: A Very Short Introduction – Daniel M. Haybron
  • What is This Things Called Happiness? – Fred Feldman
  • Oxford Handbook of Happiness – Susan David et al.
  • Theories of Happiness: An Anthology – Jennifer Wilson Mulnix & M.J. Mulnix
  • The Pursuit of Unhappiness – Daniel M. Haybron

Love

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Love: A Very Short Introduction – Ronald de Sousa
  • Philosophy of Love: A Partial Summing-up – Irving Singer
  • Eros, Agape, and Philia: Readings in the Philosophy of Love – Alan Soble
  • The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy – Adrienne Martin
  • Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, with Selections from Republic and Laws – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • The Art of Loving – Erich Fromm
  • Existentialism and Romantic Love – Skye Cleary
  • What Love Is: And What it Could Be – Carrie Jenkins

Meaning of Life

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • What’s It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life – Julian Baggini
  • Exploring the Meaning of Life: An Anthology and Guide – Joshua W. Seachris
  • Meaning in Life and Why It Matters – Susan Wolf
  • Meaning in Life: An Analytic Study – Thaddeus Metz
  • Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl

Metaethics

Metaethics investigates the nature and grounds of ethical beliefs and systems. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • What is this thing called Metaethics? – Matthew Chrisman
  • Metaethics: A Contemporary Introduction – Mark van Roojen
  • The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics – Tristram McPherson & David Plunkett
  • Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology – Russ Shafer-Landau & Terence Cuneo
  • Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant

Moral Psychology

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Moral Psychology: An Introduction – Mark Alfano
  • Moral Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction – Valerie Tiberius
  • The Moral Psychology Handbook – John M. Doris
  • Moral Psychology: Historical and Contemporary Readings – Nadelhoffer et al.
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals – David Hume
  • Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the view that actions should be judged based on whether they tend to maximize happiness, pleasure, or well-being. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction – Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek & Peter Singer
  • Understanding Utilitarianism – Tim Mulgan
  • The Cambridge Companion to Utilitarianism – Ben Eggleston & Dale E. Miller
  • The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill – John Troyer
  • An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation – Jeremy Bentham
  • Utilitarianism – John Stuart Mill
  • The Methods of Ethics – Henry Sidgwick
  • The Point of View of the Universe – Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek & Peter Singer

Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics is an approach to ethics that tends to emphasize the role of virtue, or moral character, in ethical decision making. You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Virtue Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction – Liezl van Zyl
  • The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics – Daniel C. Russell
  • Virtue Ethics – Roger Crisp  & Michael Slote
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • Natural Goodness – Philippa Foot
  • After Virtue – Alasdair MacIntyre
  • On Virtue Ethics – Rosalind Hursthouse

Well-being

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Philosophy of Well-Being: An Introduction – Guy Fletcher
  • How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing your Personal Philosophy – Pigliucci, Cleary, & Kaufman
  • The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Well-Being – Guy Fletcher
  • The Good Life – Charles Guignon
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • Philosophy and the Good Life – John Cottingham
  • The Best Things in Life – Thomas Hurka

Metaphysics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction – Stephen Mumford
  • Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics– Earl Conee and Theodore Sider
  • A Survey of Metaphysics– E. J. Lowe
  • Metaphysics: The Big Questions– Peter Inwagen and Dean Zimmerman
  • Phaedo – Plato
  • Metaphysics– Aristotle
  • Meditations on First Philosophy– René Descartes
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding– David Hume
  • Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics– Immanuel Kant

Causation

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Causation: A Very Short Introduction – Mumford & Anjum
  • Causation: A User’s Guide – Paul & Hall
  • Causation (Oxford Readings In Philosophy) – Ernest Sosa
  • The Oxford Handbook of Causation – Beebee, Hitchcock, & Menzies
  • Metaphysics – Aristotle
  • An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding – David Hume
  • Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics – Immanuel Kant
  • The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation – J. L. Mackie

Death

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Death– Shelly Kagan
  • Philosophy and Death: Introductory Readings – S. Brennan & R. J. Stainton
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death– B. Bradley, F. Feldman, & J. Johansson
  • Phaedo – Plato
  • Letter to Menoeceus – Epicurus
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy

Free Will

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Free Will: A Very Short Introduction – Thomas Pink
  • A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will – Robert Kane
  • Four Views on Free Will – Fischer, Kane, Pereboom, & Vargas
  • Free Will – Gary Watson
  • The Oxford Handbook of Free Will – Robert Kane
  • Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting – Daniel C. Dennett

God

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion – Brian Davies
  • Arguing about Gods – Graham Oppy
  • Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion – C. Meister & P. Copan
  • Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – David Hume
  • Five Proofs of the Existence of God – Edward Feser
  • The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God – J. L. Mackie

Philosophy of Mind

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Mind: A Brief Introduction – John R. Searle
  • Philosophy of Mind – Jaegwon Kim
  • Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings – David J. Chalmers
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind – McLaughlin, Beckermann, & Walter
  • Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – David Hume

Personal Identity

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality – John Perry
  • Persons and Personal Identity – Amy Kind
  • Personal Identity – Harold W. Noonan
  • Personal Identity – John Perry
  • The Oxford Handbook of the Self – Shaun Gallagher
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
  • A Treatise of Human Nature – David Hume
  • Reasons and Persons – Derek Parfit

Political Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • An Introduction to Political Philosophy – Jonathan Wolff
  • Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction – Will Kimlicka
  • Arguing About Political Philosophy – Matt Zwolinski
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Politics – Aristotle
  • The Prince – Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Second Treatise of Government – John Locke
  • Early Writings – Karl Marx
  • On Liberty – John Stuart Mill

Anarchism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction – Colin Ward
  • Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism – Peter Marshall
  • No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism – Daniel Guerin
  • The Bloomsbury Companion to Anarchism – Ruth Kinna
  • Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Reader – Iain McKay
  • God and the State – Mikhail Bakunin
  • Anarchism and Other Essays – Emma Goldman
  • The Conquest of Bread and Other Writings – Peter Kropotkin
  • In Defense of Anarchism – Robert Paul Wolff
  • Is There a Duty to Obey the Law? For and Against – Wellman & Simmons

Conservatism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • How to Be a Conservative– Roger Scruton
  • Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and Political Thought From David Hume to the Present – Jerry Z. Muller
  • Reflections on the Revolution in France – Edmund Burke
  • The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot – Russell Kirk
  • Rationalism in Politics – Michael Oakeshott

Critical Theory

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Introducing Critical Theory – Stuart Sim
  • Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas – David Held
  • Critical Theory: The Essential Readings – David Ingram
  • Critical Theory: Selected Essays – Max Horkheimer
  • One-Dimensional Man – Herbert Marcuse
  • Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School – Stuart Jeffries

Democracy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Theories of Democracy: A Critical Introduction – Frank Cunningham
  • Models of Democracy – David Held
  • Philosophy and Democracy: An Anthology – Thomas Christiano
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Politics – Aristotle
  • The Social Contract – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Democracy in America – Alexis de Tocqueville
  • On Democracy – Robert A. Dahl
  • Democratic Authority: A Philosophical Framework – David M. Estlund
  • Against Democracy – Jason Brennan

Freedom

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Freedom: An Introduction with Readings – Nigel Warburton
  • Freedom: Contemporary Liberal Perspectives – Katrin Flikschuh
  • Freedom: A Philosophical Anthology – I. Carter, M. Kramer & H. Steiner
  • The Liberty Reader – David Miller
  • The Oxford Handbook of Freedom – David Schmidtz & Carmen Pavel
  • On Liberty – John Stuart Mill
  • Four Essays on Liberty – Isaiah Berlin

Global Justice

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Global Justice – Jon Mandle
  • Political Theory and International Relations – Charles R. Beitz
  • The Global Justice Reader – Thom Brooks
  • Global Justice: Seminal Essays – Thomas Pogge & Darrel Moellendorf
  • The Law of Peoples – John Rawls
  • World Poverty and Human Rights – Thomas W. Pogge
  • Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Account – Gillian Brock

Human Rights

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction – Andrew Clapham
  • The Evolution of International Human Rights – Paul Gordon Lauren
  • Human Rights: An Introduction – Darren J. O’Byrne
  • Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights – Cruft, Liao, & Renzo
  • World Poverty and Human Rights – Thomas Pogge
  • The Idea of Human Rights – Charles R. Beitz
  • On Human Rights – James Griffin
  • The Heart of Human Rights – Allen Buchanan

Justice

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? – Michael Sandel
  • Justice: An Anthology – Louis P. Pojman
  • The Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice – Serena Oslaretti
  • Republic – Plato
  • Politics – Aristotle
  • A Theory of Justice – John Rawls
  • The Idea of Justice – Amartya Sen
  • Rescuing Justice and Equality – G. A. Cohen

Liberalism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction – Michael Freeden
  • Liberalism and the Limits of Justice – Michael Sandel
  • Liberalism and Its Critics – Michael Sandel
  • The Cambridge Companion to Liberalism – Steven Wall
  • Second Treatise of Government – John Locke
  • On Liberty – John Stuart Mill
  • Political Liberalism – John Rawls

Libertarianism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know – Jason Brennan
  • Libertarianism (Key Concepts in Political Theory) – Eric Mack
  • The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings – David Boaz
  • The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism – Brennan, van der Vossen, & Schmidtz
  • Anarchy, State, and Utopia – Robert Nozick
  • Law, Legislation, and Liberty, Volume 1: Rules and Order – Friedrich Hayek
  • Left Libertarianism and its Critics: The Contemporary Debate – Vallentyne & Steiner
  • Libertarianism without Inequality – Michael Otsuka

Marxism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Understanding Marxism – Geoff Boucher
  • Main Currents of Marxism – Leszek Kolakowski
  • Marxism after Marx – David McLellan
  • Marx and Modernity: Key Readings and Commentary – Robert Antonio
  • Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism – Bidet & Kouvelakis
  • Selected Writings – Karl Marx
  • A Future for Marxism? – Andrew Levine
  • Reconstructing Marxism – Wright, Levine, & Sober
  • From Marxism to Post-Marxism – Göran Therborn

Punishment

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Problem of Punishment – David Boonin
  • Why Punish? How Much?: A Reader on Punishment – Michael Tonry
  • The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Science of Punishment – Focquaert, Shaw, and Waller
  • An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation – Jeremy Bentham
  • Punishment and Responsibility: Essays in the Philosophy of Law – H.L.A. Hart
  • Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison – Michel Foucault
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander
  • The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice – Reiman & Leighton

Socialism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Socialism: Past and Future – Michael Harrington
  • Why Not Socialism? – G. A. Cohen
  • Selected Writings – Karl Marx
  • Socialism: Utopian and Scientific – Friedrich Engels
  • The Fatal Conceit – Friedrich Hayek
  • A Future for Socialism – John Roemer
  • Envisioning Real Utopias – Erik Olin Wright
  • How to Be an Anti-capitalist in the 21st Century – Erik Olin Wright

Utopia

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Utopia Reader – Claeys & Sargeant
  • Utopia – Thomas More
  • Ideology and Utopia – Karl Mannheim
  • The Grasshopper: Games Life, and Utopia – Bernard Suits
  • Anarchy, State and Utopia – Robert Nozick
  • Utopia as Method – Ruth Levitas
  • Envisioning Real Utopias – Erik Olin Wright
  • Automation and Utopia – John Danaher

War

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations – Michael Walzer
  • The Ethics of War and Peace – Helen Frowe
  • The Morality of War: A Reader – Kinsella & Carr
  • The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War – Seth Lazar
  • On War – Carl von Clausewitz
  • Killing in War – Jeff Mcmahan

Regions

African Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • An Introduction to African Philosophy – Samuel Oluoch Imbo
  • A Short History of African Philosophy – Barry Hallen
  • African Philosophy: Myth and Reality – Paulin J. Hountondji & Abiola Irele
  • African Philosophy in Search of Identity – D. A. Masolo
  • A Companion to African Philosophy – Kwasi Wiredu
  • The African Philosophy Reader – P.H. Coetzee & A.P.J. Roux

Chinese Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy – Bryan W. Van Norden
  • A Short History of Chinese Philosophy – Fung Yu-lan
  • Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy – P. J. Ivanhoe & B. W. Van Norden
  • Dao De Jing – Laozi
  • The Analects – Confucius
  • Mencius – Mencius
  • Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings – Chuang Tzu
  • The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life – Michael Puett

Indian Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction – Sue Hamilton
  • An Introduction to Indian Philosophy – Roy W. Perrett
  • Classical Indian Philosophy – Adamson & Ganeri
  • A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy – Radhakrishnan & Moore
  • Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy – Jonardon Ganeri
  • The Upanishads
  • The Bhagavad Gita
  • In the Buddha’s Words – Bhikkhu Bodhi

Islamic Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy in the Islamic World: A Very Short Introduction – Peter Adamson
  • Philosophy in the Islamic World – Peter Adamson
  • Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources – McGinnis & Reisman
  • The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy – Peter Adamson
  • The Incoherence of the Philosophers – al-Ghazali
  • The Metaphysics of The Healing – Avicenna

Other Topics

Aesthetics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • But Is It Art? – Cynthia Freeland
  • Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction – Noël Carroll
  • Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology – Cahn & Meskin
  • The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics – Jerrold Levinson
  • Poetics – Aristotle
  • Of the Standard of Taste – David Hume

Analytic Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction – Michael Beaney
  • A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls – Stephen P. Schwartz
  • Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy – Avrum Stroll
  • A Companion to Analytic Philosophy – A. P. Martinich & David Sosa
  • Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology – A. P. Martinich & David Sosa
  • The Problems of Philosophy – Bertrand Russell

Ancient Greek Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction – Julia Annas
  • Ancient Greek Philosophy: From the Presocratics to the Hellenistic Philosophers – Thomas A. Blackson
  • Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy: From Thales to Aristotle – S. Cohen, P. Curd & C. D. C. Reeve
  • The Presocratic Philosophers – G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven & M. Schofield
  • The Trial and Death of Socrates – Plato
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • The Essential Epicurus – Epicurus

Philosophy of Biology

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Biology – Peter Godfrey-Smith
  • Sex and Death : An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology – Kim Sterelny & Paul E. Griffiths
  • Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology – David L. Hull & Michael Ruse
  • Philosophy of Biology: An Anthology – Alex Rosenberg & Robert Arp

Buddhist Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • What the Buddha Taught – Walpola Rahula
  • The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation – Thich Nhat Hanh
  • An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy – Stephen J. Laumakis
  • A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy – Steven M. Immanuel
  • Buddhist Philosophy: Selected Readings – Edelglass & Garfield
  • In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon – Bhikkhu Bodhi
  • The Dhammapada
  • Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment – Robert Wright

Confuciusianism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction – Daniel K. Gardner
  • Thinking Through Confucius – D. L. Hall & R. T. Ames
  • Confucius: The Secular as Sacred – Herbert Fingarette
  • A Concise Companion to Confucius – Paul R. Goldin
  • The Analects – Confucius

Continental Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction – Simon Critchley
  • Continental Philosophy: An Introduction – David West
  • The Continental Philosophy Reader – R. Kearney & M. Rainwater
  • The Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy – B. Leiter & M. Rosen

Critical Thinking

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Giving Reasons: An Extremely Short Introduction to Critical Thinking – David R. Morrow
  • Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide – Tracy Bowell & Gary Kemp
  • A Rulebook for Arguments – Anthony Weston
  • Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life – Nancy M. Cavender & Howard Kahane
  • Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic – Walter Sinnott-Armstrong  & Robert J. Fogelin

Daoism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Dao De Jing – Laozi
  • Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings – Zhuangzi
  • Introducing Daoism – Livia Kohn
  • Daoism and Chinese Culture – Livia Kohn
  • Taoism: Growth of a Religion – Isabelle Robinet
  • The Taoist Experience: An Anthology – Livia Kohn

Decision Theory

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Making Better Decisions: Decision Theory in Practice – Itzhak Gilboa
  • Choices: An Introduction to Decision Theory – Michael D. Resnik
  • An Introduction to Decision Theory – Martin Peterson
  • Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making – Derek J. Koehler & Nigel Harvey

Philosophy of Economics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Economics – Don Ross
  • Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction – Julian Reiss
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics – Harold Kincaid & Don Ross
  • The Philosophy of Economics: An Anthology – Daniel M. Hausman

Philosophy of Education

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Philosophy of Education: An Introduction – Richard Bailey
  • Philosophy of Education – Nel Noddings
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education – Harvey Siegel
  • Classic and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Education – Steven M. Cahn
  • Emile: or, On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Democracy and Education – John Dewey
  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paulo Freire

Philosophy of Emotion

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Emotions: A Philosophical Introduction – J. Deonna & F. Teroni
  • Emotions: An Essay in Aid of Moral Psychology – Robert C. Roberts
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion – Peter Goldie
  • What Is an Emotion?: Classic and Contemporary Readings – Robert C. Solomon
  • The Passions of the Soul – René Descartes
  • A Treatise of Human Nature – David Hume

The Enlightenment

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction – John Robertson
  • The Enlightenment – Dorinda Outram
  • The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy – Anthony Gottlieb
  • The Portable Enlightenment Reader – Issac Kramnick
  • Second Treatise of Government – John Locke
  • Discourse on the Method – Rene Descartes
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – David Hume
  • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Mary Wollstonecraft

Existentialism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • An Introduction to Existentialism – Robert G. Olsen
  • At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails – Sarah Bakewell
  • Basic Writings of Existentialism – Gordon Marino
  • The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism – Steven Crowell
  • The Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition of Edification & Awakening – Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings – Jean-Paul Sartre
  • The Ethics of Ambiguity – Simone de Beauvoir

Feminist Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy – Alison Stone
  • Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction – Rosemarie Tong
  • The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy – Garry, Khader, & Stone
  • Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology – Ann Cudd & Andreasen
  • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Mary Wollstonecraft
  • The Subjection of Women – John Stuart Mill
  • The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir
  • Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny – Kate Manne

Philosophy of Film

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Philosophy of Motion Pictures – Noël Carroll
  • Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures: An Anthology – Noël Carroll & Jinhee Choi
  • The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion and Motion Pictures – Carroll, Summa, & Loht
  • Current Controversies in Philosophy of Film – Kathleen Thomas Jones
  • What is Cinema? Vol. 1 – Andre Bazin
  • The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film – Stanley Cavell

Philosophy of Gender

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Gender: The Key Concepts – Mary Evans
  • Debating Sex and Gender – Georgia Warnke
  • The Gender Knot – Allan G. Johnson
  • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Mary Wollstonecraft
  • The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir
  • Justice, Gender, and the Family – Susan Moller Okin
  • Undoing Gender – Judith Butler

History of Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • A Little History of Philosophy – Nigel Warburton
  • How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy – Julian Baggini
  • A New History of Western Philosophy – Anthony Kenny
  • An Illustrated Brief History of Western Philosophy – Anthony Kenny
  • A History of Philosophy – Frederick Copleston
  • Classics of Western Philosophy – Steven M. Cahn

Philosophy of History

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Philosophy of History: An Introduction – Mark Day
  • The Philosophy of History (Oxford Readings in Philosophy) – Patrick Gardiner
  • A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography – Aviezer Tucker
  • Lectures on the Philosophy of History – G. W. F. Hegel
  • Selected Writings – Karl Marx
  • Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defense – G. A. Cohen

Human Nature

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Thirteen Theories of Human Nature – Stevenson et al.
  • Who Are We? Theories of Human Nature – Louis P. Pojman
  • Arguing About Human Nature: Contemporary Debates – Stephen M. Downes
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes
  • The Descent of Man – Charles Darwin
  • Human Nature after Darwin – Janet Radcliffe Richards

Philosophy of Language

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Language – Scott Soames
  • Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction – William G Lycan
  • The Philosophy of Language – Martinich & Sosa
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language – Lepore & Smith

Logic

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Logic: A Very Short Introduction – Graham Priest
  • A Concise Introduction to Logic – Patrick J. Hurley & Lori Watson
  • Introduction to Logic – Irving M. Copi et al.
  • A Companion to Philosophical Logic – Dale Jacquette

Philosophy of Mathematics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction – Timothy Gowers
  • Philosophy of Mathematics – Øystein Linnebo
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic – Stewart Shapiro
  • An Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics: A Reader – Russell Marcus & Mark McEvoy

Medieval Philosophy

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Medieval Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction – John Marenbon
  • An Introduction to Medieval Philosophy: Basic Concepts – Joseph W. Koterski
  • Philosophy in the Middle Ages – A. Hyman, J. Walsh & T. Williams
  • The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy – A. S. Mcgrade
  • Confessions – St. Augustine
  • The Consolation of Philosophy – Boethius
  • Three Philosophical Dialogues – St. Anselm

Philosophy of Music

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Music: An Introduction – R. A. Sharpe
  • An Introduction to a Philosophy of Music – Peter Kivy
  • Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning and Work – Kathleen Stock
  • The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music – Theodore Gracyk
  • On the Musically Beautiful – Eduard Hanslick

Phenomenology

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Phenomenology: The Basics – Dan Zahavi
  • Introduction to Phenomenology – Dermot Moran
  • The Oxford Handbook on Contemporary Phenomenology – Dan Zahavi
  • The Phenomenology Reader – Timothy Mooney & Dermot Moran

Philosophy of Physics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time – Tim Maudlin
  • Philosophical Concepts in Physics – James T. Cushing
  • An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass – Marc Lange
  • Philosophy of Physics – Lawrence Sklar
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics – Robert Batterman

Postmodernism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Origins of Postmodernity – Perry Anderson
  • Postmodern Theory – Steven Best & Douglas Kellner
  • French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century – Gary Gutting
  • From Modernism to Postmodernism – Lawrence E. Cahoone
  • The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge – Jean-Francois Lyotard

Pragmatism

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Pragmatism: A Guide for the Perplexed – Robert B. Talisse & Scott Aikin
  • The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America – Louis Menand
  • Pragmatism: A Reader – Louis Menand
  • The Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism – Alan Malachowski
  • Pragmatism – William James
  • The Essential Peirce – C. S. Peirce
  • The Essential Dewey – John Dewey

Philosophy of Race

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Race: A Philosophical Introduction – Paul C. Taylor
  • Philosophy of Race: An Introduction – Naomi Zack
  • Racism: A Short History – George M. Fredrickson
  • The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race – Paul C Taylor et al.
  • The Idea of Race – Robert Bernasconi & Tommy Lee Lott
  • Black Skin: White Masks – Frantz Fanon

Philosophy of Religion

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Religion: A Very Short Introduction – Tim Bayne
  • An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion – Brian Davies
  • Philosophy of Religion: A Contemporary Introduction – Keith E. Yandell
  • Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology – Pojman & Rea
  • The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion – William Wainwright
  • Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil – Gottfried Leibniz
  • Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – David Hume
  • Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason – Immanuel Kant

Philosophy of Science

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction – Samir Okasha
  • Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science – Peter Godfrey-Smith
  • Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Readings – Yuri Balashov & Alex Rosenberg
  • The Logic of Scientific Discovery – Karl Popper
  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions – Thomas S. Kuhn

Philosophy of Technology

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction – Val Dusek
  • A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology – Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen et al.
  • Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition: An Anthology – Robert C. Scharff & Val Dusek
  • What Things Do – Peter-Paul Verbeek

Philosophers

This section features reading lists on individual philosophers. It is arranged in roughly chronological order.

Pre-Socratics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction – Catherine Osborne
  • The Presocratic Philosophers – Jonathan Barnes
  • Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Texts and Commentary – Richard D. McKirahan
  • The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy – P. Curd & D. W. Graham
  • The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts – G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, & M. Schofield
  • The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy – Daniel W. Graham

Socrates

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Socrates: A Very Short Introduction – Christopher Taylor
  • Socrates – George Rudebusch
  • Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher – Gregory Vlastos
  • The Cambridge Companion to Socrates – Donald R. Morrison
  • The Trial and Death of Socrates – Plato
  • Complete Works – Plato

Plato

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Plato: A Very Short Introduction – Julia Annas
  • Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed – Gerald A. Press
  • The Cambridge Companion to Plato – Richard Kraut
  • Five Dialogues – Plato
  • The Republic – Plato
  • Symposium – Plato
  • Complete Works – Plato

Aristotle

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction – Jonathan Barnes
  • Aristotle: The Desire to Understand – Jonathan Lear
  • A New Aristotle Reader – J. L. Ackrill
  • The Complete Works of Aristotle – Jonathan Barnes
  • The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle – Jonathan Barnes
  • Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle
  • Politics – Aristotle
  • Rhetoric and Poetics – Aristotle
  • Physics – Aristotle
  • Metaphysics – Aristotle

Epicurus

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Epicureanism: A Very Short Introduction – Catherine Wilson
  • Epicureanism – Tim O’Keefe
  • The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism – James Warren
  • The Essential Epicurus – Epicurus
  • The Nature of Things – Lucretius

The Stoics

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • How to Be a Stoic – Massimo Pigliucci
  • Stoicism – John Sellars
  • The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics – Brad Inwood
  • Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
  • Letters from a Stoic – Seneca
  • Discourses, Fragments, Handbook – Epictetus

Plotinus

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Plotinus – Eyjólfur K. Emilsson
  • Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads – Dominic J. O’Meara
  • The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus – Lloyd P. Gerson
  • The Essential Plotinus – S.J. Elmer O’Brien
  • The Enneads – Plotinus

St. Augustine

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Augustine: A Very Short Introduction – Henry Chadwick
  • Augustine of Hippo: A Biography – Peter Brown
  • The Cambridge Companion to Augustine – David Vincent Meconi & Eleonore Stump
  • Confessions – Saint Augustine
  • City of God – Saint Augustine
  • On Christian Doctrine – Saint Augustine

Boethius

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Boethius – John Marenbon
  • Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy – Henry Chadwick
  • The Cambridge Companion to Boethius – John Marenbon
  • The Consolation of Philosophy – Boethius

St. Anselm

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Anselm – G. R. Evans
  • Anselm – Sandra Visser & Thomas Williams
  • The Cambridge Companion to Anselm – Brian Davies & Brian Leftow
  • The Major Works – St. Anselm
  • Proslogion – St. Anselm
  • Three Philosophical Dialogues – St. Anselm

Maimonides

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Maimonides – T. M. Rudavsky
  • Maimonides: Life and Thought – Moshe Halbertal
  • The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides – Kenneth Seeskin
  • The Guide of the Perplexed – Maimonides

St. Aquinas

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide – Edward Feser
  • The Thought of Thomas Aquinas – Brian Davies
  • Aquinas: An Introduction to the Life and Work of the Great Medieval Thinker – F. C. Copleston
  • The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas – Brian Davies & Eleonore Stump
  • Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings – Thomas Aquinas

Machiavelli

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction – Quentin Skinner
  • Niccolò Machiavelli: An Intellectual Biography – Corrado Vivanti
  • The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli – John M. Najemy
  • The Portable Machiavelli – Niccolò Machiavelli
  • The Prince – Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Discourses on Livy – Niccolò Machiavelli

Montaigne

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • How To Read Montaigne – Terence Cave
  • Michel de Montaigne: Accidental Philosopher – Ann Hartle
  • How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer – Sarah Bakewell
  • The Cambridge Companion to Montaigne – Ullrich Langer
  • Essays – Montaigne

Francis Bacon

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Francis Bacon – Perez Zagorin
  • Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination – Nieves Mathews
  • The Cambridge Companion to Bacon – Markku Peltonen
  • Francis Bacon: The Major Works – Francis Bacon
  • The New Organon – Francis Bacon
  • The Advancement of Learning – Francis Bacon

Hobbes

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction – Richard Tuck
  • Hobbes – A. P. Martinich
  • Hobbes: A Biography – A. P. Martinich
  • The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes – Tom Sorell
  • Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes
  • The Elements of Law – Thomas Hobbes

Descartes

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Descartes: A Very Short Introduction – Tom Sorell
  • Descartes: An Intellectual Biography – Stephen Gaukroger
  • The Cambridge Companion to Descartes – John Cottingham
  • Discourse on Method – René Descartes
  • Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes
  • Selected Philosophical Writings – René Descartes

Pascal

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Pascal the Philosopher: An Introduction – Graeme Hunter
  • Pascal – Ben Rogers
  • The Cambridge Companion to Pascal – Nicholas Hammond
  • Penseés – Blaise Pascal

Spinoza

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction – Roger Scruton
  • Spinoza – Michael Della Rocca
  • Spinoza: A Life – Steven Nadler
  • The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza – Don Garrett
  • A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works – Edwin Curley
  • Ethics – Spinoza
  • Theological-Political Treatise – Spinoza

Locke

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Locke: A Very Short Introduction – John Dunn
  • Locke – Samuel Rickless
  • Locke: A Biography – Roger Woolhouse
  • The Cambridge Companion to Locke – Vere Chappell
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
  • Second Treatise of Government – John Locke
  • On Toleration – John Locke

Berkeley

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Berkeley: A Guide for the Perplexed – Talia Mae Bettcher
  • Berkeley’s Thought – George S. Pappas
  • The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley – Kenneth P. Winkler
  • Berkeley: Philosophical Writings – George Berkeley
  • The Principles of Human Knowledge – George Berkeley
  • Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous – George Berkeley

Hume

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Hume: A Very Short Introduction – A. J. Ayer
  • The Philosophy of David Hume – Norman Kemp Smith
  • Hume: An Intellectual Biography – James A. Harris
  • The Cambridge Companion to Hume – David Fate Norton & Jacqueline Taylor
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – David Hume
  • Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – David Hume
  • Selected Essays – David Hume
  • A Treatise of Human Nature – David Hume

Rousseau

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction – Robert Wokler
  • Rousseau – Nicholas Dent
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius – Leo Damrosch
  • The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau – Patrick Riley
  • The Social Contract – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Discourse on the Origin of Inequality – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • The Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Emile: Or On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Kant

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Kant: A Very Short Introduction – Roger Scruton
  • Kant – Paul Guyer
  • Kant: A Biography – Manfred Kuehn
  • The Cambridge Companion to Kant – Paul Guyer
  • Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics – Immanuel Kant
  • Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant
  • Critique of Judgement – Immanuel Kant
  • Critique of Pure Reason – Immanuel Kant

Hegel

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Simply Hegel – Robert L. Wicks
  • An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History – Stephen Houlgate
  • Hegel – Frederick Beiser
  • Hegel: A Biography – Terry Pinkard
  • The Cambridge Companion to Hegel – Frederick C. Beiser
  • Reading Hegel: The Introductions – G. W. F. Hegel

Schopenhauer

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction – Christopher Janaway
  • Schopenhauer – Julian Young
  • Schopenhauer: A Biography – David E. Cartwright
  • The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer – Christopher Janaway
  • The Essential Schopenhauer – Arthur Schopenhauer
  • Essays and Aphorisms – Arthur Schopenhauer
  • The World as Will and Representation – Arthur Schopenhauer

John Stuart Mill

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Why Read Mill Today? – John Skorupski
  • John Stuart Mill: A Biography – Nicholas Capaldi
  • The Cambridge Companion to Mill – John Skorupski
  • On Liberty – John Stuart Mill
  • Utilitarianism – John Stuart Mill
  • The Subjection of Women – John Stuart Mill
  • Autobiography – John Stuart Mill

Kierkegaard

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Kierkegaard: An Introduction – C. Stephen Evans
  • Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction – Patrick Gardiner
  • Kierkegaard: A Biography – Alastair Hannay
  • Fear and Trembling – Søren Kierkegaard
  • Either/Or – Søren Kierkegaard
  • The Sickness unto Death – Søren Kierkegaard
  • The Concept of Anxiety – Søren Kierkegaard
  • The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard – A. Hannay & G. Marino

Marx

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Why Read Marx Today? – Jonathan Wolff
  • Karl Marx: A Biography – David McLellan
  • The Cambridge Companion to Marx – Terrell Carver
  • Selected Writings – Karl Marx
  • The Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
  • Capital: Volume 1 – Karl Marx
  • The German Ideology – Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
  • The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 – Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

Nietzsche

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Simply Nietzsche – Peter Kail
  • Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist – Walter A. Kaufmann
  • The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche – Gemes and Richardson
  • Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography – Rüdiger Safranski
  • Basic Writings of Nietzsche – Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Beyond Good & Evil – Friedrich Nietzsche
  • On the Genealogy of Morality – Friedrich Nietzsche
  • The Gay Science – Friedrich Nietzsche
  • The Birth of Tragedy – Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Thus Spoke Zarathustra – Friedrich Nietzsche

William James

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • The Philosophy of William James: An Introduction – Richard M. Gale
  • William James: His Life and Thought – Gerald E Myers
  • Becoming William James – Howard M. Feinstein
  • The Cambridge Companion to William James – Ruth Anna Putnam
  • The Essential William James – William James
  • Pragmatism – William James
  • The Varieties of Religious Experience – William James
  • The Will to Believe – William James

Frege

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Frege Explained – Joan Weiner
  • Frege: An Introduction to the Founder of Modern Analytic Philosophy – Anthony Kenny
  • Frege: Philosophy of Language – Michael Dummett
  • The Frege Reader – Michael Beaney
  • The Cambridge Companion to Frege – Tom Ricketts

Freud

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Freud: A Very Short Introduction – Anthony Storr
  • Freud – Jonathan Lear
  • The Freud Reader – Peter Gay
  • The Cambridge Companion to Freud – Jerome Neu
  • The Interpretation of Dreams – Sigmund Freud
  • Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality – Sigmund Freud
  • Civilization and Its Discontents – Sigmund Freud

Husserl

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Husserl’s Phenomenology – Dan Zahavi
  • Husserl – David Woodruff Smith
  • The Cambridge Companion to Husserl – Barry Smith & David Woodruff Smith
  • The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology – Edmund Husserl
  • Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology – Edmund Husserl
  • Logical Investigations – Edmund Husserl

Bertrand Russell

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Russell: A Very Short Introduction – A. C. Grayling
  • Russell: A Guide for the Perplexed – John Ongley & Rosalind Carey
  • Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude – Ray Monk
  • The Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell – Nicholas Griffin
  • The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell – Bertrand Russell
  • The Problems of Philosophy – Bertrand Russell
  • Logic and Knowledge – Bertrand Russell
  • Sceptical Essays – Bertrand Russell

Wittgenstein

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • How to Read Wittgenstein – Ray Monk
  • Wittgenstein – William Child
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius – Ray Monk
  • Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus – Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • Philosophical Investigations – Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • On Certainty – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Heidegger

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • How to Read Heidegger – Mark Wrathall
  • Heidegger: A Very Short Introduction – Michael Inwood
  • Heidegger: An Introduction – Richard Polt
  • The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger – Charles B. Guignon
  • Basic Writings – Martin Heidegger
  • Basic Problems of Phenomenology – Martin Heidegger
  • Being and Time – Martin Heidegger
  • The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays – Martin Heidegger

Sartre

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • How To Read Sartre – Robert Bernasconi
  • Sartre: A Philosophical Biography – Thomas R. Flynn
  • The Cambridge Companion to Sartre – Christina Howells
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings – Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Existentialism and Humanism – Jean-Paul Sartre
  • No Exit – Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Nausea – Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Being and Nothingness – Jean-Paul Sartre

Arendt

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Arendt: A Guide for the Perplexed – Karin A. Fry
  • Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World – Elisabeth Young-Bruehl
  • The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt – Dana Villa
  • The Portable Hannah Arendt – Hannah Arendt
  • The Origins of Totalitarianism – Hannah Arendt
  • The Human Condition – Hannah Arendt
  • Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil – Hannah Arendt

Foucault

You can find more information on these books on this page.

  • Foucault: A Very Short Introduction – Gary Gutting
  • How to Read Foucault – Johanna Oksala
  • The Lives of Michel Foucault – David Macey
  • The Cambridge Companion to Foucault – Gary Gutting
  • The Foucault Reader – Paul Rabinow
  • Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison – Michel Foucault
  • The History of Sexuality – Michel Foucault

The Daily Idea aims to make learning about philosophy as easy as possible by bringing together the best philosophy resources from across the internet. To get started, check out this organized collection of 400+ articles, podcasts, and videos on a wide range of philosophical topics.

A Collection of the Greatest Philosophical Quotations

A History of Western Philosophy in 500 Essential Quotations is a collection of the greatest thoughts from history’s greatest thinkers. Featuring classic quotations by Aristotle, Epicurus, David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Michel Foucault, and many more, A History of Western Philosophy in 500 Essential Quotations is ideal for anyone looking to quickly understand the fundamental ideas that have shaped the modern world.

View on Amazon

Follow The Daily Idea on Facebook and Twitter for updates.