100 Best Survey Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Lessons of History

Will Durant

5.0

Will Durant once wrote that "most history is guessing, & the rest is prejudice." Now, 33 years later, the Durants, in this peroration to their monumental "Story of Civilization," look back to record the lessons & conclusions of their 10-volume excursion into human folly & achievement--&, coincidentally, to determine what value historical guesswork & historians' predispositions may have in understa

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Ray Dalio, Kevin Systrom, and 2 others.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

Great book. I really like how it summarizes some of the larger themes of history. Very incisive and, unlike most history books, is actually kind of small and it covers a lot of ground. [source]

Ray Dalio

Founder/Bridgewater Associates

The book I’d give every graduating senior in college or high school would be 'Lessons From History'. This is the Durants, they were maybe the greatest historians of all time. Anyway, of 5,000 years of history, probably wrote 5,000 pages on it, and they took this book - I think it’s 104 pages - and they took the themes of history, it could be from religion, natural resources, who knows, each one of these things, and they looked at it for themes of history through history. I think that, that would be great. [source]

Kevin Systrom

A great book. [source]

2

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

4.8

Preview Summary

One measure, perhaps, of a book's worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers acquire it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated and introduced by Gregory Hays, by that standard, is very worthwhile, indeed. Hays suggests that its most recent incarnation--as a self-help book--is not only valid, but may be close to the author's intent

Recommended by Arianna Huffington, Naval Ravikant, Chip Conley, and 12 others.

Arianna Huffington

Founder/The Huffington Post

I find this book so inspirational and instructive, it lives on my nightstand. [source]

Chip Conley

I have given this book away to a number of people. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

3

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

William Braxton Irvine

4.8

Preview Summary

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives.
In A Guide

Recommended by Marc Andreessen, Timothy Ferriss, Jason Fried, and 8 others.

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Best (?) walk through the ancient/current philosophy of Stoicism. You can't control other people but you can control yourself, so do that. [source]

Jason Fried

Co-Founder/Basecamp

The book that had the biggest impact on me this year was “A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy”. [source]

Phil Libin

CEO/Evernote

A very interesting read. [source]

4

Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche

4.6

In Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche contends that no human values are absolute; that all value distinctions (such as that between 'good' and 'evil') are artificial, the result of mere traditional prejudices; and that humanity should discard its old, outmoded values (such as 'good' and 'evil').

Recommended by Brian Leiter and Simon Critchley.

Brian Leiter

Yes, I think that’s right. It touches on almost all Nietzsche’s central concerns – on truth, on the nature of philosophy, on morality, on what’s wrong with morality, will to power. [source]

Simon Critchley

What did you think of it then? We should talk about your reaction to it! [source]

5

The Republic: The Influential Classic

Plato

4.6

The newest deluxe edition in the bestselling Capstone Classics Series This ancient classic has had a make-over. In recent years these Capstone Classic deluxe editions have caught the book buying public's imagination. The volumes of international bestsellers such as Think and Grow Rich and The Art of War have quickly become the market leaders. Now Plato's best known work, one of the most intellectu

Recommended by Bryan Van Norden, David Heinemeier Hansson, Jonathan Glover, and 6 others.

Bryan Van Norden

It’s very readable even if you aren’t a professional philosopher. Take the story of ‘The Ring of Gyges,’ which raises the question of whether you would continue to act like a good person if you had a ring of invisibility that let you get away with doing whatever you wanted to do. That’s a fascinating thought experiment that anybody can appreciate. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

I’m about a third through this and still can’t tell whether Plato is making a mockery of Socrates ideas for the idyllic society or not. So many of the arguments presented as Socrates’ are so tortured and with so disconnected leaps of logic that it’s hard to take it at face value. Yet still, it’s good fun to follow the dialogue. It reads more like a play than a book, and again, immensely accessible. It’s fun to see the lines that continue from a book like this to the considerations of the Stoics all the way to Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations and then onto a modern critique and history in that Debt: First 5,000 Years. A conversation spanning millennia. [source]

Jonathan Glover

It contains a tremendous amount of nonsense about what the ideal society would be like. But it is an unmissable book because of Socrates. He invented the method of doing and teaching philosophy that has never been improved on. [source]

6

A History of Western Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

4.6

Since its first publication in 1945 Lord Russell's A History of Western Philosophy has been universally acclaimed as the outstanding one-volume work on the subject—unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, its clarity, its erudition, its grace and wit. In seventy-six chapters he traces philosophy from the rise of Greek civilization to the emergence of logical analysis in the twentieth century. Among

Recommended by Sam Harris, Peter Atkins, and 1 others.

Sam Harris

Just a great example of how English should be written and just a great voice to have in your head as a result. [source]

Peter Atkins

It reviews how people have really grappled in a seemingly very intelligent way with very deep questions. [source]

7

Basic Writings of Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

4.5

Introduction by Peter Gay
Translated and edited by Walter Kaufmann
Commentary by Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, and Gilles Deleuze

One hundred years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains the most influential philosopher of the modern era. Basic Writings of Nietzsche gathers the complete texts of five of Nietzsche's most important works, from his first book to his last: The Birth of Tragedy,

8

The Genealogy of Morals (Translated by Horace B. Samuel with an Introduction by Willard Huntington Wright)

Friedrich Nietzsche, Horace B. Samuel, Willard Huntington Wright

4.4

German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche was one the most controversial figures of the 19th century. His evocative writings on religion, morality, culture, philosophy, and science were often polemic attacks against the established views of his time. First published in 1887, "The Genealogy of Morals," is a work which follows and expands upon the principles of his previous works, "Thus Spoke Zarathus

Recommended by Antonio Eram, Brian Leiter, Bryan Callen, and 1 others.

Antonio Eram

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. [source]

Brian Leiter

I don’t know I would single it out as the masterpiece, but it’s a fascinating book which follows on many of the themes of Beyond Good and Evil. It’s unusual because it’s less aphoristic, but rather three essays. The essays have more structure and extended argumentation than is typical in most of Nietzsche’s works. [source]

Bryan Callen

Of course, I read Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality, etc, where the truths and the truisms are really cut and dried in a lot of ways. It's the equivalent of, I guess, intellectual red meat. [source]

9

The Consolations of Philosophy

Alain de Botton

4.4

From the author of "How Proust Can Change Your Life" comes a delightful, truly consoling work that proves that philosophy can be a supreme source of help for the most painful everyday problems. Illustrations throughout.

Recommended by Jules Evans and 1 others.

Jules Evans

I think of the revival of ancient philosophy as happening in three waves. The first wave was in the 1950s through people like Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, how they rescued ancient philosophy and bought it back into psychotherapy. Then there was the second wave of people in academic philosophy, led by people like Pierre Hadot, who returned to the idea of philosophy as a way of life. The third wave, which has been around since 2000, was led by Alain de Botton, and it was about making ancient philosophy popular and accessible to ordinary people. [source]

10

Essays and Lectures

Ralph Waldo Emerson

4.4

This first Library of America volume of Emerson’s writing covers the most productive period of his life, 1832–1860. Our most eloquent champion of individualism, Emerson acknowledges at the same time the countervailing pressures of society in American life. Even as he extols what he called “the great and crescive self,” he dramatizes and records its vicissitudes.

Here are the indispensable and most

Recommended by Tony Robbins and James Marcus.

James Marcus

This book includes all of Emerson’s work, basically. If you buy this, you have it all in the palm of your hand, starting with Nature and going on for another 1,250 pages or so. [source]

11

The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses

Dan Carlin

4.4

The creator of the wildly popular award-winning podcast Hardcore History looks at some of the apocalyptic moments from the past as a way to frame the challenges of the future.

Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress? No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one

12

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Charles Seife

4.3

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. For centuries, the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. Zero follows this number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe and its apotheosis as the mystery of t

Recommended by Alex Bellos and Bryan Johnson.

Alex Bellos

Unlike Ifrah, Charles Seife is a brilliant popular science writer who has here written the ‘biography’ of zero. And even though he doesn’t talk that much about India, it works well as a handbook to Ifrah’s sections on India. Because Seife talks about how zero is mathematically very close to the idea of infinity, which is another mathematical idea that the Indians thought about differently. Seife gives you the context and it explains why, really, without zero, you can’t do anything. The difficulty of understanding zero is similar to the difficulty of understanding infinity. The Greeks had no zero, Roman numerals have no zero, and they had no infinity. He plays with this idea that we were afraid of infinity and then gradually we learnt not to be afraid of it. [source]

Bryan Johnson

Chronicles how hard it was for humanity to come up with and hold onto the concept of zero. No zero, no math. No zero, no engineering. No zero, no modern world as we know it... [source]

13

Walden & Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau

4.3

Disdainful of America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau left Concord, Massachusetts, in 1845 to live in solitude in the woods near Walden Pond. Walden, the account of his stay, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a Transcendentalist’s yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. But even as Thoreau disentangled himself from worldly matters,

14

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

Sarah Bakewell

4.3

Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honorable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy?

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none m

Recommended by Marc Andreessen, Ryan Holiday, Austin Kleon, and 3 others.

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—All versions of a bigger question: How do you live? [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Montaigne is one of humanities greatest treasures. If you've not read any of his essays or Sarah Bakewell's magnificent book How To Live … you are missing out. [source]

Austin Kleon

Book that introduced me to one of my new favorite thinkers: Sarah Bakewell’s How To Live: Or A Life Of Montaigne. [source]

15

Common Sense

Thomas Paine

4.3

Preview Summary

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves—and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives—and destroyed them.

Published anonymously in 1776, six months before the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was a radical a

16

The Dresden Files Collection 7-12

Jim Butcher

4.3

Novels 7 through 12 of the Dresden Files series in a single omnibus ebook collection.
* Dead Beat
* Proven Guilty
* White Night
* Small Favor
* Turn Coat
* Changes

17

The Story of Philosophy

Will Durant

4.3

This endlessly inspiring & instructive chronicle of the worlds greatest thinkers, from Socrates to Santayana, describes not only their ideas but their place in history & their influence on our modern intellectual heritage.

18

The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization

Arthur Herman

4.3

Arthur Herman has now written the definitive sequel to his New York Times bestseller, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, and extends the themes of the book—which sold half a million copies worldwide—back to the ancient Greeks and forward to the age of the Internet. The Cave and the Light is a magisterial account of how the two greatest thinkers of the ancient world, Plato and Aristotle, lai

Recommended by Dan Sullivan.

19

An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement, Fourth Edition

Marie Clay

4.3

What are young children learning as they engage with literacy instruction at school?

Are they experiencing success or falling behind?How soon can we tell?

An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement, Fourth Edition provides teachers and school systems with essential information about how to assess young children's progress in literacy learning.

The six tasks of the Observation Survey are us

Cover unavailable

20

The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

DK

4.3

Now in paperback, "The Philosophy Book" explores the history and concepts of philosophy, and demystifies what can often be daunting subject matter.

Are the ideas of Rene Descartes, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes still relevant today? "The Philosophy Book" unpacks the writings and ideas of more than 100 of history's biggest thinkers, taking you on a journey from Ancient Greece to

21

A Secular Age

Charles Taylor

4.3

Almost everyone would agree that the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly over the years. This book takes up the question of what these changes mean—of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.

Recommended by Martin Marty.

Martin Marty

Charles Taylor, a Canadian Catholic philosopher, is among the most notable thinkers on these themes in North America these days. This is a massive, almost 800-page book that really attracted attention and debate. He argues that most can’t really make sense of the modern world or life today without some version or other of religion. He defines religion very broadly. He is not pointing to Christianity or Judaism or any other faith to carry all the meanings, but instead speaks in the broadest sense of how the human relates to the transcendent order, to that which is ‘beyond us’ etc. This is not what you normally expect from a philosopher. Taylor is running against the grain of much modern philosophy, since it has dispensed with such matters. He gave me a lot of reason to rethink some themes in the book I was writing about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison. [source]

22

The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden

4.3

Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life--the life proper to a rational being--as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with man's nature, with the creative requirements of his survival, and with a free society.

23

Great Thinkers: Simple Tools from Sixty Great Thinkers to Improve Your Life Today.

The School of Life

4.3

Typically, great thinkers have been included in encyclopedic works on the basis of reputation and historic influence. The School of Life takes a different approach, focusing instead on the thinkers whose ideas are the most helpful to our lives now. This is a collection of sixty of the most important and most useful ideas of Eastern and Western culture. The focus of this book is to present some of

24

Philosophy: Who Needs It

Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff

4.3

This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: rational, conscious, and therefore practical; or contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal. Written with all th

Recommended by Mark Pellegrino.

Mark Pellegrino

@gnvrbyd @MDSebach @AynRand_is_Dead @rickballan @avidfilm @PhoenixTruths @SageThinker99 @Musicfreak78 @mwhi4321 @angel_scoggins @triadaxiom @TeresaRJ3 @PrimateBri @The_Real_BiM Not just sometimes. All the time. Rand wrote a great book on the topic entitled Philosophy Who NeedsIt. It demonstrates just how pervasive the influence of philosophy is over ALL aspects of life. [source]

25

Critique of Pure Reason

Immanuel Kant, Paul Guyer, et al.

4.2

'The purpose of this critique of pure speculative reason consists in the attempt to change the old procedure of metaphysics and to bring about a complete revolution'

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781) is the central text of modern philosophy. It presents a profound and challenging investigation into the nature of human reason, its knowledge and its illusions. Reason, Kant argues, is the seat o

Recommended by Adrian Moore, Luciano Floridi, and Simon Blackburn.

Adrian Moore

This is the greatest philosophical book of all time. This is Kant’s masterpiece. [source]

Luciano Floridi

I find reading Kant a bit like understanding cricket as a foreigner: hard to get at first, but once you get it, it’s very enjoyable. [source]

Simon Blackburn

An illuminating way to think of the Critique is as a kind of prolonged wrestling match with Hume. [source]

26

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Stephen Greenblatt

4.2

One of the world's most celebrated scholars, Stephen Greenblatt has crafted both an innovative work of history and a thrilling story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it.

Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manusc

27

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

Thomas Cathcart, Daniel Klein

4.2

Here's a lively, hilarious, not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical traditions, schools, concepts, and thinkers. Its Philosophy 101 for everyone who knows not to take all this heavy stuff too seriously. Some of the Big Ideas are Existentialism (what do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?), Philosophy of Language (how to express what its like being stranded on a desert islan

Recommended by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Author

I read Plato and the Platypus by Umberto Eco, which I found brilliant and was sucked into buying this book thinking it was about the same problem of categories. But Philosophy this is not, or if it is, it is not deep enough to give satisfaction. This is like a brief drink in an airplane lounge with someone funny, smart, witty, but not too funny. So I would give it my lowest rating: 4 stars (as an author I can't give below that --I just would not review). Would I buy it again? Perhaps, but only for a plane ride. It left me very very hungry for both jokes and philosophy. [source]

28

On the Genealogy of Morals / Ecce Homo

Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Kaufmann

4.2

The Genealogy of Morals consists of three essays exploring morality and its origins where Nietzsche makes ample use of his training as a philologist. These works contain Nietzsche's most thorough and clear expression of his psychological philosophy. This edition includes Ecce Homo, Nietzsche's review of his life and works, with the exception of The Antichrist. These two books are compiled, transla

Recommended by Bryan Callen.

Bryan Callen

The equivalent of, … intellectual red meat. [source]

Cover unavailable

29

A Little History of Philosophy

Nigel Warburton

4.2

Philosophy begins with questions about the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them how little they genuinely understood. This engaging book introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas

Recommended by Joan Boixados.

Joan Boixados

Three pages per every most relevant philosopher/school of thought. [source]

30

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes

4.2

'The life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short'

Written during the chaos of the English Civil War, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan asks how, in a world of violence and horror, can we stop ourselves from descending into anarchy? Hobbes' case for a 'common-wealth' under a powerful sovereign - or 'Leviathan' - to enforce security and the rule of law, shocked his contemporaries, and his book was

Recommended by Jonathan Sumption, Jonathan Wolff, and Michael Peel.

Jonathan Sumption

The best reason for reading Hobbes is that no other philosopher has ever used the English language to such powerful effect. It is a really remarkable feat of dialectic. You find yourself agreeing with him at each stage of the reasoning as he builds up his case then, quite suddenly, you find that you’ve arrived at a conclusion which seems intolerable. [source]

Jonathan Wolff

Written more than three-and-a-half centuries ago in the shadow of the English Civil War, Leviathan remains a profound and relevant study. [source]

Michael Peel

The idea of ‘the war of all against all’, what a man wins through strength is what he gets, has parallels in modern Nigeria. [source]

31

Encountering the Book of Romans: A Theological Survey

Douglas J. Moo and Walter Elwell

4.2

In this updated edition of his successful textbook, a leading evangelical New Testament scholar offers a guide to the book of Romans that is informed by current scholarship and written at an accessible level. The new edition has been updated throughout and features a new design. After addressing introductory matters and laying the groundwork for reading Romans, Douglas Moo leads readers through th

32

Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments

Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, Edmund Jephcott

4.2

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking i

Recommended by Jack Zipes.

Jack Zipes

The two authors are also Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1940s. They published their book in 1947, and they share a great deal with Ernst Bloch, whom they knew, although they had different perspectives in regard to philosophy and sociology. Horkheimer and Adorno began as sociologists. [source]

33

First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History

Colin G. Calloway

4.2

Expertly authored by Colin G. Calloway, First Peoples has been praised for its inclusion of Native American sources and Calloway's concerted effort to weave Native perspectives throughout the narrative. Emphasizing the importance of primary sources, each chapter includes a document project and picture essay organized around important themes in the chapter. This distinctive approach continues to ma

34

Myths to Live By

Joseph Campbell, Johnson E. Fairchild

4.2

What is a properly functioning mythology and what are its functions? Can we use myths to help relieve our modern anxiety, or do they help foster it? In Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell explores the enduring power of the universal myths that influence our lives daily and examines the myth-making process from the primitive past to the immediate present, retuning always to the source from which all

35

Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book For All And None

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

4.2

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a foundational work of Western literature and is widely considered to be Friedrich Nietzsche’s masterpiece. It includes the German philosopher’s famous discussion of the phrase ‘God is dead’ as well as his concept of the Superman. Nietzsche delineates his Will to Power theory and devotes pages to critiquing Christian thinking, in particular Christianity’s definition of go

Recommended by Stephane Grand.

Stephane Grand

My favorite book is “Thus spoke Zarathustra” by Friedrich Nietzsche. I do not think I have ever read a book that had more resonance for me. [source]

36

Ominous Parallels

Leonard Peikoff

4.2

Ayn Rand chose Leonard Peikoff to be her successor as the spokesman for Objectivism. And in this brilliantly reasoned, thought-provoking work we learn why, as he demonstrates how far America has been detoured from its original path and led down the same road that Germany followed to Nazism. Self-sacrifice, Oriental mysticism, racial "truth," the public good, doing one's duty--these are among the s

Cover unavailable

37

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

Carl T. Bergstrom

4.2

Preview Summary

Bullshit isn't what it used to be.Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data.

It's increasingly difficult to know what's true. Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art.

38

VOLTAIRE - Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters (60+ Works in One Volume) - Illustrated: Candide, ... the Atheist, Dialogues, Oedipus, Caesar…

4.2

Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.

With vast erudition, Foucault cuts across disciplines and reaches back into seventeenth century to show how classical systems of knowledge, which linked all of nature within a great chain of being and analogies between the stars in the heavens and the features in a human face, gave way to the modern sciences of biology, philolog

Recommended by Bill Liao.

Bill Liao

"The Order of Things" by Foucault literally changed my life forever as it demonstrated to me that language is how we make the world. [source]

45

The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

Ayn Rand, Peter Schwartz

4.2

In the tumultuous late 60s and early 70s, a social movement known as the "New Left" emerged as a major cultural influence, especially on the youth of America. It was a movement that embraced "flower-power" and psychedelic "consciousness-expansion," that lionized Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro and launched the Black Panthers and the Theater of the Absurd.In Return Of The Primitive (originally publish

Cover unavailable

46

Intellectual Impostures

Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont

4.2

When Intellectual Impostures was published in France, it sent shock waves through the Left Bank establishment. When it was published in Britain, it provoked impassioned debate. Sokal and Bricmont examine the canon of French postmodernists - Lacan, Kristeva, Baudrillard, Irigaray, Latour, Virilio, Deleuze and Guattari - and systematically expose their abuse of science. This edition contains a new p

Author

Ah yes, the drive that we all have to be better, bigger, have more, be more. Ambition is a good thing, but it’s also a source of great anxiety and frustration. In this book, philosopher Alain de Botton studies the downsides of the desire to “be somebody” in this world. How do you manage ambition? How do you manage envy? How do you avoid the traps that so many other people fall into? This book is a good introduction into the philosophy and psychology of just that. [source]

52

The Sentences: Book 2: On Creation

Peter Lombard and Giulio Silano

4.1

This volume makes available for the first time in English full translations of Book 2 of the "Sentences." It consists of forty-four Distinctions and contains an introduction to Book 2, a list of the major chapter headings, and a bibliography.

Cover unavailable

53

Twilight of the Idols/The Anti-Christ

Friedrich Nietzsche

Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum, Charles L Quarles

4.1

Cover unavailable

64

The Complete Works of Aristotle

Aristotle

4.1

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and student of Plato who stunningly changed the course of Western philosophy. He has gone down in history as one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Cicero, the Roman statesman and philosopher, once called his writing style "a river of gold;" and his scope of thought and subsequent influence on the study of science, logic, philosophical discour

65

Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs

John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, Sabin Streeter, Daron Murphy, Rose Kernochan

4.1

More than 150 people in common and unusual occupations talk about their lives and work in the new economy, encompassing the human experience from a labor-support doula to a funeral home director.

For the last several years, the editors of Word, the pioneering Web magazine, have been sending interviewers—nearly forty in all—across America to talk to people about their jobs. They wanted to document r

66

Ecce Homo

Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale, Michael Tanner

4.1

In late 1888, only weeks before his final collapse into madness, Nietzsche (1844-1900) set out to compose his autobiography, and Ecce Homo remains one of the most intriguing yet bizarre examples of the genre ever written. In this extraordinary work Nietzsche traces his life, work and development as a philosopher, examines the heroes he has identified with, struggled against and then overcome - Sch

4.0

89

Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey

R. Duncan Luce

4.0

Superb non-technical introduction to game theory, primarily applied to social sciences. Clear, comprehensive coverage of utility theory, 2-person zero-sum games, 2-person non-zero-sum games, n-person games, individual and group decision-making, more. Bibliography.

Recommended by Ariel Rubinstein.

Ariel Rubinstein

Luce and Raiffa were thinking about elements of what we would probably now call modern choice theory. It’s written beautifully. [source]

90

Communication in Everyday Life: A Survey of Communication

Steve Duck and David T. McMahan

4.0

Explore fundamental communication concepts, theories, and skills aimed at helping students apply communication skills to their personal and professional lives--with a thematic integration of the relational perspective and a focus on demonstrating its direct relevance to their own everyday communication.

91

Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity

Rebecca Goldstein

4.0

Part of the Jewish Encounter series

In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty–three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its

92

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

Richard Hofstadter

4.0

Anti-intellectualism in American Life was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Non-Fiction. It is a book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society.

Hofstadter set out to trace the social movements that

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93

The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West

Michael Walsh

4.0

In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world’s premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, the burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war’s refugees, but many of their ideas as well

Recommended by Denise Mcallister.

Denise Mcallister

False. It’s straight out of the Frankfurt School and has deeply influenced higher education and our culture. @dkahanerules has an amazing book on this. I challenge you to read it. https://t.co/BC9KmNOJhU https://t.co/WzYmv7kVcs [source]

94

A New History of Western Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

4.0

The individual volumes of Sir Anthony Kenny's acclaimed History of Western Philosophy have been hailed as "wonderfulauthoritativehugely rewarding" (Times Higher Education Supplement) and "genial and highly accessible" (London Review of Books). Now these four splendid books have been combined into one magnificent volume, providing a continuous sweeping account of the great thought of the Western wo

95

Introducing Nietzsche: A Graphic Guide (Introducing...)

Laurence Gane

4.0

Why must we believe that God is dead? Can we accept that traditional morality is just a 'useful mistake'? Did the principle of 'the will to power' lead to the Holocaust? What are the limitations of scientific knowledge? Is human evolution complete or only beginning? It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Friedrich Nietzsche for our present epoch. His extraordinary insights into human ps

96

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

4.0

If humans are benevolent by nature, how do societies become corrupt? And how do governments founded upon the defense of individual rights degenerate into tyranny? These are the questions addressed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, a strikingly original inquiry into much-explored issues of 18th-century (and subsequent) philosophy: human nature and the best form of go

Recommended by Dallas Denery.

Dallas Denery

Rousseau is really the first argue that lying is not a religious problem, it is a natural phenomenon. [source]

97

The History of Philosophy

A. C. Grayling

4.0

The first authoritative and accessible single-volume history of philosophy to cover both Western and Eastern traditions, from one of the world's most eminent thinkers

The story of philosophy is the story of who we are and why. An epic tale, spanning civilizations and continents, it explores some of the most creative minds in history. But not since the long-popular classic Bertrand Russell's A His

98

The Birth of Tragedy

Friedrich Nietzsche, Michael Tanner, Shaun Whiteside

4.0

A compelling argument for the necessity for art in life, Nietzsche's first book is fuelled by his enthusiasms for Greek tragedy, for the philosophy of Schopenhauer and for the music of Wagner, to whom this work was dedicated. Nietzsche outlined a distinction between its two central forces: the Apolline, representing beauty and order, and the Dionysiac, a primal or ecstatic reaction to the sublime.

99

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

Simon Blackburn

4.0

Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for "anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them," Think provides a sound framework for exploring the most basic themes of philosophy, and for understanding how major philosophers have tackled the questions t

100

Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

Christopher Janaway

4.0