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Books

Books to start with

81 books, a few for each philosophy and thinker on the map. Each is chosen as a way in for someone new, and the easiest comes first. Every book has two ways to get it: borrow it from a library for free, or buy it.

Not sure where to begin? Take the walk and your result will point at the books closest to you.

Choose philosophies

Showing all 81 books, by tradition.

Ancient Greek

Start hereFor Aristotelian virtue ethics

Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction

Jonathan Barnes

A clear, short guide to how Aristotle thought, covering his ethics among much else.

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After Virtue

Alasdair MacIntyre

Argues that modern moral talk lost its footing and that the answer is to return to virtues and traditions.

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Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotletranslated by Terence Irwin

The founding book of virtue ethics: what a good life is and how character makes it. With notes and a glossary.

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Abrahamic

Start hereFor Theism

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

Brian Davies

The main arguments for and against God, set out fairly, in a book made for newcomers.

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God, Freedom, and Evil

Alvin Plantinga

A short philosophical defence of belief in God against the problem of evil.

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The Existence of God

Richard Swinburne

A careful case for God's existence by weighing the evidence, argument by argument.

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Confucian

Start hereFor Confucianism

The Analects

Confuciustranslated by D. C. Lau

The sayings of Confucius and his students on learning, family, ritual and how to be a good person.

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Mencius

Menciustranslated by D. C. Lau

Conversations in which Mencius argues that human nature is good and rulers must care for their people.

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Daoist

Start hereFor Daoism

Tao Te Ching

Laozitranslated by D. C. Lau

Eighty-one short poems about the way things work and why force defeats itself.

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Zhuangzi: Basic Writings

Zhuangzitranslated by Burton Watson

Funny, strange stories that loosen the grip of fixed opinions and fixed selves.

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Buddhist

Start hereFor Theravada Buddhism

Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

Damien Keown

A short, even-handed guide to the teachings and the main schools.

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Start hereFor Theravada Buddhism

What the Buddha Taught

Walpola Rahula

A monk-scholar's clear account of the Four Noble Truths, no-self and the path.

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In the Buddha's Words

Bhikkhu Bodhiedited and introduced by Bhikkhu Bodhi

The early discourses arranged by theme, each with a short introduction.

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Go deeperFor Madhyamaka Buddhism

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way

Nagarjunatranslated by Jay L. Garfield

The central text of the Middle Way school, with a translator's commentary that makes it readable.

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Hellenistic

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers Diogenes Laertius

Go deeperFor Cynicism

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

Diogenes Laertiustranslated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller

The old collection of stories and sayings about the Greek philosophers, with a long chapter on Diogenes of Sinope.

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Go deeperFor Cynicism

The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy

R. Bracht Branham and Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazéedited volume

Scholars on who the Cynics were and what they meant by living like a dog. Written for a general reader with some patience.

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Start hereFor Epicureanism

How to Be an Epicurean

Catherine Wilson

A readable account of the philosophy of simple pleasure, calm and friendship, and why it still speaks to people.

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The Epicurus Reader Epicurus

Start hereFor Epicureanism

The Epicurus Reader

Epicurusedited by Brad Inwood and L. P. Gerson

The surviving letters and sayings in one small book, with the old reports of what he taught.

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On the Nature of Things

Lucretiustranslated by Martin Ferguson Smith

A long poem that sets out Epicurus's picture of atoms, death and a life without fear.

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Start hereFor Stoicism

A Guide to the Good Life

William B. Irvine

Explains Stoic habits for today's life, with exercises you can try this week.

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Start hereFor Stoicism

Meditations

Marcus Aureliustranslated by Gregory Hays

A Roman emperor's private notes to himself on staying steady, fair and unafraid. Short entries you can open anywhere.

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Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetustranslated by Robert Dobbin

A former slave's blunt lessons on what is and is not up to you.

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Letters from a Stoic

Senecatranslated by Robin Campbell

Warm, practical letters to a friend about fear, money, time and friendship.

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Vedanta

Start hereFor Advaita Vedanta

Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Sue Hamilton

A short, clear map of the main Indian schools and the questions they argue over.

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Start hereFor Advaita Vedanta

The Upanishads

Anonymoustranslated by Juan Mascaró

Selections from the ancient texts that Advaita Vedanta grew out of, in a short readable translation.

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Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction

Eliot Deutsch

An account of non-dualism, its claims about the self and reality, and how it argues for them.

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Latin American

Start hereFor Paulo Freire

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire

Freire's case that teaching should treat learners as partners in questioning their world, not as empty containers.

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British Empiricism

Start hereFor Humean empiricism and skepticism

An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

David Humeedited by Eric Steinberg

Hume's short, clear case that all knowledge of the world comes from experience, and what that costs us.

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A Treatise of Human Nature

David Humeedited by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton

The long first form of his philosophy, from the self to cause and morals.

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Early Modern

Leviathan Thomas Hobbes

Start hereFor Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes

Why people might give up some freedom to a ruler to escape a war of all against all. Long, so start with the parts on human nature and the state.

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Pensees Blaise Pascal

Start hereFor Blaise Pascal

Pensees

Blaise Pascal

Notes toward a defence of faith, full of sharp thoughts on doubt, boredom and the human condition.

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Continental Rationalism

Start hereFor Rationalism

Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

René Descartestranslated by Donald A. Cress

The Discourse on Method and six short meditations that start from doubting everything. The best way into rationalism.

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Ethics

Baruch Spinozatranslated by Edwin Curley

A whole philosophy laid out like geometry: God, mind, emotion and freedom.

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African

Start hereFor Ubuntu and African communal thought

No Future Without Forgiveness

Desmond Tutu

The archbishop who chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission explains ubuntu: a person is a person through other people.

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Cultural Universals and Particulars

Kwasi Wiredu

Essays by a leading African philosopher on reason, morals and community, and what is shared across cultures.

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Enlightenment

Start hereFor Liberalism

On Liberty

John Stuart Milledited by Elizabeth Rapaport

A short, sharp case for freedom of thought and of living differently, unless it harms others.

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Justice as Fairness: A Restatement

John Rawlsedited by Erin Kelly

Rawls's own short summary of his theory: what a fair society would look like if you did not know your place in it.

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Start hereFor Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau asks how people can live under laws and still be free. A short book with a famous first line.

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Scottish Enlightenment

Start hereFor Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Adam Smith

Smith's book on how sympathy and an imagined fair observer shape conscience, before he wrote on trade.

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Secular Thought

Start hereFor Atheism and naturalism

Atheism: A Very Short Introduction

Julian Baggini

A calm account of what atheism says, what it does not, and the main arguments on both sides.

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Start hereFor Atheism and naturalism

Why I Am Not a Christian

Bertrand Russell

Russell's clear, short essays on religion and doubt.

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Start hereFor Agnosticism

Doubt: A History

Jennifer Michael Hecht

A history of doubters from the ancient world to today, and what they made of the question of God.

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Candide Voltaire

Start hereFor Secular humanism

Candide

Voltaire

A short, funny story that mocks easy optimism and asks how to live in a world with real suffering.

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Start hereFor Secular humanism

Humanism: A Very Short Introduction

Stephen Law

What it means to live well and think for yourself without religion: the history and the main ideas.

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Modern Ethics

Practical Ethics Peter Singer

Start hereFor Utilitarianism

Practical Ethics

Peter Singer

Applies the idea of equal concern for everyone's interests to animals, poverty, life and death.

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Utilitarianism John Stuart Mill

Start hereFor Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Milledited by George Sher

The classic short statement: do what brings the most happiness, and why that is more than crude pleasure.

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Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer

Start hereFor Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction

Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer

A short guide to the view, its history and the main objections to it.

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Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? Michael J. Sandel

Start hereFor Kantian deontology

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

Michael J. Sandel

A lively tour of the big theories of right and wrong, using hard cases. Kant and Mill each get a chapter.

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Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Immanuel Kantedited by Allen Wood

Kant's short and demanding book on duty, the moral law and treating people as ends.

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Political Conservative

Start hereFor Conservatism

The Meaning of Conservatism

Roger Scruton

A clear, short statement of conservative thought: authority, loyalty, tradition and the nation.

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Go deeperFor Conservatism

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Edmund Burkeedited by Conor Cruise O'Brien

The founding text of modern conservatism: why to be careful with inherited institutions.

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The Conservative Mind

Russell Kirkfrom Burke to Eliot

A long history of conservative thinkers after Burke, which did much to define the movement in America.

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German Idealism

Start hereFor G. W. F. Hegel

Hegel: A Very Short Introduction

Peter Singer

A short, plain guide to Hegel's view of history and freedom, aimed at someone who has not read him.

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Modern European

Start hereFor Arthur Schopenhauer

Essays and Aphorisms

Arthur Schopenhauer

Short pieces on happiness, suffering and how to live, in a lively style. A friendlier way in than his main work.

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Start hereFor Sigmund Freud

Freud: A Very Short Introduction

Anthony Storr

A short, balanced account of Freud's ideas about the unconscious, dreams and the mind, and of the criticism of them.

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The Human Condition Hannah Arendt

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The Human Condition

Hannah Arendt

A study of labour, work and action, and what it means to act together in public. Dense but rewarding.

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Start hereFor Michel Foucault

Foucault: A Very Short Introduction

Gary Gutting

A short guide to Foucault's studies of madness, prisons and power, with the ideas set out in order.

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Existentialist

Go deeperFor Nihilism

On the Genealogy of Morality

Friedrich Nietzschetranslated by Carol Diethe

Three essays on where our ideas of good and evil came from, and what was lost when belief faded.

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Start hereFor Existentialism

At the Existentialist Café

Sarah Bakewell

The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus and the others, told with wit, and the ideas along the way.

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Start hereFor Existentialism

Existentialism Is a Humanism

Jean-Paul Sartretranslated by Carol Macomber

Sartre's short public lecture on freedom, choice and why a person is what they make of themselves.

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Start hereFor Existentialism

Heidegger: A Very Short Introduction

Michael Inwood

A short guide to the questions behind Heidegger's hard prose, written for a first-time reader.

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The Ethics of Ambiguity

Simone de Beauvoirtranslated by Bernard Frechtman

How to act well when nothing guarantees what is right, and why my freedom depends on yours.

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Start hereFor Nietzschean perspectivism

Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction

Michael Tanner

A brisk guide to what Nietzsche wanted to say, and to the ways he is misread.

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Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzschetranslated by R. J. Hollingdale

His most compact book on truth, perspective and morality, in short numbered sections.

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Start hereFor Absurdism

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camustranslated by Justin O'Brien

Can life be worth living with no given meaning? Camus says yes, and says how. Short and direct.

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Start hereFor Absurdism

The Stranger

Albert Camustranslated by Matthew Ward

The short novel that shows the absurd rather than explaining it.

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American

Start hereFor Pragmatism

Pragmatism

William James

Lectures in plain speech on judging an idea by what difference it makes in life.

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Start hereFor Pragmatism

The Metaphysical Club

Louis Menand

How a few friends in nineteenth-century America came to the idea that ideas are tools.

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Experience and Education

John Dewey

A short book on learning by doing and thinking, and what that asks of teachers and schools.

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Start hereFor Thomas Kuhn

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn

How science changes: long calm periods broken by sudden shifts of view. A short book that gave us the phrase "paradigm shift".

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Start hereFor Objectivism

The Virtue of Selfishness

Ayn Rand

Essays in which Rand argues that rational self-interest is the base of ethics.

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Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand Leonard Peikoff

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Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand

Leonard Peikoff

A full account of the philosophy, written by Rand's heir and student.

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Start hereFor Libertarianism

Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know

Jason Brennan

Questions and answers on what libertarians believe and the main disagreements among them.

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Start hereFor Libertarianism

The Road to Serfdom

Friedrich A. Hayek

An economist's warning that planning from the centre puts freedom at risk. Written in plain argument.

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Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Robert Nozick

The best-known philosophical defence of a minimal state and of individual rights.

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Marxist

Start hereFor Marxism

Marx: A Very Short Introduction

Peter Singer

A compact, clear account of Marx's ideas about history, work and society.

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Start hereFor Marxism

The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engelsedited by Gareth Stedman Jones

The short pamphlet that started a movement. With a long introduction on its history.

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Analytic

Start hereFor Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction

A. C. Grayling

A short account of both phases of Wittgenstein's thought and why language was his main puzzle.

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Indian Modern

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Mohandas K. Gandhi

Start hereFor Mohandas Gandhi

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Gandhi's own plain account of his life and the ideas of truth and nonviolence he tried to live by.

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Critical Theory

Orientalism Edward W. Said

Go deeperFor Edward Said

Orientalism

Edward W. Said

How Western writing and scholarship pictured the East, and what that picture did. Widely read and widely argued over.

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Poststructuralist

Start hereFor Jacques Derrida

Derrida: A Very Short Introduction

Simon Glendinning

A short guide to what Derrida was doing with texts and meaning, for readers new to his work.

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