Philosophy
An Overview of Philosophy
The purpose of this philosophy article is to create a guide to important philosophical ideas spanning time, ideas, and peoples. It is both an introductory and advanced page for persons interested in any of the ideas of philosophy, and while at the moment it may be missing a couple of features, it is up to those fluent in these philosophical books to insert and revise information as the need may arise.
Also, a kind anon went off on their own with the same goal as this article and is creating this:
[1]/lit/ Philosophy Project
Like this article it is under construction. Compare both for your benefit.
Classic Philosophy
Pre-Socratic Thought
Title | Author* | Year** | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Art and Thought of Heraclitus | Charles H. Kahn | ~500BCE | 372 | ||
Early Greek Philosophy | Johnathan Barnes | ~700BCE - ~300BCE | 336 | ||
Empedocles: The Extant Fragments | M.R. Wright | ~450BCE | 372 | ||
The Greek Sophists | John Dillon | ~400s BCE | 464 | ||
Parmenides of Elea | David Gallop | ~500BCE | 144 | ||
The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library | Kenneth Guthrie | ~500sBCE | 362 | ||
Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments | James Lesher | ~540 - ~480BCE | 272 |
Socratic Thought
Title | Author* | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Trial of Socrates | I.F. Stone | ~399BCE | 304 | ||
The Clouds | Aristophanes | ~423BCE | 212 |
Platonic Thought
Title | Author* | Year** | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plato | Constance Meinwald | 2009 | 256 | ||
Plato and the Socratic Dialogue | Charles H. Kahn | 1998 | 456 | ||
Plato on Knowledge and Forms | Gail Fine | 2003 | 464 | ||
Plato's Complete Works |
Plato | ~400BCE - ~348BCE | 1808 | Complete collection of all of Plato's works from Crito to The Laws. Anyone interested in acquiring all of Plato's works should either get this or check out Project Gutenberg's page on him. |
Aristotlean Thought
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aristotle | Christopher Shields | 2007 | 472 | ||
From Aristotle to Augustine | David Furley | 2003 | 480 | ||
Aristotle on Nature and Living Things | Allan Gotthelf | 1985 | 410 | ||
Aristotle Complete Works | Jonathan Barnes | 2009 | 5369 |
Cynicism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy | R. Bracht Branham | 2000 | 465 | ||
Diogenes of Sinope: A Study of Greek Cynicism | Farrand Sayre | 1938 | 139 |
Epicureanism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism | James Warren | 2009 | 356 | ||
The Essential Epicurus | Epicurus | ~300BCE | 101 | ||
The Nature of Things | Lucretius | 50 BCE | 336 |
Stoicism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Letters from a Stoic | Seneca | ~65AD | 254 | ||
Epictetus - Discourses and Selected Writings | Epictetus | ~101AD | 304 | ||
Meditations | Marcus Aurelius | ~175AD | 108 |
Skepticism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Greek Skeptics: From Pyrrho to Sextus | Norman Maccoll | 1868 | 58 | Can be found on Google Books here. | |
The Outlines of Pyrrhonism | Sextus Empiricus | ~200AD | 283 |
Neoplatonism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neoplatonism | R.T. Wallis | 1995 | 212 | ||
Neoplatanism and Gnosticism | R.T. Wallis | 1992 | 548 | ||
The Neoplatonists | John Gregory | 1998 | 208 |
Plotinus
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Enneads | Plotinus | 250AD | 484 |
Christian and Medieval Philosophies
Gnostic Christianity
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and Literature | Birger A. Pearson | 2007 | 362 | ||
The Nag Hammadi Library | ~300AD | 549 | |||
Gnosticism and Christianity in Roman and Coptic Egypt | Birger A. Pearson | 2004 | 320 |
St. Augustine
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
St. Augustine of Hippo | Peter Brown | 2000 | 576 | ||
On Christian Doctrine | St. Augustine | ~400AD | 158 | ||
Confessions | St. Augustine | ~398AD | 352 | ||
City of God | St. Augustine | ~436AD | 804 |
On Tertullian
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study | Timothy David Barnes | 1985 | 340 |
Scholasticism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scholasticism | Josef Pieper | 2001 | 192 | ||
Philosophy in the Middle Ages | Arthur Hyman | 1978 | 724 | ||
The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy | Norman Kretzmann | 1988 | 1056 | ||
A History of Jewish Philosophies in the Middle Ages | Colette Sirat | 1990 | 485 | ||
The Aristotle Adventure | Burgess Laughlin | 1995 | 243 | ||
Aristotle's Children | Richard E. Rubenstein | 2004 | 384 |
St. Anselm
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape | R.W. Southern | 1992 | 524 | ||
Monologion and Proslogion | St. Anselm | ~1078 | 192 |
Thomas Aquinas
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas | Etienne Gilson | 1994 | 502 | ||
St. Thomas Aquinas | Ralph McInerny | 1989 | 197 | ||
Guide to Thomas Aquinas | Josef Pieper | 1991 | 181 | ||
The Summa Theologica | Thomas Aquinas | 1273 | 3020 | ||
Selected Writings | Thomas Aquinas | 1270s | 450 |
William of Ockham
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philosophical Writings | Ockham | ~1323 | 167 | ||
The Cambridge Companion to Ockham | Paul Vincent Spade | 1999 | 440 |
Erasmus
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Desiderius Erasmus: The Praise of Folly and Other Writings | Erasmus | 1511 | 352 |
Martin Luther
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther | Roland Herbert Bainton | 1950 | 441 | ||
Concerning Christian Liberty | Martin Luther | 1520s | 42 | ||
The Bondage of the Will | Martin Luther | 1525 | 264 | ||
On The Jews and Their Lies | Martin Luther | 1543 | 70 |
Calvinism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Institutes of the Christian Religion | John Calvin | 1536 | 1059 | ||
The History and Character of Calvinism | J.T. McNeill | 1967 | 480 |
Modern Philosophy
General
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy | C.B. Schmitt | 1991 | 922 | ||
The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy | James Hankins | 2007 | 452 | ||
Renaissance Thought and the Arts | Paul Oskar Kristeller | 1980 | 248 | ||
Enlightening the World | Philipp Blom | 2005 | 416 | ||
Diderot: A Critical Biography | P.N. Furbank | 2008 | 550 | ||
France in the Enlightenment | Daniel Roche | 2000 | 736 | ||
The Copernican Revolution | Thomas S. Kuhn | 1992 | 320 |
Rationalism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Courtier and the Heretic | Matthew Stewart | 2007 | 352 | ||
Philosophers at War | Alfred Rupert Hall | 2002 | 356 | ||
The Renaissance and 17th Century Rationalism | G.H.R. Parkinson | 2003 | 480 |
Descartes
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Receptions of Descartes | Tad M. Schmaltz | 2005 | 272 | ||
Meditations on First Philosophy | Rene Descartes | 1641 | 110 | ||
Discourse on Method | Rene Descartes | 1637 | 44 |
Baruch Spinoza
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spinoza | Michael Della Rocca | 2008 | 360 | ||
Ethics | Spinoza | 1677 | 208 | ||
Tractatus Theologico | Spinoza | 1670 | 315 |
Leibniz
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leibniz | Nicholas Jolley | 2005 | 272 | ||
The Monadology | Leibniz | 1714 | 34 | ||
Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God | Leibniz | 1710 | 294 | ||
Candide | Voltaire | 1759 | 176 |
Empiricism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
British Philosophy and the Age of Enlightenment | Stuart Brown | 2003 | 440 | ||
British Empiricism & American Pragmatism | Robert Roth | 1993 | 205 |
John Locke
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Locke | E.J. Lowe | 2005 | 240 | ||
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding | John Locke | 1690 | 212 | ||
A Letter Concerning Toleration | John Locke | 1689 | 64 | ||
Two Treatises of Government | John Locke | 1689 | 174 |
David Hume
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A Progress of Sentiments | Annette C. Baier | 1991 | 352 | ||
Death & Character: Further Reflection on Hume | Annette C. Baier | 2008 | 304 | ||
Hume's Problem: Induction and the Justification of Belief | Colin Howson | 2003 | 272 | ||
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding | David Hume | 1748 | 96 | ||
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals | David Hume | 1751 | 96 | ||
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion | David Hume | 1776 | 338 |
George Berkeley
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
George Berkeley: Idealism and the Man | David Berman | 1996 | 248 | ||
Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge | George Berkeley | 1710 | 80 | ||
The Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous | George Berkeley | 1713 | 98 |
Overview of Political Philosophy
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A History of Political Thought: From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance | Janet Coleman | 2000 | 320 | ||
Enlightenment Political Thought and Non-Western Societies | Frederick G. Whelan | 2009 | 242 |
Machiavelli
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thoughts on Machiavelli | Leo Strauss | 1995 | 348 | ||
The Prince | Machiavelli | 1513 | 166 | ||
Discourses on Livy | Machiavelli | 1517 | 448 |
Hobbes
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Descriprion | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobbes: A Biography | A.P. Martinich | 2007 | 424 | ||
The Logic of Leviathan | Gauthier | 2001 | 217 | ||
Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes | Quentin Skinner | 1997 | 496 | ||
Leviathan | Thomas Hobbes | 2009 | 576 |
Milton
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
How Milton Works | Stanley Eugene Fish | 2003 | 640 | ||
Areopagitica | John Milton | 1644 | 32 | ||
Paradise Lost | John Milton | 1667 | 512 |
Rousseau
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
On the Social Contract | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1762 | 108 | ||
The Confessions | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1769 | 608 | ||
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1750 | 126 | ||
Emile, or On Education | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1762 | 464 | ||
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1754 | 92 | ||
Essay on the Origin of Lanugages and Writings Related to Music | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1781 | 658 |
Adam Smith
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Wealth of Nations | Adam Smith | 1776 | 482 | ||
The Theory of Moral Sentiments | Adam Smith | 1759 | 196 |
David Ricardo
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation | David Ricardo | 1817 | 498 |
Malthus
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
An Essay on the Principle of Population | Thomas Malthus | 1798 | 208 |
John Stuart Mill
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Utilitarianism | John Stuart Mill | 1861 | 64 | ||
On Liberty | John Stuart Mill | 1859 | 106 | ||
Principles of Political Economy | John Stuart Mill | 1848 | 512 |
Hegel
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Young Hegelians: An Anthology | Lawrence S. Stepelevich | 1997 | 429 | ||
Hegel | Charles Taylor | 1977 | 596 | ||
The Cambridge Companion to Hegel | Frederick C. Beiser | 1993 | 530 | ||
Hegel: A Very Short Introduction | Peter Singer | 2001 | 152 | ||
On Art, Religion, and the History of Philosophy | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | 1825 | 324 | ||
Lectures on the Philosophy of World History | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | 1837 | 292 | ||
Phenomenology of Spirit | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | 1807 | 595 |
Proudhon
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
What is Property? | P.J. Proudhon | 1840 | 368 |
Karl Marx
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karl Marx: A Life | Francis Wheen | 2001 | 448 | ||
Reading Capital Politically | Harry Cleaver | 2000 | 192 | ||
Essays on Marx' Theory of Value | Isaac I. Rubin | 2007 | 280 | ||
Le Marxisme de Marx | Raymond Aron | 2002 | 832 | ||
Das Kapital | Karl Marx | 1867 | 372 | Note: Most Accessible version is Capital: An Abridged Version by David McLellan | |
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 | Karl Marx | 1844 | 208 | ||
Communist Manifesto | Karl Marx | 1848 | 70 | ||
Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right | Karl Marx | 1843 | 224 | ||
The German Ideology | Karl Marx | 1845 | 575 | ||
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon | Karl Marx | 1852 | 175 |
Darwin
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Discovery of Evolution | David Young | 2007 | 352 | ||
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life | Daniel C. Dennett | 1996 | 586 | ||
Darwin's Ghost | Steve Jones | 2001 | 377 | ||
Evolution's Rainbow | Joan Roughgarden | 2009 | 488 | ||
Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science | Elliot Sober | 2008 | 412 | ||
Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior | Elliot Sober | 1999 | 416 | ||
Macachiavellion Intelligence: How Rhesus Macacques and Humans have Conquered the World | Dario Maestripieri | 2007 | 192 | ||
In Search of Human Nature | Carl N. Degler | 1992 | 416 | ||
Voyage of the Beagle | Charles Darwin | 1839 | 216 | ||
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection | Charles Darwin | 1859 | 512 | ||
The Descent of Man | Charles Darwin | 1871 | 528 |
Scientific Revolution
The Rise
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Beginnings of Western Science | David C. Lindberg | 1992 | 480 | ||
The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe | Valerie I. J. Flint | 1994 | 472 | ||
Magic in the Middle Ages | Richard Kieckhefer | 2000 | 236 | ||
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition | Francis A. Yates | 1964 | 480 | ||
The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age | Francis A. Yates | 1979 | 264 | ||
Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization | Danny Ethus Burton | 2003 | 390 | ||
The Scientific Revolution | Steven Shapin | 1998 | 232 | ||
Leviathan and the Air Pump | Steven Shapin | 1985 | 456 | ||
Never Pure | Steven Shapin | 2010 | 568 | ||
The Emergence of a Scientific Culture | Stephen Gaukroger | 2006 | 576 | ||
The Cambridge History of Science Volume 3: Early Modern Science | Katharine Park | 2002 | 894 | ||
The Cambridge History of Science Volume 4: The Eighteenth Century | Roy Porter | 2003 | 942 | ||
The Fabric of the Heavens | Stephen Toulmin | 1999 | 294 | ||
The Architecture of Matter | Stephen Toulmin | 1982 | 404 | ||
The Discovery of Time | Stephen Toulmin | 1982 | 280 | ||
The Mind of God and the Works of Man | Edward Craig | 1997 | 368 |
Bacon
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The New Organon | Francis Bacon | 1620 | 234 | ||
Essays | Francis Bacon | 1597 | 224 |
Pascal
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Fearful Sphere of Pascal | Jorge Luis Borges | 1962 | 4 | The essay can be found here. | |
Pensées | Blaise Pacal | 1669 | 216 |
Kant
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Invention of Autonomy | J.B. Schneewind | 1997 | 650 | ||
Kant | Paul Guyer | 2006 | 456 | ||
Knowledge, Reason, and Taste | Paul Guyer | 2008 | 288 | ||
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics | Immanuel Kant | 1783 | 160 | ||
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals | Immanuel Kant | 1785 | 110 | ||
Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment? | Immanuel Kant | 1784 | 144 | ||
Critique of Practical Reason | Immanuel Kant | 1788 | 168 | ||
Critique of Pure Reason | Immanuel Kant | 1781 | 784 | ||
Critique of Judgement | Immanuel Kant | 1790 | 222 |
German Idealism
Overview
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism | Frederick Beiser | 2008 | 752 | ||
German Philosophy 1760-1860: The Legacy of Idealism | Terry Pinkard | 2002 | 392 | ||
German Idealist Philosophy | Various | Various | 368 |
Fichte
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Foundations of Natural Right | Johann Gottliebe Fichte | 1797 | 380 |
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Friedrich Schleiermacher (The Making of Modern Theology) | Friedrich Schleiermacher | 1991 | 282 | ||
Hermeneutics and Criticism, and other Writings | Friedrich Schleiermacher | 1838 | 328 |
Pessimism
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race | Thomas Ligotti | 2010 | 246 |
Schelling
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom | Friedrich Schelling | 1809 | 183 |
Schopenhauer
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Essays and Aphorisms | Arthur Schopenhauer | ~1851 | 240 | ||
On the Basis of Morality | Arthur Schopenhauer | 1840 | 226 | ||
The World as Will and Representation | Arthur Schopenhauer | 1844 | 1259 |
Feuerbach
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Essence of Christianity | Ludwig Feuerbach | 1841 | 363 |
Early Existentialism
Kierkegaard
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kierkegaard: The Indirect Communication | Roger Poole | 1993 | 340 | ||
Fear and Trembling | Søren Kierkegaard | 1843 | 108 | ||
Repetition | Søren Kierkegaard | 1843 | ~100 | ||
The Sickness Unto Death | Søren Kierkegaard | 1849 | 192 | ||
The Concept of Anxiety | Søren Kierkegaard | 1844 | 294 | ||
Either/Or | Søren Kierkegaard | 1843 | 800+ |
Nietzsche
Title | Author | Year | Pages | Description | Book Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nietzsche, Genealogy, History | Michael Foucault | 1977 | 14 | The essay may be found here. | |
Nietzsche's New Darwinism | John Richardson | 2004 | 304 | ||
Nietzsche: The Man and his Philosophy | R.J. Hollingdale | 2001 | 288 | ||
The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism | Bernard Reginster | 2006 | 336 | ||
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1873 | 26 | ||
The Anti-Christ | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1895 | 86 | ||
The Birth of Tragedy | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1872 | 160 | ||
The Gay Science | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1882 | 174 | ||
Beyond Good and Evil | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1886 | 140 | ||
On the Genealogy of Morals | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1887 | 176 | ||
Thus Spoke Zarathustra | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1885 |
Hermeneutics and Early Linguistics
Ferdinand de Saussure
Wilhelm Dilthey
Erich Auerbach
Henry-Louis Bergson
Classical Pragmatism
Charles Sanders Pierce
William James
John Dewey
External Links
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presocratics/
http://www.heraclitusfragments.com
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/presoc
-Emp.htm = Emptedocle' fragments
-Xenophan.html = Xenophanes' Fragments
-Parmends.html = Parmenides Fragments