Doing Philosophy/Philosophy Text Books

This list, generated from an Open Syllabus Project analytics query on “Philosophy Book”, suggests books most often assigned as texts in philosophy courses. They are listed here beginning from the most often assigned. Read and study any that interest you.

1. Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Immanuel Kant
2. Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes
3. Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill
4. Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
5. Gorgias, Plato
6. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume
7. Republic, Plato
8. Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
9. The Elements of Moral Philosophy, James Rachels
10. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke
11. A Theory of Justice, John Rawls
12. A Defense of Abortion, Judith Jarvis Thomson
13. Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant
14. A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume
15. Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche
16. A Concise Introduction to Logic, Patrick J Hurley
17. Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Peter Singer
18. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S Kuhn
19. Philosophische Untersuchungen, Ludwig Wittgenstein
20. Discourse on Method, Rene Descartes
21. On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
22. Poetics, Aristotle
23. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Hume
24. Apology: The Greek Text of Plato, Plato
25. What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, Thomas Nagel
26. The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell
27. Naming and Necessity, Saul A Kripke
28. Second Treatise of Government, John Locke
29. The Experience Machine, Robert Nozick
30. Being and Time: A Translation of Sein Und Zeit, Martin Heidegger
31. Active and Passive Euthanasia, James Rachels
32. A Rulebook for Arguments, Anthony Weston
33. Minds, Brains, and Programs, John R Searle
34. Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?, Edmund L Gettier
35. The Will to Believe, William James
36. Euthyphro, Plato
37. Language, Truth and Logic, A J Ayer
38. Why Abortion Is Immoral, Don Marquis
39. Existentialism Is a Humanism, JeanPaul Sartre
40. Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard
41. The Value of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell
42. Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick
43. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
44. Writing Philosophy: A Student's Guide to Writing Philosophy Essays, Lewis Vaughn
45. The Ethics of Belief, William Kingdon Clifford
46. Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx
47. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, Friedrich Nietzsche
48. All Animals Are Equal, Peter Singer
49. Practical Ethics, Peter Singer
50. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, Mary Anne Warren
51. Introduction to Logic, Irving M Copi
52. Two Dogmas of Empiricism, W V Quine
53. The Challenge of Cultural Relativism, James Rachels
54. The Phenomenology of Mind, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel    
55. Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues, Lewis Vaughn, W. W. Norton  
56. Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing      
57. Letter From Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King
58. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation:, Jeremy Bentham    
59. The Second Sex, Simone De Beauvoir    
60. Introducing Philosophy: A Text With Integrated Readings, Robert C Solomon      
61. Le Mythe De Sisyphe: Essai Sur l'Absurde, Albert Camus
62. Ethics, Benedictus De Spinoza    
63. Evil and Omnipotence, P M Farrell        
64. Critical Thinking: Evaluating Claims and Arguments in Everyday Life, Brooke Noel Moore
65. The Social Contract, JeanJacques Rousseau        
66. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Alasdair C MacIntyre        
67. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, John Perry      
68. The Wager, Blaise Pascal          
69. Reasons and Persons, Derek Parfit        
70. Proof of an External World, George Edward Moore        
71. Confessions, Augustine
72. The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, Norman Melchert        
73. Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, Barbara MacKinnon    
74. Sensations and Brain Processes, J J C Smart        
75. What Is This Thing Called Science?: An Assessment of the Nature and Status of Science and Its Methods, A F Chalmers    
76. Logic and Conversation, H P Grice          
77. Twilight of the Idols, Friedrich Nietzsche
78. Epiphenomenal Qualia, Frank Jackson    
79. Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person, Harry G Frankfurt      
80. The Case for Animal Rights, Tom Regan  
81. The Gay Science, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
82.  Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction, William G Lycan
83. The Ontological Argument, Anselm, Gaunilo      
84. Philosophy of Mind, Jaegwon Kim          
85. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, John Rawls  
86. Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility, Harry G Frankfurt          
87. Philosophy: History and Problems, Samuel Enoch Stumpf          
88. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Carol Gilligan      
89. What Mary Didn't Know, Frank Jackson, The Journal of Philosophy          
90. Personal Identity, Derek Parfit, The Philosophical Review            
91. Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus  
92. What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy, Thomas Nagel
93. On Denoting, Bertrand Russell  
94. Allegory of the Cave, Plato        
95. Being and Nothingness, JeanPaul Sartre
96. The Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold    
97. Utilitarianism: For and Against, J J C Smart        
98. Moral Saints, Susan M Wolf
99. Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas
100. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals: A Critical Edition, David Hume