Philosophy Resources
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Durant, W. (1926). The story of philosophy. Simon & Schuster.
Still one of the most readable entry points to the Western tradition, organised around the great thinkers. Warm and engaging; dated in places and Western-only, so pair it with one of the global surveys below.
Haidt, J. (2006). The happiness hypothesis: Finding modern truth in ancient wisdom. Basic Books.
The best single bridge between ancient philosophy and modern psychology, testing the old wisdom against the evidence. Directly models the section’s approach and is the ideal companion to Life Lessons. Reliable.
Smith, H. (1991). The world’s religions. HarperOne.
The classic sympathetic survey of the major traditions, strong on the wisdom each carries. Warm and respectful; light on the critical and historical edges, so read it for understanding rather than evaluation.
Histories and Surveys (Global)
Kenny, A. (2010). A new history of Western philosophy. Oxford University Press.
The best balanced modern one-author history of the Western tradition: rigorous, fair, comprehensive. The reference work for the Western half of A Brief History of Philosophy.
Russell, B. (1945). A history of Western philosophy. Simon & Schuster.
Brilliant, opinionated, and hugely influential, and to be read with awareness of its biases: Russell is often unfair to thinkers he dislikes and dismissive or cursory on non-Western philosophy. Read it for the prose and the provocation, not as a neutral reference, and never as a guide to the Eastern traditions.
Scharfstein, B.-A. (1998). A comparative history of world philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant. State University of New York Press.
An explicitly cross-cultural history that treats the Indian, Chinese, and Western traditions as genuine peers. Exactly the corrective to the Western-canon habit, and the model for this section’s approach.
Radhakrishnan, S., & Moore, C. A. (Eds.). (1957). A sourcebook in Indian philosophy. Princeton University Press.
The standard scholarly anthology of primary Indian texts, covering the orthodox schools, Buddhism, Jainism, and the Charvaka materialists. The authoritative way in to the Indian tradition’s actual texts.
Fung, Y. (1948). A short history of Chinese philosophy. Macmillan.
The classic single-volume history of Chinese thought, by one of its great modern scholars. Still the standard accessible overview of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and the rest.
The Western Tradition (Primary and Close)
Plato. (2003). The republic (D. Lee, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
The foundational work of Western political and metaphysical philosophy, and the source of the cave allegory. Demanding but central; more readable than its reputation suggests.
Aristotle. (2004). The Nicomachean ethics (J. A. K. Thomson, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
The origin of virtue ethics, eudaimonia, and the golden mean, and still one of the most useful books ever written on how to live well. The direct ancestor of much of Life Lessons.
Descartes, R. (1641/1996). Meditations on first philosophy (J. Cottingham, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.
The launch of modern philosophy and the source of “I think, therefore I am” and the mind-body problem. Short, lucid, and worth reading in the original.
Hume, D. (1748/2007). An enquiry concerning human understanding. Oxford University Press.
The high point of empiricist scepticism, and the challenge on causation and induction that still sets much of the agenda. Remarkably clear for its depth.
Nietzsche, F. (1886/2002). Beyond good and evil (J. Norman, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.
The confrontation with the collapse of inherited meaning and the problem of creating value without it. Exhilarating, aphoristic, and frequently misread; read him directly rather than through his reputation.
The Stoic and Practical Tradition
Aurelius, M. (2002). Meditations (G. Hays, Trans.). Modern Library.
A Roman emperor’s private notes to himself on how to live, and perhaps the most useful book of practical philosophy ever written. The Hays translation is the most alive. Read this before any modern book about it.
Epictetus. (2008). Discourses and selected writings (R. Dobbin, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
The clearest ancient source of the dichotomy of control. Blunt, bracing, and intensely practical; a former slave’s philosophy of inner freedom.
Irvine, W. B. (2009). A guide to the good life: The ancient art of Stoic joy. Oxford University Press.
The best modern practical introduction to Stoicism, including negative visualisation. Some scholars quibble with its interpretive choices, and it is a modern reconstruction rather than pure history, but it is genuinely useful. Read it alongside, not instead of, Marcus and Epictetus.
Hadot, P. (1995). Philosophy as a way of life (M. Chase, Trans.). Blackwell.
The crucial scholarly case that ancient philosophy was a practised discipline of life, not just a body of theory, the historical backbone of the section’s “knowing is not doing” argument. Deep and rewarding.
The Indian and Buddhist Tradition
Rahula, W. (1959). What the Buddha taught. Grove Press.
The standard accessible introduction to core Buddhist philosophy, the Four Noble Truths, impermanence, no-self, by a Buddhist monk and scholar. Clear, rigorous, and free of mysticism. The best place to start.
Easwaran, E. (Trans.). (2007). The Bhagavad Gita. Nilgiri Press.
The most beloved text of the Indian tradition, on duty, action, and the self, in an accessible and respected translation with helpful introduction. The way in to Vedanta’s living heart.
Mitchell, S. (Trans.). (2000). Bhagavad Gita: A new translation. Harmony.
An alternative, more literary rendering for those who want a second angle. Read any good translation; this is a text to sit with rather than race through.
The Chinese Tradition
Van Norden, B. W. (2011). Introduction to classical Chinese philosophy. Hackett.
The best modern accessible-yet-rigorous introduction to the Hundred Schools, Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, Legalism, by a leading scholar who argues forcefully for taking Chinese philosophy seriously as philosophy. The ideal companion to the Chinese material in A Brief History of Philosophy.
Ivanhoe, P. J., & Van Norden, B. W. (Eds.). (2005). Readings in classical Chinese philosophy (2nd ed.). Hackett.
The standard primary-source anthology: Confucius, Mengzi, Xunzi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mozi, and Han Feizi in good translations with introductions. Go here for the actual texts.
Puett, M., & Gross-Loh, C. (2016). The path: What Chinese philosophers can teach us about the good life. Simon & Schuster.
An accessible, practical drawing-out of what the Chinese tradition offers a modern life, deliberately stripped of the “exoticised” misreadings. A good practical bridge, lighter than the scholarly texts; take it as an invitation to the primary sources, not a substitute.
Lao Tzu. (1963). Tao te ching (D. C. Lau, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
The foundational Daoist text on the Way and effortless action (wu wei), in a readable and accurate translation. Short, strange, and inexhaustible.
Language and Meaning
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). Blackwell.
The source of the idea that many philosophical problems are confusions generated by language. Foundational and genuinely deep; the strong reading, that philosophy is nothing but linguistic confusion, is overstated and was not quite Wittgenstein’s own view. Difficult; read with a guide.
Deutscher, G. (2010). Through the language glass: Why the world looks different in other languages. Metropolitan Books.
The best-calibrated popular treatment of linguistic relativity, careful about exactly where the evidence supports the weak version and where the strong version fails. Reliable and well-judged.
Pinker, S. (2007). The stuff of thought: Language as a window into human nature. Viking.
A strong, readable counterweight, skeptical of strong linguistic relativity and arguing for shared underlying structures of thought. Read alongside Deutscher to see the genuine debate; Pinker’s confidence occasionally outruns the case.
Frankl, V. E. (1946/2006). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press.
A psychiatrist’s account, forged in the concentration camps, of meaning as the thing that lets humans endure almost anything. Short, devastating, and central to the meaning material. Among the most important books on this list.
Camus, A. (1942/1955). The myth of Sisyphus (J. O’Brien, Trans.). Hamish Hamilton.
The classic statement of the absurdist response: living fully in the face of a universe that supplies no meaning. Beautifully written; argued rather than proven, as philosophy of this kind always is.
Vervaeke, J. (2019). Awakening from the meaning crisis [Lecture series]. University of Toronto.
The most prominent contemporary diagnosis of the modern “meaning crisis,” wide-ranging across cognitive science, history, and philosophy. Influential and stimulating; the synthesis is ambitious, in progress, and very much its author’s own, so take the diagnosis seriously and hold the grander framework lightly.
Religion, Wisdom, and Its Critics
Wattles, J. (1996). The golden rule. Oxford University Press.
The scholarly treatment of the cross-cultural ethic of reciprocity, the strongest single piece of evidence for moral convergence across traditions. Reliable.
Armstrong, K. (1993). A history of God: The 4,000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Knopf.
A rich, sympathetic history of how the conception of God has changed over time within the Abrahamic traditions. Authoritative and humane; written from inside a broadly sympathetic stance.
Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon.
The moral-psychology account of why religion binds groups together and blinds them to outsiders, the “bind and blind” function. Excellent on the social mechanics; read its evolutionary claims as strong hypotheses rather than settled fact.
Luhrmann, T. M. (2020). How God becomes real: Kindling the presence of invisible others. Princeton University Press.
An anthropologist’s careful study of how religious practice works psychologically, the source of the “prayer is like cognitive behavioural therapy” insight. Rigorous and respectful of believers without taking a metaphysical side.
Newberg, A., & Waldman, M. R. (2009). How God changes your brain. Ballantine Books.
Popular neuroscience on contemplative practice and the brain. Useful on the reality of the effects; some specific claims run ahead of the evidence, so treat the broad direction as sound and the details with caution.
On Self-Compassion and the Practical Turn
Neff, K. (2011). Self-compassion: The proven power of being kind to yourself. William Morrow.
The research behind treating yourself with the kindness you would offer a friend, the modern complement to the traditions’ teachings on compassion. Evidence-based and practical.
Harris, R. (2008). The happiness trap: How to stop struggling and start living. Trumpeter.
An accessible guide to acceptance-based psychology (ACT), the modern descendant of the Stoic and Buddhist work on acceptance and the second arrow. Practical and well-grounded.
Huta, V., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). Pursuing pleasure or virtue: The differential and overlapping well-being benefits of hedonic and eudaimonic motives. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(6), 735–762.
The empirical study distinguishing pleasure-based from meaning-based wellbeing, and finding lives high in both do best. The research behind the eudaimonia lesson.
On Philosophy’s Own Limits
Chalmers, D. J. (2015). Why isn’t there more progress in philosophy? Philosophy, 90(1), 3–31.
A leading philosopher’s candid assessment of how little his discipline converges on its big questions. The honest source behind Philosophy’s Shortcomings.
Knobe, J., & Nichols, S. (Eds.). (2008). Experimental philosophy. Oxford University Press.
The movement that tests philosophers’ intuitions empirically and finds them less universal than assumed. The source for the critique of the armchair method; the robustness of specific findings is itself debated.
Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. Hutchinson.
The origin of the knowing-that versus knowing-how distinction that anchors the section’s argument that understanding a principle is not the same as living it. A classic.