Philosophers

Plato is one of history's most influential thinkers, yet the image we have of him—an ethereal figure far removed from society and politics, who conjured abstract ideas in peaceful groves—is a fiction, created by Plato's admirers and built up over centuries.

The definitive biography of the man who dominated political and intellectual circles in England during the sixteenth century: Thomas More.

The first major biography of the logician and mathematician whose incompleteness theorems helped launch a modern scientific revolution....

The first biography in more than three decades of the Austrian-born thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

Roubineau sifts through the many legends and apocryphal stories that surround the life of Diogenes. Roubineau retraces the known facts of Diogenes' existence....

Vividly written, The Infidel and the Professor is a compelling account of a great friendship of two towering Enlightenment thinkers that had great consequences for modern thought....

Discover the timeless works of Aristotle, one of the most influential philosophers, whose insights continue to shape modern thought. The Complete Aristotle Collection is your gateway to the teachings that have endured for over two millennia.

A NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A poet, a physicist, and a philosopher explored the greatest enigmas in the universe—the nature of free will, the strange fabric of the cosmos, the true limits of the mind—and each in their own way uncovered a revelatory truth about...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An “outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit” (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas “A timely, lucid and compelling...

Experience the world of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and the tremendous challenges he faced and overcame with the help of Stoic philosophy.

Daniel C. Dennett—preeminent philosopher and cognitive scientist—has spent his career creating the basis for a naturalistic account of consciousness with acumen and elegance. I’ve Been Thinking traces the development of Dennett’s own intellect and instructs us how we too can become good thinkers....

Macmillan Audio presents In My Own Way, Alan Watts' acclaimed autobiography, published for the first time in audio....

With his well known idiosyncrasies and aphoristic style, Friedrich Nietzsche is always bracing and provocative, and temptingly easy to dip into. Michael Tanner's introduction to the philosopher's life and work examines the numerous ambiguities inherent in his writings....

NEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice THE TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE A groundbreaking new biography of philosophy’s greatest iconoclast Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most enigmatic figures in philosophy, and his concepts—the Übermensch, the will...

Why does race seem to color almost every feature of our moral and political universe? Why does a perpetual cycle of slavery continue to define the Black experience? These are just some of the compelling questions that animate Afropessimism....

The life and thought of Diogenes the Cynic, an iconoclastic philosopher who pioneered a brash and free-thinking vision of life that inspired the philosophy of Stoicism—“a rich, engaging portrait of intellectual fearlessness” (Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Cleopatra) In...

This book provides an introduction to the most important philosopher of the Islamic world, Ibn Sina, often known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna....

Plato of Athens is the perfect introduction to the man and his work....

Thomas Paine was one of the greatest political propagandists in history....

In Socrates: A Man for Our Times, Johnson draws from little-known resources to construct a fascinating account of one of history’s greatest thinkers....

'Terrific and passionate writing about a philosopher whose heroism is unquestionable . . . and as lively and learned an introduction to classical Athens as you could want' - Daily Telegraph In The Hemlock Cup, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes brings to vivid life one of the most...

A new biography of Karl Marx, tracing the life of this titanic figure and the legacy of his work Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. He died quietly in 1883 and a mere eleven mourners attended his funeral, but a year later he was being hailed as...

This lively and accessible introduction to Plato focuses on the philosophy and argument of his writings, drawing the listener into Plato's way of doing philosophy, and the general themes of his thinking. It looks at Plato as a thinker grappling with philosophical problems....

Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence....

At the age of eight, Karl Popper was puzzling over the idea of infinity and by fifteen was beginning to take a keen interest in his father's well-stocked library of books. Unended Quest recounts these moments and many others in the life of one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century....