Philosophy

In-depth guides that start simply enough for children and go deep enough for researchers.

13 articles

• Philosophy · c. 1000 BCE – 600 CEAvestaThe Avesta is the holy book of Zoroastrianism, a collection of very old prayers, hymns and laws in an ancient Iranian language that priests memorised and recited for many centuries before anyone wrote them down.Map
• Philosophy · c. 700–500 BCEEarly UpanishadsThe Upanishads are ancient Indian teachings, first passed on by word of mouth, in which teachers and students ask what a person’s true self is and discover that it may be one with the deepest reality of the whole universe.Map
• Philosophy · c. 500–301 BCEThe Art of WarThe Art of War is a short ancient Chinese book about strategy, traditionally credited to a general called Master Sun, which teaches that the best victory comes from careful planning, knowing yourself and your opponent, and if possible winning without fighting at all.Map
• Philosophy · c. 479–50 BCEThe AnalectsThe Analects is a short Chinese book of sayings and little conversations of Confucius and his students, collected after his death, which became one of the most read books in the history of East Asia.Map
• Philosophy · c. 320–290 BCEThe Mencius (book)The Mencius is a Chinese book of conversations and arguments from the 4th century BC in which the Confucian teacher Meng Ke argues that people are born with the beginnings of goodness and that rulers exist for the sake of the people; it later became one of the Four Books studied by every examination candidate in China and was read across Korea and Japan.Map
• Philosophy · c. 300 BCE – 299 CEArthashastraThe Arthashastra is an ancient Indian handbook in Sanskrit that explains how a king should run a state: how to collect taxes, choose ministers, judge crimes, use spies, make alliances and decide between war and peace.Map
• Philosophy · c. 200–1 BCEBhagavad GitaThe Bhagavad Gita, "the Song of the Lord", is a 700-verse Sanskrit poem within the Mahabharata in which Krishna counsels the warrior Arjuna on a battlefield about duty, action, knowledge and devotion; it is one of the most beloved scriptures of Hinduism and one of the most widely read philosophical texts in the world.Map
• Philosophy · c. 170–180 CEMeditationsThe Meditations is a private notebook in which the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, writing in Greek during wars and a deadly epidemic in the 170s CE, reminded himself how a good person should think and act.Map
• Philosophy · c. 450–500 CETirukkuṟaḷ (The Kural)The Tirukkuṟaḷ, or Kural, is a Tamil book of 1,330 two-line verses on virtue, wealth and government, and love, attributed to a poet known as Tiruvalluvar and probably composed around the fifth century CE, though its date is still debated.Map
• Philosophy · 1513The PrinceThe Prince is a short book that the Florentine official Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in 1513, after losing his job, to explain how rulers actually win and keep power, and its blunt advice has made “Machiavellian” a word for cunning politics ever since.Map
• Philosophy · 1792A Vindication of the Rights of WomanA Vindication of the Rights of Woman is Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 book arguing that women are reasoning beings whose apparent intellectual and moral weakness comes from being brought up to please, and that they deserve the same education, the same moral standard and a chance to live independently.Map
• Philosophy · 1867Das Kapital (Capital)Das Kapital is a long book by Karl Marx, first published in 1867, that tries to explain how capitalism works, where profit comes from, and why Marx thought the system would be changed by the workers it depends on.Map
• Philosophy · 1921Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusThe Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is a short, strange and hugely influential book by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, written mostly while he was a soldier in the First World War, that tries to show how language can picture the world, and where the limits of what can be meaningfully said lie.Map