Best Philosophical Literature
Fiction that aims to enlighten the reader "philosophically" (whatever you take that word to mean).
1,136 books ·
2,878 voters ·
list created July 30th, 2008
by deleted user.
Tags:
literary-fiction
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message 1:
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Derya
(new)
Dec 28, 2010 04:54AM
![Derya](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
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![BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1675876559p1/5986596.jpg)
![Catherine](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1616492858p1/29363649.jpg)
1. It has quite a few of my favourite books
2. For once the voters have stuck to the brief
3. It doesn't have Twilight on it!
PS - I added Knowledge of Angels - please read it.
![Mike](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1463079116p1/47001399.jpg)
Are you serious? Of course!! It's a beautiful piece"
it's a beautiful piece and a great novel but not a philosophical one.
![BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1675876559p1/5986596.jpg)
I was wondering why the book was on the list, but it seems I'm not the only one. I just thought my idea of what would be considered 'philosophical literature' was (completely) different from others, as it's not the only title I wouldn't have put on this list :-) But again, I might have a completely different idea of philosophical literature, because after all the description does say "whatever you take that word to mean".
![Mike](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1463079116p1/47001399.jpg)
I was wondering why the book was on the list, but it seems I'm not the only one. I just thought my idea of what..."
Yeah! I just saw that. But it's wrong and actually it doesn't need any explanation why it's wrong. 'Philosophical literature' is a category. It can't be "whatever you take that word to mean".
![MarpleInvestigates](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
Are you serious? Of course!! It's a beautiful piece"
it's a beautiful piece and a great novel but not a philosophical one."
It may not explore what is more often considered to be philosophy like metaphysics or epistemology but the themes of morality and value of living could be considered philosophical to some but I agree that it's not really philosophical literature like some of the other pieces like The Little Prince or Steppenwolf.
![Greg Hickey](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1438201191p1/28503927.jpg)
I also produced two free bonus downloads: 1) the favorite works of philosophical fiction from eleven contemporary philosophical fiction authors and 2) a one-page PDF shopping guide to The 105 Best Philosophical Novels. Happy reading!
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
Are you serious? Of course!! It's a beautiful piece"
it's a beautiful piece and a great novel but not a philosophical one."
How can one not see this as philosophical? Think about issues surrounding race and justice. Think about the ways in which we treat people with mental health issues; how many Boo Radleys out there have been treated as pariahs? You can see the philosophy inherent.
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
The Invention of Religion, by Drake
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Gagh. It's like a wreck on the freeway. Everything is flowing along nicely, and then someone isn't paying attention and does something dumb; next thing you know, half the world has crashed along with them.
PEOPLE. Read the description of the list. This is fiction. There's no place for straight philosophy here. Now trusty souls like me have to come clean up your mess. It's either that or look at it, so to me the choice is clear. NOW...
Nietzsche didn't write fiction. Seriously. There's a mess of it here, and he's not alone either. Here we go:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
The Sickness Unto Death, by Kierkegaard et al...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Fear and Trembling, also Kierkegaard
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
And yet more Kierkegaard:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The Trial and the Death of Socrates, by Plato:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Tuesdays with Morrie is memoir, NOT fiction; the same is true of Night:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Crimony. MORE Nietzsche:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Medium-Stupid: It's true at least that Camus wrote a lot of fiction; still, the word "Essays" in the title should have been a clue:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Winnie the Pooh is fiction; however, The Tao of Pooh and Piglet is not:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius...c'mon now.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
And Kahlil Gibran
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Critique of Reason, by Kant:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
More Nietzsche:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Autobiography of a Yogi cannot be fiction because it's an...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
And Tao te Ching:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Pretty sure the first page is clean now.
Those that see books left on this list in error--not because you don't care for the book, but because it's not fiction--please note the title of the book in this comment section along with the # or at least the page on which you saw it. Those of us editing these lists are all volunteers; I get notified when a comment pops up, so extraneous comments about books liked or not liked, and especially spam done by authors whose books aren't selling yet are to be avoided.
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
Okay then. I am leaving for the night. Turning off the monitor and muting sound. If anyone sees anything that shouldn't be here, shoot me a message via this thread and I'll check it Saturday. My copy of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad is waiting...
(Forehead smack) As soon as I knock The Republic, by Plato, off the list at #23. How did I miss that? Gone:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
'night, all.
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
Removed, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
Usually with a list this severely compromised, I would be tempted to abandon it, but the concept is so strong, I've grown attached to it and want to save it. So here we go.
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, gone from page 1, nonficiton:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
From #43, The Decline of the West:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
Page 2, Foucault, Discipline and Prisons:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
A note: I'm seeing a lot of poetry collections here. For the moment I am not touching them; it seems to me to be a gray area, especially in the case of ballads that tell a story in verse rather than prose. If anyone sees a work that straight-up lands outside the category of fiction, say what it is and where it is, and I will deal with it. A further complication, of course, is that many of these are collections of poems AND short stories. So for now, never mind all that; it's looking like a job just to pull out the nonfiction works of philosophy and the occasional philosophic memoir, biography, autobiography.
If anyone reading this comment knows which is the best list that embraces philosophy as a genre, please post it here so that readers that want to spend time with Hegel, Kant, and (*shudder*) Nietzsche can go there.
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Top o' page 2, nonfiction philosophy by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Page 2, Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Page 2: Love Richard Dawkins, but The God Delusion is nonfiction, and so it's been removed:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Page 2, Complete Essays
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Page 2 :
Again with the Tao of Pooh. No, no, no.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Oracles by Mario Brooks
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
#166 Om Chanting and Meditations
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
#168 Birth of Tragedy by (of course) Nietzsche
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
#182 The Unwords
#165 Poena Damni
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
#186
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
#187 Meetings with Remarkable Men
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
Greg, that sounds like a good topic for a new list. Have you thought about starting one? Of my votes, 11 (if I counted correctly) are books published this year. 2 of them actually haven't been published yet--I read the DRCs for them--but they will be published soon.
The system found and removed 2 duplicates.
![Greg Hickey](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1438201191p1/28503927.jpg)
Thanks Donna. I went through the entire list and identified books published in 2017. I just wanted to see if anyone had others to add.
![Donna Davis](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1382848193p1/11510694.jpg)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
and from page 2, The Love Poems of Rumi:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Also page 2, Letters to a Young Poet, nonfiction
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
And from page 3, Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill, who totally didn't write fiction EVER:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Okay, readers, that's it for now, but Granny Donna will be back, so don't go sliding any more nonfiction into this list. Nobody that fails to follow directions may have dessert tonight.
![Greg Hickey](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1438201191p1/28503927.jpg)
The list is based on rankings from Amazon, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post, suggestions from readers on Goodreads and Reddit and ratings on Goodreads and Amazon. Enjoy!
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