Philosophy · Curated list
The Communist Manifesto, Republic (Plato), The Prince and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the work's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
1848 political pamphlet by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Originally titled the Manifesto of the Communist Party, a political pamphlet by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. The Communist League commissioned it, and it was published in London in 1848.
Wikidata · Photo: Friedrich Engels , Karl Marx, Public domain
2
Philosophical work by Plato around 375 BC
A Socratic dialogue that Plato wrote around 375 BC about justice, about the just man, and about how a just city-state is ordered and what it is like. His best-known work, it is one of the most influential works of political theory and philosophy ever written, both in ideas and in history.
3
Political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli
A political treatise of the 16th century by Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian political philosopher and diplomat, written as a manual for new princes. Many commentators have seen one of its main themes as the view that winning political glory sometimes requires immoral acts.
Wikidata · Photo: Niccolò Machiavelli, Public domain
4
Chinese classic text
Also written Dào Dé Jīng, and also called simply the Laozi, an ancient Chinese classic traditionally credited to the sage Laozi and regarded as the founding text of Taoism. Central to Taoism as both philosophy and religion, it has been "profoundly influential" across Chinese culture more widely, in medicine and art as well.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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5
Philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche
A work of philosophical fiction by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, published in four volumes from 1883 to 1885, in full “Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None”, and in some English versions “Thus Spake Zarathustra”. Its hero is nominally the historical Zarathustra, better known in the West as Zoroaster.
Wikidata · Photo: Friedrich Nietzsche, Public domain
6
Ancient Chinese divination text
Also written Yijing, and usually translated as the Classic of Changes or the Book of Changes, an ancient Chinese text of divination and one of the oldest Chinese classics. It began as a manual for divination in the Western Zhou period (1000–750 BC).
Wikidata · Photo: Song era print artist, Public domain
7
Confucian philosophical text
Also called the Sayings of Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosophical text of sayings and ideas credited to Confucius and people of his time, traditionally thought to have been compiled by his followers.
Wikidata · Photo: Confucius and his disciples,, Public domain
8
1759 satirical novella by Voltaire
A satire in French by Voltaire, the Enlightenment philosopher, published in 1759 as “Candide, ou l'Optimisme”. The novella has been translated into many languages; English editions have borne the titles “Candidus: or, All for the Best” (1759), “Candide: or, The Optimist” (1762) and “Candide: Optimism” (1947).
9
1922 novel by Hermann Hesse
“Siddhartha: An Indian novel”, a novel by Hermann Hesse from 1922, following a man called Siddhartha, in the lifetime of the Gautama Buddha, as he searches spiritually for himself. His ninth novel, it was written in German in a lyrical, plain style.
Wikidata · Photo: Thomas Bernhard Jutzas, CC BY-SA 3.0
10
1781 book by Immanuel Kant
A book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant that tries to set out how far metaphysics can reach and where its limits lie. Also called Kant's "First Critique", it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and the Critique of Judgment (1790).
11
1651 book by Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, known as Leviathan: a work of social and political theory, published in 1651, by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), the English political theorist and empiricist philosopher. Its title comes from the Leviathan, the chaotic sea serpent of the Hebrew Bible and older mythologies.
Wikidata · Photo: Abraham Bosse, CC0
12
Work on ethics by Aristotle
The most famous of Aristotle's ethical works. Ethics, for him, is the science of what is good for human life: the goal, or end, that every action we take aims at. It is divided into ten parts, called books, and is closely related to his Eudemian Ethics.
13
1509 essay by Desiderius Erasmus
Also translated as The Praise of Folly, an oration Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote in Latin in 1509, first printed in June 1511. Inspired by earlier works of the Italian humanist, “De Triumpho Stultitiae” by Faustino Perisauli, it is a spiralling satire attacking every side of human life, superstition and religious corruption included, but turning towards an orthodox religious purpose.
Wikidata · Photo: Hans Holbein the Younger, Public domain
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14
Literary work by Marcus Aurelius
Private notes that Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome from 161–180 AD, wrote to himself, collected together, with his reflections on Stoicism.
Wikidata · Photo: Marcus Aurelius, Public domain
15
1921 philosophical work by Ludwig Wittgenstein
The only book-length work of philosophy by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein published while he was alive. Its aim was broad: to identify how language relates to reality, and to mark out how far science can go.
Wikidata · Photo: Title etc. uncopyrightable; layout by Harcourt Brace., Public domain
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16
1927 book by Martin Heidegger
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger's magnum opus, published in 1927, and a key text of existentialism. It had a notable influence on later philosophy, literary theory and many other fields.
17
1886 book by Friedrich Nietzsche
“Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future”, a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that takes up ideas from his earlier Thus Spoke Zarathustra in a more polemical way. C. G. Naumann of Leipzig first published it in 1886, at the author's own cost, and Helen Zimmern, who knew Nietzsche and was two years younger than he was, first translated it into English.
Wikidata · Photo: C. G. Naumann, publisher, Public domain
18
1762 book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
First published as “On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right”, a 1762 book in French by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Genevan philosopher. It theorises how legitimate authority, compatible with individual freedom, can be set up in a political community, despite the difficulties that commercial society creates, which Rousseau had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1755).
19
1908 book by Friedrich Nietzsche
Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is, the last original book the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote before he died in 1900. Written in 1888, it was not published until 1908.
Wikidata · Photo: Friedrich Nietzsche, Public domain
20
1882 book by Friedrich Nietzsche
A book by Friedrich Nietzsche published in 1882, with a second edition in 1887, after he had completed Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil. That much larger edition added a fifth book to the first four, and an appendix of songs.
21
1762 book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A treatise on the nature of man and of education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who thought it the "best and most important" of all his writings. Because of a section titled "Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar", it was banned in Geneva and Paris and publicly burned in 1762, the year it first came out.
Wikidata · Photo: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Public domain
Theological treatise by Thomas Aquinas
The most famous work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church, usually called just the Summa, with the full title Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica. It gathers all the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church in one compendium.
Wikidata · Photo: Tommaso : d'Aquino, Public domain
23
1872 book by Friedrich Nietzsche
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of drama, which first appeared in 1872 as “The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music”; a new edition in 1886 retitled it “The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism”.
Wikidata · Photo: © Foto H.-P.Haack, Attribution
24
1641 book by René Descartes
A philosophical treatise by René Descartes, known in full as “Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated”, and usually as the Meditations. It was first published in Latin in 1641; a French translation followed in 1647 as Méditations Métaphysiques.
Wikidata · Photo: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Public domain
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25
1889 book by Friedrich Nietzsche
Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer, a book Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in 1888 that came out in 1889.
Wikidata · Photo: Author: Friedrich Nietzsche and Publisher: Verlag von C. G. Naumann, Public domain
26
Philosophical notes by Karl Marx
Eleven short philosophical notes Karl Marx wrote in 1845 as an outline for the first chapter of The German Ideology. Like that book, they were not published while Marx lived; they were first printed in 1888, added at the end of a pamphlet by Friedrich Engels, who shared his ideas.
Wikidata · Photo: Tim Davenport ("Carrite") for Wikipedia, Public domain
27
1833 text by Alexis de Tocqueville
De la démocratie en Amérique, a classic French work by Alexis de Tocqueville, examining the democratic revolution he believed had been going on over the preceding several hundred years.
Wikidata · Photo: Alexis de Tocqueville, Public domain
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28
1788 book by Immanuel Kant
Published in 1788, the second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, which is why it is sometimes called the "second critique".
Wikidata · Photo: Immanuel Kant, Public domain
29
1887 book by Friedrich Nietzsche
On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic, a book of 1887 by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. After a preface, three connected treatises develop and pursue ideas Nietzsche had outlined in Beyond Good and Evil (1886).
Wikidata · Photo: C. G. Naumann, publisher, Public domain
30
Every Wikidata item that is a written work whose genre or subject, on Wikidata, is philosophy, or that Wikidata files as a philosophical work, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.
Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:
These belong on the list but Wikidata does not file them where the query looks:
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
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