Good Books on Popular Philosophy

Bust of Socrates

This is a list of some good books on popular philosophy that I recommend. For more information click one of the links below. (** Books that especially influenced me.)

• Mortimer Adler ~ Six Great Ideas**
• Mortimer Adler ~ Aristotle for Everybody**
• William Barrett ~ Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy**
• Susan Blackmore ~ The Meme Machine
• Kim Blessing & Paul Tudico ~ Movies and the Meaning of Life
• Alain De Botton ~ The Consolations of Philosophy
• Dennis Bradford ~ A Thinker’s Guide to Living Well**
• Stephen Cave ~ Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization
• Francis Crick ~ Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul
• James Christian ~ Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering
• Frank Donoghue ~ The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the
• Will Durant ~ The Pleasures of Philosophy**
• Will Durant ~ The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s …**
• Roger Ebert ~ Life Itself: A Memoir
• Owen Flanagan ~ The Problem Of The Soul: Two Visions Of Mind And How To Reconcile 
• Erich Fromm ~ The Art of Loving**
• Christopher Hitchens ~ Mortality
• James Holt ~ Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story**
• Aldous Huxley ~ The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics
• Roman Krznaric ~ How Should We Live?: Great Ideas from the Past for Everyday Life
• Sonja Lyubomirsky ~ The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You 
• Thomas Nagel ~ What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy
• Thomas Nagel ~ The View From Nowhere
• Thomas Nagel ~ Mortal Questions
• Jean Piaget ~ Insights and Illusions of Philosophy**
• Steven Pinker ~ The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
• Steven Pinker ~ How the Mind Works
• Richard Precht ~ Who Am I?: And If So, How Many?
• Carl Sagan ~ Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
• Schick & Vaughn ~ How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age
• Roy Scranton ~Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a …
• Seneca ~ On the Shortness of Life (Penguin Great Ideas)
• Huston Smith ~ The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions**
• Andrew Stark – The Consolations of Mortality: Making Sense of Death
• George Vaillant ~ Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study
• Alan Watts ~ The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are **
• Alan Watts ~ The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
• Robert Wright ~ Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and …

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One thought on “Good Books on Popular Philosophy

  1. excellent list
    how about Piaget’s Insights and Illusions of Philosophy?
    my personal favorite. can read it over and over again.
    Keep well, Messerleys All

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