The 20 Best Philosophy Books of All Time (2024)

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is a self-help book that explains how powerful people have gained and maintained their control over the centuries. While controversial for its manipulative tactics, this book also shares eye-opening insights into history, strategy, and human nature.

As a Man Thinketh says our thoughts set the course our life, not our circumstances. James Allen says thoughts are seeds for actions, so our mind is a garden where we must cultivate the right seeds. This short, inspiring book still influences many modern self-help teachers.

Thinking, Fast and Slow explains how people make decisions using two mental systems: "fast" thinking is instinctive and emotional, while "slow" thinking is deliberate and logical. Daniel Kahneman helps us understand our when our mind fall into common biases and irrational shortcuts, so we can make better decisions in the future.

Maps of Meaning says that myths have a tremendous unseen value. They laid the foundation for large, stable and successful civilizations that lasted thousands of years. Myths also provide time-tested wisdom to help us eradicate evil in the social world, and move past unpredictable catastrophes in our personal lives.

The True Believer shows how the same human frustrations drive all mass movements—whether social, political or religious. People join mass movements to escape their ineffectual and helpless individual self. Eric Hoffer wrote this book 70 years ago, but it's still frighteningly relevant today.