Philosophy

The individual volumes of Sir Anthony Kenny's acclaimed History of Western Philosophy have been hailed as "wonderful authoritative hugely rewarding" (Times Higher Education Supplement) and "genial and highly accessible" (London Review of Books). Now...

The summation of the existentialist philosophy threaded throughout all his writing, Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus is translated by Justin O'Brien with an introduction by James Wood in Penguin Classics.In this profound and moving philosophical...

The ancient Toltecs believed that life as we perceive it is a dream.   We each live in our own personal dream, and all of our dreams come together to make the Dream of the Planet. Problems arise when we forget that the dream is just a dream and fall...

Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations has become a key text in the understanding of Roman Stoic philosophy. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Martin Hammond and an introduction by...

The Creative Act sits at the intersection of self-help and spirituality. With his extraordinary career in the music business, Rick Rubin has plenty to say about the art of being an artist and what it takes to be truly creative. We love the...

Diderot's The Nun (La Religieuse) is the seemingly true story of a young girl forced by her parents to enter a convent and take holy orders. A novel mingling mysticism, madness, sadistic cruelty and nascent sexuality, it gives a scathing...

From a bold new voice in nonfiction, an exhilarating account of the lives and works of influential 17th and 18th century feminist philosophers Mary Wollstonecraft and her predecessors who have been written out of history, and a searing look at...

A modernist work of profound wisdom that continues to enthral readers with its subtle blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf is revised by Walter Sorell from the original...

That Machiavelli’s name has become synonymous with cold-eyed political calculation only heightens the intrinsic fascination of The Prince–the world’s preeminent how-to manual on the art of getting and keeping power, and one of the...

Named one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time by the Modern Library.Anne Carson’s remarkable first book about the paradoxical nature of romantic love.Since it was first published, Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson’s lyrical...

A witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhist thought. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ann Douglas. Following the explosive energy of...

From the legendary vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, lessons in investment strategy, philanthropy, and living a rational and ethical life.“A timeless classic that will change how you approach life. There is a billion-dollar education inside this...

The acclaimed translation of Taoism's founding text in a beautiful Penguin Classics Deluxe editionThe most translated book in the world after the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, or 'Book of the Way', is the essential text of Taoism, one of the three...

C.S. Lewis's dazzling allegory about heaven and hell - and the chasm fixed between them - is one of his most brilliantly imaginative tales, as he takes issue with the ideas in William Blake's 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. In a dream, the narrator...

Rene Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on Method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty...

This landmark collection is the definitive introduction to the Buddha's teachings - in his own words.   The American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, whose voluminous translations have won widespread acclaim, here presents selected discourses of the Buddha...

Beloved and contemplated by philosophers, architects, writers, and literary theorists alike, Bachelard's lyrical, landmark work examines the places in which we place our conscious and unconscious thoughts and guides us through a stream of cerebral...

“What’s this you’re writing?” asked Pooh, climbing onto the writing table.“The Tao of Pooh,” I replied. “The how of Pooh?” asked Pooh, smudging one of the words I had just written. “The Tao of...

How does our economic system impact the way we live? Does it really affect what we truly care about?Oxford economist E. F. Schumacher provides an enlightening study of our economic system and its purpose, challenging the current state of excessive...

In what remains one of his most seminal papers, Freud considers the incompatibility of civilisation and individual happiness, and the tensions between the claims of society and the individual. We all know that living in civilised groups means sacrificing...