A Tour of My Philosophy Bookshelves

A while back I shared photos of my Stoic bookshelf, with the promise of sharing some more books in a future post. The future has arrived! Today I’ll share my bookshelves on ancient philosophy, Eastern philosophy, and modern/contemporary philosophy. You’ll note that I have separate shelves for Stoicism and for ancient philosophy in general. Many of the ancient philosophy books do cover Stoicism in some form, but they are broader and not specifically about Stoicism. You’ll see what I mean below.

You might be wondering—with all the philosophy books out there, how do I choose what to buy? It’s a combination of my interests and the price of each book. There are so many books out there that I can’t read because they are priced for university libraries (over $100 each), even on the secondary market. Occasionally I can find a good deal on a used academic work, but for the most part second-hand sellers keep the prices artificially inflated to match universities. Obviously I’m not going to spend that much money on a single book—I would soon be bankrupt!

So unfortunately I can’t always read or buy the books I would like to. I just have to make do with what I can get at a reasonable price, along with what is available for free (Google book previews are sometimes helpful, and sometimes I can find a free pdf by the author that covers the same material). I also buy most of my books these days on Kindle, since they are usually cheaper than any available hard copies. Maybe at some point I’ll share a list of my ebooks—although they are unfortunately not nearly as photogenic as a physical bookshelf.

One of my motivations in doing my bookshelf tour is giving others ideas for interesting books to read. Not every book on my shelf is a gem, particularly when it comes to contemporary philosophy (you can ask me in the comments if you’d like my opinion on a particular book). But I think you have to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find your prince or princess, so it’s normal to read through many books to find the few that truly speak to you. And no one can tell you in advance if a specific book will be the one that you fall in love with—you have to read it for yourself.

So with the preliminaries out of the way, let’s begin today’s tour of my bookshelves with ancient philosophy (from left to right):

• The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Martha Nussbaum)

• Greek Thought (Christopher Gill)

• Cicero: The Philosophy of a Roman Sceptic (Raphael Woolf)

• The Morality of Happiness (Julia Annas)

• Cicero on the Emotions (Margaret Graver)

• Cicero - On Ends (Julia Annas)

• Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins)

• The Hellenistic Philosophers, vol. 1 (A.A. Long & D.N. Sedley)

• Aristotle: Understanding the World’s Greatest Philosopher (John Sellars)

• Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind (Julia Annas)

• Hellenistic Philosophy (John Sellars)

• Lucretius - On the Nature of the Universe (Ronald Melville)

• Cicero - On Duties/Obligations (P.G. Walsh)

• Exercises spirituel et philosophie antique (Pierre Hadot)

• The Works of Plato (Irwin Edman)

• Le voile d’Isis (Pierre Hadot)

• La philosophie comme éducation des adultes: Textes, perspectives, entretiens (Pierre Hadot)

• Qu’est-ce que le philosophie antique (Pierre Hadot)

• La philosophie comme manière de vie: Entretiens avec Jeannie Carlier et Arnold I. Davidson (Pierre Hadot)

Now for Eastern philosophy. I don’t have too many books in this area, but I really love the ones I do have:

• Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets, & Philosophers (Leonard Koren)

• Confucian Moral Self Cultivation (Philip Ivanhoe)

• Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Bryan van Norden)

• Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence (Andrew Juniper)

• Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, & How We Are All Connected (Philip Ivanhoe)

• Ethics in the Confucian Tradition (Philip Ivanhoe)

• Neo-Confucianism: Metaphysics, Mind, and Morality (JeeLoo Liu)

• The Complete Confucius (Nicholas Tamblyn)

• Human Becomings: Theorizing Persons for Confucian Role Ethics (Roger Ames)

• Buddhist Spiritual Practices: Thinking with Pierre Hadot on Buddhism, Philosophy, and the Path (David Fiordalis)

Moving on to modern and contemporary philosophy. I confess that compared to ancient and Eastern philosophy, I normally don’t like contemporary philosophy very much. I often find myself excited by the description of a book, eagerly awaiting its arrival in my mailbox, only to be disappointed by the reality. I prefer books that teach me something, that help me see the world in a new way, that open new ideas or habits for me. It’s no secret that most contemporary philosophy does not do this. Occasionally I do find a book I love (for example, Julia Annas’ Intelligent Virtue), so I continue to read and take chances on new titles.

• Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (Rebecca Walker and Philip Ivanhoe)

• Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, etc. (Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury)

• Philosophy: Fictive Narrative, Primary Texts, and Responsive Writing (Michael Boylan and Charles Johnson)

• Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, to Mrs. Montagu, between the Years 1755 and 1800: Chiefly Upon Literary and Moral Subjects (Elizabeth Carter)

• Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Nel Noddings)

• Once Upon a Time in the West: Essays on the Politics of Thought and Imagination (Jan Zwicky)

• Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature (Martha Nussbaum)

• Philosophy of the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetics (Gordon Graham)

• Dignity, Character, and Self-Respect (Robin Dillon)

• The Ethics of Authenticity (Charles Taylor)

• Intelligent Virtue (Julia Annas)

• American Philosophy: A Love Story (John Kaag)

• Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Kwame Anthony Appiah)

• On Virtue Ethics (Rosalind Hursthouse)

• Philosophy for Architects (Branko Mitrovic)

• A Pocket Mirror for Heroes (Baltasar Gracian/Christopher Maurer)

• Six Names of Beauty (Crispin Sartwell)

• Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimensions, Directions (Matthew Sharpe and Michael Ure)

• Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves (Patricia Churchland)

• The Life, Unpublished Letters, and Philosophical Regimen of Antony, Earl of Shaftesbury (Benjamin Rand)

• Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy (John Armstrong)

• All About Love: New Visions (bell hooks)

And some true classics on this side of the shelf:

• Hegel - The Essential Writings (Frederick Weiss)

• Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays (M. A. Screech)

• Francis Hutcheson - Philosophical Writings (R. S. Downie)

• How the World Thinks (Julian Baggini)

• Hume - The Essential Philosophical Works (Charlotte Brown and William Edward Morris)

• The Portable Hannah Arendt (Peter Baehr)

• The Myths We Live By (Mary Midgley)

That’s it for today’s tour. I hope you’ve found some things to try out for yourself. Happy reading!

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