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r/askphilosophy · 2021

Most-mentioned books in r/askphilosophy during 2021

This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/askphilosophy within the published source unit for 2021. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.

38
Books ranked
287
Tracked mentions in 2021
Sort by upvotes = sum of comment scores on recognized mentions
Cover of Critique of Pure Reason #1

Critique of Pure Reason

Immanuel Kant

The book a supervillain's aide reads for fun in Superman III, and the one r/askphilosophy treats as the actual prerequisite.

34 in 2021
Cover of The Myth of Sisyphus #2

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus

Camus decides the only real philosophical question is whether to keep living, then imagines a man happy pushing a boulder forever anyway.

29 in 2021
Cover of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus #3

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwig Wittgenstein

A philosopher publishes seven numbered propositions about the limits of language, then spends the rest of his career arguing he got it wrong.

26 in 2021
Cover of Being and Time #4

Being and Time

Martin Heidegger

Heidegger argues human existence only gets its meaning by being oriented toward its own death, and builds an entire system around that fact.

20 in 2021
Cover of Philosophical Investigations #5

Philosophical Investigations

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein spends his last two decades dismantling the Tractatus, the book that made him famous.

16 in 2021
Cover of Sophie's World #6

Sophie's World

Jostein Gaarder

A teenage girl starts receiving anonymous letters that walk her through the entire history of Western philosophy, one mystery at a time.

15 in 2021
Cover of On the Genealogy of Morals #7

On the Genealogy of Morals

Friedrich Nietzsche

A philologist turns the word 'good' inside out and finds a slave revolt hiding underneath it.

14 in 2021
Cover of Beyond Good and Evil #8

Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche argues that good and evil were invented categories, built by someone, for a reason, and asks who benefits from the invention.

12 in 2021
Cover of Phaedo #9

Phaedo

Plato

Socrates spends his last afternoon before the hemlock arguing that death is not the end.

11 in 2021
Cover of Nicomachean Ethics #10

Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle

Aristotle's 2,400-year-old argument that living well depends on virtue, leisure, and the company you keep — still the canonical text for the field.

10 in 2021
Cover of A History of Western Philosophy #11

A History of Western Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell surveys 2,500 years of philosophers and never once pretends he doesn't have favorites among them.

8 in 2021
Cover of Meditations #12

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

A Roman emperor writes himself private notes on how to stop losing his temper, never expecting anyone else to read them, and two thousand years later everyone has.

8 in 2021
Cover of A Theory of Justice #13

A Theory of Justice

John Rawls

The 1971 book that reset political philosophy by asking what principles rational people would choose if they didn't know where they'd land in society.

7 in 2021
Cover of Reasons and Persons #14

Reasons and Persons

Derek Parfit

A philosopher argues the person you'll be in thirty years has no more claim on your life than a stranger, then asks why that shouldn't terrify you.

7 in 2021
Cover of Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals #15

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

Immanuel Kant

Kant spends under 100 pages arguing you can never treat a person as a means to an end, and asks you to prove him wrong.

6 in 2021
Cover of Thus Spoke Zarathustra #16

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche

A prophet comes down from ten years alone on a mountain to tell humanity God is dead and hand them a superman instead.

6 in 2021
Cover of Being and Nothingness #17

Being and Nothingness

Jean-Paul Sartre

A waiter performs the role of waiter so completely that Sartre uses him to explain how people hide from their own freedom.

5 in 2021
Cover of Fear and Trembling #18

Fear and Trembling

Søren Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard uses Abraham's knife at Isaac's throat to ask whether any act of faith can be explained to the person standing next to you.

5 in 2021
Cover of The Problems of Philosophy #19

The Problems of Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

Russell spends a hundred pages asking whether the table in front of you is actually there.

5 in 2021
Cover of What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy #20

What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy

Thomas Nagel

Thomas Nagel surveys free will, knowledge, death, and the meaning of life in 100 pages — the first book assigned on a philosophy degree.

5 in 2021
Cover of A History of Philosophy #21

A History of Philosophy

Frederick Copleston

Nine volumes, one Jesuit priest, and the only multi-volume history of Western philosophy that r/askphilosophy will actually defend in a thread.

4 in 2021
Cover of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding #22

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

David Hume

Hume spends one slim book dismantling cause-and-effect into nothing but expectation and habit, and undergrad syllabi still assign it as homework.

4 in 2021
Cover of Apology #23

Apology

Plato

A 70-year-old Athenian stands trial for corrupting the youth, defends himself by refusing to grovel, and picks execution over exile.

4 in 2021
Cover of Enchiridion #24

Enchiridion

Epictetus

A freed slave's 2,000-year-old field manual for deciding what you control — and letting go of everything else.

3 in 2021
Cover of Meditations on First Philosophy #25

Meditations on First Philosophy

René Descartes

Descartes locks himself in a room, doubts absolutely everything he can doubt, and tries to rebuild certainty from a single sentence: I think, therefore I am.

3 in 2021