Philosophy
Refers to works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the work is devoted to a discussion of philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, and the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge.
Beyond Good and Evil [en] (1886)
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
A scathing and powerful critique of philosophy, religion and science. Here Nietzsche presents us with problems and challenges that are as troubling as they are inspiring, while at the same time outlining the virtues, ideas, and practices which will characterise the philosophy of the future....
Genres: Non-Fiction, Philosophy
Rights of Man [en] (1791)
Thomas Paine
The authorities in power in England during Thomas Paine’s lifetime saw him as an agent provocateur who used his seditious eloquence to support the emancipation of slaves and women, the demands of working people, and the rebels of the French and American Revolutions. History, on the other hand,...
Genres: Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Political
Utopia [en] (1516) 
Thomas More
One of the most influential books in the Western philosophical and literary tradition, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia appeared in 1516. The formidable Henry VIII had recently assumed the throne in England, and conflicting ideas about religion were fuelling the Reformation throughout Europe. A scathing...
Genres: Philosophy, Political
Thus Spake Zarathustra [en] (1885)
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Thus Spake Zarathustra is certainly Nietzsche's most controversial and probably his most important work. The concepts that "God is Dead" and "Eternal Recurrence" with their attendant ramifications are major features of this work. Highly original and inventive, Thus Spake Zarathustra defies...
Genres: Non-Fiction, Philosophy
The Antichrist [en] (1888)
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
This work is both an unrestrained attack on Christianity and a further exposition of Nietzsche's will-to-power philosophy so dramatically presented in Zarathustra. Christianity, says Nietzsche, represents "everything weak, low, and botched; it has made an ideal out of antagonism towards all the...
Genres: Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Religion
Leviathan [en] (1651)
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Influenced by the English Civil War, Hobbes wrote that chaos or civil war-situations identified with a state of nature and the famous motto Bellum omnium contra omnes ("the war of all against all")-could only be...
Genres: Philosophy, Political
The Brothers Karamazov [en] (1880)
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky’s towering reputation as one of the handful of thinkers who forged the modern sensibility has sometimes obscured the purely novelistic virtues–brilliant characterizations, flair for suspense and melodrama, instinctive theatricality–that made his work so immensely popular in...
Genres: Philosophy, Thriller/Suspense
A Modern Utopia [en] (1905)
Herbert George Wells
Wells' uncanny ability to highlight the problems which are now most acute and supply tentative solutions that allow a maximum of individual freedom merits serious consideration. A Modern Utopia is one of the first important blueprints for the modern welfare state and an early major statement of...
Genres: Philosophy, Science Fiction
Candide [en] (1759) 
Voltaire
Political satire doesn't age well, but occasionally a diatribe contains enough art and universal mirth to survive long after its timeliness has passed. Candide is such a book. Penned by that Renaissance man of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Candide is steeped in the political and philosophical...
Genres: Coming of Age, Philosophy, Political, Satire
Zadig [en] (1747)
Voltaire
This novel tells the story of Zadig, a philosopher in ancient Babylonia. The author does not attempt any historical accuracy, and some of the problems Zadig faces are thinly disguised references to social and political problems of Voltaire's own day. The book is philosophical in nature, and...
Genre: Philosophy
Philosophical Dictionary [en] (1764)
Voltaire
The Philosophical Dictionary is one of the most lively, amusing and various books of fact and illustration now in existence; comprising information adapted to every taste and lines of study, delivered with the wit, animation, and ease for which its gifted author was unrivalled. There is scarcely...
Genre: Philosophy
Letters on England [en] (1734)
Voltaire
Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of 1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancient regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and...
Genre: Philosophy