Works

#61

Metaphysics of The Book of Healing (Late)

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) · c. 1014–1027 (compiled during Avicenna's years at Hamadan and Isfahan)

Systematic philosophical treatise in ten books · Medieval Islamic philosophy / Peripatetic falsafa

The distinction of essence and existence, the necessary existent, the giver of forms — Avicenna's metaphysics shaped both Aquinas and the entire later Islamic tradition

50% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 20% catholic-thomistic 10% neo-platonism 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 5% rationalism +3

#62

An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (Late)

John Henry Newman · 1870

Philosophical-theological treatise in two parts · Nineteenth-century Catholic intellectual revival

The illative sense — how reasonable persons reach certitude on questions where formal demonstration is impossible, especially religious belief

30% catholic-thomistic 15% critical-realism 5% evangelical-protestantism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% phenomenology 10% christian-personalism 5% liberal-theology 5% rationalism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity +6

#63

Symposium

Plato · c. 385–380 BC (middle dialogue)

Philosophical dialogue framed as nested narration · Classical Greek philosophy / Platonism

Eros is the ascent — from beautiful bodies, to beautiful souls, to the Beautiful itself — Diotima's ladder of love

50% platonism-classical 15% idealism 15% neo-platonism 10% catholic-thomistic 5% transcendentalism 5% rationalism +3

#64

De Anima

Aristotle · c. 350 BC (second Athenian period)

Treatise in three books · Classical Greek philosophy / Aristotelianism

The soul is the form of the living body — and the active intellect is the puzzle that defined medieval philosophy

40% hylomorphism 25% catholic-thomistic 15% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 10% realism 5% panpsychism 5% phenomenology +3

#65

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Early)

George Berkeley · 1710 (Dublin, age 25)

Philosophical treatise in 156 numbered sections · British empiricism / philosophical idealism

Esse est percipi — to be is to be perceived; there is no inert mindless matter; only minds and ideas exist

50% idealism 15% empiricism 10% phenomenalism 10% liberal-theology 10% kantian-transcendental-idealism 5% simulation-theory +3

#66

Monadology (Late)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz · 1714 (written in French for Prince Eugene of Savoy); published 1720 in German

90 numbered philosophical paragraphs · Early modern rationalism / pluralist idealism

The world is composed of simple substances — monads — windowless and active, each mirroring the whole; pre-established harmony coordinates them all

35% rationalism 20% idealism 15% panpsychism 10% process-philosophy 10% analytic-metaphysics 5% relationalism 5% catholic-thomistic +4

#67

Fides et Ratio (Late)

Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła) · 14 September 1998 (encyclical letter)

Papal encyclical letter in seven chapters · Roman Catholic magisterial theology / Lublin Thomism

Faith and reason are the two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth — neither can fly alone

50% catholic-thomistic 15% realism 10% phenomenology 15% christian-personalism 5% rationalism 5% critical-realism 6% catholicism +4

#68

Apology (Early)

Plato · c. 399–395 BC (shortly after Socrates's death)

Forensic speech, three parts (defence, counter-penalty, last words) · Classical Greek philosophy / Socratic tradition

The unexamined life is not worth living — and the philosopher chooses death over the surrender of philosophy

35% platonism-classical 20% stoicism 15% pyrrhonism 15% existentialism 10% catholic-thomistic 5% realism +3

#69

Phaedrus (Late)

Plato · c. 370 BC (late-middle dialogue)

Two-character philosophical dialogue · Classical Greek philosophy / Platonism

The soul is a charioteer drawn by two horses — and writing is a poor cousin to living speech

40% platonism-classical 15% idealism 20% neo-platonism 10% catholic-thomistic 5% rationalism 10% postmodernism +3

#70

Politics

Aristotle · c. 335 BC (lecture course, Lyceum)

Treatise in eight books · Classical Greek political philosophy

Man is by nature a political animal — the polis exists for the sake of the good life, not merely life

25% realism 25% catholic-thomistic 15% hylomorphism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% critical-realism 5% liberation-theology 5% constructivism 5% liberal-theology +5

#71

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

Sextus Empiricus · c. 160–210 AD

Philosophical-doxographical treatise in three books · Late antique philosophy / Pyrrhonist scepticism

For every argument there is an equal counter-argument — and from equipollence comes suspension and tranquillity

65% pyrrhonism 10% empiricism 10% relativism 5% pragmatism 5% naturalism 5% postmodernism +3

#72

On the Nature of the Gods (Late)

Marcus Tullius Cicero · 45 BC

Philosophical dialogue in three books · Roman philosophy / Academic scepticism

A philosophical conversation between Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic representatives — the founding modern reference for natural theology

25% stoicism 15% epicureanism 15% pyrrhonism 15% deism 10% catholic-thomistic 10% naturalism 10% realism +4

#73

Brahma Sutra Bhāṣya

Ādi Śaṅkara (Śaṅkarācārya) · c. 700–750 AD

Sūtra commentary (bhāṣya) — line-by-line exegesis with extended discussions · Hindu philosophy / Advaita Vedānta

Brahman alone is real; the world is appearance; the Self is Brahman — and liberation comes through knowledge alone

65% advaita-vedanta 10% idealism 5% yogacara 5% samkhya 5% neo-platonism 5% spinozist-pantheism 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud +4

#74

Abhidharmakośa

Vasubandhu · c. 4th–5th century AD

Verse text in eight chapters with prose auto-commentary (bhāṣya) · Sarvāstivāda Buddhism / Abhidharma

The systematic catalogue of dharmas — moments of experience as the irreducible elements of reality

50% buddhism 20% tibetan-vajrayana-buddhism 5% pure-land-buddhism 15% yogacara 5% process-philosophy 5% analytic-metaphysics 8% mahayana-buddhism +4

#75

Visuddhimagga

Buddhaghosa · c. 430 AD (composed at the Mahāvihāra monastery, Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka)

Comprehensive treatise in twenty-three chapters · Theravāda Buddhism

Virtue, meditation, wisdom — the threefold path of purification leading to liberation, systematically expounded

70% buddhism 10% tibetan-vajrayana-buddhism 5% yogacara 10% energetic-wellness 5% pyrrhonism 8% theravada-buddhism +3

#76

The Heart Sutra

Anonymous (Mahāyāna tradition; some scholars argue for a Chinese composition c. 7th century) · c. 600 AD (extant form); verses possibly earlier

Short sūtra — about 260 Chinese characters in the standard recension · Mahāyāna Buddhism / Prajñāpāramitā literature

Form is emptiness; emptiness is form — the compressed essence of the Perfection of Wisdom tradition

45% buddhism 25% tibetan-vajrayana-buddhism 10% yogacara 5% pure-land-buddhism 5% process-philosophy 5% relationalism 5% postmodernism +4

#77

The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch

Hui-neng (638–713), as transmitted by Fa-hai · c. 780 AD (Dunhuang manuscript); refined recensions through 13th century

Recorded sermons and dialogues in ten chapters · Chan / Zen Buddhism

Sudden enlightenment — original nature is already buddha — and Hui-neng's "no-mind" instructions to the Southern School

40% buddhism 20% taoism 5% tibetan-vajrayana-buddhism 10% yogacara 5% pure-land-buddhism 5% shintoism 5% process-philosophy 5% pragmatism 5% energetic-wellness +6

#78

Mencius

Meng Ke (Mencius); compiled by his disciples · c. late 4th century BC (compiled shortly after his death c. 289 BC)

Seven books of dialogues and aphorisms · Confucianism / Ru tradition

Human nature is fundamentally good — the four sprouts of compassion, shame, deference, and judgement need only cultivation

65% confucianism 10% realism 10% liberation-theology 5% catholic-thomistic 5% taoism 5% ubuntu-african-communal-ontology +3

#79

Xunzi

Xun Kuang (Xunzi) · c. 280–230 BC

Thirty-two philosophical chapters · Confucianism / "realist" Confucian tradition

Human nature is bad — ritual, learning, and authority make us good — and Heaven follows constant patterns indifferent to human prayers

50% confucianism 15% pragmatic-realism 15% naturalism 10% constructivism 10% realism +2

#80

I Ching

Anonymous / composite (traditional attribution to King Wen and Confucius; the Ten Wings to the Confucian school) · c. 9th–8th c. BC (core hexagrams); c. 4th c. BC (Ten Wings); standard form c. 200 BC

64 hexagrams with judgements and line statements + Ten Wings commentaries · Chinese cosmology / classical Confucian and Daoist canon

The patterns of change in the cosmos read through sixty-four hexagrams — the oldest extant systematic Chinese cosmology

25% taoism 25% confucianism 10% process-philosophy 10% animism-relational-indigenous 5% spinozist-pantheism 10% energetic-wellness 10% hermeticism 5% shintoism +5

#81

On the Trinity (Late)

Augustine of Hippo · c. 399–419 (composed across two decades)

Theological treatise in fifteen books · Latin Christianity / Augustinian theology

The Trinity in itself, the Trinity in the human mind — the most sustained patristic analysis of God as three persons, one being

30% catholic-thomistic 20% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% lutheranism 10% neo-platonism 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% christian-personalism 5% rationalism 8% augustinianism +5

#82

Summa Contra Gentiles (Early)

Thomas Aquinas · c. 1259–1265 (Paris and Italy)

Philosophical-theological treatise in four books · Western Catholicism / Scholasticism / Thomism

A philosophical case for Christian truth addressed to non-Christian readers — three books from reason, the fourth from revelation

55% catholic-thomistic 10% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% hylomorphism 10% realism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 8% thomism +4

#83

The German Sermons (Late)

Meister Eckhart (Eckhart von Hochheim) · c. 1295–1327 (preached in Strasbourg, Cologne, and elsewhere)

Vernacular sermons — over a hundred survive in various manuscript collections · Christian mysticism / German Dominican spirituality

The ground of the soul is the ground of God — and the divine birth happens in the still point of the soul

25% catholic-thomistic 20% neo-platonism 15% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% advaita-vedanta 10% idealism 5% phenomenology 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 8% christian-mysticism +6

#84

The Mystical Theology

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (probably a Syrian Christian theologian, c. 500 AD) · c. 500 AD (probably Syria)

Short theological treatise in five chapters · Eastern Christianity / Christian apophatic mysticism

God is beyond every name and every concept — the soul ascends by unknowing into the divine darkness

35% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% catholic-thomistic 25% neo-platonism 10% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 5% advaita-vedanta 5% postmodernism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology +4

#85

Revelations of Divine Love

Julian of Norwich · May 1373 (the showings); short text c. 1380; long text c. 1395 (revised over twenty years)

Visionary theological text in 86 chapters (long version) · English mystical tradition / fourteenth-century vernacular theology

All shall be well — Jesus as mother, sin as nothing of being, and the universe held in the divine love that is the hazelnut

25% catholic-thomistic 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% liberal-theology 5% liberation-theology 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% evangelical-protestantism 15% christian-personalism 10% lutheranism +5

#86

The Imitation of Christ

Thomas à Kempis (traditional attribution; sometimes attributed to Geert Groote or composite) · c. 1418–1427 (Mount St Agnes monastery, Zwolle, Netherlands)

Devotional treatise in four books · Devotio Moderna / Late medieval Christian spirituality

Christ's way is the cross — and the imitation of Christ is the way of the soul to God, in concrete daily practice

30% catholic-thomistic 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% lutheranism 15% christian-personalism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% liberal-theology 5% realism 5% absurdism +6

#87

Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise) (Late)

Ibn Rushd (Averroes) · c. 1179 (Córdoba, Andalusia)

Legal-philosophical treatise · Medieval Islamic philosophy / Andalusian Peripatetic falsafa

Philosophy and scripture are two paths to the same truth — when they appear to conflict, the scriptural text requires allegorical interpretation

50% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 15% catholic-thomistic 15% rationalism 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 5% realism 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud +3

#88

The Incoherence of the Philosophers

Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ghazālī · 1095 (Baghdad, immediately before his crisis and withdrawal)

Philosophical-theological treatise in twenty discussions · Medieval Islamic theology / Ash'arite kalam

The philosophers contradict themselves on twenty crucial points — and on three of them (the eternity of the world, divine knowledge of particulars, bodily resurrection) they contradict the Quran

35% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 15% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 25% occasionalism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% catholic-thomistic 5% pyrrhonism 5% evangelical-protestantism +4

#89

Mathnawi (Late)

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī · c. 1258–1273 (Konya, dictated in Persian over fifteen years)

Mathnawī (rhyming-couplet) verse epic in six volumes, c. 26,000 couplets · Persian Sufism / philosophical mysticism

The reed cut from the reed-bed cries out — and the longing for return is itself the way back

55% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 10% neo-platonism 5% advaita-vedanta 5% transcendentalism 5% energetic-wellness 5% spinozist-pantheism 5% idealism +5

#90

The Zohar

Traditionally Shimon bar Yochai (2nd c. AD); modern scholarship attributes to Moses de León c. 1280 · c. 1280 (Castile, Spain); first published in print 1558

Commentary on the Torah in mystical-narrative form · Jewish mysticism / Kabbalah

The Torah read through the ten sefirot — God's ten emanations through which creation, history, and the soul's ascent are structured

50% kabbalah-lurianic 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% neo-platonism 10% hermeticism 5% idealism 5% animism-relational-indigenous +4

#91

De Cive (Early)

Thomas Hobbes · 1642 (Latin, Paris); English translation by Hobbes himself 1651

Political-philosophical treatise in three parts (Liberty, Dominion, Religion) · Early modern political philosophy / materialist naturalism

The state of nature is war; the social contract creates sovereign authority; the duty of religion is consistent with civil peace

25% naturalism 15% determinism 15% realism 15% pragmatic-realism 15% constructivism 10% analytic-metaphysics 5% liberal-theology 6% mechanism 6% social-contract +6

#92

Two Treatises of Government (Late)

John Locke · Written c. 1679–82; published anonymously 1689

Two-part political treatise (First Treatise: refutation of Filmer; Second Treatise: positive doctrine) · Early modern liberal political philosophy

Government rests on the consent of the governed — and when it fails to protect life, liberty, and property, the people may resist

20% pragmatic-realism 15% realism 10% liberal-theology 10% empiricism 10% deism 15% constructivism 10% liberation-theology 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 6% social-contract +7

#93

A Treatise of Human Nature (Early)

David Hume · Books I & II 1739; Book III 1740 (anonymously; Hume aged 28)

Systematic philosophical treatise in three books · British empiricism / Scottish Enlightenment

Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions — and the most rigorous Newtonian science of human nature

40% empiricism 15% phenomenalism 15% pyrrhonism 15% naturalism 10% constructivism 5% logical-positivism +3

#94

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Late)

David Hume · Drafted 1751–61; revised continuously; published posthumously 1779

Philosophical dialogue in twelve parts · British empiricism / Enlightenment philosophy of religion

The design argument refuted, dogmatic theism shaken, but the question of God's existence left genuinely open

25% empiricism 20% naturalism 15% pyrrhonism 10% deism 5% nihilism 10% liberal-theology 5% logical-positivism 5% absurdism 5% analytic-metaphysics +6

#95

Critique of Practical Reason (Late)

Immanuel Kant · 1788

Systematic philosophical treatise · Modern German philosophy / Kantian transcendental idealism

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration — the starry heavens above me, and the moral law within me

50% kantian-transcendental-idealism 15% rationalism 15% idealism 10% liberal-theology 5% constructivism 5% christian-personalism +3

#96

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

Immanuel Kant · 1785

Philosophical treatise in three sections · Modern German philosophy / Kantian ethics

Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law

50% kantian-transcendental-idealism 15% rationalism 15% christian-personalism 10% constructivism 5% realism 5% liberal-theology +3

#97

Critique of Judgment (Late)

Immanuel Kant · 1790

Systematic philosophical treatise in two parts · Modern German philosophy / Kantian aesthetics and philosophy of biology

Aesthetic judgement and teleological judgement bridge the gap between theoretical reason and practical reason

40% kantian-transcendental-idealism 20% idealism 10% transcendentalism 10% phenomenology 10% critical-realism 5% process-philosophy 5% liberal-theology +4

#98

The Sickness Unto Death (Late)

Søren Kierkegaard (under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus) · 1849

Two-part philosophical-theological treatise · Christian existentialism / Danish Lutheranism

Despair is the sickness unto death — the self in misrelation to itself before God

45% existentialism 25% lutheranism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% phenomenology 10% christian-personalism +2

#99

Either/Or (Early)

Søren Kierkegaard (under the editorship of Victor Eremita) · 1843

Two-volume literary-philosophical work · Christian existentialism / Danish Lutheranism

The aesthetic life of immediate pleasure vs the ethical life of commitment — and the choice that constitutes the self

45% existentialism 15% lutheranism 15% absurdism 10% phenomenology 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% christian-personalism 5% postmodernism +4

#100

System of Transcendental Idealism (Early)

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling · 1800

Systematic philosophical treatise · German Idealism

The history of self-consciousness — from nature's production of mind to mind's recognition of itself in art

45% idealism 15% kantian-transcendental-idealism 10% process-philosophy 10% panpsychism 10% transcendentalism 5% spinozist-pantheism 5% phenomenology +4

#101

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft · 1792 (London, six weeks)

Political-philosophical treatise in thirteen chapters · Enlightenment radicalism / proto-feminist political philosophy

Women are not naturally inferior — only made so by inadequate education; reason is the same in both sexes

20% pragmatic-realism 15% liberation-theology 10% empiricism 10% liberal-theology 15% constructivism 10% deism 5% pragmatism 5% existentialism 10% realism +6

#102

Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville · Volume I 1835; Volume II 1840 (based on Tocqueville's 1831–32 American journey)

Sociological-political treatise in two volumes · French liberal political thought / sociology before sociology

Equality of conditions is the providential fact of the modern age — and democracy's greatest danger is the tyranny of the majority

25% pragmatic-realism 15% critical-realism 15% realism 10% catholic-thomistic 10% liberal-theology 10% constructivism 5% empiricism 5% liberation-theology 5% process-philosophy +6

#103

Theses on Feuerbach (Early)

Karl Marx · 1845 (notebook fragments, published posthumously by Engels in 1888 with slight editorial changes)

Eleven aphoristic theses · Dialectical materialism / Marxism

Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it

55% dialectical-materialism 15% pragmatism 10% constructivism 5% process-philosophy 10% naturalism 5% liberation-theology 8% marxism +4

#104

The Problems of Philosophy (Early)

Bertrand Russell · 1912

Introductory philosophical treatise in fifteen chapters · Analytic philosophy / British empiricism

A short introduction to philosophical questions about knowledge, perception, induction, and the value of philosophy itself

30% analytic-metaphysics 20% realism 20% empiricism 10% logical-positivism 10% phenomenalism 10% platonism-classical 8% analytic-philosophy +4

#105

The Foundations of Arithmetic

Gottlob Frege · 1884

Logico-philosophical treatise · Analytic philosophy / logicism / philosophy of mathematics

Arithmetic is reducible to logic — numbers are not subjective ideas but objective abstract entities accessible to reason

45% analytic-metaphysics 15% rationalism 15% platonism-classical 10% logical-positivism 10% realism 5% idealism 8% analytic-philosophy +4

#106

Experience and Nature (Late)

John Dewey · 1925 (Carus Lectures, Chicago; revised 1929)

Systematic philosophical treatise in ten chapters · American pragmatism / naturalism

Experience and nature are not opposed — experience is how we know nature, and nature is what experience is of

45% pragmatism 20% naturalism 10% empiricism 10% process-philosophy 5% constructivism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% critical-realism +4

#107

How to Make Our Ideas Clear

Charles Sanders Peirce · 1878 (Popular Science Monthly, January)

Philosophical essay · American pragmatism (founding text)

Consider what effects might conceivably have practical bearings — your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object

55% pragmatism 10% realism 10% critical-realism 10% naturalism 10% empiricism 5% logical-positivism +3

#108

What Is Metaphysics? (Early)

Martin Heidegger · 1929 (Freiburg inaugural lecture, 24 July)

Philosophical lecture · Continental philosophy / phenomenology

Why is there something rather than nothing? — the question of being approached through the experience of dread (Angst)

35% phenomenology 20% existentialism 15% postmodernism 10% object-oriented-ontology 10% nihilism 5% relationalism 5% logical-positivism 8% continental-philosophy +5

#109

Phenomenology of Perception

Maurice Merleau-Ponty · 1945

Systematic phenomenological treatise · French phenomenology / embodied cognition

The body is the medium of perception — neither pure consciousness nor pure object, but the lived body engaged with the world

45% phenomenology 20% existentialism 10% process-philosophy 5% panpsychism 10% critical-realism 5% pragmatism 5% naturalism +4

#110

The Order of Things

Michel Foucault · 1966

Archaeological-philosophical treatise · French post-structuralism / archaeology of knowledge

Man is an invention of recent date — and one perhaps nearing its end

35% postmodernism 20% structuralism 15% constructivism 10% relativism 5% liberation-theology 5% critical-realism 5% phenomenology 5% dialectical-materialism 8% continental-philosophy 8% post-structuralism +7

#111

Of Grammatology

Jacques Derrida · 1967

Two-part philosophical treatise (theoretical + reading of Rousseau) · French post-structuralism / deconstruction

There is no outside-text — and the metaphysics of presence that privileges speech over writing is undone by writing's own structure

50% postmodernism 15% structuralism 10% phenomenology 10% relationalism 5% nihilism 5% constructivism 5% pyrrhonism +4

#112

Totality and Infinity (Early)

Emmanuel Levinas · 1961

Phenomenological-ethical treatise in four sections · Twentieth-century French Jewish philosophy / ethical phenomenology

The face of the Other places an infinite ethical demand on the self — ethics is first philosophy

30% phenomenology 20% christian-personalism 15% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% existentialism 10% postmodernism 10% liberation-theology 5% relationalism +4

#113

The Human Condition

Hannah Arendt · 1958

Political-philosophical treatise · Twentieth-century political philosophy / Arendt's post-totalitarian thought

Labour, work, action — three distinct activities of the vita activa, and the modern reduction of action to making

20% phenomenology 15% realism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% existentialism 10% christian-personalism 5% liberation-theology 10% critical-realism 5% process-philosophy 10% liberal-theology +6

#114

On Certainty (Latest)

Ludwig Wittgenstein · Written 1949–51 (in Wittgenstein's final eighteen months); published posthumously 1969

Aphoristic notebook entries — 676 numbered remarks · Analytic philosophy / late-late Wittgenstein

The foundations of empirical knowledge lie in our forms of life — and our framework certainties cannot themselves be doubted within the system that depends on them

25% pragmatism 10% analytic-metaphysics 15% pyrrhonism 15% constructivism 10% phenomenology 10% relationalism 10% postmodernism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 8% analytic-philosophy +6

#115

Relativity: The Special and General Theory

Albert Einstein · 1916 (German); first English 1920

Popular scientific exposition · Modern physics / philosophical-scientific worldview

Space and time are observer-relative; gravity is curvature of spacetime — Newtonian absolute space dissolved

15% naturalism 20% eternalism 15% relationalism 15% realism 10% spinozist-pantheism 5% kantian-transcendental-idealism 10% critical-realism 10% analytic-metaphysics +5

#116

Physics and Philosophy

Werner Heisenberg · 1958 (Gifford Lectures, St Andrews, 1955–56)

Popular philosophical lectures · Modern physics / Copenhagen interpretation

The atom is not a thing — and the observer's knowledge is part of the physical situation; the Copenhagen interpretation defended

35% quantum-realism 10% hylomorphism 10% kantian-transcendental-idealism 10% relationalism 10% naturalism 10% realism 5% idealism 5% catholic-thomistic 5% simulation-theory +6

#117

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins · 1976 (revised editions 1989, 2006)

Popular scientific exposition · Modern evolutionary biology / philosophical naturalism

Genes are the units of selection — and bodies are vehicles by which genes propagate themselves

35% naturalism 15% dataism-information-ontology 10% critical-realism 10% realism 5% analytic-metaphysics 10% transhumanism-posthumanism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% simulation-theory 5% nihilism +6

#118

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Galileo Galilei · 1632 (Florence; placed on the Index of Prohibited Books later that year)

Four-day philosophical dialogue between three speakers (Salviati, Sagredo, Simplicio) · Early modern natural philosophy / scientific revolution

A vernacular defence of heliocentrism — the book that brought Galileo before the Inquisition

30% realism 20% naturalism 15% empiricism 10% rationalism 10% catholic-thomistic 5% deism 10% critical-realism +4

#119

Novum Organum

Francis Bacon · 1620 (London; intended as Part II of the never-completed Instauratio Magna)

Aphorisms in two books · Early modern empiricism / scientific method

Knowledge is power — and the road to it is patient inductive observation, freed from the four Idols of the mind

40% empiricism 20% naturalism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 10% critical-realism 5% pragmatism 6% catholicism +4

#120

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn · 1962 (1st ed.); 1970 (2nd ed. with postscript); 1996 (3rd ed.)

Historical-philosophical treatise · Twentieth-century philosophy and history of science

Normal science under paradigms is punctuated by revolutionary changes that are not strictly cumulative — and competing paradigms are incommensurable

20% constructivism 15% pragmatism 15% postmodernism 15% relativism 10% naturalism 10% critical-realism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% phenomenology +5