Works

#1687

On Nature (fragments)

Anaximander of Miletus · c. 6th century BCE

Philosophical prose treatise (fragments) · Pre-Socratic natural philosophy / Milesian school

The apeiron as origin of all things — the first Greek prose treatise on nature, with its single surviving fragment on cosmic justice

30% naturalism 25% classical-greek 15% materialism 10% process-philosophy 10% realism 10% rationalism 5% milesian-school +4

#1688

Paradoxes (fragments)

Zeno of Elea · c. 460 BCE

Philosophical arguments (fragments preserved in Aristotle and later sources) · Pre-Socratic philosophy / Eleatic school

The paradoxes of motion and plurality that have challenged mathematics and physics for 2,500 years

25% classical-greek 25% rationalism 20% formalism 15% idealism 10% realism 5% analytic-philosophy +3

#1689

Republic (fragments) (Early)

Zeno of Citium · c. 300 BCE

Political-philosophical treatise (fragments) · Early Stoic philosophy

The founding Stoic political vision: a cosmopolitan community of the wise beyond cities, courts, and currencies

40% stoicism 25% cosmopolitanism 15% naturalism 10% virtue-ethics 10% rationalism +2

#1690

Logical Investigations (fragments) (Mature)

Chrysippus of Soli · c. 250 BCE

Philosophical treatises (fragments preserved in later sources) · Stoic logic / Hellenistic philosophy

The five indemonstrable argument forms and the foundations of propositional logic

35% stoicism 25% formalism 15% rationalism 10% analytic-philosophy 10% philosophy-of-language 5% realism +3

#1691

On Providence (fragments) (Mature)

Chrysippus of Soli · c. 250 BCE

Philosophical treatise (fragments preserved in Plutarch, Gellius, Cicero, and others) · Stoic physics and theology / Hellenistic philosophy

Stoic compatibilism — the cylinder analogy, co-causation, and the rational defence of cosmic fate against the problem of evil

35% stoicism 25% determinism 15% naturalism 10% rationalism 10% materialism 5% philosophy-of-religion +3

#1692

On the Creation of the World

Philo of Alexandria · c. 20–40 CE

Philosophical commentary on Genesis 1 · Jewish-Hellenistic philosophy

Genesis meets the Timaeus — God creates the intelligible world first, then stamps its pattern on matter

45% platonism-classical 20% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 15% stoicism 10% neo-platonism 10% christianity 5% middle-platonism +3

#1693

On the Life of Moses

Philo of Alexandria · c. 20–40 CE

Biographical-philosophical treatise in two books · Jewish-Hellenistic philosophy

Moses as the philosopher-king Plato never found — Torah as the constitution of the rational cosmos

35% platonism-classical 25% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 15% rabbinic-judaism 10% stoicism 15% natural-law 5% middle-platonism +3

#1694

Against Celsus

Origen of Alexandria · c. 248 CE

Apologetic treatise in eight books · Alexandrian Christianity / Christian Platonism

The Church answers the philosopher — every objection of pagan reason met with Christian reasoning

40% christianity 30% christian-platonism 15% platonism-classical 8% stoicism 7% natural-theology +2

#1695

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

Sextus Empiricus · c. 200 CE

Philosophical treatise in three books · Pyrrhonist scepticism

Opposing every argument with one of equal force — the method of equipollence and the tranquillity that follows suspension

85% pyrrhonism 8% empiricism 4% stoicism 3% platonism-classical +1

#1696

On Abstinence from Animal Food

Porphyry · c. 270–280 CE

Philosophical treatise in four books · Neoplatonism / ethics of animals

If animals reason and feel, justice extends to them — a Neoplatonist argument for the meatless life

40% neo-platonism 25% animal-ethics 15% pythagoreanism 10% stoicism 10% platonism-classical +2

#1697

Han Feizi

Han Feizi · c. 240–233 BCE

Collection of 55 essays and chapters · Chinese Legalism (Fajia)

Government by law, technique, and authority — the ruler who needs no virtue because the system has it built in

70% legalism 15% taoism 10% confucianism 5% political-realism +1

#1698

On the Sacred Disease

Hippocrates (or a Hippocratic author) · c. 410–390 BCE

Medical treatise / polemic · Hippocratic medicine

Epilepsy is no more sacred than any other disease — the founding declaration of naturalistic medicine

50% naturalism 25% empiricism 15% rationalism 10% philosophy-of-science +1

#1699

Memorabilia

Xenophon · c. 370–360 BCE

Socratic memoir / dialogues in four books · Socratic literature

The other Socrates — practical, pious, and useful, a teacher of self-mastery and the examined life as daily practice

40% virtue-ethics 25% platonism-classical 20% pragmatism 15% classical-greek +1

#1700

Antidosis

Isocrates · 354 BCE

Deliberative oration / educational apologia (literary, not delivered) · Greek rhetoric / paideia

The philosopher of logos defends his life's work — rhetoric as civic education, speech as the instrument of civilisation

35% classicism 30% civic-republicanism 20% humanism 15% pragmatism +1

#1701

The Histories

Polybius · c. 150s–130s BCE

Prose history in forty books (partially extant) · Greek historiography / political theory

How Rome conquered the world — universal history, the mixed constitution, and the cycle of constitutions as political science

35% political-realism 25% civic-republicanism 20% historicism 10% empiricism 10% classical-roman +2

#1702

Stromateis (Miscellanies)

Clement of Alexandria · c. 198–203 CE

Philosophical-theological miscellany in seven books (plus fragments of an eighth) · Alexandrian Christianity / Christian Platonism

A deliberately unsystematic tapestry weaving Scripture with Plato, Stoicism, and Middle Platonism to define the true Christian gnostic

35% christian-platonism 25% christianity 15% neo-platonism 10% stoicism 8% natural-theology 7% platonism-classical +3

#1703

Against Heresies

Irenaeus of Lyon · c. 180 CE

Polemical-theological treatise in five books · Pre-Nicene Christianity / Apostolic tradition

The most detailed early account of gnostic systems and the first systematic Christian theology of salvation history

40% christianity 25% catholicism 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% natural-theology 10% platonism-classical +2

#1704

Hexaemeron (Late)

Basil of Caesarea · c. 370 CE

Series of nine homilies · Cappadocian Christianity / Patristic natural theology

The least plant brings to mind the Creator — Genesis 1 as a textbook of divine wisdom written in creation

35% natural-theology 25% christianity 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% platonism-classical 8% stoicism 7% aristotelianism +3

#1705

Life of Moses (Late)

Gregory of Nyssa · c. 390 CE

Allegorical-spiritual treatise in two parts (historia and theoria) · Cappadocian Christianity / Christian mysticism

Moses climbed from light into cloud into darkness — and in that darkness found God most present

35% christian-mysticism 25% christian-platonism 15% neo-platonism 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% christianity +2

#1706

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew

John Chrysostom · c. 390 CE

Ninety homilies (sermons) · Antiochene Christianity / Literal-historical exegesis

The Golden Mouth on the First Gospel — every passage a moral demand, every parable a call to share wealth and serve the poor

35% christianity 25% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% liberation-theology 15% biblicism 10% catholicism +2

#1707

De Officiis Ministrorum (Late)

Ambrose of Milan · c. 391 CE

Treatise in three books on Christian ethics for clergy · Latin Christianity / Ciceronian-Christian virtue ethics

Christian duty as the fulfilment of classical virtue — the bishop's handbook for a post-pagan empire

30% catholicism 25% virtue-ethics 15% stoicism 15% christianity 8% natural-law 7% augustinianism +3

#1708

Vulgate (Latin Bible translation) (Mature)

Jerome · c. 382–405 CE

Complete biblical translation · Latin Christianity / Biblical scholarship

The hebraica veritas in Latin — Jerome's translation shaped Western theology, liturgy, and literature for a thousand years

30% christianity 30% catholicism 15% biblicism 10% scholasticism 8% hermeneutics 7% augustinianism +3

#1709

Hymn to Zeus

Cleanthes · c. 3rd century BCE

Hexameter hymn (39 lines) · Early Stoicism

Zeus as Logos, fire as fate, willing obedience as the only freedom — Stoic theology in verse

85% stoicism 8% naturalism 7% classical-greek

#1710

Fragments (Reconstructed)

Posidonius (reconstructed) · c. 1st century BCE (original works); testimonia from 1st c. BCE–2nd c. CE

Reconstructed fragments and testimonia · Middle Stoicism

The most learned Stoic, reconstructed from the citations of those he influenced — science, psychology, and cosmic sympathy

55% stoicism 20% platonism-classical 15% empiricism 10% naturalism +1

#1711

On the Natural Faculties

Galen · c. 175 CE

Treatise in three books · Galenic medicine / eclectic philosophy

Nature does nothing in vain — the four natural faculties as the teleological foundation of physiology

35% aristotelianism 25% empiricism 15% stoicism 15% naturalism 10% hylomorphism +2

#1712

The Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius · 524 CE

Prosimetrum (alternating prose and verse) in five books · Late Roman Neoplatonism / early medieval Christian philosophy

Fortune's wheel turns, but the highest good stands still — a Neoplatonic consolation for the condemned

45% neo-platonism 15% stoicism 15% platonism-classical 10% scholasticism 10% aristotelianism 5% christianity +3

#1713

Sayings and Legal Rulings

Hillel the Elder · c. 1st century BCE–1st century CE (oral); codified in Mishnah c. 200 CE and Talmud c. 500 CE

Ethical maxims and legal rulings preserved in oral-then-written rabbinic tradition · Pharisaic / early rabbinic Judaism

The Golden Rule, the seven hermeneutical rules, and the primacy of study — the foundations of rabbinic Judaism in a handful of sayings

60% rabbinic-judaism 15% virtue-ethics 15% hermeneutics 10% humanism +1

#1714

Arthashastra

Kautilya (Chanakya) · c. 3rd century BCE (core); redacted c. 2nd century CE

Treatise in 15 books (adhikaranas) and 150 chapters (prakaranas) · Indian political philosophy / arthashastra tradition

The science of punishment and prosperity — a manual for total statecraft from taxation to assassination

55% political-realism 15% consequentialism 10% legalism 10% hinduism 10% classical-political-economy +2

#1715

Thirukkural

Thiruvalluvar · c. 2nd century BCE–5th century CE (debated)

1,330 couplets (kurals) in 133 chapters of 10 couplets each, organised in three books · Tamil Sangam literature / Indian ethical philosophy

Virtue, wealth, and love in the compass of a couplet — the universal ethic of the Tamil Veda

45% virtue-ethics 20% humanism 10% jainism-anekantavada 10% political-realism 10% hinduism 5% natural-law +3

#1716

Ramayana

Valmiki (traditional) · c. 5th century BCE–3rd century CE (composite)

Epic poem in seven books (kandas), c. 24,000 shlokas · Hindu epic literature / itihasa

Dharma as destiny, devotion as liberation — the adi kavya (first poem) and the moral imagination of a civilisation

45% hinduism 20% virtue-ethics 10% aestheticism 10% deontological-ethics 10% natural-law 5% mysticism +3

#1717

Iliad

Homer · c. 750–700 BCE

Epic hexameter poem (15,693 lines in 24 books) · Archaic Greek epic

The anger of Achilles, the pity of war, and the mortal condition illuminated by divine fire

55% classical-greek 20% tragedy 15% virtue-ethics 10% determinism +1

#1718

Theogony

Hesiod · c. 700 BCE

Didactic hexameter poem (1,022 lines) · Archaic Greek didactic poetry / cosmogonic myth

From Chaos came Earth, from Earth came Sky, from strife came order: the genealogy of the gods as the first Greek cosmology

50% classical-greek 20% natural-law 15% determinism 15% pessimism +1

#1719

Fragments

Sappho · c. 600 BCE

Lyric poetry (monodic; various metres, especially the Sapphic stanza) · Archaic Greek lyric poetry

The body as instrument of knowing, desire as revelation, the personal voice against the silence of time

40% aestheticism 25% phenomenology 20% classical-greek 15% feminism +1

#1720

Olympian Odes

Pindar · c. 476–452 BCE

Choral lyric (epinician odes; triadic strophic structure) · Archaic Greek choral lyric / Panhellenic festival poetry

The flash of divine radiance in the athlete's triumph — glory, brevity, and the poet's immortalising song

45% classical-greek 25% virtue-ethics 15% platonism-classical 15% pessimism +1

#1721

The Clouds

Aristophanes · 423 BCE (first version; revised c. 418–416 BCE)

Old Comedy (dramatic verse, five acts with parabasis and choral odes) · Athenian Old Comedy

When philosophy meets farce: Socrates in a basket, the Clouds as new gods, and the Thinkery in flames

45% classical-greek 25% conservatism 15% classicism 15% humanism +1

#1722

Fragments and Testimonia

Antisthenes · c. early 4th century BCE (original works); testimonia from antiquity

Reconstructed fragments, anecdotes, and doxographic reports · Socratic philosophy / early Cynicism

Virtue alone is the good, toil is a blessing, and convention is the enemy of nature

50% virtue-ethics 20% stoicism 15% classical-greek 15% naturalism 5% cynicism +2

#1723

Fragments and Testimonia

Aristippus of Cyrene · c. early 4th century BCE (original teachings); testimonia from antiquity

Reconstructed fragments, anecdotes, and doxographic reports · Socratic philosophy / Cyrenaic hedonism

Only the present sensation is real, only bodily pleasure is the good, and the wise enjoy without being enslaved

30% epicureanism 25% phenomenology 20% relativism 15% classical-greek 10% presentism 5% cyrenaicism +3

#1724

Characters

Theophrastus · c. 319 BCE

Prose character sketches (30 brief essays) · Peripatetic ethics / literary character-writing

The flatterer, the boor, the cheapskate: Aristotelian virtue theory applied to the observation of everyday life

55% aristotelianism 20% virtue-ethics 15% empiricism 10% classical-greek +1

#1725

Aeneid

Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) · c. 29–19 BCE (unfinished at Virgil's death)

Epic poem in twelve books (9,896 lines) · Roman epic poetry

Fate, piety, and the cost of empire — the founding myth of Rome as a tragedy of civilisation

35% stoicism 25% platonism-classical 20% tragedy 20% classical-roman +1

#1726

Metamorphoses

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) · c. 8 CE

Continuous epic poem in fifteen books (c. 12,000 lines) · Roman mythological epic

Nothing keeps its form: 250 myths of transformation as the anti-epic of ceaseless change

35% process-philosophy 20% epicureanism 20% pythagoreanism 15% classical-roman 10% aestheticism +2

#1727

Odes

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) · c. 23–13 BCE (Books I–III published c. 23 BCE; Book IV c. 13 BCE)

Lyric poetry (103 odes in four books) · Augustan Latin lyric, adapting Greek Aeolic tradition

Seize the day, love the mean, build in verse what bronze cannot outlast

40% epicureanism 25% stoicism 20% classical-greek 15% classical-roman +1

#1728

Ab Urbe Condita

Livy (Titus Livius) · c. 27 BCE – 9 BCE

Annalistic history in 142 books (35 survive: Books 1–10, 21–45) · Roman annalistic historiography

The history of Rome as the history of virtue: exempla of civic duty from Romulus to Augustus

40% civic-republicanism 25% virtue-ethics 15% stoicism 20% classical-roman +1

#1729

The Jewish War

Flavius Josephus · c. 75–79 CE

Historical narrative in seven books · Jewish-Hellenistic historiography (Thucydidean-Polybian model)

The destruction of the Temple as eyewitness history, theodicy, and cultural catastrophe

30% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 25% political-realism 15% stoicism 15% classical-roman 15% rabbinic-judaism +2

#1730

Sayings and Legal Traditions (Mishna, Talmud)

Rabbi Akiva ben Joseph (transmitted and compiled by students and later redactors) · Akiva active c. 70–135 CE; compiled in Mishnah c. 200 CE and Talmuds c. 200–500 CE

Legal rulings (halakhot), ethical maxims (aggadot), hermeneutical principles (middot) · Rabbinic Judaism (Tannaitic period)

Every letter of Torah carries meaning: the oral law as the living voice of Sinai, transmitted through the greatest sage

70% rabbinic-judaism 15% hermeneutics 10% mysticism 5% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean +1

#1731

Arguments Against the Stoics (Reconstructed from Cicero)

Carneades (reconstructed from Cicero) · c. mid-2nd century BCE (delivered); reconstructed from Cicero, 1st century BCE

Dialectical arguments preserved in Cicero's Academica, De Natura Deorum, and De Fato · Academic scepticism

The most devastating sceptical attack on Stoic certainty — no impression guarantees its own truth, and the gods of the Stoics collapse under scrutiny

50% pyrrhonism 20% empiricism -25% stoicism 5% academic-scepticism +1

#1732

On Duty (Fragments, via Cicero)

Panaetius (reconstructed from Cicero) · c. mid-2nd century BCE (original); Cicero's De Officiis, 44 BCE

Ethical treatise (fragments and Ciceronian adaptation) · Middle Stoicism

Duty humanised — the four personae, appropriate action, and the practical ethics that shaped Rome and modernity

60% stoicism 20% virtue-ethics 15% classical-roman

#1733

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

Arcesilaus (reconstructed) · c. mid-3rd century BCE (original arguments); testimonia from 1st c. BCE–3rd c. CE

Reconstructed arguments and testimonia from Cicero, Sextus Empiricus, and Diogenes Laertius · Academic scepticism

Epoché as philosophical method — the arguments that turned Plato's Academy into the ancient world's foremost school of scepticism

50% pyrrhonism 25% platonism-classical -25% stoicism 5% academic-scepticism +1

#1734

Maxims of Ptahhotep

Ptahhotep · c. 2400 BCE

Wisdom instruction (sebayt) — 37 maxims framed as a vizier's counsel to his son · Egyptian wisdom literature (sebayt)

Ma'at endures — the cosmic order of truth and justice as the foundation of moral life, inscribed for the instruction of a vizier's son

35% virtue-ethics 30% natural-law 15% humanism

#1735

Rock Edicts

Ashoka (Devānampiya Piyadassi) · c. 257–240 BCE

Royal edicts inscribed on rock faces and pillars across the Indian subcontinent · Buddhist ethical governance (dhamma)

Dhamma carved in stone — the Mauryan emperor's public declaration of nonviolence, tolerance, and compassion as the basis of governance

45% buddhism 25% pacifism 20% pluralism

#1736

Aṣṭādhyāyī

Pāṇini · c. 4th century BCE

Formal grammar in 3,959 sūtras (rules) organised into eight chapters (adhyāyas) · Indian grammatical tradition (vyākaraṇa)

3,959 rules — the first formal generative system in human history, deriving all of Sanskrit from roots, suffixes, and transformations

50% formalism 20% structuralism 20% philosophy-of-language

#1737

Nāṭyaśāstra

Bharata Muni · c. 2nd century BCE (core text; compiled over several centuries)

Comprehensive treatise in 36 chapters on drama, dance, music, poetics, and aesthetics · Indian aesthetics / Hindu performative tradition

Rasa — the theory that aesthetic emotion arises from the convergence of determinants, consequents, and transitory feelings in the receptive spectator

55% aestheticism 20% hinduism 15% cognitivism

#1738

Cyrus Cylinder

Cyrus the Great (court scribes) · 539 BCE

Clay cylinder inscription (royal apologia) · Mesopotamian royal inscription / Achaemenid Persian political ideology

Imperial tolerance inscribed in clay — the restoration of gods, the liberation of peoples, and the legitimation of a multicultural empire

35% pluralism 20% political-realism 20% zoroastrianism 15% cosmopolitanism +1

#1739

Sic et Non

Peter Abelard · c. 1121–1132 CE

Dialectical florilegium with methodological prologue · Latin scholastic theology

By doubting we come to inquiry, by inquiry to truth — the dialectical engine of the scholastic revolution

55% scholasticism 25% rationalism 15% hermeneutics 5% nominalism +1

#1740

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

John of Damascus · c. 730s–740s CE

Systematic theological treatise in 100 chapters (four books in Latin division) · Eastern Orthodox patristic theology

The compendium of Chalcedonian orthodoxy — every doctrine of the seven councils in one Aristotelian-patristic synthesis

55% eastern-orthodox-christianity 20% christian-platonism 15% cappadocian-theology 10% aristotelianism +1

#1741

Sentences

Peter Lombard · c. 1150

Systematic theological compilation in four books · Latin scholastic theology

The master framework of medieval theology — four books, four centuries of commentary, every scholastic mind compelled to engage

50% scholasticism 25% augustinianism 15% catholic-thomistic 10% christianity +1

#1742

Opus Majus

Roger Bacon · c. 1267

Encyclopedic treatise in seven parts, addressed to Pope Clement IV · Franciscan natural philosophy / medieval Latin science

Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences — and nothing can be known without experience

30% empiricism 25% rationalism 20% scholasticism 15% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 10% natural-theology +2

#1743

Ars Magna (Ars Generalis Ultima)

Ramon Llull · 1305–1308

Philosophical treatise with mechanical combinatorial diagrams (rotating concentric discs) · Medieval logic / combinatorial philosophy / Franciscan missionary theology

A general art by which all questions can be resolved — the first attempt at a universal logical calculus

30% rationalism 25% logicism 20% catholic-thomistic 15% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 10% mysticism +2

#1744

The Book of the City of Ladies

Christine de Pizan · 1405

Allegorical prose treatise in three parts, with exemplary lives of women · French humanism / Querelle des femmes / proto-feminist literature

An allegorical city built of the lives of exemplary women — against the misogynist tradition from Ovid to Jean de Meun

35% feminism 25% humanism 20% catholic-thomistic 10% natural-law 10% civic-republicanism +2

#1745

Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu) (Late)

Zhu Xi · c. 1177–1190 (revised throughout his life)

Commentary on four classical Confucian texts, with interpretive notes and philosophical elaboration · Neo-Confucianism / Song-dynasty li-xue (School of Principle)

The investigation of things and the extension of knowledge — the Four Books as the gateway to moral self-cultivation and cosmic order

40% confucianism 25% rationalism 15% realism 10% virtue-ethics 10% naturalism +2

#1746

The Vantage Point

Lyndon Baines Johnson · 1971

Presidential memoir · American political memoir / Great Society liberalism

The Great Society as moral imperative — civil rights, Medicare, education, and the agony of Vietnam from the president who signed them into law

35% liberalism 25% pragmatism 15% social-democracy 15% political-realism 10% humanism +2