Help!
Keep the Archive Alive!
Western Philosophy
This section contains texts by the most important writers who have defined the philosophy of modern Western society. Texts here discuss ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and political philosophy. NOTE: most of these are large text files, which may take a while to download on a slow connection.
George Berkeley
Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous [1713]
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge [1710]
Rene Descartes
Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences
Meditations on First Philosophy [1641]
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Transcendalist
Essays, First Series
Essays, Second Series
Epictetus
The Enchiridion
The Discourses [101 CE]
Epicurus
Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan [1651]
David Hume
Of Superstition and Enthusiasm [1741]
Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion [1741]
Of the Liberty of the Press [1741]
Of Essay Writing [1742]
Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences [1742]
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding [1748]
A Letter from a Gentleman [1754]
Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul [1755]
The Natural History of Religion [1757]
Of Tragedy [1757]
Of the Standard of Taste [1757]
My Own Life [1777]
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion [1779]
Immanuel Kant
The Critique of Judgement [1790]
The Critique of Practical Reason [1788]
The Critique of Pure Reason [1781]
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals [1785]
Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals [1785]
The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics [1780]
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics [1783]
The Science of Right [1790]
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
The Monadology [1898]
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty [1859]
Representative Government [1861]
Utilitarianism [1863]
The Subjection of Women
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus Spake Zarathustra [1891]
Blaise Pascal
The Provincial Letters [1657]
Pensees [1660]
Plato
NOTE: These file are in the Plato section under Classics.
Cratylus [360 BCE]
Charmides, or Temperance [380 BCE]
Critias [360 BCE]
Crito [360 BCE]
Euthydemus [380 BCE]
Euthyphro [380 BCE]
Gorgias [380 BCE]
Ion [380 BCE]
Laches, or Courage [380 BCE]
Laws [360 BCE]
Lysis, or Friendship [380 BCE]
Meno [380 BCE]
Parmenides [370 BCE]
Phaedo [360 BCE]
Phaedrus [360 BCE]
Philebus [360 BCE]
Protagoras [380 BCE]
The Republic [360 BCE]
The Seventh Letter [360 BCE]
Sophist [360 BCE]
Statesman [360 BCE]
Symposium [360 BCE]
Theaetetus [360 BCE]
Timaeus [360 BCE]
Spinoza
Ethics
The Theologico-Political Treatise
On the Improvement of Understanding
Henry David Thoreau
A Plea for Captain John Brown [1853]
Slavery in Massachusetts [1854]
Life Without Principle [1863]
Civil Disobedience [1849]
Walden, or Life in the Woods [1854]
