World Philosophy Day: 70 Philosophy Books Everyone Should Read

A good list, I liked especially the non-western-philosophy-canon sections, the books I hadn't heard of.

A bit more explaining why everyone should read them would be nice - I'm not convinced in many/most cases that everyone should. "Buridan's monumental work is the best introduction to late-medieval Ockhamist nominalism" doesn't go very far in that direction. I don't think most people will get much at all from attempting Spinoza, Hegel, Kant, Sartre, Popper, Frege, Wittgenstein's Tractatus etc. But then, offhand I can't think of a book I'd say "everyone should read".

There's a welcome inclusion of some non-western traditions, but the odd omission of the Chinese classics. I guess those guys - Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu etc - wrote well, so they have readers, not academic interpreters so much. I feel very lucky to have discovered them as a teenager, before getting into western philosophy. And come to think of it, I'd say they're worth reading by 'everyone' much more than almost everything[0] on this list, and are much more enjoyable to read.

[0]The ones I'd heard of, anyway. I look forward to checking out the ones I hadn't.

"The Second Sex" by Simone De Beauvoir is on here twice. I'd recommend if you're looking to read an existentialist book by the same author - check out "The Ethics of Ambiguity" which is an attempt to form an existentialist ethics, and is short, and good. Tbqh "The Second Sex" is a bit dry for modern tastes - even though it is important. I'd recommend reading something like Judith Butler's "Gender Trouble" if you want a better feel for modern feminism.

I would like to add few more books to the list:

1. Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse

2. On shortness of life by Seneca

3. Letters to stoic by Seneca

It would be good if everyone read any 70 books, but 70 philosophy books look excessive