Philosophy reading list: Cambridge, Faculty of Philosophy
Cambridge, Faculty of Philosophy lists 44 books for students about to start the course in Philosophy. The list starts with Ancient Philosophy: A very short introduction by Julia Annas, Think by Simon Blackburn and The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women by Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting (editors). 15 of the books also appear on other Oxford and Cambridge lists we collected.
Philosophy Reading List (suggested preliminary readings, updated July 2023) (University of Cambridge), PDF. www.phil.cam.ac.uk/system/files/suggested_preliminary_readings_updated_july_2023.pdf
Retrieved 3 October 2026. Check the source for the current year's version.
The 44 books
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- 1.Ancient Philosophy: A very short introductionJulia Annas
- 2.
- 3.The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung womenRebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting (editors)
- 4.The Stone Reader: Modern philosophy in 133 argumentsPeter Catapano and Simon Critchley
- 5.
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- 8.
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- 11.
- 12.
- 13.The Problems of PhilosophyBertrand Russell
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.Riddles of ExistenceEarl Conee and Theodore Sider
- 17.
- 18.
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- 20.
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- 26.Being Good: A short introduction to ethicsSimon Blackburn
- 27.
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- 30.Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A complete introductionPhil Parvin and Clare Chambers
- 31.
- 32.An Introduction to Political PhilosophyJonathan Wolff
- 33.Philosophy of ScienceAlexander Bird
- 34.
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- 37.Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (Alive, Son of Awake), also known as The Self-Taught PhilosopherIbn Tufayl
- 38.
- 39.
- 40.Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Dialogues on Natural Religion and 'Of the Standard of Taste'Hume
- 41.
- 42.
- 43.The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx and Friedrich Engels
- 44.How to Do Things With Words: The William James lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955J. L. Austin
Other Philosophy lists
- Cambridge, Downing College · 30 books
- Oxford, Somerville College (PPE) · 6 books
How this list was made
We fetched the list from the institution's own page or PDF on the date shown and recorded each title and author as printed. We did not add books, and we copied no descriptions. Obvious misprints are corrected and marked. The extraction was done with AI assistance and checked against the source. Lists change every year, so check the source page before you buy anything.