Political Philosophy Reading List
I plan to critique the 60 most influential works on political philosophy in 2023
Sun Tzu - The Art of War - 5th Century BC - Chinese
Plato - The Republic - 4th Century BC - Greek
Aristotle - Politics - 3rd Century BC - Greek
Chanakya - Arthashastra - 3rd Century BC - Indian
Augustine of Hippo - The City of God - 5th Century - N African Roman
Aquinas, Thomas - Treaty on Law - 13th Century - Sicilian
Machiavelli, Niccolo - The Discourses/The Prince - 1531/1532 - Italian
Descartes, Rene - Meditations on First Philosophy - 1641- French
Hobbes, Thomas - Leviathan - 1651 - English
Spinoza, Baruch - A Theologico-Political Treaty - 1670 - Dutch
Locke, John - Two Treatises of Government - 1689 - English
Montesquieu - The Spirit of the Laws - 1748 - French
Hume, David - An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - 1751 - Scottish
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques - On the Social Contract - 1762 - French
Voltaire - Treatise on Toleration - 1763 - French
Smith, Adam - The Wealth of Nations - 1776 - Scottish
Paine, Thomas - Common Sense & Rights of Man - 1776/1787 - American English
Bentham, Jeremy - Principles of Morals and Legislation - 1780 - English
Madison & Hamilton - The Federalist Papers - 1787 - American
Various - The Anti-Federalist Papers - 1787 - American
Burke, Edmund - Reflections on the Revolution in France - 1790 - Irish
Wollstonecraft, Mary - A Vindication of the Rights of Men/Women - 1790/1792 - English
Godwin, William - An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice - 1793 - English
Kant, Immanuel - Metaphysics of Morals - 1797 - German
Hegel, Georg - Philosophy of Right - 1821 - German
Tocqueville, Alexis de - Democracy in America - 1835 - French
Marx & Engels - The Communist Manifesto - 1848 - German
Thoreau, Henry David - Civil Disobedience - 1849 - American
Bastiat - The Law - 1850 - French
Mill, John Stuart - On Liberty/Utilitarianism - 1859/1863 - English
George, Henry - The Paradox of Capitalist Growth - 1872 - American
Bakunin - God and the State - 1883 - Russian
Nietzsche, Friedrich - Beyond Good and Evil - 1886 - German
Kropotkin, Peter - The Conquest of Bread - 1892 - Russian
Tolstoy, Leo - The Kingdom of God is Within You - 1893 - Russian
Chesterton, G. K. - What's Wrong with the World - 1910 - English
Dewey, John - Democracy and Education - 1916 - American
Lenin, Vladimir - The State and Revolution - 1917 - Russian
Tagore, Rabindranath - Nationalism - 1910s - Indian
Mises, Ludwig Von - Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis - 1922 - Austrian
Hitler, Adolf - Mein Kampf - 1925 - German
Mussolini, Benito - The Doctrine of Fascism - 1932 - Italian
Lane, Rose Wilder - The Discovery of Freedom - 1943 - American
Hayek, Friedrich - The Road to Serfdom - 1944 - Austrian
Popper, Karl - The Open Society and Its Enemies - 1945 - Austria-Hungarian
Arendt, Hannah - The Origins of Totalitarianism - 1951 - German
Rand, Ayn - The Virtue of Selfishness - 1964 - Russian
Berlin, Isaiah - Four Essays on Liberty - 1969 - English
Rawls, John - A Theory of Justice - 1971 - American
Rothbard, Murray - For a New Liberty - 1973 - American
Nozick, Robert - Anarchy, State, and Utopia - 1974 - American
Foucault, Michel - Discipline & Punishment - 1975 - French
Friedman, Milton & Rose - Free to Choose - 1980 - American
Kaczynski, Ted - Industrial Society and its Future - 1995 - American
Paul, Ron - The Revolution: A Manifesto - 2008 - American
Sandel, Michael J - Justice: What's the right thing to do? - 2009 - American
Fukuyama, Francis - The Origins of Political Order - 2011 - American
Chomsky, Noam - On Anarchism - 2013 - American
Boaz, David - The Libertarian Mind - 2015 - American
I dropped out of college after 3 years. I majored in Computer Science and Psychology. Since then I have been learning about all kinds of topics related to politics, economics, and society just for fun, but want to make sure I have a comprehensive education without holes. I considered going back to school, which led me to make a list of all the topics and classes I’m interested in. I realized that enrolling in school is expensive and unnecessary when nearly all those resources are available for cheap or free. So I crunched some numbers.
A bachelor's degree requires 120 credits. With a 15-week semester and two hours of studying for every hour of class time, a credit requires 45 hours of work. That's 5,400 hours of work for a bachelor's degree. A major usually requires 36 credits from the major department, which is 30% of total credits. A minor usually requires 18 credits, which is 15% of total credits. A degree could include 1 major and 4 minors, though that's not the way it's usually done, they pad out the schedule with GenEd classes, which I already completed when I went to college. The major will require 1,620 hours of work. My goal is to finish that in 1 year which would require 31 hours of work per week. I will write book critiques to show my work, and keep a time log for my own reference.
Major: Philosophy with an emphasis on morals, ethics, and politics
Minors: Anthropology, Communications/Marketing/Journalism/Mass Communications, Law, Political Science
Year 1: Political Philosophy
Year 2: Anthropology and Communications
Year 3: Law and Political Science
So this is my plan for 2023! I would have to read and critique each of these 60 works every 6 days to finish this year. I have a problem where I keep adding books. So let me know if I should add any more to the list. I was trying to select the most influential while having a bias toward American Libertarianism.