Robert Greene's 5 Favorite Philosophy Books 

If you are looking for specific books from these philosophers: Plato - The Republic (as mentioned) Aristotle - The Nicomachean Ethics Marcus Aurelius - Meditations Seneca - Letters from a Stoic Epictetus - Discources (In regards to stoic philosophy Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is also amazing) Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays Nietzsche - On the Genealogy of Morals (not a good idea to start with Beyond Good and Evil or Thus Spoke Zarathustra) Camus - The Stranger (I personally liked The Stranger more than The Plague, although The Plague would also be a good first choice)

Anything Robert recommends is worth looking into. He is one of the greatest authors of the modern era .

This was such a helpful starter blueprint for a dense and overwhelming subject. Much appreciated!

good vid! Straightforward, direct, and very helpful!

Stoicism helped me get sober, if you need some motivation and are struggling in life I'd definitely recommend meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

An exceptional response to a very challenging question. Well done, Robert.

It's amazing how he suggested all these Philosophers and I literally have Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Republic, Myth of Sisyphus, Meditations and Letters from a Stoic. Same taste Robert Greene

I would add Cicero, especially on Duties

imo some of the most important ones are machiavelli's prince, jean jacques rousseau's du contrat social and a more niche one etienne de la boetie's discours de la servitude volontaire. Granted these are kind of more abstract and intellectual but teach some really important lessons in life like machiavelli and some social concepts that are still relevant today like etienne's book (which he wrote at 16 or 18 btw)

Great selections.

Thank you

1:18 - I’m Greek, but Montaigne actually looks a lot like my Uncle Aristotle who runs the souvlaki joint just a couple of blocks down from my place (his short order cooks are named Socrates and Demosthenes, with whom he’s constantly fighting - no joke!).

One book I can recommend is "Meandering Sobriety". Although it's a philosophical book, it is a bit humorous and still thought-provoking. The book is a series of funny and thought-stimulating stories that will help you have a moment of escape from hustle reality to see and understand it deeper. Most importantly, it's short and can be completed in a day.

The #1 book you should read based on this video is Alain De Botton's "Consolations of Philosophy." It's amazing! Perspectives of life from Socrates, Seneca, Epicurus, Montaigne, Neichze, & Schopenhauer

Wonderful and great advice from a one of the greatest Philosophers and Thinkers of our time Robert Greene. I've had the honour to read them all except Albert Camus and I've had read the books of Robert Greene himself.

I just finished reading Albert Camus' "The Stranger" today and this video was recommended. Wow.

Heracleitos, Epictetus, Vivekananda, Carl Jung, Henry Miller

Great list from western philosophy. People who are interested in the stoics should also look at the Taoist books like Lao zhi, zhuāngzi , liezi , I Ching and a few confucian books like the analect.

Michael tsarion is certainly one of the greatest philosophers of our times imo. It takes a lot of time to get the the full scope of that man's work.

The Manual and discourses of Epictetus, I found them very much applicable than The meditations.

Curious what's in his record collection

Epicurus, Nagarjuna, Schopenhauer, Camus

I think that in contemporary philosophy there are still really interesting books, in the field of philosophy of mind or language, but if we are talking about care for the soul and mental hygiene/motivation, psychology is in our times better for this. Nonetheless, in contemporary moral philosophy/ethics you can always find something interesting / worthy of time and post-phenomenological research is fascinating on whatever topic, even walking, food, sex etc.

My favorite is 'Truth : Shall set you free' by Aman Jain. I read it recently and his philosophical ideas and introspection of the complex phenomenon of life is marvellous, and present an untraditional way of viewing the world. It is the most thought provoking book in my opinion.

I have got the books 'Beyond Good and Evil' by Friedrich Nietzsche and 'The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination' by Jacob Bronowski.

I have read at least a book from all the listed philosophers. It changes the you think TBH

I'm an analytic guy myself, but I cannot fault the five choices you've made for the reasons you've stated. Nietzsche was my first and favorite philosopher, and is still among my favorites, but my top 10 list includes 8 analytic philosophers and two (including Nietzsche) that wouldn't traditionally count as analytic philosophers.

"Philosophy should be fun, it should be exciting..." This is a normative assertion which stands to be substantiated, a task which is not clearly achievable and which many people do not consider "fun and exciting."

...do you describing the impact/importance of books or the feeling you got?!

This is my favorite book Words for Our Time: The Spiritual Words of Matthew the Poor

Hi Robert, what was Albert Camus life task in your words?

If you want something that relates to the modern day, switch “20th century” with 21st century and check out Slavoj Zizek, Mark Fisher, and Nick Land. They are probably the best for talking about modern day stuff

0:23 I can’t hear the second name he says. Heraclitus and ???

1. It's amazing to see how different philosophy is seen by Americans in contradistiction to us, Europeans. 2. Descartes is the most relevant and influential philosopher of the "Middle Age", almost contemporary of Montaigne. Modernity is started with Descartes. Still, he doesn't apply for the purpose of the video. 3. The best books ever written in the 20th century were The Rebel (Camus) and The Forest Passage (Ernst Jünger).

❤

* Emerson * Emerson * Emerson * “Lessons From An American Stoic”……Philosophy Must First Teach Us How To Uplift Ourselves And Catapult Us Into “Awe and Wonder” thereby giving us the succor we need to traverse the trials and tribulations of outrageous misfortune……then after we are adept at the art of living can we begin to dive in to the world’s philosophers 🦅

Montagna ? It's Michel de Montaigne

Robert's world of Null-A :-)

To be clear, these are writers and not books.

Why not Aristotle?

Remember Robert wasn’t successful until after his books. He analyzed old rulers and climbers of power. For good and bad. He never applied these principles to everyday life let alone a political one.

Can anyone list the Authors mentioned???

Dostoyevsky ?

He’s so right about modern philosophy- way too abstract/intellectual.

Shards Of Divinities is an incredible novel that will transform you spiritually and intellectually. It's about the intersection between science/logic and religion/spirituality. The novel is available on that site named after a river in South America.

Sun Tzu.

( REHAB TIME! ) BOOKS R TO REMIND US WATT AZZES AND FOOLS WEE R. FACTS OVA FEELINGS!

And bros know that you shouldn't always follow his advice You should be as much free and open to experience as determined and close minded Like read anyone you like you can even read marquis de sade and adorno if you like them both Just have fun

Doesn't he look like he's in the middle of a nervous breakdown?

Mont-tain-ya? Seriously???

The greatest Philosophy books for life are: Plato's Dialogues Aristoteles Ethics, his Rhetoric, Topic, Poetic, Politic and his Kategorie. Seneca's letters Ciceros books Lucretius's books Plinius juniors letters Plinius the elders letters Epictetus Discourses Marcus Aurelius Meditations Buddha Konfuzius Laotse Sun Tzus Art of war Bidpai Fables and Ibn al Muqaffas Fables Ibn al Muqaffas books and letters Syaset Nameh Niccolo Machiavellis books especially the Prince Balthasar Gracians book the oracle of the world's wisdom Thomas Morus Utopia Erasmus von Rotterdams books Thomas Hobbes Leviathan Giambattista Vico Pico della Mirandola Friedrich Nietzsches books Arthur Schopenhauers books Max Webers books Ismail Mazhars books Ali Schariatis books Peter Sloterdijks books like the spheres, the conflict on the human park and so on Michel Foucaults books Karl Poppers books Ludwig Wittgensteins books Jochen Kirchhoffs books Thomas Kuhns books Richard David Prechts books David Buss books Robert Greenes books Jordan Petersons books Napoleon Hills books Johann Wolfgang von Goethes books Friedrich Schillers books Ralph Waldo Emersons books Thomas Carlyles books Will Durants, John Deweys, John Lockes, William James, Charles Sanders Pierces, Stuart Mills, John Stuart Mills, Jeremy Benthams, René Descartes, Baruch Spinozas, Immanuel Kants, Émile Durkheims, Gustave le Bons, Auguste Comtes, Condorocets, Malthus's, Maslow's, Freuds, Hermann Hesses, Hermann Schmitz's, Rudolf Steiners, Jungs, Adlers, Wilhelm Reichs, Viktor Frankls, Erich Fromms, Jean Jacques Rousseaus, Montesquieus, Jean Piagets and Alexis Carrels books Michael de Montaignes Essays Hans Küngs books like his book what I believe Martin Heideggers books Joseph Campbells books Martin Wehrles books George Berkeleys and David Humes books Adam Smiths, William Stanley Jevons Books Marcus Gabriel's books Volker Gerhardts books The book Darwin hits Kant Thomas Pikettys books Thomas Wangenheims book Kultur und Ingenium Oswald Spenglers, Gustav von Grunebaums, Annemarie Schimmels, Stefan Weinfurters, Michael Stürmers and Arnold Toynbees books Rüdiger Safranskis books Stefan Zweigs books Hegel's, Schellings, Schleiermachers, Humboldts, Herders, Fichte's books and so on Georg Christoph Lichtenbergs Essays Tagore Ocho Krishnamurti Meister Eckhart Hildegard von Bingen Theresa von Avila Boethius Augustinus Ficino Ibn Maskauih Ibn Khaldun Avicenna Averroes and so on And also the literature masterpieces from the international literature treasure like Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Heine, Kafka, Hesse, Rückert, Thomas Mann, the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Erasmus von Rotterdam, Servantes, Balthasar Gracian, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Shakespeare, John Milton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, William Blake, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Christopher Marlow, J.K.Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Martin, Stefanie Meyer, Edgar Allan Poe, Michel de Montaigne, Molière, Baudelaire, Viktor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Balzac, Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Marcel Proust, Jean la Fontaine and so on, Boccaccio, Francesco Petrarca, Niccolo Machiavelli, the author of the Godfather, Gorge Luis Borges, Paolo Coelho and so on, Bidpai, the Vedas, the Mahabharata, Tagore and so on, Ibn al Muqaffa, Saadi Schirazi, Hafiz Schirazi, Firdausi, Muhammad Iqbal, Ali Schariati, Omar al Khayyam, Mulla Dschami, Sanai and so on, Dostojewski, Tolstoï, Chekhov, Turgenjew, Alexandre Pushkin, Gogol, Maxim Gorki, the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, ancient greek and ancient hellenic and ancient Roman, ancient persian, ancient iranian, ancient bekhterian and medieval literatures and mythologies.

Montaigne understands insecurity , highly recommend

Marcus and the stoics are nice. (Marcus above all, and of course, Seneca.) Nietzsche is excellent as well. 👌 Plato…. Eh. 😑 Any recommendations for philosophy outside of the Mediterranean or Europe? Any “eastern” philosophers? Are there any yellow or brown philosophers out there with lessons one can easily put to practice??? This is just your list, right? I get it. Those stoics are watered down Cynics and Plato’s limited views offered nothing new to the yogi’s and yogini of Afghanistan, India and beyond. ( Here is your man. 🐓) No wisdom from the Vedas or numerous Upanishad? Nothing from the Mahabharata? Nothing at all worth mentioning? No Shantideva, no Confucius, no Lao Tzu? Too primitive? Lao Tzu probably didn’t exist so that doesn’t count? Is religion that much of a stumbling block that we should forget the beauty and insight of Persian poetry or the exotic and esoteric literature that is so-called “Christian” mysticism? No constructive, easily applied philosophies for today to be found there in? The Dhammapada is no more than a collection of ancient folk songs that children would sing for fun and it is a gem mine when compared to such works as “Republic”. Diogenes wrote nothing down, as was his want, Plato and Socrates did and to the glee of intellectual dick swingers everywhere. Needless to say, I think the bulk of Greek and Roman philosophy is a bit overrated and more than a little flawed. Again, I get it. This is your list and it’s typical. It’s a good thing you have all them, thar books or else I wouldn’t believe ya to be truly edgenegated. I sure like a showman. (Queue spittoon sound effect.) 🤠 Ah, now I just sound like a prick. 🌵 “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” another philosophical classic. Sure, it’s not funny to you but don’t you realize that comedians are today’s philosophers. I blame that boot, stamping on our face forever. 😅😵‍💫🍻 You can get good philosophy from comic books, kids!!! “God Loves, Man Kills” I mean, c’mon, the tittle alone. 😳🤦‍♂️ Go on and read Ya some Plato. Then when you grow up, look back at those times with nostalgia and wonder at how we deceive ourselves so easily. You’re a sly product of Yakub. “The great Satan, that wounded snake” Alright, I gotta gtf outta here. 🤣🤣🤣✌️📖

Mere Christianity.

You can skip all those books and study the teachings of the BUDDHA(SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA), his teachings cover everything in those 5 books, yea? "EVERY WISH FULFILLED" E.T.

Guys let me clear READ ADI SHANKARACHARYA ADVAITA VEDNATA AND COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VEVIKANDA U WILL NOT REGREAT

Do not read Philosophy books until you are over the age of 35 years old.