Open Philosophy LibraryPolitics
The collection
Browse Books
Explore complete public-domain works with introductions, reading sections, downloadable PDFs and original study material.
Open Philosophy LibraryThe Republic
The Republic
Plato's Republic asks what justice is and why the just life is better than injustice. Across ten Books, Socrates constructs an ideal city, relates its classes to the parts of…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding investigates the origin, structure and limits of human knowledge. Across four Books, Locke rejects innate ideas, traces thought to sensation and reflection, analyses…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryAn Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding investigates the origin, structure and limits of human knowledge. Its twelve Sections distinguish impressions from ideas, analyse association, separate relations of ideas from…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryThree Dialogues Between Hylas And Philonous
Three Dialogues Between Hylas And Philonous
George Berkeley's Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous defends immaterialism through a lively exchange between a materialist and a spokesman for Berkeley's philosophy. Across three Dialogues, sensible qualities are shown…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryMeditations On First Philosophy
Meditations On First Philosophy
René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy leads the reader through six stages of radical doubt and rational reconstruction. It develops the certainty of the thinking self, arguments for God's existence,…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryDiscourse On The Method
Discourse On The Method
René Descartes' Discourse on the Method combines intellectual autobiography with a programme for reliable inquiry. Across six Parts, Descartes criticises inherited learning, states four methodological rules, adopts a provisional morality,…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryFundamental Principles Of The Metaphysic Of Morals
Fundamental Principles Of The Metaphysic Of Morals
Immanuel Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals seeks the supreme principle of morality in reason rather than experience or consequences. Beginning with good will and duty, Kant develops…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryUtilitarianism
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism defends the greatest happiness principle while distinguishing higher from lower pleasures and giving impartial weight to every person's welfare. Its five chapters examine the foundations of…
View BookOpen Philosophy LibraryNicomachean Ethics
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics examines the highest human good and the character required for a flourishing life. Across ten Books, it develops influential accounts of happiness, habituation, the moral virtues, the…
View Book