1)The Republic - Plato

The foundation of Western philosophy and political thought justice, truth, and the nature of the good life.

2)Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle

A complete philosophy of virtue and happiness; still the most practical moral philosophy ever written.

3)Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Stoic philosophy in its most personal form, calm strength amid chaos.

4)The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

A synthesis of classical reason and Christian revelation, a journey of the soul through sin,

purification, and grace.

5)Essays - Michel de Montaigne

The beginning of modern introspection and skepticism, thought turned inward.

6)Discourse on Method - René Descartes

The dawn of modern rationalism, the search for certainty and the power of doubt.

7)Critique of Pure Reason - Immanuel Kant

The most ambitious attempt to map the limits of human understanding where philosophy becomes architecture.

8)Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

Visionary, poetic, and iconoclastic, the revaluation of all values and the birth of existentialism.

9)The Tao Te Ching - Laozi

The Eastern counterpoint: paradox, balance, and effortless harmony wisdom through simplicity.

10)Being and Time - Martin Heidegger

A profound rethinking of existence, meaning, and time, the 20th century’s philosophical watershed