Free Philosophy Ebooks and Etexts
Summary: This page provides an extensive collection of free philosophy ebooks and etexts, including classical works by Plato and Aristotle, modern philosophical writings, and texts on metaphysics, ethics, logic, and yoga philosophy. It features translations, commentaries, and scholarly studies that illuminate fundamental questions about reality, knowledge, and human existence. Suitable for students, researchers, and lifelong learners, the collection offers a broad foundation for philosophical inquiry.
About Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. In more casual speech, by extension, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group".
The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.
Philosophy is divided into many sub-fields. These include epistemology, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.
Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, such as the relationships between truth, belief, and theories of justification.
Logic is the study of the principles of correct reasoning. Arguments use either deductive reasoning or inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is when, given certain statements (called premises), other statements (called conclusions) are unavoidably implied. Rules of inferences from premises include the most popular method, modus ponens, where given “A” and “If A then B”, then “B” must be concluded. A common convention for a deductive argument is the syllogism.
An argument is termed valid if its conclusion does indeed follow from its premises, whether the premises are true or not, while an argument is sound if its conclusion follows from premises that are true. Propositional logic uses premises that are propositions, which are declarations that are either true or false, while predicate logic uses more complex premises called formulae that contain variables. Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality, such as existence, time, the relationship between mind and body, objects and their properties, wholes and their parts, events, processes, and causation. Traditional branches of metaphysics include cosmology, the study of the world in its entirety, and ontology, the study of being.
Within metaphysics itself there are a wide range of differing philosophical theories. Idealism, for example, is the belief that reality is mentally constructed or otherwise immaterial while realism holds that reality, or at least some part of it, exists independently of the mind. Subjective idealism describes objects as no more than collections or "bundles" of sense data in the perceiver. The 18th century philosopher George Berkeley contended that existence is fundamentally tied to perception with the phrase Esse est aut percipi aut percipere or "To be is to be perceived or to perceive".
Ethics, or "moral philosophy," is concerned primarily with the question of the best way to live, and secondarily, concerning the question of whether this question can be answered. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, such as the origins of the words good and bad, and origins of other comparative words of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Normative ethics are more concerned with the questions of how one ought to act, and what the right course of action is. This is where most ethical theories are generated. Lastly, applied ethics go beyond theory and step into real world ethical practice, such as questions of whether or not abortion is correct. Ethics is also associated with the idea of morality, and the two are often interchangeable. 1*
Ebooks and Texts: Philosophy
The Philosophy of Religion by Swami Krishnananda
The Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda
The Realisation of the Absolute by Swami Krishnananda
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda
The Struggle for Perfection by Swami Krishnananda
Resurgent Culture by Swami Krishnananda
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man by Patanjali, trans. by Charles Johnston
The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali by Patanjali, trans. by William Quan Judge and James Henderson Connelly
Brahma Sutras by Swami Sivananda
Crito by Plato HTML at Bartleby, Gutenberg text
The Republic by Plato (based on the 1892 edition; includes translator's full commentary) by Plato, trans. by Benjamin Jowett
Eudemian Ethics by Aristotle (HTML at Perseus)
PDF at McMaster Ethics by Aristotle
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cleanthes by Epictetus
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus, trans. by Hastings Crossley
The Discourses by Epictetus
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, trans. by Meric Casaubon, contrib. by W. H. D. Rouse
Augustine, de dialectica (trans. J. Marchand) : The Book of St. Augustine on Dialectic
Philosophy and the Social Problem (New York: Macmillan, 1917), by Will Durant (multiple formats at archive.org)
Philosophy from St. Augustine to Ockham, by Ralph M. McInerny (HTML at Notre Dame)
The Philosophy Of Alfarabi and its Influence On Medieval Thought (1947), by Robert Hammond (HTML at sacred-texts.com)
The philosophy of art: an introduction to the scientific study of aesthetics page images at Google; US access only
The Philosophy of Art: Being the Second Part of Hegel's Aesthetik, in Which are Unfolded Historically the Three Great Fundamental Phases of the Art-Activity of the World (New York: D. Appleton and Co., c1879), by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, trans. by William McKendree Bryant (multiple formats at archive.org)
The Philosophy of Communism (New York: New Century Publishers, 1963), by James E. Jackson (multiple formats at archive.org)
The Philosophy of Despair, by David Starr Jordan (Gutenberg text)
A Philosophy of Education, by Charlotte M. Mason (HTML at Ambleside Online)
Philosophy of Education Yearbook, by Philosophy of Education Society (U.S.) (partial serial archives)
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (third edition; Boston: Luce and Co., 1913), by H. L. Mencken (multiple formats at archive.org)
The Philosophy of History, or, The Scattering of the Holy People: Tea Tephi; David's Daughter; Jeremiah's Ward; The Romance Within the Romance (New Haven: The Our Race Pub. Co, 1891), by Charles Adiel Lewis Totten (page images at HathiTrust)
The Philosophy of Humanism (eighth edition, 1997), by Corliss Lamont (PDF at corliss-lamont.org)
Philosophy of Islam, by M. Husayni Behishti and M. Jawad Bahonar (frame-dependent HTML at al-islam.org)
The Philosophy of Law: An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1887), by Immanuel Kant, trans. by W. Hastie (HTML and PDF files at libertyfund.org)
The Philosophy of Life: A Critical Exposition of the Fundamental Principles in Eastern and Western Philosophy in the Light of the Doctrines of Swami Sivananda, by Swami Krishnananda (HTML at Divine Life Society)
The Philosophy of Natural Magic (Chicago: De Laurence, Scott and Co., 1913), by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, ed. by L. W. De Laurence, contrib. by Henry Morley (HTML with commentary at sacred-texts.com)
Philosophy of Osteopathy (1899), by A. T. Still (HTML at Early American Manual Therapy)
Alexandria and Her Schools by Charles Kingsley
New Platonism and Alchemy by Alexander Wilder
The Theological Tractates (English versions of the Tractates only) by Boethius, trans. by Hugh Fraser Stewart and Edward Kennard Rand
The Alchemy of Happiness by Ghazzali, trans. by Claud Field
Confessions (modernized, with commentary) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, trans. by Claud Field
Historia Calamitatum: The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard, trans. by Henry Adams Bellows
On Being and Essence by Saint Thomas Aquinas, trans. by Robert T. Miller
St. Thomas Aquinas and Medieval Philosophy by Daniel Joseph Kennedy
Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher by John J Kessler
Erasmus of the Low Countries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997) by James D. Tracy
The Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto by Edwin H. Wilson
Darwinism: Science or Philosophy? Proceedings of a symposium entitled "Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference?" Held on the Southern Methodist University Campus in Dallas, Texas, USA, March 26-28, 1992, ed. by Jon Buell and Virginia Hearn
Scholasticism by Joseph Rickaby
Essays in Radical Empiricism by William James
The Cosmopolitan Self: George Herbert Mead and Continental Philosophy (2001) by Mitchell Aboulafia (HTML at U-Illinois Press)
The New Organon by Francis Bacon
Valerius Terminus: On the Interpretation of Nature (annotated version) by Francis Bacon, ed. by Robert Stephens and James Spedding, contrib. by Gisela Engel and Robert Leslie Ellis
Valerius Terminus: On the Interpretation of Nature by Francis Bacon, ed. by Robert Stephens and James Spedding, contrib. by Robert Leslie Ellis
Characters of Virtues and Vices by Joseph Hall
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
Geometry No Friend to Infidelity by James Jurin
The Analyst: A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician by George Berkeley
A Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics by George Berkeley
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (4th edition) by George Berkeley
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume HTML at Bartleby, text at Wiretap
A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
Adam Smith by James Anson Farrer
The English Utilitarians by Leslie Stephen 1900 volume 1: HTML at McMaster, volume 2: HTML at McMaster,
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Jeremy Bentham 1781 Batoche Books Kitchener 2000 PDF at McMaster
The Rationale of Reward by Jeremy Bentham
Harvard Classics, Vol. 25, Part 3 Characteristics 1831 Thomas Carlyle HTML at Bartleby
Appearance and Reality: A Metaphysical Essay (second edition) by F. H. Bradley
First Principles by Herbert Spencer (HTML at McMaster; 1 MB)
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Penseés (Thoughts), 1660 HTML at Fordham,
Harvard Classics, Vol. 48, Part 1 Thoughts Blaise Pascal HTML at Bartleby
The System of Nature: or, Laws of the Moral and Physical World by Paul-Henri Holbach, trans. by H. D. Robinson
Theosphic Correspondence Between Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (The "Unknown Philosopher") and Kirchberger, Baron de Liebistorf by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and Nicolas Antoine Kirchberger, trans. by Edward Burton Penny
Auguste Comte Freely Translated and Condensed by Harriet Martineau with an introduction by Frederic Harrison volume 1: PDF at McMaster, volume 2: PDF at McMaster, volume 3: PDF at McMaster
A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson by Edouard Le Roy, trans. by Vincent Benson
The Range of Reason by Jacques Maritain
The Philosophy of Law: An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right by Immanuel Kant
Kant's System of Perspectives by Stephen Palmquist
Philosophy of Right by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, trans. by S. W. Dyde
The Logic of Hegel (or, the "Shorter Logic") by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, trans. by William Wallace
Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic by John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart
Studies in Hegelian Cosmology by John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart
Hegel's Logic: An Essay in Interpretation by John Grier Hibben
The Origin and Significance of Hegel's Logic: A General Introduction to Hegel's System by J. B. Baillie
Letters Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man by Friedrich Schiller
Nietzsche by Paul Elmer More
Truth and Knowledge by Rudolf Steiner
Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard: Religion, Individuality and Philosophical Method by Charles L. Creegan
Gutenberg text; unofficial until 28 Feb 2003
U.G. Krishnamurti: A Life by Mahesh Bhatt
The First Principles of Knowledge by John Rickaby
A New Logic (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1912) by Charles Arthur Mercier
Logic Primer by Colin Allen and Michael Hand
The Tree of Philosophy (third edition) by Stephen Palmquist
Scientific Fact and Metaphysical Reality by Robert Brandon Arnold
Essays in Life and Eternity by Swami Krishnananda (HTML at Divine Life Society)
On the Eternity of the World by Saint Thomas Aquinas, trans. by Robert T. Miller
On Causation, With a Chapter on Belief (London: Longman's Green and Co., 1916) by Charles Arthur Mercier
External Links Disclaimer
Important Notice: External links are provided for convenience and informational purposes only. Hinduwebsite.com does not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for the content, accuracy, privacy practices, or availability of external websites.
Your use of external sites is at your own risk and subject to their respective terms and conditions. For questions about external content, please contact those sites directly.