Philosophy audiobooks

Circles

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by: Phil Paonessa

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Circles is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841. The essay reflects on the vast array of circles one may find throughout nature, and what is suggested by these circles in philosophical terms. In the opening line of the essay Emerson states The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout... Read more

Friendship

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by: Phil Paonessa

Length: 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Emerson's treatise on the nature of friendship. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one. Read more

Nature

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by: Phil Paonessa

Length: 51 minutes

Abridged: No

This version of Nature is an 1843 revision to the popular essay written and published in 1836. In the original essay, Emerson put forth the foundation of transcendentalism, and suggested that reality can be understood by studying nature. Within the essay, Emerson divides nature into four usages: Commodity, Beauty, Language and Discipline. These... Read more

Manners

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by: Phil Paonessa

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Abridged: No

In Manners, Ralph Waldo Emerson expounds on the meaning of customs and politeness in civil society. He argues that the purpose of manners is more to facilitate the creation and proper working of society, and not to establish hierarchies. Read more

Why Buddhism is True

By: Robert Wright

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

From one of America’s most brilliant writers, a New York Times bestselling journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness.

At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer—and the reason we make other people suffer—is that we don’t see the... Read more

The American Scholar

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by: Phil Paonessa

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College. Emerson argues that American culture, still heavily influenced by Europe, could build a new, distinctly American cultural identity. Emerson uses Transcendentalist and Romantic points of view to explain a true American... Read more

Surfing with Sartre

By: Aaron James

Narrated by: Tristan Morris

Length: 12 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of Assholes: A Theory, a book that—in the tradition of Shopclass as Soulcraft, Barbarian Days and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—uses the experience and the ethos of surfing to explore key concepts in philosophy.

The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once declared "the ideal limit of aquatic... Read more

Buddhism 101

By: Arnie Kozak

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 7 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Learn everything you need to know about Buddhism in this clear and straightforward new guide.

Buddhism was founded thousands of years ago, and has inspired millions of people with its peaceful teachings. Buddhism 101 highlights and explains the central concepts of Buddhism to the modern reader, with information on mindfulness, karma, The Four... Read more

Conscience of a Conservative

By: Jeff Flake

Narrated by: Milton Jeffers & Jeff Flake

Length: 4 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A thoughtful defense of traditional conservatism and a thorough assault on the way Donald Trump is betraying it.”—David Brooks, in his New York Times column

In a bold act of conscience, Republican Senator Jeff Flake takes his party to task for embracing nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and the anomalous Trump... Read more

The Sensational Past

By: Carolyn Purnell

Narrated by: Liz Thompson

Length: 7 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch-as they were celebrated during the Enlightenment and as they are perceived today. Blindfolding children from birth? Playing a piano made of live cats? Using tobacco to cure drowning? Wearing "flea"-colored clothes? These actions may seem odd to us, but in the eighteenth century, they made perfect sense. As... Read more

101 Amazing Philosophical Quotes

By: Jack Goldstein & Jimmy Russell

Narrated by: John Harnish

Length: 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Every one of us has - at one time or another - wondered about what it means to be human.
Do we have a soul?
What is the mind's eye?
Where do dreams come from; where do they go? The greatest thinkers of our time have considered these questions and more; after much time mulling things over they have summed up the human condition in short - but... Read more

Dreamstate: A Conspiracy Theory

By: Jed McKenna

Narrated by: Eric Vincent

Length: 8 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

If life is but a dream, to what do we awake?

The central premise of Dreamstate: A Conspiracy Theory, is the admittedly ridiculous but incontrovertibly true assertion that the universe does not exist.

This is something you can understand conceptually, like watching a documentary about Antarctica, or experientially, like moving to Antarctica.

There’s... Read more

Knowing the Score

By: David Papineau

Narrated by: Matt Amendt

Length: 8 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

In Knowing the Score, philosopher David Papineau uses sports to illuminate some of modern philosophy's most perplexing questions. As Papineau demonstrates, the study of sports clarifies, challenges, and sometimes confuses crucial issues in philosophy. The tactics of road bicycle racing shed new light on questions of altruism, while sporting... Read more

Draw Your Weapons

By: Sarah Sentilles

Narrated by: Sarah Sentilles

Length: 6 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

A single book might not change the world. But this utterly original meditation on art and war might transform the way you see the world—and that makes all the difference.

“How to live in the face of so much suffering? What difference can one person make in this beautiful, imperfect, and imperiled world?”

Through a dazzling combination of memoir,... Read more

The World as Will and Idea

By: Arthur Schopenhauer

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Length: 17 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

The original edition of The World as Will and Idea appeared in 1818, but in 1844 Schopenhauer published an expanded version. It contained the 'Criticism of the Kantian Philosophy', a lengthy document; and Supplements to the First Book (The Doctrine of the Idea of Perception) and the Second Book (The Doctrine of Perception or Knowledge of the... Read more

My First Summer in the Sierra

By: John Muir

Narrated by: Barry Press

Length: 6 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

In the summer of 1869, Scottish immigrant John Muir worked as a shepherd in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept during this time was later adapted into My First Summer in the Sierra, which was published in 1911. His record describes the majestic vistas, flora and fauna, and other natural wonders of the area. Having inspired... Read more

Solitude

By: Michael Harris

Narrated by: Kerry Shale

Length: 6 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

"Kerry Shale's reading delivers lots of information clearly as Harris discusses technological developments that threaten our solitude today. While much of Harris's book is critical of those developments, Shale also captures Harris's humor and occasional indignance." — AudioFile Magazine

With a foreword by Nicholas Carr, author of the Pulitzer... Read more

The Spell of the Sensuous

By: David Abram

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 12 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people but with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patterns) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How,... Read more

Herrschaft der Computer? - phil.COLOGNE live (Ungekürzt)

By: Markus Gabriel & Yvonne Hofstetter

Narrated by: Markus Gabriel, Yvonne Hofstetter & Barbara Ble...

Length: 1 hour 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Kaum etwas hat das menschliche Leben weltweit derart flächendeckend und umfassend verändert wie die Digitalisierung. Doch neben den für alle spürbaren Veränderungen haben sich gerade in den letzten Monaten Entwicklungen abgezeichnet, von denen selbstfahrende Autos, autonome Roboter wie Atlas und Big- Dog von Boston Dynamics oder das... Read more

Vögeln - Philosophie und Sex - phil.COLOGNE live (Ungekürzt)

By: Matthias Gronemeyer & Ann-Marlene Henning

Narrated by: Matthias Gronemeyer, Ann-Marlene Henning & Gert...

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Es ist erstaunlich, wie wenig viele Menschen über Sex wissen", erklärt die Psychologin und Sexualtherapeutin Ann-Marlene Henning, deren erfolgreiches Aufklärungsbuch "Make Love" und die TV-Serie gleichen Titels einen Nerv getroffen haben. Dass auch die Philosophie vor der Beschäftigung mit der körperlichen Liebe keinen Halt machen muss, zeigt... Read more

Die Grenzen der Gerechtigkeit - phil.COLOGNE live (Ungekürzt)

By: Bernhard Schlink & Stefan Gosepath

Narrated by: Bernhard Schlink, Stefan Gosepath & Svenja Flaß...

Length: 1 hour 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Dass Gerechtigkeit gut und erstrebenswert sei, darüber gibt es kaum Zweifel. Schuld soll gerecht bestraft, Menschen sollen gerecht behandelt werden, die Welt gerecht eingerichtet sein. Doch die Forderung nach Gerechtigkeit lässt die mangelhafte und schreiend ungerechte Wirklichkeit nur umso klarer hervortreten. Wenn es aber stimmt, dass manche... Read more

Luther und die "German Angst" - phil.COLOGNE live (Ungekürzt)

By: Thea Dorn, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf & Thomas Thieme

Narrated by: Thea Dorn, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Thomas Thiem...

Length: 1 hour 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Was die Welt Martin Luther nicht alles zu verdanken hat: die Bibelübersetzung, das Hochdeutsch, die Entdeckung des Individuums als religiöses Subjekt ... Von den Großtaten des Reformators ist im Jubiläumsjahr des Thesenanschlags von 1517 sehr viel die Rede. Interessiert sich denn - von ein paar schlecht gelaunten katholischen... Read more

Ideas Have Consequences, Expanded Edition

By: Richard M. Weaver

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 7 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Originally published in 1948, at the height of post-World War II optimism and confidence in collective security, Ideas Have Consequences uses “words hard as cannonballs” to present an unsparing diagnosis of the ills of the modern age. Widely read and debated at the time of its first publication, the book is now seen as one of the foundational... Read more

The Art of Living

By: Thich Nhat Hanh

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini & Gabra Zackman

Length: 5 hours

Abridged: No

In troubled times, there is an urgency to understand ourselves and our world. We have so many questions, and they tug at us night and day, consciously and unconsciously. In this important volume Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh—one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today—reveals an art of living in mindfulness that helps us answer... Read more