Philosophy audiobooks

Siddhartha's Brain

By: James Kingsland

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 10 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking exploration of the “science of enlightenment,” told through the lens of the journey of Siddhartha (better known as Buddha), by Guardian science editor James Kingsland.In a lush grove on the banks of the Neranjara in northern India—400 years before the birth of Christ, when the foundations of western science and philosophy were... Read more

Spark Joy

By: Marie Kondo

Narrated by: Sumalee Montano

Length: 5 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has revolutionized homes—and lives—across the world. Now, Kondo presents an illustrated guide to her acclaimed KonMari Method, with step-by-step folding illustrations for everything from shirts to socks, plus drawings of perfectly organized drawers and closets. She... Read more

The Tao of Happiness

By: Derek Lin

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 2 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

If you have not encountered Chuang Tzu before, prepare yourself for a treat. He was the sage who stood apart from all others in Chinese history. He was a unique presence, a great mind like no one before or since. Chuang Tzu quickly distinguished himself and became well known for his deep understanding and sense of humor. His mastery was such... Read more

The Stone Reader

By: Peter Catapano & Simon Critchley

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin & Sean Pratt

Length: 26 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

The Stone Reader provides an unparalleled overview of contemporary philosophy.

Once solely the province of ivory-tower professors and college classrooms, contemporary philosophy was finally emancipated from its academic closet in 2010, when The Stone was launched in The New York Times. First appearing as an online series, the column quickly... Read more

Elbow Room

By: Daniel C. Dennett

Narrated by: Don Hagen

Length: 9 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

In this landmark 1984 work on free will, Daniel Dennett makes a case for compatibilism. His aim, as he writes in the preface to this new edition, was a cleanup job, "saving everything that mattered about the everyday concept of free will, while jettisoning the impediments." In Elbow Room, Dennett argues that the varieties of free will worth... Read more

Juniper

By: Thomas French & Kelley French

Narrated by: Kelley French & Thomas French

Length: 8 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

A micro-preemie fights for survival in this extraordinary and gorgeously told memoir by her parents, both award-winning journalists.

Juniper French was born four months early, at 23 weeks' gestation. She weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces, and her twiggy body was the length of a Barbie doll. Her head was smaller than a tennis ball, her skin was nearly... Read more

Philosophy Talk, Vol. 3

By: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Narrated by: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Length: 8 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Host philosophers Ken Taylor and John Perry invite you to join them in conversation on a wide variety of issues, ranging from popular culture to our most deeply held beliefs about science, morality, and the human condition. Philosophy Talk challenges listeners to identify and question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways.Fun,... Read more

Philosophy Talk, Vol. 2

By: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Narrated by: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Length: 8 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Host philosophers Ken Taylor and John Perry invite you to join them in conversation on a wide variety of issues, ranging from popular culture to our most deeply held beliefs about science, morality, and the human condition. Philosophy Talk challenges listeners to identify and question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways.Fun,... Read more

Old Path White Clouds

By: Thich Nhat Hanh

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 16 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

Old Path White Clouds presents the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha. Drawn directly from twenty-four Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources, and retold by Thich Nhat Hanh in his inimitably beautiful style, this book traces the Buddha’s life slowly and gently over the course of eighty years, partly through the eyes of Svasti, the buffalo boy,... Read more

Philosophy Talk, Vol. 1

By: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Narrated by: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Host philosophers John Perry and Ken Taylor invite you to join them in conversation on a wide variety of issues, ranging from popular culture to our most deeply held beliefs about science, morality, and the human condition. Philosophy Talk challenges listeners to identify and question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways.Fun,... Read more

Whatever You Choose to Be

By: Ann Romney

Narrated by: Ann Romney & Tom Taylorson

Length: 29 minutes

Abridged: No

For today’s twenty-somethings, the possibilities and opportunities are exhilarating, limitless, and sometimes confusing, with no clear-cut paths for the major life choices one must make after college graduation. In this new gift book, inspired by a commencement speech she gave in 2014, former first lady of Massachusetts Ann Romney puts forth... Read more

Happiness

By: Thich Nhat Hanh

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 4 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s key teaching is that through mindfulness, we can learn to live in the present moment and develop a sense of peace. Accessible to those new to Buddhist teachings as well as more experienced practitioners, Happiness is the only book that collects all practices adapted and developed by Thich Nhat Hanh in his more than... Read more

The Internet of Us

By: Michael P. Lynch

Narrated by: Dan Woren

Length: 6 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

With far-reaching implications, this urgent treatise promises to revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age.
We used to say "seeing is believing"; now googling is believing. With 24/7 access to nearly all of the world's information at our fingertips, we no longer trek to the library or the encyclopedia shelf... Read more

Gratitude

By: Oliver Sacks

Narrated by: Dan Woren

Length: 36 minutes

Abridged: No

A deeply moving testimony and celebration of how to embrace life. No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with... Read more

Aristotle's Children

By: Richard E. Rubenstein

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

Length: 13 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Europe was in the long slumber of the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language was all but forgotten, until a group of twelfth-century scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. His ideas spread like wildfire across Europe, offering the scientific view that the natural world, including the soul of... Read more

Assholes: A Theory of Donald Trump

By: Aaron James

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 2 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Make America Great Again? Donald Trump is an asshole is a fact widely agreed upon—even by his supporters, who actually like that about him. But his startling political rise makes the question of just what sort of asshole he is, and how his assholedom may help to explain his success, one not just of philosophical interest but of almost... Read more

Philosophy Talk, Vol. 4

By: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Narrated by: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Length: 8 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Host philosophers Ken Taylor and John Perry invite you to join them in conversation on a wide variety of issues, ranging from popular culture to our most deeply held beliefs about science, morality, and the human condition. Philosophy Talk challenges listeners to identify and question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways.Fun,... Read more

Speed Limits

By: Mark C. Taylor

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 14 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Drawing together developments in religion, philosophy, art, technology, fashion, and finance, Mark C. Taylor presents an original and rich account of a great paradox of our times: how the very forces and technologies that were supposed to free us by saving time and labor now trap us in a race we can never win. The faster we go, the less time we... Read more

Waking the Buddha

By: Clark Strand

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 3 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Is there more to Buddhism than sitting in silent meditation? Is modern Buddhism relevant to the problems of daily life? Does it empower individuals to transform their lives? Or has Buddhism become too detached, so still and quiet that the Buddha has fallen asleep?




Waking the Buddha tells the story of the Soka Gakkai International, the largest,... Read more

The Tao of Pooh

By: Benjamin Hoff

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain Way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear. In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff shows that Pooh's Way is amazingly consistent with the principles of living envisioned by the Chinese founders of Taoism. The author's explanation of Taoism through Pooh, and Pooh through Taoism,... Read more

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

By: George Berkeley

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

Length: 3 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

First published in 1710, George Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge is a seminal contribution to Empiricist philosophy. Making the bold assertion that the physical world consists only of ideas and thus does not exist outside the mind, this work establishes Berkeley as the founder of the immaterialist school of... Read more

Ethics

By: Benedict de Spinoza

Narrated by: Antony Ferguson

Length: 9 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Benedict de Spinoza's Ethics, first published in 1677, constitutes a major systematic critique of the traditional and religious foundations of philosophical thought. In it, Spinoza follows a logical step-by-step format consisting of definitions, axioms, propositions, proofs, and corollaries to create a comprehensive inquiry into the truth about... Read more

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

By: David Hume

Narrated by: Gildart Jackson

Length: 6 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Published in 1748, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is Scottish empiricist philosopher David Hume's distillation of his mature philosophy. Addressing themes including the limits of human understanding, the compatibility of free will with determinism, weaknesses in the foundations of religion, and the appeal of skepticism, An Enquiry... Read more

Select Essays

By: Michel de Montaigne

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

Length: 5 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Michel de Montaigne, one of the foremost writers of the French Renaissance and the originator of the genre of the essay, wrote on subjects ranging from friendship to imagination, from language to conscience. This collection includes twenty-two of Montaigne's essays, including "Of Prognostications," "Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes," "Of... Read more