Philosophy audiobooks

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

By: Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 11 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the most famous and influential work of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The work is a philosophical novel in which the character of Zarathustra, a religious prophet–like figure, delivers a series of lessons and sermons in a Biblical style that articulate the central... Read more

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals

By: Immanuel Kant

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 3 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Immanuel Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, first published in 1785, lays out Kant's essential philosophy and defines the concepts and arguments that would shape his later work. Central to Kant's doctrine is the categorical imperative, which he defines as a mandate that human actions should always conform to a universal,... Read more

The Imitation of Christ

By: Thomas à Kempis

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 7 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

First published anonymously in 1418, Thomas à Kempis's The Imitation of Christ is a classic Christian devotional work that has been read through the ages by such notable figures as Sir Thomas More, John Wesley, and Pope John Paul I. A meditation on spiritual life, it offers instructions for renouncing worldly vanity and discovering eternal... Read more

Beyond Good and Evil

By: Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, first published in 1886, presents a scathing critique of traditional morality and attacks previous philosophers for their blind acceptance of Christian ideals of virtue. As an alternative to what he viewed as the illogical and irrelevant philosophy of the nineteenth century, Nietzsche argues for the... Read more

Selections from the Writings of Cicero

By: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 8 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote on a wide range of subjects, from Greek philosophy to moral duty to friendship. Though he considered philosophy secondary to politics and often used his writings for explicit political ends, his work has nevertheless been widely read for over two thousand years and has influenced... Read more

Utopia

By: Sir Thomas More

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

Sir Thomas More's Utopia has spurred debate, reflection, and critical thinking since its original publication in the sixteenth century. More's fictional island of Utopia provides an exploration of issues that shook him and his contemporaries and that continue to be problematic in the modern day. The details of More's utopian society, such as the... Read more

The Varieties of Religious Experience

By: William James

Narrated by: John Pruden

Length: 19 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

First published in 1905, The Varieties of Religious Experience is a collection of lectures given at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 and 1902. William James was a psychologist and, as such, his interest in religion was not that of a theologian but of a scientist. In these twenty lectures, he discusses the nature and origin of religious belief.... Read more

The Republic

By: Plato

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 11 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

"What is at stake is far from insignificant: it is how one should live one's life."



Plato's The Republic is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an inquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within... Read more

The Meditations

By: Marcus Aurelius

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 4 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

"Live each day as if it were your last."



Written in Greek by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, without any intention of publication, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations offers a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe.... Read more

The Art of War, with eBook

By: Sun Tzu

Narrated by: Scott Brick & Shelly Frasier

Length: 3 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

"All warfare is based on deception. Thus, when able to attack, we must seem unable. Hold out bait to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is quick to anger, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant."



Written before Alexander the Great was born, this... Read more

Buddha's Teachings

By: Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai

Narrated by: Jonathan Reese

Length: 3 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Like all great religions, Buddhism teaches the importance of spiritual, or holy, values. This religion teaches that if a person has a pure mind, everything he does will be pure and decent, and that if he has a pure heart, all happiness will come to him.



First published in 1925, Buddha's Teachings was originally edited by Japanese scholars of... Read more

Plato's Republic

By: Simon Blackburn

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 4 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever lived, and The Republic, composed in Athens in about 375 BC, is widely regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect city—and the perfect mind—laid the foundations for Western culture and, for over two thousand years, has been the cornerstone of Western... Read more

The Power of Meaning

By: Emily Esfahani Smith

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò

Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

In a culture obsessed with happiness, this wise, stirring book points the way toward a richer, more satisfying life.

Too many of us believe that the search for meaning is an esoteric pursuit—that you have to travel to a distant monastery or page through dusty volumes to discover life’s secrets. The truth is, there are untapped sources of meaning... Read more

Machiavelli

By: Ross King

Narrated by: Tim Reynolds

Length: 7 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Part of the acclaimed Eminent Lives series, Machiavelli is a superb portrait of the brilliant and revolutionary political philosopher—history’s most famous theorist of “warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed”—and the age he embodied. Ross King, the New York Times bestselling author of Brunelleschi’s Dome, argues that the author of The Prince was... Read more

Parenthood by Proxy

By: Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Narrated by: Barbara Caruso

Length: 9 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

Parenthood by Proxy is a passionate and provocative summation of the perils of parenting and a road map to safety for America's families.Never one to shy away from tough truths, Dr. Laura marshals compelling evidence for the widespread neglect of America's children and condemns the numerous rationalizations to excuse it. Parents, special... Read more

Philosophy Talk, Vol. 5

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

Philosophy Talk, Vol. 6

By: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Narrated by: John Perry & Ken Taylor

Length: 8 hours 18 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

The Book That Changed America

By: Randall Fuller

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race

“A lively and informative history.” – The New York Times Book Review

Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs.  Randall Fuller takes us back... Read more

Make a Choice

By: Jeff Benedict

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 3 hours

Abridged: No

Extraordinary stories of people who have survived life’s most heart-wrenching tragedies and whose Christian faith has remained unshakable.New York Times bestselling author Jeff Benedict has seen both good and bad in his career as a journalist. Some of the best are the extraordinary people he has met who have made deliberate choices to live... Read more

Magic and Loss

By: Virginia Heffernan

Narrated by: Candace Thaxton

Length: 7 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

Virginia Heffernan “melds the personal with the increasingly universal in a highly informative analysis of what the Internet is—and can be. A thoroughly engrossing examination of the Internet’s past, present, and future” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) from one of the best living writers of English prose.

This book makes a bold claim: The... Read more

The Family Gene

By: Joselin Linder

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 7 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

When Joselin Linder was in her twenties, her legs started to swell. She thought little of it, until her health problems started to compound in ways that baffled her doctors. Diagnosed with extreme liver blockage and dangerous levels of lymph fluid, Joselin turned to the most similar case she could think of—her father’s.Joselin compared the... Read more

Democracy in America

By: Alexis de Tocqueville

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 4 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1831, a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in New York convinced that the democratic spirit America had embraced would eventually spread across Europe. Democracy in America, a treatise on democratic government written from his fresh perspective as an outsider, is now a classic document of political history. Read more

The Final Days of Socrates

By: Plato

Narrated by: Ray Atherton & Donal Donnelly

Length: 6 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

The trial and condemnation of Socrates (469-399 B.C.) is one of the most tragic episodes in the history of Athens' decline. Plato, Socrates' most devoted disciple, has preserved for us the essence of the teaching and logical system of question-and-answer of western civilization's purest intellect in this sequence of four works: Euthyphro, The... Read more

The End of White Christian America

By: Robert P. Jones

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 7 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

“Quite possibly the most illuminating text for this election year” (The New York Times Book Review).

*Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion*
Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, spells out the profound political and cultural consequences of a new reality—that America is no longer a majority white Christian nation.... Read more