The best 25 Social Philosophy books

1
Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

William Golding
A Dystopian Classic on the Dark Side of Human Nature and Survival
4.6 (55 ratings)

What's Lord of the Flies about?

Lord of the Flies (1954) is the allegorical story of a group of young boys stranded on a deserted island and left to fend for themselves and create a society. As the boys struggle with the complexities of leadership, cooperation, and survival, they are forced to face some fundamental questions about human nature and the fragility of civilization.

Who should read Lord of the Flies?

  • Readers looking for fresh eyes on an old classic
  • Literature lovers who somehow never got around to this important book
  • Anyone looking for insight into the nature of society and the humans who build it

2
What’s Our Problem?

What’s Our Problem?

Tim Urban
A Self-Help Book for Societies
4.5 (415 ratings)

What's What’s Our Problem? about?

What’s Our Problem (2023) offers a fun and unique perspective on the strange state of the modern world in which we live. Using the author’s iconic comedic style, it draws on observations from political theory, psychology, history, and modern-day events to explain what is going on in our society, and what we can potentially do to fix it.

Who should read What’s Our Problem??

  • Followers of Tim Urban and his blog, Wait But Why
  • The socially-minded looking for clear and clever explanations of complex problems
  • Anyone confused and overwhelmed by the crazy state of the world

3
Starry Messenger

Starry Messenger

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
4.4 (384 ratings)

What's Starry Messenger about?

Starry Messenger (2022) is about a way of looking at the world called the cosmic perspective. It’s the view that opens up when we think about human life in its largest possible context – that of the universe itself. This isn’t an exercise in making our worldly affairs seem small and trivial, though. It’s about unlocking insights that can help us live more happily and meaningfully on the cosmic anomaly we call Earth.

Who should read Starry Messenger?

  • Thinkers and stargazers
  • Politicos interested in new ways of looking at old questions
  • Scientists and rationalists

4
Macbeth

Macbeth

William Shakespeare
Regicide and Revenge in one of the World's Most Famous Tragedies
4.8 (70 ratings)

What's Macbeth about?

Macbeth (1606) is the Shakespearean tragedy of Scottish general Macbeth and his doomed attempt to seize his country’s throne. His ambitions ignited by a prophecy spoken to him by three witches, Macbeth’s path to power begins with anxiety and reticence and ends with callousness and cruelty. His story is a timeless exploration of guilt, paranoia, madness, prophecy, and the evils of ambition.

Who should read Macbeth?

  • Shakespeare lovers who haven’t had the chance to read Macbeth 
  • Those who find Shakespeare’s original language difficult to enjoy
  • Macbeth fans who want a refresher

5
The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

Justin E.H. Smith
A History, A Philosophy, A Warning
3.9 (118 ratings)

What's The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is about?

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is (2022) offers startlingly new ways of understanding the world wide web, and strongly challenges us to examine our long-held beliefs about the supremacy of human cognition. It confronts our most closely-held (and least examined) ideas about the internet and social media, and weaves together observations from centuries of philosophy, mathematics, science and history.

Who should read The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is?

  • Those feeling overwhelmed by the pace of life in the information age 
  • Anyone worried about the addictive side of social media 
  • The Zoom-fatigued looking for better ways to connect.

6
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

David Hume
A classic in modern philosophical literature
4.5 (259 ratings)

What's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding about?

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) presents a succinct summary of Hume’s empirical and skeptical philosophy, and is one of the most influential texts of the early modern period. In calling for the use of reason in rejecting the “superstitions” of metaphysical philosophy and religion, this text helped to furnish the philosophical basis for the scientific method that was then coming to prominence in Enlightenment Europe. Even today, Hume’s Enquiry remains one of the best introductions to modern philosophy.

Who should read An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding?

  • Philosophy students looking for an introduction to Hume’s most important ideas
  • Rationalists who want to sharpen their reasoning skills
  • Anyone interested in the classics of Western philosophy

7
Future Stories

Future Stories

David Christian
What's Next?
4.2 (325 ratings)

What's Future Stories about?

Future Stories: What’s Next? (2022) explains the roots of how we make decisions about the future and illuminates the urgent responsibility on humanity’s shoulders today, with a multidisciplinary approach to time informed by biology, philosophy, and cosmology.

Who should read Future Stories?

  • Historians – both amateur and professional
  • Anyone concerned about climate change
  • Those interested in being a better human

8
How Proust Can Change Your Life

How Proust Can Change Your Life

Alain de Botton
Valuable Insights Into Living Your Best Life
4.6 (303 ratings)

What's How Proust Can Change Your Life about?

How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997) melds literary biography with a self-help structure to argue that reading the work of twentieth-century French author Marcel Proust is not only culturally enriching, but potentially life-enhancing. Botton’s close reading of Proust’s masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time, offers up surprising and delightful insights into how to live better.

Who should read How Proust Can Change Your Life?

  • Voracious readers who have yet to embark on In Search of Lost Time
  • Reluctant readers who’d like to read more than they currently do
  • Anyone looking to take on a literary challenge

9
The Social Contract

The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A cornerstone in modern political and social thought
4.5 (272 ratings)

What's The Social Contract about?

The Social Contract (1762) is a seminal work of political and social theory, and is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s most important and influential text. In the book, Rousseau lays out the conditions required for the legitimate founding and governing of a nation state. Playing a role in both the French Revolution and the founding of the US Constitution, The Social Contract is a cornerstone of modern political thought and essential reading for anyone interested in political theory.

Who should read The Social Contract?

  • Students looking for an introduction to Rousseau
  • Politics buffs interested in the foundational texts of liberalism
  • Life-long learners who want to know all the classics of Western thought

10
What We Owe the Future

What We Owe the Future

William MacAskill
A Guide to Ethical Living for the Fate of Our Future
4.3 (216 ratings)

What's What We Owe the Future about?

What We Owe the Future (2022) makes the case for longtermism –⁠ the idea that people today have an obligation to create a good future for successive generations. Using philosophical reasoning, historical anecdotes, and social science research, it argues that the current moment could decide whether future people will live happy, flourishing lives or extraordinarily miserable ones. By carefully considering our actions with respect to issues like AI safety, biotechnology, and value lock-in, we increase the chances that future people will thrive –⁠ just as many of us do, now, thanks to people from the past.

Who should read What We Owe the Future?

  • Activists and charity donors who want to maximize the good they do
  • People interested in moral philosophy and ethics 
  • Anyone concerned about the future of humanity

11
A Room of One’s Own

A Room of One’s Own

Virginia Woolf
An Essential Literary and Feminist Text
4.5 (213 ratings)

What's A Room of One’s Own about?

A Room of One's Own (1929) is a perceptive rumination on gender and self-expression. This extended essay explores the social and structural barriers women face when creating art.

Who should read A Room of One’s Own?

  • Artists looking for inspiring words
  • Women exploring the history of feminism 
  • Those struggling to understand social injustice

12
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers

Rule Makers, Rule Breakers

Michele Gelfand
How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World
4.1 (16 ratings)

What's Rule Makers, Rule Breakers about?

Rule Makers, Rule Breakers (2018) explores the idea that cultural diversity in our thoughts and behavior derives from how loosely or tightly we stick to social norms. Diving into topics such as why Germans set their clocks so accurately or why the DaimlerChrysler merger was doomed to fail, it pulls from decades of research to shed light on the roots of cultural diversity and their implications for the modern world.

Who should read Rule Makers, Rule Breakers?

  • Cultural enthusiasts and world travelers
  • Business leaders
  • Anyone perplexed by the division in the United States

13
Madness and Civilization

Madness and Civilization

Michel Foucault
A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
4.5 (112 ratings)

What's Madness and Civilization about?

Madness and Civilization (1961) explores the bumpy road taken by European society in learning how to understand and treat mental illness. Famed philosopher and critic Michel Foucault offers insight into civilization’s troubled history of treating the mentally ill as social outcasts, wild animals and misbehaving children.

Who should read Madness and Civilization?

  • Historians of Europe and medicine
  • Those who want a greater understanding of mental illness and psychiatric institutions
  • Readers interested in French philosophers and sociologists

14
The Quick Fix

The Quick Fix

Jesse Singal
Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills
4.2 (76 ratings)

What's The Quick Fix about?

The Quick Fix (2021) is a skeptical study of recent trends in behavioral psychology. Academic studies and TED talks may appear to make a convincing case for the power of positive thinking or the impact of implicit bias, but sometimes the evidence just isn’t there. In a complex world, the explanations for human behavior are often more nuanced than some modern psychologists would have you believe.

Who should read The Quick Fix?

  • Psychology skeptics
  • Those interested in societal problems and human behavior
  • Anyone who has ever viewed a TED talk

15
Discipline & Punish

Discipline & Punish

Michel Foucault
The Birth of the Prison
4.3 (103 ratings)

What's Discipline & Punish about?

Discipline & Punish (1975) is a celebrated work of renowned French philosopher and sociologist Michel Foucault. Foucault studies the history of forms of power, punishment, discipline and surveillance from the French Ancien Régime through to more modern times, seeing it as a reflection of a changing society.

Who should read Discipline & Punish?

  • Concerned citizens worried about the overreach of mass surveillance
  • Philosophers, historians, cultural scientists and sociologists
  • Anyone interested in modern prisons

16
Wanting

Wanting

Luke Burgis
The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
4.5 (110 ratings)

What's Wanting about?

Wanting (2021) provides a riveting, philosophical answer to the question Why do we want the things we want? Drawing on theories originally developed by the celebrated polymath René Girard, it reveals an uncomfortable truth: that our desires are all ultimately a product of other people’s desires. The point isn’t to eliminate them,⁠ but rather to choose, carefully and consciously, which ones we should actually strive for. 

Who should read Wanting?

  • Lovers of philosophy, psychology, and literature
  • Dedicated self-improvers
  • Young entrepreneurs and business leaders

17
Longpath

Longpath

Ari Wallach
Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs - an Antidote for Short-Termism
4.3 (256 ratings)

What's Longpath about?

Longpath (2022) is written to change the way you think about humankind. By teaching the lessons of the Longpath mentality, it shows how to break the bad habit of short-term thinking and embrace a mentality that helps connect humanity’s past, present, and future in order to make a better world. 

Who should read Longpath?

  • Individuals interested in improving their connection to others
  • Anyone held back by short-term thinking
  • Policymakers at the local, state, or federal level

18
The Soul of the World

The Soul of the World

Roger Scruton
In Defense of a Sacred World
3.7 (209 ratings)

What's The Soul of the World about?

In an age where science and atheism seek to explain everything we are, The Soul of the World (2014) argues for the continued importance of religion. It doesn’t preach for a particular doctrine; rather, it claims that in art, music, architecture, and interpersonal relations, there is a striving toward the sacred that science alone can’t explain or fulfill. Finally, it argues that by devaluing or ignoring the transcendent, we are willfully giving up one of the very things that makes us human.

Who should read The Soul of the World?

  • Atheists, agnostics, and scientists seeking a challenge to their worldview
  • Conservatives, traditionalists, and religious people
  • Lovers of philosophy, music, or art

19
Rogues

Rogues

Patrick Radden Keefe
True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
3.9 (134 ratings)

What's Rogues about?

Rogues (2022) is a compilation of veteran journalist Patrick Radden Keefe’s most famous profiles for the New Yorker Magazine. Keefe delves into the lives of notorious criminals and con artists, exploring their complex motivations. He examines the societies that made them and the systems we have for bringing people to justice.

Who should read Rogues?

  • Fans of long-form journalism 
  • Anyone interested in how the rogues of this world get away with their crimes
  • People interested in psychology and how past events can influence human behavior

20
On Liberty

On Liberty

John Stuart Mill
The iconic political text on how to balance authority, society and individuality
4.3 (70 ratings)

What's On Liberty about?

The iconic political text On Liberty delves into questions of how to balance authority, society and individuality. Combining abstract philosophical reasoning and concrete examples, On Liberty provides a thoughtful and vivid defense of personal liberty and self-determination that has made a huge impact on our liberal societies and political thought today.

Who should read On Liberty?

  • Anyone interested in philosophy and the history of political thought
  • Anyone interested in politics
  • Anyone who wants to learn more about the foundations of Liberalism

21
The Broken Ladder

The Broken Ladder

Keith Payne
How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die
4.2 (57 ratings)

What's The Broken Ladder about?

The Broken Ladder (2017) explores the psychological, physical, and social ramifications of rising inequality. As the rich get richer, it powerfully demonstrates, everyone else feels poorer, regardless of material circumstances – with devastating consequences for all.

Who should read The Broken Ladder?

  • Social psychology
  • Anyone who wants to better understand inequality

22
Justice

Justice

Michael J. Sandel
What's the Right Thing to Do?
4.3 (33 ratings)

What's Justice about?

What is justice? How can we act in a just and morally correct way? Drawing on various examples from everyday life, Michael J. Sandel illustrates how differently the idea of justice can be interpreted, for example, by philosophers like Aristotle and Kant. Over the course of Justice (2009), he urges us to critically question our own convictions and societal conventions.

Who should read Justice?

  • Anyone interested in ethics and philosophy
  • Anyone who wants to find out more about the concept of justice
  • Anyone looking for philosophical answers to questions in life

23
Uncharted

Uncharted

Margaret Heffernan
How to Navigate the Future
4.0 (42 ratings)

What's Uncharted about?

Uncharted (2020) explains why it’s impossible to reliably predict what’s going to happen, and shows us how to plan ahead despite the uncertainty of the future.

Who should read Uncharted?

  • History enthusiasts
  • Futurologists
  • Businesspeople keen to improve their long-term planning

24
Gang Leader For A Day

Gang Leader For A Day

Sudhir Venkatesh
A Rogue Sociologist Crosses The Line
3.9 (15 ratings)

What's Gang Leader For A Day about?

Gang Leader For A Day is based on author Sudhir Venkatesh’s ten years of personal, in-depth research conducted on-site at the notorious Robert Taylor Homes public housing projects in Chicago. Ignored by city government and law enforcement, residents in the close-knit community rely only on local gangs and each other for basic services and social support.

Who should read Gang Leader For A Day?

  • Anyone interested in the influence of gangs in the United States
  • Anyone curious about what it takes to be a gang leader
  • Anyone interested in how poor communities are supported by underground economies

25
Diversity and Complexity

Diversity and Complexity

Scott E. Page
How Diversity Can Contribute to The Performance of Adaptive Systems

What's Diversity and Complexity about?

Diversity and Complexity (2011) offers an in-depth examination of the nature of the world's complex systems, from natural ecosystems to economic markets. It outlines the reasons that diversity within such systems is so crucial, as well as showing how diversity helps fuel innovation and novelty.

Who should read Diversity and Complexity?

  • Scientists or graduate students who study biology, ecology or evolution
  • Political scientists interested in complex social systems
  • Economists or marketers wanting to learn more about how innovation happens

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