Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution.

They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Inspired by the myth of a man condemned to ceaselessly push a ro...

From internationally bestselling author Simon Winchester, a vibrant history of the collection and dissemination of knowledge.

In this major work, Mary Midgley, one of our foremost intellectuals argues that humans are rather more like animals than we have previously allowed ourselves to believe.

First published in 1946, History of Western Philosophy went on to become the best-selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. A dazzlingly ambitious project, it remains unchallenged to this day as the ultimate introduction to Western philosophy. Providing a sophisticated overview of the ideas that have perplexed people from time immemorial, it is 'long on wit, intelligence and curmudgeonly scepticism', as the New York Times noted, and it is this, coupled with the sheer brilliance of its...

Why I am not a Christian is considered one of the most blasphemous philosophical documents ever written, and at a time when we have faith schools and wars over religious beliefs, its message today couldn't be more relevant.

Nearly forty years after its first publication in French, this collection of Sartre’s writings on colonialism remains a supremely powerful, and relevant, polemical work.

In this typically crusading work, universally acclaimed as a classic on first publication, Midgley asserts her corrective view that without poetry (or literature, or music, or history, or even theology) we cannot hope to understand our humanity.

The first of his famous BBC Reith lectures in which Russell examines Ancient Greek philosophy, the French Revolution and the modern welfare state with characteristic clarity and deep understanding. This is Russell at his intellectual best.

Few philosophers have had more influence on the shape of western philosophy after 1900 than Martin Heidegger. This title offers a full range of this profound and controversial thinker's writings, including: "The Origin of the Work of Art"; "The introduction to Being and Time"; "What Is Metaphysics?"; and, "The End of Philosophy".