Poll 2001

Plato's Republic comes out on top

Plato’s Republic has been voted the greatest work of western philosophy ever. Over 1,000 readers of this web site (TPM Online) took part in the poll, which saw Plato’s classic and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason come in well ahead of their nearest rival, the surprise of the poll, Darwin’s Origin of Species (see below for full results).

The only twentieth century work to make the top ten is Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations at number six. The vigorously anti-Christian Nietzsche and the Christian apologist Aquinas are separated by only two votes at ninth and tenth place. Aristotle stands out as the only philosopher to have two works in the top ten, while top European thinkers Marx, Heidegger, Sartre and Hegel all polled well but failed to reach the top ten.

Many will consider it surprising that books written over two millennia ago are still considered to be vitally important to philosophy. Some may see this as evidence that philosophy is a dead subject. However, it is perhaps more accurate to say that philosophy is a subject with a great literature and no work can expect to join the cannon until it has passed the test of time.

The Results

1072 people voted in the poll. These are the results:

1. The Republic by Plato - 468 votes
2. The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - 443
3. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin - 294
4. The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle - 256
5. Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes - 247
6. Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein - 236
7. Metaphysics by Aristotle - 215
8. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume - 180
9. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche - 145
10. Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas - 143

See also, Joseph Chandler's Top of the Forms

A few years ago we ran a similar poll to discover the world's favourite philosopher. Click here for those results.