Six works, four centuries, and a single argument: what makes authority legitimate, and how should a person live under it? Machiavelli and Locke disagree about the answer; Mill and Nietzsche disagree about the question.
Books in this collection
- Meditations — Marcus Aurelius, · ~75,000 words · ~4.2 hours
- The Prince — Niccolò Machiavelli, 1532 · ~35,000 words · ~1.9 hours
- Beyond Good and Evil — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886 · ~78,000 words · ~4.3 hours
- Thus Spake Zarathustra — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883 · ~115,000 words · ~6.4 hours
- On Liberty — John Stuart Mill, 1859 · ~52,000 words · ~2.9 hours
- Two Treatises of Government — John Locke, 1689 · ~104,000 words · ~5.8 hours
A reading order
Practice first: Meditations — Marcus Aurelius writing to himself, not to us. Then power: The Prince (1532), the book that separated politics from morality. Then rights: Two Treatises of Government (1689), the answer to absolutism that Locke’s readers took to America and France. Then liberty: On Liberty (1859), the argument for the individual against the majority. Then the critique: Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where Nietzsche asks whether the whole moral vocabulary is a symptom.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Which philosophy classic should I start with?
Meditations for something practical; On Liberty for a short, clear argument; The Prince for how power actually works.
Are these complete texts or selections?
All six are complete works, unabridged.
Do I need background knowledge?
No, but Mill and Nietzsche are easier with a little nineteenth-century history.
Are these translations public domain?
Yes — the editions here use public domain translations, which is why they can be distributed freely.
What is the difference between The Prince and Two Treatises?
Machiavelli describes how a ruler keeps power; Locke argues for the limits of that power and the right of resistance.
Why is Meditations on a philosophy list?
It is Stoic practice rather than theory — a working manual rather than a treatise.