The Best Movements in Philosophy Books 2025

1. Search for a Method (Paperback)

From one of the 20th century's most profound philosophers and writers, comes a thought provoking essay that seeks to reconcile Marxism with existentialism. Exploring the complicated relationship the two philosophical schools of thought have with one another, Sartre supposes that the two are in fact compatible and complimentary towards one another, with poignant analysis and reasoning. An important work of modern philosophy, Search for a Method has a major influence on the current perceptions of existentialism and Marxism. "This is the most important philosophical work by Sartre to be translated since Being and Nothingness."--James Collings, America

From one of the 20th century’s most profound philosophers and writers, comes a thought provoking essay that seeks to reconcile Marxism with existentialism. Exploring the complicated relationship the two philosophical schools of thought have with one another, Sartre supposes that the two are in fact compatible and complimentary towards one another, with poignant analysis and reasoning. An important work of modern philosophy, Search for a Method has a major influence on the current perceptions of existentialism and Marxism. “This is the most important philosophical work by Sartre to be translated since Being and Nothingness.”—James Collings, America

2. The Reluctant Alliance (Hardcover)

In the adversarial climate of contemporary psychology, Newman effectively tears down many of the ideological walls separating two powerful schools of thought. Humanistic psychology and behavior analysis have long been viewed as staunch opponents in the practice of psychology. Newman's careful research into the theories, positions, and approaches of both camps dispels the myths of behaviorists as cold "manipulators" and of humanistic psychologists as weak-willed "armchair philosophers." After examining both systems, he outlines their shared philosophical and historical roots. Newman explores such questions as: - How should psychotherapy be conducted? - How is moral behavior created and maintained? - Is behaviorism unethical? - What forms of education are most effective at imparting information and improving self-concepts? After a careful reading of The Reluctant Alliance, humanists will come to appreciate that behaviorism is not destructive determinism, and behaviorists will learn that much of what they hold to be true is a natural outgrowth of humanistic thought.

The Reluctant Alliance (Hardcover)

3. Signature Pieces: Social Conflict and Political Protest in Early Modern Japan (Hardcover)

Some contemporary approaches to literature still accept the separation of historical, biographical, external concerns from formal, internal ones. On the borderline that lends this division between inside and outside its apparent coherence is signature. In Peggy Kamuf's view, studying signature will help us to rediscover some of the stakes of literary writing beyond the historicist/formalist opposition. Drawing on Derrida's extensive work on signatures and proper names, Kamuf investigates authorial signature in key writers from Rousseau to Woolf, as well as the implications of signature for the institutions of authorship and criticism.

Signature Pieces: Social Conflict and Political Protest in Early Modern Japan (Hardcover)

4. Derrida (Paperback)

Jacques Derrida (born 1930) is undoubtedly the single most influential figure in current Anglo-American literary theory. Yet many scholars and students, not to mention general readers, would be hard put to give an account of Derrida's own writings. In this admirably clear and intelligent introduction, Christopher Norris demonstrates that Derrida's texts should be understood as belonging more to philosophy than to literature. Norris explains the significance of Derrida's writing on texts in the Western philosophical tradition, from Plato to Kant, Hegel, and Husserl, placing him squarely within that tradition. He also discusses some of the reasons for the massive institutional resistance that has so far prevented philosophers from engaging seriously with Derrida's work. This book will be welcomed by readers in search of an introduction to Derrida's work that neither underrates its difficulties nor invests his ideas with a kind of protective mystique.

Derrida (Paperback)