The Best Great Philosophers Documentaries

Philosophy & Big Ideas - 65 free documentaries about great philosophers.

Start with Confucius, 551 BC: Ancient China's Philosopher Who Changed The World (89 min, Timeline), then The Profound Meaning of Plato's Allegory of the Cave (17 min, After Skool). All 65 documentaries here are free to watch from their makers' official uploads. To read deeper, the top-rated book on great philosophers is Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.

• Confucius, 551 BC: Ancient China's Philosopher Who Changed The World (89 min, Timeline - World History Documentaries)
• The Profound Meaning of Plato's Allegory of the Cave (17 min, After Skool)
• Nietzsche and Dionysus: Tragedy and the Affirmation of Life (19 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and Psychology: How To Become Who You Are (15 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Confucius: Ancient China's Most Influential Philosopher (89 min, Odyssey)
• Confucius: The Father Of Chinese Society | Confucius (88 min, Odyssey)
• PHILOSOPHY - Albert Camus (10 min, The School of Life)
• Nietzsche and Morality: The Higher Man and The Herd (14 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Plato and Pythagoras: The Minds Behind The Modern World? (54 min, Odyssey)
• PHILOSOPHY - Schopenhauer (9 min, The School of Life)
• The Complete History Of Ancient Philosophy: Presocratics To The Renaissance (49 min, Timeline - World History Documentaries)
• The Wisdom of a Pessimist - Arthur Schopenhauer (22 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Plato To Pythagoras: How The Ancient Greeks Created Our World | The First World (54 min, Odyssey)
• Confucius: The Real Man Behind The Legendary Ancient Philosopher (89 min, Absolute History)
• Nietzsche and Thus Spoke Zarathustra: The Last Man and The Superman (10 min, Academy of Ideas)
• PHILOSOPHY: Immanuel Kant (8 min, The School of Life)
• PHILOSOPHY - Michel Foucault (8 min, The School of Life)
• PHILOSOPHY - Baruch Spinoza (9 min, The School of Life)
• Nietzsche and Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Becoming Gods (11 min, Academy of Ideas)
• The Complete History Of Modern Philosophy: From Idealism To Existentialism (48 min, Timeline - World History Documentaries)
• What Would Nietzsche Think of 21st Century Society? (14 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and The Human Animal: The Domesticated and The Strong (10 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and Zapffe: Beauty, Suffering, and the Nature of Genius (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Diogenes the Cynic (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• PHILOSOPHY - David Hume (11 min, The School of Life)
• PHILOSOPHY: Jacques Derrida (10 min, The School of Life)
• PHILOSOPHY - René Descartes (9 min, The School of Life)
• Nietzsche and Jung: Myth and the Age of the Hero (10 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Camus: The Absurd, Revolt, and Rebellion (11 min, Academy of Ideas)
• LITERATURE - Voltaire (12 min, The School of Life)
• Inside The Defining Minds Of The Enlightenment Era That Forged The Western World (49 min, Timeline - World History Documentaries)
• What Happened to Nietzsche? - Madness and the Divine Mania (17 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and Madness - A Descent into the Depths (16 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Søren Kierkegaard and The Value of Despair (13 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and Truth: Skepticism and The Free Spirit (9 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Stoicism (14 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Overcoming Nihilism (13 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy (9 min, The School of Life)
• Introduction to Kierkegaard: The Existential Problem (14 min, Academy of Ideas)
• How to Affirm Life – Nietzsche’s Formula for Greatness (18 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Philosophy as a Way of Life (8 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Nietzsche (15 min, Academy of Ideas)
• PHILOSOPHY - Blaise Pascal (8 min, The School of Life)
• The Cure for the Sickness of Modern Society - Henry David Thoreau (10 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Schopenhauer - The World as Will (16 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and Self Overcoming (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Schopenhauer: Schopenhauer's Ethics (16 min, Academy of Ideas)
• The Ideas of Socrates (11 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Existentialism (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and Metaphysics (15 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and the Death of God (14 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and the Will to Power (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Heraclitus (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Nietzsche and the True World (14 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Active and Passive Nihilism (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Epistemology (11 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Aristotle: Knowledge, Teleology and the Four Causes (13 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Parmenides (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander (13 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to the Presocratics (13 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Socrates: The Man and His Life (9 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Socrates: The Socratic Problem (10 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Democritus (12 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Empedocles (13 min, Academy of Ideas)
• Introduction to Anaxagoras (14 min, Academy of Ideas)

Top-Rated Books About Great Philosophers

1. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder - View on Amazon
2. The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
4. Letters from a Stoic by Seneca the Younger (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
5. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
6. The Kybalion by Three Initiates (4.7/5) - View on Amazon
7. A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
8. The great conversation by Norman Melchert (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
9. Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton (3.9/5) - View on Amazon
10. Think by Simon Blackburn (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
11. Indian philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (4.4/5) - View on Amazon
12. Philosophy here and now by Lewis Vaughn - View on Amazon
13. An introduction to political philosophy by Jonathan Wolff - View on Amazon
14. Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill - View on Amazon
15. Does the center hold? by Donald Palmer - View on Amazon
16. African religions & philosophy by Mbiti, John S. - View on Amazon
17. Questions that matter by Miller, Ed. L. - View on Amazon
18. Marxism by Thomas Sowell - View on Amazon
19. The Environmental Ethics and Policy Book by Donald VanDeVeer - View on Amazon
20. Classics of philosophy by Louis P. Pojman - View on Amazon
21. Physics and philosophy by Werner Heisenberg - View on Amazon
22. Philosophy by Louis P. Pojman - View on Amazon
23. Democracy and Education by John Dewey - View on Amazon
24. The philosophy book by Will Buckingham - View on Amazon