Recommended Resources
Curated books, essays, podcasts, and thinkers worth your time—filtered through a postmodern lens with ancient sensibilities.
Why This Exists
The internet offers infinite information. But infinite choice isn’t freedom—it’s paralysis.
You don’t need more content. You need better content. Curated. Tested. Actually useful.
This is that curation.
How We Curate
We recommend resources that:
- Engage deeply — Surface-level takes don’t make the list
- Age well — Timeless over trendy (though contemporary work is included)
- Challenge assumptions — Not just confirmation of what you already believe
- Integrate theory and practice — Wisdom that touches real life
- Span traditions — Christian, secular, ancient, modern—drawing from the full range
We don’t include everything “important.” Just what’s genuinely useful for people wrestling with meaning, purpose, and authenticity in the 21st century.
Current Collections
This section will be populated as resource lists are developed. Check back regularly.
In Development
The following resource collections are being curated:
Essential Texts in Virtue Ethics
Books and essays that make virtue ethics accessible and compelling for contemporary readers.
Includes:
- Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue
- Philippa Foot’s Natural Goodness
- Rosalind Hursthouse on neo-Aristotelianism
- Contemporary applications in professional ethics
Philosophical Foundations for Meaning-Making
Works that take purpose seriously without requiring religious commitment—and some that do require it but remain intellectually honest.
Includes:
- Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age
- Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning
- Iris Murdoch on the sovereignty of good
- Christian personalism (Karol Wojtyła, Emmanuel Mounier)
Technology, AI, and Human Flourishing
Thoughtful engagement with how technology shapes human experience—neither technophobic nor uncritically enthusiastic.
Includes:
- L.M. Sacasas (The Convivial Society newsletter)
- Shannon Vallor’s Technology and the Virtues
- Albert Borgmann on focal practices
- Contemporary AI ethics that takes humanity seriously
Contemplative Practice Beyond Religion
Guides to attention, presence, and interior life that don’t require traditional religious frameworks—but don’t dismiss them either.
Includes:
- Simone Weil on attention as prayer
- Thomas Merton for secular readers
- Practices from Christian monasticism adapted for contemporary life
- Phenomenology of presence (Jan Patočka, Maurice Merleau-Ponty)
Relationality and the Relational Self
Works exploring human connection, love, and the constitutive nature of relationships.
Includes:
- Martin Buber’s I and Thou
- Personalist philosophy on relationality
- Contemporary work on loneliness and connection
- Philosophy of friendship and community
Navigating Postmodernity Without Despair
Resources for those who take postmodern critiques seriously but refuse nihilism.
Includes:
- Charles Taylor on the “malaise of modernity”
- Paul Ricoeur on narrative identity
- Christian Smith on moral, believing animals
- Neo-Aristotelian responses to postmodernity
Philosophy as Way of Life
Ancient and contemporary works that treat philosophy as transformative practice, not just academic discipline.
Includes:
- Pierre Hadot’s Philosophy as a Way of Life
- Stoic practical philosophy (Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius)
- Medieval philosophy for contemporary readers
- Contemporary virtue ethics as formative practice
Format
Each resource includes:
Title & Author/Source
Full citation with links when available
Why It Matters
Brief annotation (50-150 words) explaining what makes this worth your time
Best For
Who will benefit most from this resource?
Cautions
Limitations, biases, or prerequisites to be aware of
Where to Start
If it’s a long book or extensive body of work, where should you begin?
Related Resources
What pairs well with this? What extends or challenges its arguments?
Using This Section
Don’t try to read everything.
Pick one resource. Engage it deeply. Let it shape your thinking. Then move to the next.
Philosophy isn’t consumption. It’s digestion. Better to read three books well than thirty books superficially.
Pro tip: Track what you read. Note what resonates and what doesn’t. Philosophy is a conversation—you should be responding, not just receiving.
Contributing Resources
Found something genuinely valuable? Recommend it.
Guidelines:
- You must have actually engaged with it — No recommending based on reputation alone
- Explain why it matters — Not just “this is good” but why it’s good and for whom
- Be honest about limitations — Nothing is perfect. What are this resource’s blind spots?
- Connect it to themes — How does this resource address questions in the Wisdom Library or Contemporary Challenges?
See full contribution guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md.
A Note on Accessibility
We prioritize resources that are:
- Available in English (translations welcome)
- Accessible to non-specialists (when possible)
- Affordable or available through libraries
- Worth the effort if they’re difficult
Some resources here are genuinely challenging. That’s okay—wisdom doesn’t always come easy. But we try to provide entry points and guidance for approaching difficult texts.
Organization
Resources are organized by theme rather than by format (books vs. essays vs. podcasts).
This means related materials—regardless of medium—live together. Pick a theme that matters to you, explore everything in that collection.
Questions?
Looking for something specific? Want to know where to start? Wondering if a resource you love belongs here?
Open an issue with the label resource-recommendation and we’ll engage.
Coming soon: Regular updates as resource collections are curated and refined.