Great books, in the original and in modern English.
The foundational works of philosophy, side by side with new translations in modern English.
Plato
Apology
Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους
Socrates on trial for his life, defending the examined life.
René Descartes
Meditations on First Philosophy
Meditationes de Prima Philosophia
Doubt everything, and see what survives.
David Hume
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
The 1777 text, with a modern version
What can experience actually teach us about cause and effect?
Marcus Aurelius · coming soon
Meditations
Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν
An emperor’s private notes on how to live.
Translations are made with AI (Claude), working from the original text, then edited. Each work says how far it has been reviewed. The original is always beside the English, so anyone can check it. Original texts are in the public domain; translations are free to reuse (CC BY-SA 4.0). This is a preview.