Sam Harris’s 2015 Reading List
The 11 books Sam Harris recommended in 2015, with the reasons in their own words. See all the books Sam Harris recommends.
11 books recommended in 2015
A History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell … is one of the great philosophers of his time… a remarkably clear thinker and writer… a great example of how English should be written and just a great voice to have in your head.
Reasons and Persons
by Derek Parfit
Brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence. A deeply strange book filled with thought experiments that bend your intuitions left and right. A truly strange and unique document, and incredibly insightful about morality and questions of identity.
The Last Word
by Thomas Nagel
I’m a big fan of Thomas Nagel’s earlier work… He is a very fine writer — a very clear writer — and just as a style of communication … he’s worth going to school on.
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
by Nick Bostrom
The clearest book I’ve come across that makes the case that the so-called “control problem” — the problem of building human-level and beyond artificial intelligence that we can control, that we can know in advance will converge with our interests — is a truly difficult… Read the full quote
The clearest book I’ve come across that makes the case that the so-called “control problem” — the problem of building human-level and beyond artificial intelligence that we can control, that we can know in advance will converge with our interests — is a truly difficult and important task, because we will end up building this stuff by happenstance if we simply keep going in the direction we’re headed.
