Hmm, it all rather depends on what you mean by "best". Any such list is bound to be pretty subjective.
Popper Logik der Forschung
Any that shouldn't be here?
We certainly cannot approve of Popper, having always found him quite unbearable!
David Hume - The Natural History of Religion (can people still believe in something after reading this book?!)
Indeed they can, because Hume fails to define a single one of the terms he uses.
Something by Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche or Adorno would also be fine.
We cannot approve the inclusion of Hegel either, because in fact he had most of his ideas from Schelling.
That list contains only English language works and is FAR too heavily weighted towards American writers - none of whom, in my opinion, deserve a place at the top table.
With this sensible sentiment we are in entire agreement.
I think it would be hard for you to judge the importance of American writers if you can't judge whether they accurately reflect the culture from which they come.
We are unconvinced that the importance of a writer has anything to do with whether or not he accurately "reflects" some "culture."
Of Grammatology? (Maybe not for the top twenty, but honourable mention at least.)
Actually speaking through our philosophical hat we may confidently assure Members that
De la Grammatologie is pretentious rubbish.
Here then is our own list of twenty first-raters:
1) Adam, James: The Vitality of Platonism (1911)
2) Benson, Arthur Christopher: Diaries (in 179 volumes, held by the Pepys Library at Cambridge, who refuse to permit its complete publication because money cannot be made from it; only a few short extracts have been published to date or ever will be at the present rate)
3) Blackwood, Algernon: The Human Chord (1910)
4) Broch, Hermann: Der Tod des Vergil (1947)
5) Broughton, Rhoda: Lavinia (1902) or indeed any of her many novels from the period 1892 to 1919
6) Coccioli, Carlo: The Eye and the Heart (English translation 1960)
7) Friend, Donald: Diaries (4 volumes, 2001-2007)
8) Intel Incorporation: Pentium Processor User's Manual, volume 3: Architecture and Programming9) Lewis, Wyndham: The Art of Being Ruled (1926)
10) Murdoch, Iris: The Sea, the Sea (1978)
11) Orton, Joe: The Orton Diaries (1986)
12) The Oxford English Dictionary (12 volumes, 1933)
13) Peyrefitte, Roger: Roy (1979)
14) Plato: Symposium (circa 340 B.C.)
15) Proust, Marcel: A la recherche du temps perdu (in the 1922-31 English translation)
16) Schelling, Friedrich: Historico-Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology (1856)
17) Stamford, John: Spartacus International Gay Guide (annually since 1970)
18) Toynbee, Philip (ed.): Underdogs, Eighteen Victims of Society (1961)
19) Westwood, Gordon: A Minority - A Report on the Life of the Male Homosexualist in Great Britain (1960)
20) Wilde, Oscar: Complete Works (1948)
