Pooh and the Philosophers: Explore the Ideas of Some of History's Greatest Thinkers from Plato to Sartre to Winnie-The-Pooh

This book will confirm, once and for all, what many will have long suspected: that Pooh is a Bear of Enormous Brain.

New 2026 reissue edition of Pooh and the Philosophers by John Tyerman Williams, with a brand new cover design!

Featuring iconic, original quotes from A.A.Milne and decorations by E.H.Shepard from their much-loved story collections: Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

Author, John Tyerman Williams, sets out to prove that the whole of western philosophy, from the cosmologists of Ancient Greece to the existentialists of the twentieth century may be found in the pages of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

He shows how the "Great Bear" explains and often illuminates the most profound ideas of the greatest thinkers of history from Plato, Hume and Kant to Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre. The book is beautifully illustrated with a selection of E.H. Shepard's iconic, original decorations.

Collect all the non-fiction Winnie-the-Pooh books:

Pooh and the Psychologists

Pooh and the Philosophers

The Tao of Pooh

The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet

Collect all the Winnie-the-Pooh classic story and poetry collections:

Winnie-the-Pooh

The House at Pooh Corner

When We Were Very Young

Now We Are Six

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood

The Best Bear in All the World

Once There Was a Bear

Tales from the Forest

Winter in the Wood

The nation's favourite teddy bear has been delighting generations of children for nearly 100 years. Milne's classic children's stories - featuring Piglet, Eeyore, Christopher Robin and, of course, Pooh himself - are gently humorous while teaching lessons about friendship and kindness.

Pooh ranks alongside other beloved character such as Paddington Bear, and Peter Rabbit as an essential part of our literary heritage. Whether you're 5 or 55, Pooh is the bear for all ages.

John T Williams has written both Pooh and the Philosophers and Pooh and the Psychologists, in which he cleverly incorporates and evaluates original A.A. Milne quotes and characters with E.H.Shepard's definitive art, to bring philosophy and psychology to the masses.

A.A.Milne was born in London in 1882 and became a highly successful writer of plays, poems and novels. He based Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet and friends on the real nursery toys of his son Christopher Robin and published the first book of their adventures together in 1926. Since then, Pooh has become a world-famous bear, and Milne's stories have been translated into seventy-two languages.

E.H.Shepard was born in London in 1879. He was an artist, illustrator and cartoonist and went on to draw the original decorations to accompany Milne's classic stories, earning him the name 'the man who drew Pooh'.