Matthew Yglesias gives a reading list in political philosophy, inspired by a longer one from Josh Chafetz. The lists are pretty good, though both commentators have their eccentricities. Matthew says “First read Hobbes’ Leviathan then check out the literature on evolutionary psychology.” Josh claims Joseph Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy is “an early work in rational choice theory.” Here we have two good examples of ayering. (According to the highly reliable Philosophical Lexicon, to ayer is “To oversimplify elegantly in the direction of a past generation.” Viz, “Russell, in the Analysis of Mind, ayers a behaviorist account of belief.”) To ayer is human, of course, but we should strive against it all the same.

Incidentally, and with respect to Matthew’s immediately prior discussion of women and philosophy, the only woman on either list is Hannah Arendt. I think Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication might have at least snuck in there somewhere. I think it has a better claim to classic status in political philosophy than, say, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea or Nonzero (on Matthew’s list). One of the things that keeps categories of people out of a field is canon-building, the older brother of top-10 list-making.