Scholarly??? What do you need..

[Hobbes]

No way I could avoid this topic.

From the side of a philosphy / english (the language, not literature):

well my first suggestion would obviously be Hobbes's Leviathan

Stephen Pinker is a great author and I recommend Blank Slate and Stuff of Thought

Locke - because while his writings are terrible, he has some good ideas
Hume - because there is a skeptic in all of us
Mills - because utilitarianism is important
Kant - Because he is the greatest philosopher of all time
Rawls - because he is the modern day champion of social contract theory

Hauser's Moral Minds was also a good read

Bioethics: An Anthology is a great compilation of applied ethics in the world.

I strongly suggest you read the three page article by Edumnd Gettier called the Gettier problem as it is one of the most important philosphical works in the past 50 years.

my wife also says I have to add Camus... because existentialism matters...

We also could not live without the The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy

The OED is a great resource and one day my bookshelf will be lined with the entire thing.

The best grammar text book I have ever used and should be sitting right next to any writing aide you own would be Understanding English Grammar

Another good resource book is the Origins of the English Language

Other books, without links since you have probably either heard of them or read them already:

Darwin's The Origins of Species
Hawking's Brief History of Time
Chomsky's Language and Problems of Knowledge
Friedman's The World is Flat

[dcmdale]

The current "must read" in Biblical LC appears to be Kugel's "How to Read the Bible." Kugel is/was a Harvard Professor of Hebrew and recognized to be at the forefront of modern biblical criticism, but is also a practicing orthodox Jew. A lot of the discussion, both in the book and in the scholarly press, is on how he tries to reconcile the two.

Since it is a recent book (2007), it is far too early to call it a classic. I've just started reading it based on the reviews, but haven't been as impressed as many of the reviewers yet. Kugel correctly identifies that we tend to read the biblical text through the eyes of inherited systematic interpretive frameworks which cause us to say things like, "The Bible teaches monotheism." However, I was looking for Kugel to be more convincing than I have seen yet that modern biblical criticism avoids the same trap.

[fatfencer]

Any other books about English Literature Criticism?

This is one of my favorite threads. It really tells me alot about my fellow forumites' personalities.

Pretty cool.

[D'Artagnan1673]

There is a podcast series on the complete Plato's Republic. I am on book III, and I have found it most edfying and enjoyable.