Laurence BonJour
1969  

David Chalmers
1966  

Max More
1964  
Franz-Peter Burkard - dtv Atlas Philosophie, Pädagogik
1958  
Li Hongzhi - Falun Dafa
1952  
André Comte-Sponville - Petit traité des grandes vertus
1952  

 

 

Christine Korsgaard
1952  

 

 

Nathan Salmon
1951  

 

 

Colin McGinn
1950  

Ken Wilber - his work focuses mainly on uniting science and religion with the experiences of meditators and mystics

1949  

 

 

A. C. Grayling
1949  

 

 

John Gray
1948  
Peter Sloterdijk - Critique of Cynical Reason
1947  
Martha Nussbaum - love's knowledge, the therapy of desire
1947  

 

 

Peter Singer
1946  

 

 

Susan Haack
1945  
Patricia Smith Churchland - advocate of neurophilosophy
1943  

 

 

Paulin J. Hountondji
1942  

 

 

Ned Block
1942  
Derek Parfit - propounded a reductionist account of personal identity
1942  
Daniel Dennett - leading proponent of eliminative materialism
1942  

 

 

Jon Barwise - logican
1942-2000  

 

 

Kwame Gyekye
19??  

 

 

Jonathan Glover
1941  

 

 

Onora O'Neill
1941  

 

 

Bas C. van Fraassen
1941  
David K Lewis - philosopher of mind and language
1941-2001  

 

 

Joseph D. Sneed
19??  

 

 

Michael Ruse
1940  

 

 

John Finnis
1940  

 

 

George Boolos - logician
1940-1996  
Klaus Düsing
1940  
Saul Aaron Kripke - wrote about possible world semantics
1940  

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker - founder of the Wuppertal Institute for climate, environment and energy

1939  
Robert Nozick - defends the libertarian position that only a minimal state is just
1938-2002  

Alvin Ira Goldman - argued that traditional epistemology should be replaced by epistemics

1938  

Thomas Nagel - author of "The possibility of altruism", is an advocate of the idea that consciousness and subjective experience cannot be reduced to brain activity

1937  

 

 

Dag Prawitz
1936  

 

 

Rosalind Hursthouse
19??  
Jerry Fodor - philosopher of psychology,
1935  

 

 

Bernard Gert
1934  
Richard Swinburne - builds a cumulative case for theism,
1934  
Jaegwon Kim - makes a case for the "supervenience" theory of mind
1934  

Alvin Plantinga - widely regarded to be the foremost philosophical apologist for Christianity

1932  
Fred Dretske - defends representational naturalism,
1932  

 

 

David Gauthier
1932  

 

 

Timothy L.S. Sprigge
1932  

 

 

Kwasi Wiredu
1931  
Ronald Dworkin - legal and political theory
1931  
Charles Taylor - historian of modernity
1931  
Richard Rorty - philosopher of mind, liberal ironism
1931  
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - fully enlightened spiritual master
1931-1990  

 

 

Ernst Tugendhat
1930  

 

 

Nuel Belnap - logician
1930  

Jacques Derrida - postmodernist, is considered the first to develop the method of "deconstruction" after it emerged in the work of Martin Heidegger

1930-2004  

 

 

Allan Bloom - great books education
1930-1992  

 

 

Richard Montague - logician
1930-1971  
Alasdair MacIntyre - specializes in aristotelian ethics
1929  

Jürgen Habermas - explored the normative foundations of social criticism, expounds communicative rationality based on discourse

1929  

Bernard Williams - author of "Ethics and the limits of philosophy", spent over 50 years seeking answers to one question: "What does it mean to live well?"

1929  

Jaakko Hintikka - his work on model set techniques yielded an improved inductive logic

1929  
Judith Jarvis Thomson - author of "A Defense of Abortion"
1929  

 

 

Humberto Maturana
1928  

 

 

Edmund Gettier
1927  

 

 

Leszek Kolakowski
1927  

 

 

Lawrence Kohlberg
1927-1987  

 

 

David Stove
1927-1994  

Stanley Louis Cavell - his work defends J. L. Austin from both positivism and deconstructionism

1926  

Hilary Putnam - advanced functionalism, a theory in which human beings are conceived of as Turing machines

1926  
David M Armstrong - immanent realist, devised an ontology of states of affairs
1926  
Michael A. E. Dummett - gave an exposition of the philosophy of Frege
1925  

 

 

Michel de Certeau
1925-1986  

 

 

Ernest Gellner

1925-1995  

Gilles Deleuze - used critical interpretations of Spinoza and Nietzsche as the basis for a profound attack on modernist rationality

1925-1995  
Arthur Coleman Danto - philosopher of art
1924  
Paul Feyerabend - held that "anything goes" in science
1924-1994  

 

 

Radovan Richta
1924-1983  

 

 

Rene Girard
1923  

 

 

Richard Popkin
1923-2005  
Thomas Kuhn - maintained that scientific thought is defined by paradigms
1922-1996  

 

 

Imre Lakatos
1922-1974  

 

 

Michel Henry
1922-2002  

 

 

Norwood Russell Hanson
1922-1967  

 

 

Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar
1921-1990  

 

 

Sidney Morgenbesser
1921-2004  
Ruth Barcan Marcus - published the first systematic treatment of quantified modal logic
1921  
William P. Alston - autor of "Divine nature and human language"
1921  
John Rawls - held that justice requires that people share eachother's fate
1921-2002  

 

 

John Jamieson Carswell Smart - utilitarian, australian materialist
1920  

 

 

Philippa Foot - moral philosopher
1920  

 

 

Mary Midgley
1919  
P. F. Strawson - made contributions to logic, metaphysics and the study of Kant
1919  

Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe - translated Wittgenstein, said that intention is central to our understanding of ourselves

1919-2001  
Richard Mervyn Hare - developed prescriptivism in metaethics
1919-2002  
Donald Davidson - metaphysician
1917-2003  

Peter Geach - known for the frege geach point, that the same thought may occur as asserted or unasserted and yet retain the same truth value

1916  
G. H. von Wright - analytical philosopher, logician
1916-2003  
Roderick Milton Chisholm - defended foundationalism
1916-1999  

 

 

Emil Fackenheim
1916-2003  
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois - teaches the ashtanga system of yoga
1915-2009  

 

 

Paul Lorenzen - logician
1915-1995  

 

 

Thomas Berry
1914-2009  

 

 

Alan Watts
1915-1973  

 

 

Arthur Prior
1914-1969  
Paul Ricoeur - attempted to combine phenomenological description with hermeneutic interpretation
1913-2005  

 

 

Alan Gewirth
1912-2004  

 

 

Arne Næss
1912-2009  

Wilfrid Sellars - was perhaps the first philosopher to effectively combine elements of American Pragmatism with elements of British and American analytic philosophy and Austrian and German logical positivism

1912-1989  
Maurice Allais - devised a rationality paradox
1911-2010  

 

 

Norman Malcolm - foremost american interpreter and advocate of Wittgenstein
1911-1990  

 

 

Richard B. Brandt - rule utilitarianist
1910-1997  
Alfred Jules Ayer - helped to popularise logical positivism in English-speaking countries
1910-1989  

Isaiah Berlin - defined his position as radical objective pluralism, defended liberalism in his essay "Two Concepts of Liberty"

1909-1997  

Simone Weil - was a religious philosopher, she understood God as a goodness that is revealed in self emptying

1909-1943  

Willard van Orman Quine - advocate of extensionalism, naturalism, physicalism and holism

1908-2000  

 

 

William K Frankena - moral philosopher
1908-1994  

Simone de Beauvoir - best known for her work "Le Deuxième Sexe" which contained detailed analysis of women's oppression

1908-1986  

Maurice Merleau-Ponty - phenomenologist philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl, developed the concept of the "body-subject" as an alternative to the cartesian "cogito" in his book "The Phenomenology of Perception"

1908-1961  

 

 

Charles Leslie Stevenson
1908-1979  

 

 

H. B. Acton
1908-1974  

 

 

Jan Patocka
1907-1977  

 

 

Maurice Blanchot
1907-2003  

 

 

Jean Beaufret
1907-1982  
Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart - revived legal and political philosophy after world war II
1907-1992  
Emmanuel Levinas - introduced the work of Husserl and Heidegger in France
1906-1995  

Hannah Arendt - studied with Heidegger and Jaspers, author of "The Origins of Totalitarianism", which traced the roots of communism and fascism and their link to anti-semitism

1906-1975  
Gustav Bergmann - the youngest member of the Vienna circle
1906-1987  

 

 

Kurt Gödel - mathematician and philosopher
1906-1978  

 

 

Knud Ejler Løgstrup
1905-1981  
Carl Gustav Hempel - associated with the Vienna Circle
1905-1997  

 

 

Elias Canetti
1905-1994  
Ayn Rand - gave a defense of ethical egoism
1905-1982  
Emmanuel Mounier - prime representative of personalism
1905-1950  

Arthur Koestler - novelist, political activist, and social philosopher. His work "The Roots of Coincidence" also discusses a quantum theory of coincidence or synchronicity. More controversially he also studied levitation and telepathy

1905-1983  

Jean Paul Satre - leading advocate of existentialism, siad that man makes himself and that hell is other people

1905-1980  
Georges Canguilhem - revised Bachelard's view of science
1904-1996  
Alonzo Church - discovered the church lambda operator in pure logic
1903-1995  
Hans Jonas
1903-1993  

 

 

Mortimer Adler
1902-2001  

Karl Popper - maintained that the criterion of demarcation of empirical science from pseudo science is falsifiability

1902-1994  

 

 

Raymond Bragg
1902-1979  

 

 

Alexandre Kojève
1902-1968  
Ernest Nagel - philosopher of science
1901-1985  

Alfred Tarski - his  theory of truth for formalized languages can be seen as a correspondence theory of truth

1901-1983  

 

 

Nicola Abbagnano
1901-1990  

 

 

Eric Voegelin
1901-1985  

 

 

Gotthard Günther - logician
1900-1984  

Michael Oakeshott - melded holistic idealism with a morality and politics radical in their affirmation of individuality

1900-1991  

Hans Georg Gadamer - his philosophical project, as explained in his main work  "Truth and Method", was to elaborate on the concept of "philosophical hermeneutics"

1900-2002  

Gilbert Ryle - is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "the ghost in the machine", gave a defense of logical behaviorism

1900-1976  

 

 

Peter Wessel Zapffe
1899-1990  
Henry Habberley Price
1899-1984  

 

 

Oets Kolk Bouwsma - his talent lay in exposing central sentences in an argument as disguised nonsense

1898-1978  
Clive Staples Lewis - christian apologist
1898-1963  
Emil Leon Post - logician, mathematician
1897-1954  
Charles Hartshorne - held that the universe is God's body
1897-2000  

Swami Prabhupada - composed a translation of the Eighteen-thousand verse Srimad-Bhagavatam

1896-1977  
Susanne Langer - aesthetician
1895-1985  

Jiddhu Krishnamurti - Indian religious figure whose message centered on the need for maximum self-awareness

1895-1986  

Mikhail Mikhailovitch Bakhtin - cultural theorist, taught that dialogue marks the existential condition of humanity

1895-1975  

Aldous Huxley - author of "A brave new world" and "The Perennial Philosophy", which discussed teachings of the world's great mystics

1894-1963  
I. A. Richards
1893-1979  
Roman Ingarden - phenomenologist, ontologist and aesthetician
1893-1970  
Paramahansa Yogananda - was a Bengali yogi and guru
1893-1952  

Rudolf Carnap - leader of the Vienna circle, author of "The logical structure of the world"

1891-1970  

Hans Reichenbach - put forth logical empiricism which consisted in rejecting phenomenalism in favor of physicalism

1891-1953  

Edith Stein - author of "Endliches und ewiges Sein" which tries to combine the philosophies of Aquinas and Husserl

1891-1942  
Michael Polanyi
1891-1976  
Hu Shih
1891-1962  
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz - logician
1890-1963  

 

 

Robin George Collingwood - attempted to present orthodox christianity as philosophically acceptable

1889-1943  
Gabriel Marcel - coined the word existentialism
1889-1973  

Martin Heidegger - studied under Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, in his major work "Bing and Time" he said that Dasein finds itself thrown into a world not of its choosing

1889-1976  

Ludwig Wittgenstein - taught that philosophical problems can be resolved by paying attention to the working of language

1889-1951  
Xavier Zubiri
1889-1983  
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - introduced the thinking of western idealist philosophers into Indian thought
1888-1975  
Sri Swami Sivananda - founded The Divine Life Society
1887-1963  
Franklin Merrell-Wolff
1887-1985  
Dimitrije Mitrinovic
1887-1953  
Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz
1886-1980  
Pietro Ubaldi
1886-1972  
Tadeusz Kotarbinski - cofounder of the Warsaw center of logical research
1886-1981  

Paul Tillich - theologian, said that every age has its distinctive crisis, which can be seen as the time for creative thought and action

1886-1965  

 

 

William Durant
1885-1981  

 

 

Julius Ebbinghaus
1885-1981  
Leon Chwistek
1884-1944  
Ernst Bloch - influenced by marxism, the principle of hope
1885-1977  
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
1885-1939  

Etienne Gilson - attempted to reestablish Aquinas's distinction between essence and existence in created being

1884-1978  
Karl Jaspers - existentialist
1883-1969  
Clarence Irving Lewis - pragmatist
1883-1964  
José Ortega y Gasset - said that something is real only insofar as it appears in his life
1883-1955  
Moritz Schlick
1882-1936  
Nicolai Hartmann
1882-1950  
Jacques Maritain - neo thomist
1882-1973  
Friedrich Dessauer - wrote about the philosophy of technology
1881-1963  

Teilhard de Chardin - paleontologist, jesuit priest, discovered the peking man, the omega would be the full presence of Christ

1881-1955  

 

 

Curt John Ducasse - philosopher of mind and aesthetician
1881-1969  

Luitzgen Egbertus Jan Brouwer - topologist, founder of the intuitionist school in the philosophy of mathematics

1881-1966  
Otto Weininger
1880-1903  

 

 

Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld - jurist who identified eight fundamental legal conceptions
1879-1918  

 

 

Gustav Gustavovich Shept - russian phenomenologist
1879-1937  

Ramana Maharshi - founded an ashram after reaching enlightenment at 17

1879-1950  
Ernst Mally - logician
1879-1944  
P. D. Ouspensky
1878-1947  
Jan Lukasiewicz - discovered many valued logic
1878-1956  

 

 

William David Ross - aristotelian scholar and moral philosopher
1877-1971  
Ralph Barton Perry - general theory of value, the new realism
1876-1957  
Albert Schweitzer - theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician
1875-1965  
Nicolas Berdyaev - kantian marxist
1874-1948  

Ernst Cassirer - said that all human knowledge depends on the power to form experience through some type of symbolism

1874-1945  

Max Scheler - taught that values are objective though non Platonic essences, they correspond to the personalities of their discoverers: the artist, the hero, the genius and the saint

1874-1928  

 

 

Alexander Bogdanov
1873-1928  
George Edward Moore - spearheaded the attack on idealism, major supporter of realism
1873-1958  
Bertrand Russell - one of the founders of analytic philosophy, logical atomism
1872-1970  
Sri Aurobindo - Indian nationalist leader and mystic philosopher
1872-1950  

Leo Baeck - studied philosophy in Berlin with Wilhelm Dilthey, he was one of the outstanding German-Jewish scholars of the 20th century and a leader of Progressive Judaism

1871-1956  

 

 

Harold Arthur Prichard - founder of the Oxford school of intuitionism
1871-1947  

 

 

Leon Brunschvicg - defined philosophy as the mind's methodological self reflection
1869-1944  

 

 

John Elof Boodin
1869-1950  
Julien Benda
1867-1956  
Kazimierz Twardowski
1866-1938  

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff - established the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man

1866-1949  
Benedetto Croce - hegelian, chief anti fascist thinker in Italy
1866-1952  
John McTaggart - studies in Hegelian dialectic
1866-1925  

Franz Rosenzweig - jewish theologian know as one of the founders of religious existentialism

1866-1929  
Ernst Troeltsch - launched the school of history of religion
1865-1923  
Miguel de Unamuno - said that faith characterizes the authentic life
1864-1936  

George Santayana - aristotelian, beauty is objectified pleasure, human beings are animals in a material world contingent to the core

1863-1952  

Heinrich Rickert - is known for his discussion of a qualitative distinction to be made between historical and scientific facts

1863-1936  
Leopold Wertheimer ()
1862-1937  
Maurice Blondel - discovered the deist background of human action
1861-1949  
Alfred North Whitehead - published the "Principia Mathematica" with Russell
1861-1947  

Henri Louis Bergson - cofounded the Unesco, disciple of Spencer, distinguished between the open and the closed society

1859-1941  
Samuel Alexander - gave an account of the place of mind in nature
1859-1938  
Edmund Husserl - founder of phenomenology
1859-1938  

 

 

William Ernest Johnson - philosopher of psychology and logic
1858-1931  
Gaetano Mosca - democratic elitism
1858-1941  
Hastings Rashdall - the theory of good and evil
1858-1924  
Elbert Hubbard
1856-1915  

Josiah Royce - pragmatic idealism, ethics of loyalty, theory of community, self is constituted by a life plan

1855-1916  

 

 

Henri Poincaré
1854-1912  
Paul Gerhard Natorp
1854-1924  

Vladimir Solovyov - was the founder of a tradition of Russian spirituality that brought together philosophy, mysticism, and theology with a powerful social message, he also wrote "The Meaning of Love" and "Lectures on Divine-Humanity"

1853-1900  

 

 

Robert Adamson
1852-1902  

Hans Vaihinger - neo Kantian, started publishing Kant Studien in 1896 and founded the Kant society in 1904, held that we must act as if values were true because they have biological utility

1852-1933  

 

 

John Cook Wilson - logician, oxford realist
1849-1915  
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege - founder of modern mathematical logic
1848-1925  

Bernard Bosanquetwas one of the chief philosophers in England who helped revive the idealism of G.W.F. Hegel, this movement became known as British idealism

1848-1923  
Wilhelm Windelband - originator of Baden neo Kantianism
1848-1915  
Borden Parker Bowne
1847-1910  

Georges Sorel - social activist, reflections on violence, introduced myth rather than reason as the correct way to interpret social totality

1847-1922  
Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1846-1926  

F. H. Bradley - idealist, religious consciousness requires dying to one's natural self through faith in the actual existence of the moral ideal

1846-1924  
Paul Deussen (1845-1919)
   
Emile Boutroux (1845-1921)
   

William Kingdon Clifford - along with Hermann Grassmann he discovered what is now often called geometric algebra, which is a special case of the Clifford algebras named in his honor. He was also the first to suggest that gravitation might be due to an underlying geometry, and in his philosophical work coined the phrases "mind-stuff" and "tribal self"

1845-1879  

Friedrich Nietzsche - called for a revaluation of all values, distinguished between master and slave morality

1844-1900  
Antonio Labriola - studied Hegel and was the father of Italian Marxism
1843-1904  

Richard Avenarius - if we can avoid interjecting feeling and thought and will into experience we could attain the original natural view of the world

1843-1896  

Hermann Cohen - led with Paul Natrop the marburg school of neo kantianism

1842-1918  

William James - was one of the founders of pragmatism, author of "the principles of psychology"

1842-1910  

Eduard von Hartmann - sought to synthesize the thought of Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer

1842-1906  

 

 

Philipp Mainländer
1841-1876  
Charles Sanders Peirce - founder of pragmatism
1839-1914  

Franz Brentano - revived aristotelianism, favored reism according to which only individuals exist

1838-1917  
Henry Sidgwick - the methods of ethics
1838-1900  

Afrikan Spir - Neo-Kantian whose book "thought and reality" exerted a very strong influence on the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche

1837-1890  

Thomas Hill Green - absolute idealist, appealed to Englishmen to close their Mill and Spencer and open their Kant and Hegel

1836-1882  

Edward Caird - absolute idealist, religion progressively understands God as the Absolute and hence as what reconciles self and world

1835-1908  
John Venn - developed diagrams for syllogistic logic
1834-1923  

Wilhelm Dilthey - his main project was to establish the conditions of historical knowledge

1833-1911  

Eugen Dühring - "Heroic materialism" characterized Dühring's philosophy, he attacked capitalism, Marxism, organized Christianity and Judaism

1833-1921  

 

 

Shadworth Hodgson
1832-1912  

Leslie Stephen - literary critic, tried to develop an evolutionary theory of morality

1832-1904  

 

 

Gustav Teichmüller - historian of philosophy, maintained that the self is the most fundamental reality and the conceptual world is a projection of its constituting activity

1832-1888  

Friedrich Albert Lange - was a social scientist, but still graces this gallery because he established neo Kantian studies at Marburg University

1828-1875  

Hippolyte Taine - was the philosopher of the epoch which succeeded the era of romanticism (1820-1850) in France and wrote "Origines de la France Contemporaine"

1828-1893  
Leo Tolstoy - novelist, reformer, and moral thinker
1828-1910  

 

 

Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov
1828-1906  
Kuno Fischer
1824-1907  
Ludwig Büchner
1824-1899  
Moritz Lazarus
1824-1903  
Max Müller
1823-1900  

Henry Longueville Mansel - his philosophy was derived form Kant as interpreted by Hamilton

1820-1871  

 

 

Karl von Prantl
1820-1888  

 

 

Friedrich Harms
1819-1880  

 

 

Heinrich Czolbe - proposed a sensualistic theory of knowledge
1819-1873  
Rudolf Hermann Lotze - represents post Hegelian german metaphysics
1817-1881  

Henry David Thoreau - is most famous for Walden, his essay on civil disobedience and appreciation for nature

1817-1862  
Charles Renouvier - influenced James and through him pragmatism
1815-1903  
Charles Secretan
1815-1895  
August Cieszkowski - is the creator of philosophy of action
1814-1894  
Jules Lequier - freedom as the power to create
1814-1862  

Soren Kierkegaard - wanted to reintroduce christianity into christendom, faith is willing to be oneself

1813-1855  
Alexander Herzen - russian socialist
1812-1870  

James McCosh - common sense realist who tried to reconcile christianity with evolution

1811-1894  
Pierre Joseph Proudhon - father of anarchism, property is theft,
1809-1865  
Bruno Bauer
1809-1882  
James Frederick Ferrier
1808-1864  
Lysander Spooner
1808-1887  
Harriet Taylor - feminist, wife of John Stuart Mill
1807-1858  
Augustus de Morgan - logician
1806-1871  
Hermann Ulrici
1806-1884  
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire
1805-1895  
James Martineau - ethical intuitionist, defended unitarianism
1805-1900  
Max Stirner - proposed a theory of radical individualism
1805-1856  

Ludwig Feuerbach - suggested that Hegel be stood on his feet, the absolute is a function of the individual

1804-1872  
Ralph Waldo Emerson - transcendentalist
1803-1882  
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg
1802-1872  
Vincenzo Gioberti - ontologism, being creates the existent
1801-1852  
Gustav Theodor Fechner - formulated an identity equation of mind and matter
1801-1887  
 

Friedrich Eduard Beneke - empiricist influenced by Herbart, proposed a method that would yield a natural science of the soul

1798-1854  
Laurens Perseus Hickok
1798-1888  
Pierre Leroux - socialist, journalist
1797-1871  
  Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus
1796-1862  
  Théodore Simon Jouffroy
1796-1842  
Thomas Carlyle - personages are the most important causal factor in history
1795-1881  
Franz Xaver von Baader
1795-1841  
William Whewell - philosopher and historian of science
1794-1866  
Charles Babbage - invented the difference and the analytical engine
1792-1871  

Victor Cousin - as minister of education in France he introduced philosophy into the curriculum

1792-1867  
  Samuel Bailey
1791-1870  
Carl Gustav Carus
1789-1869  

Arthur Schopenhauer - the world as will and representation, during aesthetic experience we recognize the universal idea within the particular

1788-1860  
  William Hamilton - scottish common sense philosopher
1788-1856  
  Alexander Bryan Johnson
1786-1867  
Marie Henri Beyle, aka Stendhal - On Love
1783-1842  

Karl Christian Friedrich Krause - panentheism, mystified Kant, anticipated Hegel's end of history

1781-1832  
Bernard Bolzano - philosopher, mathematician, and theologian
1781-1848  
Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger
1780-1890  
  John Abercrombie
1780-1844  
  Georg Anton Friedrich Ast
1778-1841  
  Mary Shepherd - an essay on the relation of cause and effect
1777-1847  
  Johann Friedrich Herbart
1776-1841  

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling - his philosophy of nature attempts to derive consciousness form objects

1775-1854  
  William Thompson
1775-1833  
James Mill
1773-1836  
Jakob Friedrich Fries
1773-1843  
Francois Marie Charles Fourier - utopian socialist
1772-1837  
Friedrich von Schlegel - originator of the romantic theory of irony
1772-1829  

Novalis - poet and philosopher, attempted to complement Fichte's focus on philosophical speculation

1772-1801  
Heinrich von Kleist - the antimony of reason and sentiment
1771-1811  

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - systematic idealist, what is actual is rational, wrote the phenomenology of spirit

1770-1831  
Johann Christian Friedrich Hoelderlin - called for a new mythology of reason
1770-1843  
Friedrich Schleiermacher - critical realist, created modern general hermeneutics
1768-1834  

Benjamin Constant - liberalist, analyzed historical forces and believed that wars are a thing of the past

1767-1830  

Wilhelm von Humboldt -  regarded as the father of comparative linguistics, diplomat, explorer

1767-1835  
  Pierre Hyacinthe Azais
1766-1845  

Johann Gottlieb Fichte - transcendental idealism, theory of science, the ego alone is real

1762-1814  
Johann Heinrich Abicht
1762-1816  
  Christoph Gottfried Bardili
1761-1808  
  Gottlob Ernst Schulze - influential early critic of Kant and Reinhold
1761-1833  

Friedrich Schiller - poet and philosopher, revised Kant's transcendental idealism with Reinhold and Fichte, letters on the aesthetic education of man

1759-1805  
Archibald Alison
1757-1839  
William Godwin - utilitarian
1756-1836  
Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald
1754-1840  

Joseph Marie de Maistre - can be counted, with Edmund Burke, as one of the originators of conservatism

1753-1821  
Salomon Maimon - protégé of Moses Mendelssohn
1753-1800  
Adolph Franz Friedrich Ludwig Freiherr Knigge - On Human Relations
1752-1796  
Jacob Friedrich von Abel
1751-1829  
Richard Payne Knight - aesthetician
1750-1824  

Johann Gottfried von Herder - his philosophy involved naturalism, organicism and vitalism

1744-1803  

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi - criticized transcendental idealism, influenced german idealism

1743-1819  
William Paley - introduced utilitarianism to a wide public
1743-1805  
Karl Leonhard Reinhold - both a popularizer and critic of Kant
1743-1819  

Marquis de Condorcet - contributed to the encyclopedia, analyzed social institutions, discovered the voting paradox

1743-1794  
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801)
   
Thomas Percival - physician and author of medical ethics
1740-1804  
Cesare Beccaria - criminologist
1738-1794  

Johann Nicolas Tetens - attempted to find a middle way between rationalism and empiricism

1736-1807  

James Beattie - critic of Hume, when his Essay was translated into german he gave Kant access to Hume's thought

1735-1803  

Johann Georg Hamann - had a great impact on Kant's philosophy by his translations of Hume

1730-1788  
Edmund Burke - skepticism
1729-1797  

Moses Mendelssohn - the jewish Socrates, there is a universal religion of reason

1729-1786  

Johann Heinrich Lambert - attempted to revise metaphysics by opting for phenomenalism

1728-1777  

Immanuel Kant - is best known for establishing the categorical imperative as well as asserting that we can have real knowledge only of categories and must have faith in God

1724-1804  
Adam Ferguson - the rise and fall of virtue in individuals and societies
1723-1816  

Paul Henri Dietrich d'Holbach - contributor to the encyclopedia, systematized Diderot's naturalism

1723-1789  

Richard Price - a review of the principal questions in morals is a defense of rationalism in ethics

1723-1791  
  François Hemsterhuis
1721-1790  
Jean le Rond d'Alembert - launched the encyclopedia with Diderot, agnostic
1717-1783  
Claude Adrien Helvetius - helped advance materialism in France
1715-1771  
  Christian August Crusius - anticipated what Kant thought
1715-1775  
Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues - adopted stoic idealism
1715-1747  
  Isaac de Pinto
1715-1787  
Emerich de Vattel (1714-1767)
   
 

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten - introduced aesthetics into german philosophy, adopted the anti pietist rationalism of Wolff

1714-1762  
Etienne Bonnot de Condillac - empiricist
1714-1780  
Denis Diderot - encyclopedist
1713-1784  

Jean Jacques Rousseau - social contract theorist, the individual is naturally good and must guard against being dominated

1712-1778  
  David Fordyce - educational theorist
1711-1751  
David Hume - neo skeptic, philosophy cannot go beyond experience
1711-1776  
Thomas Reid - nominalist and libertarian, defender of common sense
1710-1796  
  Gabriel Bonnet de Mably
1709-1785  

Julien Offroy de La Mettrie - physician and philosopher whose materialistic interpretation of psychic phenomena laid the groundwork for future developments of behaviorism

1707-1751  
  Johann Ulrich von Cramer
1706-1772  
David Hartley - founder of associationism
1705-1757  
  Anthony William Amo
1703–1759  

John Gay - moralist who tried to reconcile divine command theory and utilitarianism

1699-1745  
  George Turnbull - moral sense philosopher
1698-1748  

Francis Hutcheson - the quality the sense of beauty consistently finds pleasurable is a pattern of uniformity amidst variety, while the quality the moral sense invariably approves is benevolence

1694-1746  

François Marie Arouet Voltaire - Candide, man is evil, yet there is a good God above

1694-1708  

Hermann Samuel Reimarus - apology for or defense of the rational worshipers of God

1694-1768  
Baron de Montesquieu - political philosopher of the enlightenment
1689-1755  
  William Law
1686-1761  
  John Balguy
1686-1748  
George Berkeley - empiricist, idealism, esse est percipi
1685-1753  
 

Arthur Collier - like Berkley he defends immaterialism as the only alternative to skepticism

1680-1732  
Catherine Trotter Cockburn - the nature of moral obligation
1679-1749  
Christian Wolff - advocate of secular rationalism
1679-1754  
Firmin Abauzit
1679-1767  
Anthony Collins
1676-1729  

Samuel Clarke - developed a forceful version of the cosmological argument for the existence of God

1675-1729  
  Gershom Carmichael
1672-1729  
Shaftesbury - originated the moral sense theory
1671-1713  
Guido Grandi
1671-1742  
  Bernard de Mandeville
1670-1733  

Giambattista Vico - founded modern philosophy of history, culture and mythology

1668-1744  

Mary Astell - feminist, her works present an educational program to fit women rationally for their religious duties

1666-1731  
  Claude Buffier
1661-1737  
 

Lady Masham Damaris Cudworth - exchanged letters with Leibniz and Locke, argued against John Norris

1659-1708  

William Wollaston - God has preestablished a harmony between reason and happiness

1659-1724  
Matthew Tindal
1657-1733  
  John Norris
1657-1711  

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle - jesuit, secretary of the academy of sciences,

Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes

1657-1757  
Pierre Bayle - calvinist
1647-1706  

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - was a philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer. He came up with the term "function" in mathematics. Together with newton he is credited with having invented calculus. Leibniz also constructed the first mechanical calculator capable of multiplication and division. He also developed the modern form of the binary numeral system, used in digital computers

1646-1716  
Nicolas Malebranche - cartesian, occaisonalist, God alone is a true causal agent
1638-1715  

Joseph Glanvill - claimed that the human corruption that resulted form Adam's fall precludes dogmatic knowledge of nature

1636-1680  
Edward Stillingfleet - controversialist
1635-1699  
John Locke - all knowledge comes form experience
1632-1704  
Samuel Pufendorf - theorist of natural law
1632-1694  
Louis de La Forge - cartesian
1632-1666  
Baruch Spinoza - rationalist, God is substance
1632-1677  
  Richard Cumberland - forerunner of utilitarianism
1631-1718  

Anne Conway - was associated with the Cambridge Platonists, Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy

1631-1678  

John Ray - naturalist, his work gave a strong impetus to the design argument in natural theology

1627-1705  
 

Arnold Geulincx - cartesian, proposed a system of ethics grounded in the idea of a virtuous will

1624-1669  

Blaise Pascal - mathematician, because the potential winnings are infinite, religious belief is more rational than unbelief

1623-1662  
Margaret Cavendish - developed a theory of organic materialism
1623-1673  
  Johannes Clauberg
1622-1665  
Elizabeth of Bohemia - corresponded with Descartes
1618-1680  
Ralph Cudworth - was an English philosopher, the leader of the Cambridge Platonists
1617-1688  
Henry More - camebridge platonist
1614-1687  

Antoine Arnauld - jansenist, composed the port royal logic with Peree Nicloe, criticized Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz

1612-1694  
James Harrington
1611-1677  
Baltasar Gracian y Morales - jesuit, anticipated Rousseau's noble savage
1601-1658  
Rene Descartes - founder of the modern age, I think therefore I am, therefore God is
1596-1650  
  Isaac La Peyrere - calvinist, anticipated ecumenism and zionism
1596-1676  
Pierre Gassendi - author of the fifth set of objections to Descartes' Meditations
1592-1655  
  John of Saint Thomas - thomist
1589-1644  

Thomas Hobbes - the leviathan influenced moral and political philosophy, the state and the right of nature, human beings always act out of self interest

1588-1679  
Robert Filmer - argued that God gave complete authority over the world to Adam
1588-1653  

Martin Mersenne - priest who believed that to increase scientific knowledge is to know and serve God

1588-1648  
  Johann Heinrich Alsted
1588-1638  
Uriel Acosta
1585-1640  

Giulio Cesare Vanini - free-thinker, like Giordano Bruno he was among those who led the attack on the old scholasticism and helped to lay the foundation of modern philosophy

1584-1619  
Edward Herbert
1583-1648  
Hugo Grotius - humanist, founder of modern views of international law
1583-1645  
Robert Fludd - neoplatonic, creation is the extension of divine light into matter
1574-1637  
Mulla Sadra
1571-1640  

Tommaso Campanella - dominican monk who hoped to found a new christian philosophy

1568-1639  
Francis of Sales
1567-1622  

Francis Bacon - knowledge is power, idols are a hindrance to knowledge

1561-1626  
Heinrich Khunrath
1560-1605  
Guillaume du Vair - neo Stoic
1556-1621  

Francisco Sanches - declared that he did not even know if he knew nothing

1551-1623  

Francisco Suarez - jesuit, his disputations are the first systematic works on metaphysics written in the west that are not a commentary on Aristotle's metaphysics

1548-1617  

Giordano Bruno - supported the copernican heliocentric hypothesis, wrote on magic and the art of memory

1548-1600  
Jacopo Mazzoni
1548-1598  
Justus Lipsius
1547-1606  
Rudolphus Goclenius - aristotelian, published two philosophical lexicons
1547-1628  

Pierre Charron - was the principal expositor of Montaigne's ideas, taught that we should accept Christianity on faith alone

1541-1603  

 

 

Yi I
1536-1584  

Juan de Mariana - jesuit historian, anticipated the social contract idea of Hobbes and Rousseau

1536-1624  
Michel de Montaigne - set forth the renaissance version of greek skepticism
1533-1592  
Jacopo Zabarella - aristotelian
1532-1589  
  Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki
1530-1607  
Jean Bodin - political philosopher
1529-1596  
  Pedro da Fonseca - jesuit, aristotelian
1528-1599  

Laelius Socinus - founder of Socinianism, they regarded Christ as human not divine

1525-1562  
Petrus Ramus - proposed a socratizing of logic
1515-1572  
Bernardino Telesio - his scientific empiricism influenced Bacon and Galileo
1509-1588  
Yi Hwang
1501-1570  

Francisco de Vitoria - is regarded as the founder of modern international law

1492-1546  
Juan Luis Vives - humanist
1492-1540  
  Thomas Elyot
1490-1546  

Agrippa von Nettesheim - magician and occult writer, astrologer, and alchemist

1486-1535  
Julius Caesar Scaliger
1484-1558  

Thomas More - coined the word "utopia", a name he gave to an ideal, imaginary island nation whose political system he described in a book of the same title

1478-1535  
Wang Yangming
1472-1529  
  Agostino Nifo
1470-1538  
Willibald Pirckheimer - humanist
1470-1530  

Niccolò Machiavelli - political theorist, the reason of state recognizes no moral superior

1469-1527  
  John Mair
1467-1550  
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam - humanist
1466-1536  
Alessandro Achillini
1463-1512  
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola - humanist philosopher and scholar
1463-1494  

Pietro Pomponazzi - aristotelian, divine predestination and human freedom are compatible

1462-1525  
 

Judah Abrabanel - wrote a dialogue in which sophia and philo explore the nature of cosmic love

1460-1523  
Johannes Reuchlin - humanist and Hebrew scholar
1455-1522  

Leonardo da Vinci - painter and universal genius who has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", he held that it is beneficial to develop ambidexterity

1452-1519  
Rodolphus Agricola
1443-1485  

Kabir - Indian Mystic who preached an ideal of seeing all of humanity as one

1440-1518  

Isaac ben Judah Abrabanel - theodicy, attacked Maimonides naturalistic views of prophecy

1437-1508  
Marsilio Ficino - neoplatonic, priest
1433-1499  

Lorenzo Valla - humanist and historian

1407-1457  
Leone Battista Alberti
1404-1472  

Nicholas of Cusa - renaissance platonist, taught that all opposites are united in their infinte measure

1400-1464  
  George of Trebizond
1395-1484  

Johannes Bessarion, or Basilus - patriarch of Constantinople, and one of the Greek scholars who contributed to the great revival of letters in the 15th century

1395-1472  

Thomas à Kempis - author of the Imitation of Christ, one of the most well-known Christian books on devotion

1380-1471  
  Paul of Venice - Augustinian philosopher logician and theologian
1368-1429  
  Zeami Motokiyo - aestetician
1363-1443  
George Gemistos Plethon
1355-1452  
Manuel Chrysoloras
1355-1415  
Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas - was a Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist
1340-1410  
Marsilius of Inghen - established nominalism in Germany
1330-1396  
  Albert of Saxony
1316-1390  
  William Heytesbury - chancellor of Oxford university
1313-1372  
  Richard Kilvington - one of the oxford calculators, sophistmata
1302-1361  

Jean Buridan - Burdian's ass is an ass starving to death between two equidistant and equally tempting piles of hay

1300-1358  
  Gregory of Rimini - interpreter of Augustine
1300-1358  
Jan van Ruysbroeck
1293-1381  
  Gersonides - the leading jewish aristotelian after Maimonides
1288-1344  

William of Ockham - fransiscan monk, father of nominalism, ockham's razor the principle of parsimony

1287-1347  
  Marsilius of Padua - political theorist, attacked the supremacy of the pope
1275-1342  
  Walter Burley - aristotelian, attacked ockham's logic
1275-1344  

John Duns Scotus - franciscan, showed the goal of metaphysics is to demonstrate God as the Infinite Being

1266-1308  
Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy
1265-1321  

Richard Rufus - commentator on Aristotle, he was the first medieval proponent of the theory of impetus

-1260  
Theodore Metochita
1260- 1332  
Meister Eckhart - mystic, dominican monk
1260-1328  
  Pietro d'Abano
1250-1316  
  Godfrey of Fontaines - aristotelian
1250-1306  
  Giles of Rome - ecclesiastic, criticized Aquinas
1243-1316  
  Siger of Brabant - radical aristotelian
1240-1284  
  Boëthius of Dacia
1240-1280  
Shri Madhvacharya - propounded the dualistic Vedanta
1238-1317  
  Matthew of Aquasparta - Franciscan philosophical scholar
1238-1302  
  Cecco d'Ascoli
1257-1327  
Saint Thomas Aquinas - scholasticism, five proofs of God's existence
1225-1274  
Nichiren
1222-1282  
Henry of Ghent - neo Augustinian
1217-1293  
Robert Kilwardby
1215-1279  
  William of Moerbeke - dominican monk, translated greek works into latin
1215-1286  
Roger Bacon - commentator on newly discovered work by Aristotle
1214-1293  
Peter of Spain - pope and philosopher
1205-1277  
Dogen Zenji
1200-1253  
Albertus Magnus - commentator on Aristotle, teacher of Aquinas
1200-1280  
  William of Sherwood
1190-1249  

Robert Grosseteste - scholar of Augustine and Aristotle, everything is a manifestation of light

1168-1253  
  Suhrawardi
1153-1191  
  Abu al-Hakam al-Kirmani (12th century)
   
  Bernard Silvestris
1147-1178  
 

William of Auxerre - made one of the earliest systematic attempts to reconcile the Augustinian and Aristotelian traditions in medieval philosophy

1140-1231  
Lu Hsiang-shan
1139-1193  
Moses Maimonides - physician, jurist, the guide to the perplexed
1134-1204  

Joachim of Floris - mystic, history progresses through stages corresponding to the holy trinity

1132-1202  
Zhu Xi
1130-1200  
  Alain de Lille
1128-1202  
Averroes - all minds are one
1126-1198  
  John of Salisbury - humanist scholar
1120-1180  
  Gerard of Cremona
1114-1187  
 

Bernard of Chartres - grammarian, medievals are dwarfs sitting on the shoulder of giants

1114-1126  
  Adam Parvipontanus
d. 1181  

Abu Bakr Ibn Tufayl - promoted the career of Averroes and wrote 'Alive, Son of Awaken' a philosophical fantasy

1105-1186  
Herman of Carinthia
1100-1160  
Avempace
1095-1138  
  William of Conches
1080-1154  

Pierre Abelard - is famous fo his love affair with Heloise, held that universals are words, developed a propositional logic

1079-1144  
Hugh of St Victor
1078-1141  
Judah Ha Levi - developed jewish particularism and nationalism
1075-1141  
  Gilbert de la Porrée - logician, theologian
1070-1154  
  William of Champeaux
1070-1121  

Adelard of Bath - was a benedictine monk, who is best known for translating many important Arabic scientific works of astrology, astronomy, philosophy and mathematics into Latin

1070-1145  
Abu Hamid al Ghazali - held that the world proceeds by the will of God
1058-1111  
  Michael Psellus the Younger
11th century  
 

Roscelin de Compiegne - taught that universals are merely the puffs of air produced when a word is pronounced

1050-1125  
  Bahya ibn Paquda
1040-1110  

Saint Anselm - was archbishop of Canterbury. His ontological argument can be said to argue that since the supreme good and the supreme being are identical every being is good and every good a being

1033-1109  
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
1021-1058  
Shao Yung - advanced a numerological interpretation of the I Ching
1011-1077  

Avicenna - was a commentator on Aristotle. He synthesized the rival approaches of the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic tradition with the creationist monotheism of Islamic dialectical theology

980-1037  
  Ibn Hazm
994-1069  
  Abhinavagupta
fl. 975-1025  
Gerbert of Aurillac
950-1003  
  Ibn Miskawayh - author of "On the refinement of character"
936-1030  
 

Saadiah Gaon - was a jewish exegete and lexicographer, believed that God must be assumed to right the balances in the hereafter

882-942  

Abu Nasr al Farabi - wrote a commentary on Aristotle, believed that religion is a symbolic representation of philosophical ideas

870-950  

Abu Bakr al Razi - taught that nature originates from the soul's irrational desire for embodiment

854-925  
  Isaac Ben Solomon Israeli
850-950  
  Photius
820-891  
  Anandavardhana
820-890  
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
810-877  

Abu Yusuf - is known as "the philosopher of the Arabs", he held, with Aristotle, that the noblest philosophy is knowledge of the first cause

800-870  
  Zongmi
780-841  
Kukai
774-835  
Lord Pacal - mayan ruler
703-743  
Dharmakirti - was an Indian scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic
circa 7th century  
  Bhartrhari
570-651  

Isidore of Seville - Archbishop of Seville, said that Philosophy is the art of arts and the science of sciences

560-636  
  Olympiodorus - Neoplatonist who taught in Alexandria
495-565  

Cassiodorus - statesman and author, founded two monasteries and wrote a biography of Boethius

490-585  
  Johannes Philoponus - the first christian aristotelian
490-575  
Simplicius - neoplatonist
490-560  

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius - author of "consolation of philosophy",  has been called the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastic philosophers

480-525  

Bodhidharma - founder of the Zen school of Buddhism, and the Shaolin school of Kung Fu

470-543  
 

Damascius - last head of the Athenian Academy, his work is an elaboration of the Neoplatonism of Proclus

462-550  
Dignaga - was an Indian scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic
5th century  
  Mazdak
- 526  
  Ammonius Hermiae - Alexandrian Neoplatonist, a pupil of Proclus and teacher of Damascius and Simplicius
440-521  
Proclus
412-487  
Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius
fl 400  
Vasubandhu - Mahayana Buddhist, said that the mind is only a stream of ideas
400  

Ko Hung - synthesized Confucian concerns with Taoist aspirations, championed the use of drugs

400  
 

Buddhaghosa - Indian Buddhist scholar, famous for his Visuddhi-magga (Way to Purity) a summary of current Buddhist doctrines

400  
Hypatia of Alexandria - neoplatonist
370-415  
  Aedesius
- 355  
Saint Augustine
354-430  

Pelagius - founder of pelagianism, the view that through the excercise of free will humans can attain moral perfection

354-425  
Calcidius - Platonist and author of an important Latin translation and commentary on the Timaeus
4th century  
  Gaius Marius Victorinus
4th century  
  Themistius - Aristotelian commentator based in Constantinople
317-388  
  Himerius
315-386  
  Vatsyayana - author of the Kama Sutra
300-400  
Iamblichus - Neoplatonic, pupil of Porphyry
250-325  
Porphyry - neoplatonist
232-304  
  Diogenes Laertius - source for letters of Epicurus
225-300  
Cassius Longinus - literary critic, author of 'On the sublime'
213-273  
Juan Chi - neo taoist
210-263  

Plotinus - emanation, union with God in ecstasy, founder of neoplatonism

204-270  
Sextus Empiricus - pyrrhonian skeptic
200  
Ammonius Saccas - teacher of Origen, the Socrates of neoplatonism
200  
  Diogenes of Oenoanda - epicurean
200  
 

Alexander of Aphrodisias - peripatetic, commentator on Aristotle, conceptualism

200-280  

Celsus - eclectic middle platonist and anti christian writer, the universe has a providential organization in which humans hold no special place

190  
  Philostratus the Athenian
172  

Julia Domna - wife of emperor Septimius Severus, she served as protector of a philosophical circle

170-217  
Tertullian - stoic, laid the basis for the doctrine of the trinity
155-240  
  Demonax - Cynic philosopher, pupil of Epictetus
fl. 2nd cent.  
  Alcinous - Platonist and author of the Handbook of Platonism
fl. 2nd cent.  
  Numenius of Apamea - platonist
150  
Nagarjuna - Mahayana Buddhist, founder of the Madhyamika view
150-250  
Galen
129-210  
Marcus Aurelius - roman stoic
121-180  
Lucian of Samosata
120-180  
  Valentinius - gnostic
100-160  
Aristocles of Messene - peripatetic
100-150  
  Aspasius
100-150  
  Syrianus
2nd century  
  Favorinus
80-150  
Epictetus - roman stoic
55-135  
Plutarch - Priest of the Delphic Oracle
45-125  
  Dio Chrysostom
40-120  
  Musonius Rufus - Stoic philosopher-preacher
30-100  
  Lucius Annaeus Cornutus
1st century  

Agrippa - stoic, described the five grounds for the suspension of judgment

27-100  
  Wang Ch'ung
27-97  
Apollonius of Tyana
2-98  
Lucius Annaeus Seneca - stoic, served as tutor to the young Nero
4bc-65ad  
Jesus Christ
6bc-32ad  

Philo of Alexandria - sought to harmonize Greek wisdom and Judaism by means of the art of allegory

20bc-50ad  
  Yang Hsiung
53 bc-18ad  
Strabo
63 bc-24ad  
  Andronicus of Rhodes - established the canon of Aristotle's works in the lyceum
80 bc  
Titus Lucretius Carus - epicurean
95-53 bc  
  Diocles of Magnesia
1st cent. bc  
  Aenesidemus - revived pyrrhonism
100 bc  
  Alexander Polyhistor
105-35 bc  

Marcus Tullius Cicero - orator and statesman, he said that "The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death"

106-43 bc  
  Philodemus - epicurean
110 bc  

Antiochus of Ascalon - was an eclectic and stoic. He ended two centuries of skepticism in the Academy

130-68 bc  
  Zeno of Sidon - Epicurean philosopher
150-70 bc  
  Crates of Mallus
2nd century bc  
  Aksapada Gautama
2nd century bc  
Posidonius - roman stoic
153-51 bc  
 

Philo of Larissa - pupil of Kleitomachos, whom he succeeded as head of the Third or New Academy

160-80 bc  
  Panaetius - was the founder of Roman Stoic philosophy
185-108 bc  
  Kleitomachos
187-109 bc  
Patanjali - author of the Yoga Sutra, a treatise on Raja Yoga
200 bc  

Carneades - was the most prominent head of the skeptical Academy, developed arguments against the stoics

213-129 bc  
Menippus - Cynic philosopher and famous as a satirist
fl. 250 bc  
  Ariston of Chios - Stoic philosopher, a pupil of Zeno, focused primarily on ethics
fl. 3rd cent. bc  
  Han Feizi
280-233 bc  

Chrysippus - was the most voluminous stoic writer and the third head of the school

280-206 bc  
  Metrocles
fl. 300 bc  
  Hegesias of Magnesia
300 bc  
  Kung sun Lung Tzu - said that a white horse is not a horse
300 bc  
  Diodorus Cronus
fl. 300 bc  
Hipparchia
fl. 300 bc  
Tsou Yen - was the leading exponent of the yin yang school
305-240 bc  
Xun Zi
310-237 bc  
  Timon of Philus - pyrrhonian skeptic
315-225 bc  
  Arcesilaus of Pitane - introduced skepticism into Plato's Academy
315-242 bc  
 

Anniceris - established a separate branch of the Cyrenaics, the Anniceraioi who were hedonist in their practice

320-280 bc  
Metrodorus - epicurean
330 bc  
  Cleanthes - was the second head of Stoic school, hymn to Zeus
331-232 bc  

Zeno of Citium - was the founder of stoicism, maintained that being is one and that consistency brings happiness

336-264 bc  
  Anaxiphales
337 bc  
  Philo of Megara
4th cent. bc  
Chuang Tzu - adversary of Mencius
340-280 bc  
  Diodorus Chronos
340-280 bc  
Arete of Cyrene - daughter of Aristippus and his successor as head of the Cyrenaic school
fl. 4th cent. bc  

Epicurus - taught that pleasure is the only good

341-270 bc  
  Menedemus
350-278 bc  
 

Eudemus of Rhodes - was the second major companion of Aristotle besides Theophrastus

350-290 bc  
  Dicaearchus - aristotelian and cartographer
350-285 bc  

Demetrius of Phaleron - orator, statesman, and philosopher who was appointed governor of Athens by the Macedonian general Cassander

350-280 bc  
  Shen Dao
350-275 bc  
Chanakya
350-275 bc  
  Crantor
350-270 bc  
 

Strato of Lampsacus - succeeded Theophrastus as head of the Lyceum,

355-267 bc  
 

Aristoxenus of Tarentum - aristotelian, was the first to base theory on analysis of musical practice

364-304 bc  
  Pyrrho of Elis - founder of greek skepticism
365-270 bc  
  Anaxarchus - teacher of Pyrrho, friend of Alexander
370-310 bc  

Mencius - disciple of Confucius, he taught that human nature is good just as water flows downwards

 
371-289 bc  
  Eubulides of Miletus
375-300 bc  
  Crates of Thebes - one of the Cynics, student of Diogenes of Sinope, teacher of Zeno of Citium
380-310 bc  
 

Stilpo - was a member of the Megarean school, which held views similar to both stoicism and cynicism

380-330 bc  

Aristotle - tutored Alexander the Great, founded his own school of philosophy called the Peripatetics who he taught in the Lyceum. He formulated the prime mover argument for the existence of God, and gave the first systematic account of logic. In ethics he taught the doctrine of the golden mean and defined metaphysics as the science of being qua being

384-322 bc  
  Heraclides Ponticus
387-312 bc  
Xenocrates
396-314 bc  
  Speusippus
408-339 bc  
  Phaedo of Elis
fl. 4th cent bc  
Diogenes of Sinope - became the pupil of the cynic Antisthenes but soon surpassed his teacher in austerity
412-323 bc  

Plato - founded the Academy which was his own school of philosophy in Athens. His most famous work among his dialogues is "The Republic" in which he outlines an ideal society governed by philosopher kings who are the most prudent rulers bcause they have seen and gained knowledge of the forms of all thing

427-347 bc  
Xenophon - author of several Socratic dialogues
430-350 bc  
Euclides of Megara - founded the Megarian school of philosophy
430-360 bc  
Aristippus of Cyrene - founder of the Cyrenaics
435-356 bc  
Isocrates - chief contemporary rival of Plato, had his own school
436-338 bc  
Antisthenes - founded the Cynic school of philosophy after following Socrates and his teachings
445-360 bc  

Democritus - developed the atomic theory from Leucippus, held that the aim of life is equanimity

460-370 bc  
  Prodicus of Ceos
465-399 bc  
Aspasia - mistress of Pericles, teacher of Socrates
469-406 bc  

Socrates - held "I know that I know nothing" and that the unexamined life is not worth living

470-399 bc  
Diotima of Mantineia - taught Socrates on love
470-410 bc  

Mo Tzu - founder of Mohism, challenged Confucius, advocated utilitarianism and impartial concern

470-391 bc  
 

Melissus of Samos - his work is devoted to the defence of Parmenides' doctrine. He was also a political leader in his native town and defeated the Athenian fleet of Pericles

475-400 bc  
  Philolaus - was the first Pythagorean to write a book
480-405 bc  
  Antiphon
480-411 bc  

Leucippus - credited with founding atomism, held that opinion is inflowing of the atoms

480-420 bc  
  Hippias of Elis - sophist
481-411 bc  
Gorgias - sophist, argued that nothing exists
483-376 bc  
  Archelaus - pupil of Anaxagoras, teacher of Socrates
490-410 bc  
Protagoras - sophist, said that for him man is the measure of all things
490-420 bc  

Zeno of Elea - called by Aristotle the inventor of the dialectic (that is an exchange of propositions and counter-propositions resulting in a disagreement), he is most famous for his formulation of motion and space paradoxes

490-430 bc  

Empedocles - maintained that there are four elements: earth, water, air and fire, love and strife join or separate them

492-432 bc  
  Diogenes Apolloniates
499-428 bc  

Anaxagoras - explained being and perishing by assuming an infinite number of  seeds, which are put into motion be nous (i.e. mind) that separates masses of ether

500-428 bc  
Alcmaeon
fl. 500 bc  
Maharishi Kapila
fl. 500 bc  

Parmenides - founder of the eleatic school, he discovered that the earth is a sphere and held that the phenomena of movement and change are simply appearances of a static, eternal reality

510-450 bc  
Heraclitus - held that fire is the main element and that logos is the law of change
535-475 bc  
Anacharsis
6th century bc  
Epimenides
6th century bc  

Confucius - formulated the golden rule in ethics: do not impose unto others what you yourself do not desire

551-479 bc  

Buddha - taught that the first noble truth is suffering and that the cause of suffering is selfish desire. However, there is a state which transcends suffering which he referred to as Nirvana, the third moble truth. The fourth noble truth is the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha's teaching on the way to attain Nirvana

563-483 bc  

Pythagoras - held that number is the wisest thing and taught a doctrine of reincarnation

570-480 bc  

Xenophanes - was the first monotheists in occidental philosophy, his epistemology was brought out again by Sir Karl Popper as critical rationalism

570-475 bc  

Pherecydes of Syros - gives a history of the world which proceeds the Greek pantheon by rationalizing it

580-499 bc  
Anaximenes - held that the source of the cosmos is air
585-528 bc  
  Kanada - was a Hindu sage who founded the philosophical school of Vaisheshika
fl. 600 bc  
Lao Tzu - founder of Taoism: the law of virtue and it's way
604-531 bc  

Anaximander - held that the cosmos originates form the boundless, drew a map of the world

610-546 bc  

Thales - is the first of the greek philosophers. He held that the first principle is water and that the earth floats on it like a raft, as well he demonstrated that philosopohy can even be a tool to become rich, when he purchased all olive presses in Miletus and Chios before harvest time and then lent them out for money during the harvest itself

624-546 bc  
Guan Zhong - was prime minister of Ch'i and the forefather of Legalism,
645 bc  
Yajnavalkya
1800 bc  
Ptahhotep
2400 bc  
Imhotep
2700 bc