Famous Philosophers

• Abelard, Peter

  The Scholastic thinker who had an affair with Heloise

• Aquinas, Thomas

  Medieval Catholic scholar who wrote Summa Theologica

• Arendt, Hannah

  The author of 1951's The Origins of Totalitarianism

• Aristotle

  The ancient Greek philosopher who wrote Ethics

• Bentham, Jeremy

  The father of Utilitarianism

• Confucius

  Chinese sage

• Daly, Mary

  The feminist professor who battled Boston College

• Derrida, Jacques

  French philosopher whose deconstructionist books included 'Writing and Difference'

• Descartes, René

  The philosopher who said "I think, therefore I am"

• Dewey, John

  Pragmatist educator of the early 20th century

• Diderot, Denis

  Enlightenment editor of Encyclopédie

• Emerson, Ralph Waldo

  A founder of Transcendentalism

• Engels, Friedrich

  Karl Marx's collaborator and editor

• Foucault, Michel

  The French philosopher who wrote This is Not a Pipe

• Fuller, Buckminster

  the inventor of the geodesic dome

• Ghazali, Al-

  Medieval Islamic philosopher and theologian

• Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

  Metaphysical philosopher who came up with the idea of the dialectic

• Heidegger, Martin

  The modern philosopher who wrote 1927's 'Being and Time'

• Heraclitus

  Greek philosopher who said all is in constant flux

• Hobbes, Thomas

  English philosopher who wrote Leviathan

• Hume, David

  Scottish skeptic who wrote A Treatise of Human Nature

• Kant, Immanuel

  German philosopher who wrote Critique of Pure Reason

• Kierkegaard, Søren

  The mordant Danish philosopher called 'the father of existentialism'

• Lao Tzu

  Legendary founder of Taoism

• Leibniz, Gottfried

  The mathematician who said God created the best of all possible worlds

• Locke, John

  Author of Essay Concerning Human Understanding

• Machiavelli, Niccolo

  Author of The Prince

• Maimonides, Moses

  Medieval Jewish philosopher who wrote "Guide of the Perplexed"

• Marx, Karl

  Founder of modern communism

• Mill, John Stuart

  The author of 1859's On Liberty

• Murdoch, Iris

  Alzheimer's stricken author of The Sea, The Sea

• Nietzsche, Friedrich

   The 19th century German who said "God is dead" 

• Pascal, Blaise

  17th century mathematical genius

• Plato

  The ancient philosopher who wrote The Republic

• Pythagoras

  The guy they named the Pythagorean Theorem after

• Rand, Ayn

  The author of The Fountainhead and leader of Objectivism movement

• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques

  Author of The Social Contract

• Russell, Bertrand

  The deep-thinking co-author of Principia Mathematica

• Sarte, Jean-Paul

  The existentialist author of Being and Nothingness

• Seneca

  Stoic philospher and playwright of the first century

• Smith, Adam

  The author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

• Socrates

  The great Greek philosopher who drank hemlock

• St. Anselm

  Archbishop of Canterbury, England, 1093-1109

• Theophrastus

  Ancient Greek who began the study of plants

• Tolstoy, Leo

  Author of War and Peace

• Trismegistus, Hermes

  The ancient mage behind the 'Corpus Hermeticum'

• Watts, Alan

  The author of 'The Way of Zen'

• Whitehead, Alfred North

  Mathematician who turned to metaphysics and religion

• William of Ockham

  Medieval thinker responsible for the principle of Ockham's Razor

• Wittgenstein, Ludwig

  The Austrian-English philosopher who wrote Tractatus and Investigations

• Zoroaster

  The founder of Zoroastrianism

See: Index by Occupation