Philosophers

Philosophy Summaries

The table below lists the 28 greatest philosophers of all time in chronological order.

aesthetics -

nature of beauty

epistemology -

nature of knowledge - rationalism, empiricism, pragmatism

ethics -

problems of right conduct

logic -

laws of valid reasoning

metaphysics -

nature of the universe - idealism, materialism, dualism

Last Name

First

Description

Sophism, Cynicism, Epicureanism

SOCRATES

PLATO

student of Socrates

ARISTOTLE

wide-ranging realistic philosopher

Plotinus

neo-platonism

Augustine

"church of pure belief"

Scholasticism

Aquinas

Thomas

scholasticism

DESCARTES

Rene

"father of modern philosophy"- rationalism

Spinoza

Baruch de

rationalism

Hobbes

Thomas

Locke

John

empiricist

Epistemology

von Leibniz

Gottfried

rationalism

Hume

David

empiricism, skepticism

Kant

Immanuel

metaphysician

Hegel

Georg

idealism

Kierkegaard

Soren

beginning of existentialism

Comte

Auguste

logical positivism

Schopenhauer

Arthur

renunciation of desire

Mill

J. Stuart

utilitarianism, empiricism

Marx

Karl

materialism

Huxley

Thomas

NIETZSCHE

Friedrich

superman

Rousseau

J.J.

romanticism - revolt against rationalism

James

William

pragmatism, the religious experience

Peirce

Charles

originated concept of pragmatism

Santayana

George

animal faith

Jaspers

Karl

existentialism

Russell

Bertrand

ethical relativism

Heidegger

Martin

existentialism

Sartre

John Paul

existentialism

30

60

60

 100

 70

 250

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