Timeline of Western philosophers

 

Timeline of eastern | western philosophers

A wide-ranging list of philosophers from the Western traditions of philosophy. Included are not only philosophers (Socrates, Plato), but also those who have had a marked importance upon the philosophy of the day.

The list stops at the year 1950, after which philosophers fall into the category of Contemporary philosophy.

Western & Middle Eastern Philosophers

Classical Philosophers

600-500 BCE

• Thales of Miletus (ca. 624-546 BCE). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.
• Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610-546 BCE). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".
• Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585-525 BCE). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.
• Pythagoras of Samos (c. approx. 580-500 BCE). Of the Ionic school. Understood the deepest reality to be composed of numbers; believed that souls are immortal.
• Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-480 BCE). Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school. Politically anti-militant, and epistemically skeptical.

500-400 BCE

• Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. approx. 535-475 BCE). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the world, which he understood to be analogous to fire.
• Parmenides of Elea (c. 515-450 BCE). Of the Eleatics.
• Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500-428 BCE). Of the Ionians. Atomist.
• Zeno (c. approx. 490-430 BCE). Of the Eleatics. Famous for Zeno's paradoxes.
• Empedocles of Acragas (c. 490-430 BCE). Believed in metaphysical doctrine of four elements. Advocate of ethical vegetarianism.
• Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481-420 BCE). Sophist. Early advocate of relativism.
• Hippias (middle of the 5th century BCE). Sophist.
• Gorgias. (c. 483-375 BCE). Sophist.
• Socrates of Athens (ca. 470-399 BCE). Emphasized virtue ethics. In epistemology, understood dialectic to be central to the pursuit of truth.
• Leucippus of Miletus (First half of 5th century BCE). Atomist, Determinist.
• Democritus of Abdera (c. 450-370 BCE). Atomist.
• Archelaus. A pupil of Anaxagoras.
• Melissus of Samos. Eleatic.
• Cratylus.
• Ion of Chios.
• Echecrates.
• Timaeus of Locri.

400-300 BCE

• Aristippus of North Africa (c. 435-366 BCE). A Cyreniac. Advocate of ethical hedonism.
• Antisthenes of Athens (c. 444-365 BCE). Founder of Cynicism. Maintained that the wise cannot be fooled. Pupil of Socrates.
• Xenophon of Greece (c. 427-355 BCE). Philosopher of history.
• Plato of Athens (c. 427-347 BCE). Famed for view of the transcendental forms. Advocated polity governed by philosophers.
• Diogenes of Sinope (c. approx. 399-323 BCE). Cynic.
• Euclid of Greece (c. 325-265 BCE). Founder of Euclidean geometry.
• Aristotle of Stageira (c. 384-322 BCE). A polymath whose works ranged across all philosophical fields.
• Strato of Lampsacus (ca. 340 BC–ca. 268 BC). Atheist, Materialist.
• Xenocrates (c. 396-314 BCE). Disciple of Plato.
• Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-270 BCE). Skeptic.

Hellenistic Philosophers

300-200 BCE

• Epicurus of Samos (c. 341-270 BCE). Materialist Atomist, hedonist.
• Zeno of Citium (c. 333-264 BCE). Founder of Stoicism. Anarchist. Held that the acceptance of objectivity allows the overcoming of passions.
• Timon (c. 320-230 BCE). Pyrrhonist, skeptic.
• Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287-212 BCE). Renowned engineer and mathematician.
• Chrysippus of Soli (c. 280-207 BCE). Major figure in Stoicism.

200-100 BCE

• Carneades (c. 214-129 BCE). Academic skeptic. Understood probability as the purveyor of truth.

100-0 BCE

• Lucretius (c. 99-55 BCE). Epicurean.

Roman Era Philosophers

0-100 CE

• Cicero (c.106 BCE-43 BCE)
• Philo (c. 20 BCE-40 CE). Believed in the allegorical method of reading texts.
• Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BCE-65 CE). Stoic.

100-200 CE

• Epictetus (c.55-135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self-determination.
• Marcus Aurelius (121-180). Stoic.

200-400 CE

• Sextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries CE). Skeptic, Pyrrhonist.
• Plotinus (ca. 205-270). Neoplatonist. Had a holistic metaphysics.
• Porphyry (c.232-304). Student of Plotinus.
• Iamblichus of Syria (ca. 245-325). Late neoplatonist. Espoused theurgy.
• Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430). Original Sin. Church father.
• Proclus (c. 412-485). Neoplatonist.

Western Medieval Era Philosophers

500-800 CE

• Boethius (c. 480–524).
• John Philoponus (c. 490–570).

800-900 CE

• Al-Kindi (c. 801-873). Major figure in Islamic philosophy. Influenced by Neoplatonism.
• John the Scot (ca. 815-877). Pelagian, neoplatonist, pantheist.

900-1000 CE

• al-Faràbi (c. 870-950). Major Islamic philosopher. Neoplatonist.
• Saadia Gaon (c. 882-942).
• al-Razi (c. 865-925). Rationalist. Major Islamic philosopher. Held that God creates universe by rearranging pre-existing laws.

1000-1100 CE

• Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980-1037). Major Islamic philosopher.
• Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) (c. 1021-1058). Jewish philosopher.
• Anselm (c. ~1034–1109). Christian philosopher. Produced ontological argument for the existence of God.
• al-Ghazali (c. 1058-1111). Islamic philosopher. Mystic.

1100-1200 CE

• Peter Abelard (c. 1079-1142). Scholastic philosopher. Dealt with problem of universals.
• Abraham ibn Daud (ca. 1110-1180). Jewish philosophy.
• Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160). Scholastic.
• Averroes (Ibn Rushd, "The Commentator") (c. 1126-December 10, 1198). Islamic philosopher.
• Maimonides (c. 1135-1204). Jewish philosophy.
• St Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226). Ascetic.

1200-1300 CE

• Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253).
• Albert the Great (c. 1193-1280). Early Empiricist.
• Roger Bacon (c. 1214-1294). Empiricist, mathematician.
• Thomas Aquinas (c. 1221-1274). Christian philosopher.
• Bonaventure (c. 1225-1274). Franciscan.
• Siger (c. 1240-1280s). Averroist.
• Boetius of Dacia. Averroist, Aristotelian.

1300-1400 CE

• Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308). Franciscan, Scholastic.
• Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328). Pantheist, mystic.
• John Wycliffe (c.1320-1384).
• Marsilius of Padua (c. 1270-1342). Understood chief function of state as mediator.
• William of Ockham (c. 1288-1348). Franciscan. Scholastic. Nominalist, creator of Ockham's razor.
• Gersonides (c. 1288-1344). Jewish philosopher.
• Jean Buridan (c. 1300-1358). Nominalist.
• Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340-~1411). Jewish philosopher.

1400-1500 CE

• Nicholas of Cusa (c. 1401-1464). Christian philosopher.
• Lorenzo Valla (c. 1406-August 1, 1457). Humanist, critic of scholastic logic.
• Pico della Mirandola (c. 1463-1494). Renaissance humanist.

Early Modern Philosophers

1500-1550 CE

• Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536). Humanist, advocate of free will.
• Niccolò Machiavelli (c. 1469-1527). Political realism.
• Copernicus (c. 1473-1543).
• Sir Thomas More (c. 1478-1535). Humanist, created term "utopia".
• Petrus Ramus (c. 1515-1572).
• Martin Luther (c. 1483-1546). Major Western Christian theologian.

1550-1600 CE

• Teresa of Avila (c. 1515-1582). Spanish mystic.
• Michel de Montaigne (c. 1533-1592). Humanist, skeptic.
• Giordano Bruno (c. 1548-1600). Advocate of heliocentrism.
• Francisco Suarez (c. 1548-1617). Politically proto-liberal.
• John Calvin (c. 1509-1564). Major Western Christian theologian.
• Pierre Charron (c. 1541-1603).

1600-1650 CE

• Marin Mersenne (c. 1588-1648). Cartesian.
• Francis Bacon (c. 1561-1626). Empiricist.
• Hugo Grotius (c. 1583-1645). Natural law theorist.
• Galileo Galilei (c. 1564-1642). Heliocentrist.
• Herbert of Cherbury. Nativist.
• Pierre Gassendi (c. 1592-1655). Mechanicism. Empiricist.
• Elizabeth of Bohemia (c. 1618-1680). Non-dualist.
• Queen Kristina (c. 1626-1689).
• René Descartes (c. 1596-1650). Heliocentrism, dualism, rationalism.
• Pierre de Fermat (c. 1601-1665). Probability theorist.
• Robert Filmer (c. 1588-1653).

1650-1700 CE

• Thomas Hobbes (c. 1588-1679). Political realist.
• Joseph Glanvill (c. 1636-1680).
• Arnold Geulincx (c. 1624-1669). Important occasionalist theorist.
• Blaise Pascal (c. 1623-1662). Physicist, scientist. Noted for Pascal's wager.
• Henry More (c. 1614-1687).
• Geraud Cordemoy. Dualist.
• Pierre Nicole (c. 1625-1695).
• Ralph Cudworth (c. 1617-1688). Cambridge Platonist.
• Margaret Cavendish (c. 1623-1673). Materialist, feminist.
• Antoine Arnauld (c. 1612-1694).
• Richard Cumberland (c. 1631-1718). Early proponent of utilitarianism.
• Jacques Rohault.(c.1617-1672) [Cartesian]
• Simon Foucher (c. 1644-1696). Skeptic.
• Robert Boyle (c. 1627-1691).
• Nicolas Malebranche (c. 1638-1715). Cartesian.
• Samuel von Pufendorf (c. 1632-1694). Social contract theorist.
• Baruch Spinoza (c. 1632-1677).
• Isaac Newton (c. 1643-1727).
• Anne Conway (c. 1631-1679).
• Pierre Régis.
• John Locke (c. 1632-1704). Major Empiricist. Political philosopher.
• Damaris Masham.
• John Toland (c. 1670-1722).
• Pierre Bayle (c. 1647-1706). Pyrrhonist.
• Madeline de Souvré.

1700-1750 CE

• Samuel Clarke (c. 1675-1729).
• Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (c. 1671-1713).
• John Norris (c. 1657-1711). Malebranchian.
• Gottfried Leibniz (c. 1646-1716). Co-inventor of the calculus.
• George Berkeley (c. 1685-1753). Idealist, empiricist.
• Catherine Cockburn (c. 1679-1749).
• Giambattista Vico (c. 1668-1744).
• Bernard Mandeville (c. 1670-1733).
• Francis Hutcheson (c. 1694-1746). Proto-utilitarian.
• Joseph Butler (c. 1692-1752).
• Christian Wolff (c. 1679-1754). Determinist, rationalist.
• John Gay (philosopher).
• David Hume (c. 1711-1776). Empiricist, skeptic.
• Julien La Mettrie (c. 1709-1751). Materialist, genetic determinist.
• David Hartley (c. 1705-1757).
• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (c. 1689-1755). Skeptic, humanist.

1750-1800 CE

• Etienne de Condillac.
• Richard Price (c. 1723-1791). Political liberal.
• Jean d'Alembert (c. 1717-1783).
• Voltaire (c. 1694-1778).
• Denis Diderot (c. 1713-1784).
• John Wesley (c. 1703-1791).
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (c. 1712-1778). Social contract political philosopher.
• Baron d'Holbach (c. 1723-1789). Materialist, atheist.
• Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771). Utilitarian.
• Adam Smith (c. 1723-1790). Economic theorist, member of Scottish Enlightenment.
• Thomas Jefferson (c. 1743-1826). Liberal political philosopher.
• Thomas Reid (c. 1710-1796). Member of Scottish Enlightenment, founder of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.
• G.E. Lessing (c. 1729-1781).
• Edmund Burke (c. 1729-1797). Conservative political philosopher.
• Immanuel Kant (c. 1724-1804),. Deontologist, proponent of synthetic a priori truths.
• Mary Wollstonecraft (c. 1759-1797). Feminist.
• Jeremy Bentham (c. 1748-1832). Utilitarian, hedonist.
• Moses Mendelssohn (c. 1729-1786). Member of the Jewish Enlightenment.
• Sylvain Maréchal (c. August 15, 1750—January 18, 1803) Anarcho-communist ,Deist
• Dugald Stewart (c. 1753-1828).
• William Godwin (c. 1756-1836). Anarchist, utilitarian.
• Friedrich Schiller (c. 1759-1805).
• William Paley (c. 1743-1805).
• Johann Gottlieb Fichte (c. 1762-1814).

Modern Philosophers

1800-1850 CE

• Joseph de Maistre (c. 1753-1821) Conservative
• Madame de Staël (c. 1766-1817).
• F.W.J. von Schelling (c. 1775-1854). German idealist.
• Friedrich Schleiermacher (c. 1768-1834). Hermeneutician.
• P.S. de Laplace (c. 1749-1827). Determinist.
• G.W.F. Hegel (c. 1770-1831). German idealist.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (c. 1744-1829). Early evolutionary theorist.
• Comte de Saint-Simon (c. 1760-1825). Socialist.
• Arthur Schopenhauer (c. 1788-1860). Pessimist.
• Richard Whately (c. 1787-1863).
• Charles Babbage (c. 1791-1871).
• John Austin (c. 1790-1859). Legal positivist, utilitarian.
• Auguste Comte (c. 1798-1857). Social philosopher, positivist.
• William Whewell (c. 1794-1866).
• James Mill (c. 1773-1836). Utilitarian.
• P.J. Proudhon (c. 1809-1865). Anarchist.
• Bernard Bolzano (c. 1781-1848).
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (c. 1803-1882). Abolitionist, egalitarian, humanist.
• Ludwig Feuerbach (c. 1804-1872).
• Augustus De Morgan (c. 1806-1871). Logician.
• Charles Darwin (c. 1809-1882).
• Margaret Fuller (c. 1810-1850). Egalitarian.
• Søren Kierkegaard (c. 1813-1855). Existentialist.
• Henry David Thoreau (c. 1817-1862). Pacifist.

1850-1900 CE

• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883). Egalitarian.
• Karl Marx (c. 1818-1883). Socialist, ,Atheist formulated historical materialism.
• Harriet Taylor Mill (c. 1807-1858). Egalitarian, utilitarian.
• Friedrich Engels (c. 1820-1895). Egalitarian, dialectical materialist.
• Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (c. 1788-1856).
• J. S. Mill (c. 1806-1873). Utilitarian.
• Rudolf Lotze.
• Herbert Spencer (c. 1820-1903). Nativism, libertarianism, social Darwinism.
• John Venn (c. 1834-1923).
• Susan B. Anthony (c. 1820-1906). Feminist.
• Mikhail Bakunin (c. 1814-1876). Revolutionary anarchist.
• Franz Brentano (c. 1838-1917). Phenomenologist.

• Henry Sidgwick (c. 1838-1900). Rationalism, utilitarianism.
• Richard Dedekind (c. 1831-1916).
• W. K. Clifford (c. 1845-1879). Evidentialist.
• Charles Peirce (c. 1839-1914). Pragmatist.
• Edward Caird (c. 1835-1908). Idealist.
• Ernst Mach (c. 1838-1916). Philosopher of science, influence on logical positivism.
• T.H. Green (c. 1836-1882). British idealist.
• Gottlob Frege (c. 1848-1925). Influential analytic philosopher.
• Wilhelm Dilthey (c. 1833-1911).
• Friedrich Nietzsche (c. 1844-1900). Naturalistic philosopher, influence on Existentialism.
• Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (c. 1832-1898).
• Bernard Bosanquet (c. 1848-1923). Idealist.
• Giuseppe Peano (c. 1858-1932).
• Elizabeth Stanton (c. 1815-1902). Egalitarian.
• David George Ritchie (c. 1853–1903). Idealist.
• Émile Durkheim (c. 1858–1917). Social philosopher.
• William James (c. 1842-1910). Pragmatist.
• Josiah Royce (c. 1855-1916). Idealist.
• F.H. Bradley (c. 1846-1924) . Idealist.
• Vilfredo Pareto (c. 1848-1923). Social philosopher.
• Thorstein Veblen (c. 1857-1929). Social philosopher.
• Sigmund Freud (c. 1856-1939). Creator of psychodynamic philosophy of mind.
• Max Weber (c. 1864-1920). Social philosopher.
• Henri Bergson (c. 1859-1941).
• John Dewey (c. 1859-1952). Pragmatist.
• Alexius Meinong (c. 1853-1920). Logical realist.
• Cook Wilson.
• Henri Poincaré (c. 1854-1912).
• Pierre Duhem (c. 1861-1916).
• Edmund Husserl (c. 1859-1938). Founder of phenomenology.
• Samuel Alexander (c. 1859-1938). Perceptual realist.
• Jane Addams (c. 1860-1935). Pragmatist.
• Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (c. 1856-1931).
• G.E. Moore (c. 1873-1958). Common sense theorist, ethical non-naturalist.
• Benedetto Croce (c. 1866-1952).
• Carl Jung (c. 1875-1961). Founded analytical psychology.
• Emma Goldman (c. 1869-1940). Anarchist.
• Hans Vaihinger (c. 1852-1933). Specialist in counterfactuals.
• Rosa Luxemburg (c. 1870-1919). Marxist political philosopher.
• Miguel de Unamuno (c. 1864-1936).
• Ferdinand de Saussure (c. 1857-1913). Linguistic

structuralist.

• J. M. E. McTaggart (c. 1866-1925). Idealist.
• George Herbert Mead (c. 1863-1931). Pragmatist, symbolic interactionist.
• Alfred North Whitehead (c. 1861-1947). Logician.
• George Santayana (c. 1863-1952). Pragmatist.
• Martin Buber (c. 1878-1965). Jewish philosopher, existentialist.

1900-2000 CE

• Bertrand Russell (c. 1872-1970). Atheist, logical positivist.
• Georg Lukács (c. 1885-1971). Marxist philosopher.
• C. D. Broad (c. 1887-1971).
• A.O. Lovejoy (c. 1873-1962).
• W.D. Ross (c. 1877-1971). Deontologist.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (c. 1881-1955). Christian evolutionist.
• Nikolai Berdyaev (c. 1874-1948). Existentialist.
• Martin Heidegger (c. 1889-1976). Phenomenologist.
• Hans Kelsen (c. 1881-1973). Legal positivist.
• Moritz Schlick (c. 1882-1936). Founder of Vienna Circle, logical positivism.
• Otto Neurath (c. 1882-1945). Member of Vienna Circle.
• Frank P. Ramsey (c. 1903-1930). Proposed redundancy theory of truth.
• Ernst Cassirer (c. 1874-1945).
• Nicolai Hartmann (c. 1882-1950).
• Karl Barth (c. 1886-1968).
• Kurt Gödel (c. 1906-1978). Vienna Circle.
• Ralph Barton Perry (c. 1876-1957).
• Antonio Gramsci (c. 1891-1937). Marxist philosopher.
• Roman Ingarden (c. 1893-1970). Perceptual realist, phenomenalist.
• C.I. Lewis (c. 1883-1964). Conceptual pragmatist.
• Gaston Bachelard (c. 1884-1962).
• A.J. Ayer (c. 1910-1989). Logical positivist, emotivist.
• Friedrich Waismann (c. 1896-1959). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Jacques Maritain (c. 1882-1973). Human rights theorist.
• José Ortega y Gasset (c. 1883-1955). Philosopher of History.
• Alfred Tarski (c. 1901-1983). Created T-Convention in semantics.
• Rudolf Carnap (c. 1891-1970). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Willard van Orman Quine (c. 1908-2000).
• Brand Blanshard (c. 1892-1987).
• E. Nagel (c. 1901-1985). Logical positivist.
• Karl Popper (c. 1902-1994). Falsificationist.
• Ernest Addison Moody (c. 1903-1975).
• Jean-Paul Sartre (c. 1905-1980). Humanism, existentialism.
• Gilbert Ryle (c. 1900-1976).
• H.H. Price.
• Susanne Langer (c. 1895-1985).
• Albert Camus (c. 1913-1960). Absurdist.
• Mortimer Adler (c. 1902-2001).
• Karl Jaspers (c. 1883-1969). Existentialist.
• C.L. Stevenson (c. 1908-1979).
• Ludwig Wittgenstein (c. 1889-1951). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Theodor Adorno (c. 1903-1969). Frankfurt School.
• Alan Turing (c. 1912-1954). Functionalist in philosophy of mind.
• H.A. Prichard (c. 1871-1947). Moral intuitionist.
• Gabriel Marcel (c. 1889-1973). Christian existentialist.
• Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979). Frankfurt School.
• Simone Weil (c. 1909-1943).
• Simone de Beauvoir (c. 1908-1986). Existentialist, feminist.
• Frantz Fanon (c. 1925-1961).
• John Howard Yoder (c. 1927-1997) . Pacifist.
• John Rawls (1921-2002). Liberal.
• Robert Nozick (1938-2002). Libertarian.

See also

• From this point in time forward, see Contemporary philosophy.

References

• Kemerling, Garth (2002). "Timeline of Western Philosophers".  http://www.philosophypages.com
• LaFave, Sandra (2006). "Chronological List of Western Philosophers".  http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/CRONLIST.htm
• Russell, Bertrand (MCMLIX). Wisdom of the West. London: Rathbone Books, Ltd.. 

External links

• Jewish Intellectual Timeline, a parallel history of Jewish and non-Jewish intellectual ideas

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