Doing Philosophy/Prominent Philosophers and Their Contributions

This is a broad survey of prominent and influential philosophers across eras, with short descriptions of their notable ideas and contributions.^[1] This list is organized roughly chronologically to highlight the development of philosophy over time. As you become more proficient, please study more complete, accurate, and nuanced biographies of these and other philosophers. Terms are linked to more complete biographies.

• Socrates (470–399 BCE, Greece) – Developed the Socratic method of questioning; emphasized ethics and the examined life (“The unexamined life is not worth living”).
• Plato (427–347 BCE, Greece) – Founded the Academy; theory of Forms (eternal, abstract realities behind appearances); works like Republic explore justice, politics, and education.
• Aristotle (384–322 BCE, Greece) – Student of Plato; systematized logic, metaphysics, biology, ethics, and politics; advocated the “Golden Mean” in ethics; tutor to Alexander the Great.
• Epicurus (341–270 BCE, Greece) – Founded Epicureanism; emphasized pleasure as absence of pain and tranquility of mind.
• Zeno of Citium (334–262 BCE, Greece) – Founder of Stoicism; taught virtue and rational self-control as the path to happiness.
• Confucius (551–479 BCE, China) – Stressed moral duty, family loyalty, and social harmony; foundation of Confucian philosophy.
• Laozi (6th c. BCE, China) – Associated with Daoism; Dao De Jing teaches harmony with the Dao (the Way), simplicity, and balance.

• Augustine of Hippo (354–430, North Africa) – Combined Christian theology with Neoplatonism; emphasized original sin, divine grace, and the “City of God.”
• Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274, Italy) – Synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology; Summa Theologica articulates natural law and proofs of God’s existence.
• Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980–1037, Persia) – Advanced metaphysics, medicine, and Islamic philosophy; distinction between essence and existence.
• Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126–1198, Spain) – Commentator on Aristotle; defended reason and philosophy within Islamic thought.
• Maimonides (1135–1204, Spain/Egypt) – Jewish philosopher; Guide for the Perplexed reconciles faith and reason.

• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527, Italy) – The Prince; realpolitik; argued rulers should focus on effectiveness over morality.
• René Descartes (1596–1650, France) – “Cogito, ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”); father of modern philosophy; emphasized rationalism and dualism of mind and body.
• Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679, England) – Leviathan; advocated strong sovereign power to prevent chaos; early social contract theory.
• Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677, Netherlands) – Pantheism (God = Nature); promoted rational ethics and determinism.
• John Locke (1632–1704, England) – Father of liberalism; theory of mind as “tabula rasa” (blank slate); social contract and natural rights (life, liberty, property).
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716, Germany) – Co-inventor of calculus; “best of all possible worlds”; monadology.

• David Hume (1711–1776, Scotland) – Empiricism, skepticism; questioned causation and religious belief; moral philosophy grounded in sentiment.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778, Switzerland/France) – Social contract theory emphasizing general will; ideas influenced democracy and the French Revolution.
• Voltaire (1694–1778, France) – Advocated free speech, religious tolerance, and critique of dogma.
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804, Germany) – Synthesized rationalism and empiricism; Critique of Pure Reason; categorical imperative in ethics; autonomy and dignity of persons.

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831, Germany) – Dialectical method (thesis–antithesis–synthesis); influenced political philosophy and history.
• Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860, Germany) – Philosophy of pessimism; “will to live” as fundamental force.
• John Stuart Mill (1806–1873, England) – Utilitarianism; defender of liberty, women’s rights, and free speech (On Liberty).
• Karl Marx (1818–1883, Germany) – Historical materialism; critique of capitalism; theory of class struggle (Das Kapital).
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855, Denmark) – Father of existentialism; emphasized faith, individuality, and subjectivity.
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900, Germany) – Critique of morality, religion, and truth; ideas of “will to power,” “eternal recurrence,” and “God is dead.”
• William James (1842–1910, USA) – Pragmatism; psychology of religion; truth as what works in practice.
• Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914, USA) – Founder of pragmatism; contributions to semiotics and logic.

• Bertrand Russell (1872–1970, England) – Logic, analytic philosophy, pacifism; Principia Mathematica (with Whitehead).
• Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951, Austria/UK) – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations; philosophy of language and meaning.
• Martin Heidegger (1889–1976, Germany) – Being and Time; existential phenomenology; “being-in-the-world.”
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980, France) – Existentialism; radical freedom and responsibility; Being and Nothingness.
• Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986, France) – Existentialist and feminist philosopher; The Second Sex critiques women’s oppression.
• Hannah Arendt (1906–1975, Germany/USA) – Political philosopher; The Human Condition, Eichmann in Jerusalem (banality of evil).
• Michel Foucault (1926–1984, France) – Critique of power, institutions, and knowledge; studies on prisons, sexuality, and madness.
• John Rawls (1921–2002, USA) – A Theory of Justice; “justice as fairness” and the veil of ignorance.
• Robert Nozick (1938–2002, USA) – Libertarianism; Anarchy, State, and Utopia in contrast to Rawls.
• Jürgen Habermas (1929– , Germany) – Critical theory; theory of communicative action; deliberative democracy.
• Martha Nussbaum (1947– , USA) – Capabilities approach to human development and justice; applied ethics, emotions.
• Cornel West (1953– , USA) – Pragmatism, race, democracy; critiques of capitalism and social injustice.
• Peter Singer (1946– , Australia) – Applied ethics; utilitarian defense of animal rights; effective altruism.

1. ↑ ChatGPT generated this text responding to the prompt: “Provide a list of prominent and influential philosophers and describe their notable ideas and contributions”.