Timeline of 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 Cyrene "(c. 435-366 BCE)". A Cyrenaic. Advocate of ethical hedonism.
* Antisthenes "(c. 444-365 BCE)". Founder of Cynicism. Maintained that the wise cannot be fooled. Pupil of Socrates.
* Xenophon "(c. 427-355 BCE)". Philosopher of history.
* Plato "(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 "(c. 325-265 BCE)". Founder of Euclidean geometry.
* Aristotle "(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 "(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.
* 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 Cady 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.
* Martin Buber "(c. 1878-1965)". Jewish philosopher, existentialist.

1900-2000 CE

* George Santayana "(c. 1863-1952)". Pragmatist, naturalist; known for many aphorisms
* Bertrand Russell "(c. 1872-1970)". Atheist, socialist, extremely influential
* Giovanni Gentile "(c. 1875-1944)". Idealist and Fascist philosopher
* 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.
* H.L.A. Hart "(c. 1907-1992)". Legal positivism.
* 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.
* Richard Rorty ("1931-2007"). Pragmatism, Postanalytic philosophy.
* Jacques Derrida ("1930-2004"). Deconstruction.
* Michel Foucault ("1926-1984"). Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Postmodernism.

See also

* From this point in time forward, see Contemporary philosophy.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:21st_century_philosophers

References

* http://www.philosophypages.com
* http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/CRONLIST.htm
*

External links

* [http://jewishintellectualtimeline.com/ Jewish Intellectual Timeline] , a parallel history of Jewish and non-Jewish intellectual ideas