{ "source": "https://peabody.kids/flashcards/tp-philosophers", "id": "tp-philosophers", "title": "Famous Philosophers and Their Big Ideas", "category": "test-prep", "subject": "Philosophy", "levels": [ "9-12", "college", "adult" ], "description": "Major thinkers from ancient times to the modern era and what each is known for.", "tags": [ "philosophy", "history-of-ideas" ], "frontLabel": "Philosopher", "backLabel": "Known for", "cards": [ [ "Thales", "Early Greek thinker who said water is the basic stuff of everything" ], [ "Heraclitus", "Said everything is in flux: 'you cannot step into the same river twice'" ], [ "Parmenides", "Argued that reality is unchanging and that change is an illusion" ], [ "Pythagoras", "Greek thinker linking number and harmony to the structure of the universe" ], [ "Democritus", "Proposed that all matter is made of tiny indivisible atoms" ], [ "Zeno of Elea", "Posed paradoxes arguing that motion is impossible" ], [ "Socrates", "Questioned others to find truth; 'the unexamined life is not worth living'" ], [ "Plato", "Student of Socrates; theory of Forms and the Republic" ], [ "Aristotle", "Student of Plato; logic, virtue ethics and the golden mean" ], [ "Epicurus", "Taught that a good life is tranquility and freedom from fear and pain" ], [ "Zeno of Citium", "Founder of Stoicism" ], [ "Epictetus", "Stoic who taught focusing on what is within our control" ], [ "Marcus Aurelius", "Roman emperor and Stoic; wrote the Meditations" ], [ "Seneca", "Roman Stoic who wrote letters on living well" ], [ "Confucius", "Chinese thinker who stressed virtue, family duty and respect" ], [ "Laozi", "Traditional author of the Tao Te Ching, central to Daoism" ], [ "Mencius", "Confucian thinker who held that human nature is good" ], [ "Sun Tzu", "Author of The Art of War" ], [ "Siddhartha Gautama", "The Buddha, founder of Buddhism, who taught the path ending suffering" ], [ "Augustine of Hippo", "Early Christian thinker who wrote Confessions and City of God" ], [ "Boethius", "Roman philosopher who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy" ], [ "Avicenna (Ibn Sina)", "Persian philosopher and physician whose works shaped medieval thought" ], [ "Averroes (Ibn Rushd)", "Andalusian philosopher who commented on Aristotle" ], [ "Maimonides", "Medieval Jewish philosopher who wrote the Guide for the Perplexed" ], [ "Thomas Aquinas", "Medieval thinker who blended Aristotle with Christian theology" ], [ "Ibn Khaldun", "North African scholar who studied the rise and fall of societies" ], [ "Niccolo Machiavelli", "Wrote The Prince on power and politics" ], [ "Thomas More", "Wrote Utopia, describing an imagined ideal society" ], [ "Francis Bacon", "Champion of the scientific method based on observation" ], [ "Thomas Hobbes", "Argued that strong government is needed to avoid a life that is 'nasty, brutish and short'" ], [ "Rene Descartes", "'I think, therefore I am'; mind-body dualism" ], [ "Blaise Pascal", "Mathematician and thinker who proposed Pascal's wager" ], [ "Baruch Spinoza", "Rationalist who saw god and nature as one" ], [ "John Locke", "Empiricist who argued for natural rights and government by consent" ], [ "Gottfried Leibniz", "Rationalist who said we live in 'the best of all possible worlds'" ], [ "George Berkeley", "Idealist: 'to be is to be perceived'" ], [ "David Hume", "Empiricist skeptic who questioned cause and effect and induction" ], [ "Jean-Jacques Rousseau", "Wrote The Social Contract and the idea of the general will" ], [ "Voltaire", "Enlightenment writer who defended tolerance and free speech" ], [ "Montesquieu", "Argued for the separation of powers" ], [ "Adam Smith", "Moral philosopher and economist who wrote The Wealth of Nations" ], [ "Immanuel Kant", "Categorical imperative; argued the mind shapes experience" ], [ "Mary Wollstonecraft", "Early advocate for women's education and rights" ], [ "G.W.F. Hegel", "Idealist who saw history as the unfolding of reason; dialectic" ], [ "Arthur Schopenhauer", "Pessimist who saw will as the root of suffering" ], [ "Jeremy Bentham", "Founder of utilitarianism" ], [ "John Stuart Mill", "Utilitarian who defended liberty in On Liberty" ], [ "Soren Kierkegaard", "Founder of existentialism; the leap of faith" ], [ "Karl Marx", "Analyzed capitalism and class struggle" ], [ "Friedrich Nietzsche", "Declared 'God is dead'; will to power and the overman" ], [ "William James", "American pragmatist and psychologist" ], [ "Charles Sanders Peirce", "Founder of pragmatism" ], [ "John Dewey", "Pragmatist who championed learning by doing" ], [ "Henry David Thoreau", "Wrote Walden and Civil Disobedience" ], [ "Ralph Waldo Emerson", "Transcendentalist who urged self-reliance" ], [ "Edmund Husserl", "Founder of phenomenology" ], [ "Martin Heidegger", "Wrote Being and Time on the meaning of being" ], [ "Bertrand Russell", "Logician and philosopher who co-wrote Principia Mathematica" ], [ "Ludwig Wittgenstein", "Philosopher of language: 'the limits of my language mean the limits of my world'" ], [ "Karl Popper", "Proposed falsifiability as the mark of science" ], [ "Thomas Kuhn", "Wrote about scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts" ], [ "Jean-Paul Sartre", "Existentialist: 'existence precedes essence'" ], [ "Simone de Beauvoir", "Existentialist feminist who wrote The Second Sex" ], [ "Albert Camus", "Writer on the absurd who wrote The Myth of Sisyphus" ], [ "Hannah Arendt", "Political thinker who wrote about totalitarianism and the 'banality of evil'" ], [ "Maurice Merleau-Ponty", "Phenomenologist who emphasized the lived body" ], [ "Michel Foucault", "Studied how power and knowledge shape society" ], [ "John Rawls", "Wrote A Theory of Justice with the veil of ignorance" ], [ "Robert Nozick", "Libertarian philosopher who wrote Anarchy, State, and Utopia" ], [ "Peter Singer", "Utilitarian ethicist known for work on animals and global poverty" ], [ "Martha Nussbaum", "Philosopher of the capabilities approach and emotions" ], [ "Alan Turing", "Mathematician who posed the Turing test for machine intelligence" ], [ "Gottlob Frege", "Founder of modern logic and philosophy of language" ], [ "Kurt Godel", "Logician whose incompleteness theorems limit formal systems" ], [ "John Searle", "Proposed the Chinese room argument" ], [ "Daniel Dennett", "Philosopher of mind who wrote about consciousness and evolution" ], [ "Thomas Nagel", "Asked 'What is it like to be a bat?'" ], [ "Derek Parfit", "Philosopher of personal identity and ethics" ], [ "W.E.B. Du Bois", "Scholar who developed the idea of double consciousness" ], [ "Frantz Fanon", "Thinker on colonialism and identity" ], [ "Mahatma Gandhi", "Developed nonviolent resistance as a philosophy and strategy" ], [ "Martin Luther King Jr.", "Applied nonviolent philosophy to civil rights" ], [ "Rumi", "Persian poet and mystic of the 13th century" ], [ "Al-Farabi", "Philosopher who blended Greek and Islamic thought" ], [ "Al-Ghazali", "Islamic theologian who critiqued the philosophers" ], [ "Nagarjuna", "Buddhist philosopher of emptiness" ], [ "Zhuangzi", "Daoist thinker known for stories about perspective and freedom" ], [ "Mozi", "Chinese philosopher who taught impartial care" ], [ "Xunzi", "Confucian who held that human nature needs shaping" ], [ "Wang Yangming", "Chinese Neo-Confucian who stressed the unity of knowledge and action" ], [ "Hypatia", "Alexandrian philosopher and mathematician" ], [ "Aristotle's Lyceum", "School Aristotle founded in Athens" ], [ "Plato's Academy", "School Plato founded in Athens" ] ] }