#separator:tab #html:false #tags column:4 Thales Early Greek thinker who said water is the basic stuff of everything tp-philosophers Heraclitus Said everything is in flux: 'you cannot step into the same river twice' tp-philosophers Parmenides Argued that reality is unchanging and that change is an illusion tp-philosophers Pythagoras Greek thinker linking number and harmony to the structure of the universe tp-philosophers Democritus Proposed that all matter is made of tiny indivisible atoms tp-philosophers Zeno of Elea Posed paradoxes arguing that motion is impossible tp-philosophers Socrates Questioned others to find truth; 'the unexamined life is not worth living' tp-philosophers Plato Student of Socrates; theory of Forms and the Republic tp-philosophers Aristotle Student of Plato; logic, virtue ethics and the golden mean tp-philosophers Epicurus Taught that a good life is tranquility and freedom from fear and pain tp-philosophers Zeno of Citium Founder of Stoicism tp-philosophers Epictetus Stoic who taught focusing on what is within our control tp-philosophers Marcus Aurelius Roman emperor and Stoic; wrote the Meditations tp-philosophers Seneca Roman Stoic who wrote letters on living well tp-philosophers Confucius Chinese thinker who stressed virtue, family duty and respect tp-philosophers Laozi Traditional author of the Tao Te Ching, central to Daoism tp-philosophers Mencius Confucian thinker who held that human nature is good tp-philosophers Sun Tzu Author of The Art of War tp-philosophers Siddhartha Gautama The Buddha, founder of Buddhism, who taught the path ending suffering tp-philosophers Augustine of Hippo Early Christian thinker who wrote Confessions and City of God tp-philosophers Boethius Roman philosopher who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy tp-philosophers Avicenna (Ibn Sina) Persian philosopher and physician whose works shaped medieval thought tp-philosophers Averroes (Ibn Rushd) Andalusian philosopher who commented on Aristotle tp-philosophers Maimonides Medieval Jewish philosopher who wrote the Guide for the Perplexed tp-philosophers Thomas Aquinas Medieval thinker who blended Aristotle with Christian theology tp-philosophers Ibn Khaldun North African scholar who studied the rise and fall of societies tp-philosophers Niccolo Machiavelli Wrote The Prince on power and politics tp-philosophers Thomas More Wrote Utopia, describing an imagined ideal society tp-philosophers Francis Bacon Champion of the scientific method based on observation tp-philosophers Thomas Hobbes Argued that strong government is needed to avoid a life that is 'nasty, brutish and short' tp-philosophers Rene Descartes 'I think, therefore I am'; mind-body dualism tp-philosophers Blaise Pascal Mathematician and thinker who proposed Pascal's wager tp-philosophers Baruch Spinoza Rationalist who saw god and nature as one tp-philosophers John Locke Empiricist who argued for natural rights and government by consent tp-philosophers Gottfried Leibniz Rationalist who said we live in 'the best of all possible worlds' tp-philosophers George Berkeley Idealist: 'to be is to be perceived' tp-philosophers David Hume Empiricist skeptic who questioned cause and effect and induction tp-philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau Wrote The Social Contract and the idea of the general will tp-philosophers Voltaire Enlightenment writer who defended tolerance and free speech tp-philosophers Montesquieu Argued for the separation of powers tp-philosophers Adam Smith Moral philosopher and economist who wrote The Wealth of Nations tp-philosophers Immanuel Kant Categorical imperative; argued the mind shapes experience tp-philosophers Mary Wollstonecraft Early advocate for women's education and rights tp-philosophers G.W.F. Hegel Idealist who saw history as the unfolding of reason; dialectic tp-philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer Pessimist who saw will as the root of suffering tp-philosophers Jeremy Bentham Founder of utilitarianism tp-philosophers John Stuart Mill Utilitarian who defended liberty in On Liberty tp-philosophers Soren Kierkegaard Founder of existentialism; the leap of faith tp-philosophers Karl Marx Analyzed capitalism and class struggle tp-philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche Declared 'God is dead'; will to power and the overman tp-philosophers William James American pragmatist and psychologist tp-philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce Founder of pragmatism tp-philosophers John Dewey Pragmatist who championed learning by doing tp-philosophers Henry David Thoreau Wrote Walden and Civil Disobedience tp-philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson Transcendentalist who urged self-reliance tp-philosophers Edmund Husserl Founder of phenomenology tp-philosophers Martin Heidegger Wrote Being and Time on the meaning of being tp-philosophers Bertrand Russell Logician and philosopher who co-wrote Principia Mathematica tp-philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosopher of language: 'the limits of my language mean the limits of my world' tp-philosophers Karl Popper Proposed falsifiability as the mark of science tp-philosophers Thomas Kuhn Wrote about scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts tp-philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre Existentialist: 'existence precedes essence' tp-philosophers Simone de Beauvoir Existentialist feminist who wrote The Second Sex tp-philosophers Albert Camus Writer on the absurd who wrote The Myth of Sisyphus tp-philosophers Hannah Arendt Political thinker who wrote about totalitarianism and the 'banality of evil' tp-philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty Phenomenologist who emphasized the lived body tp-philosophers Michel Foucault Studied how power and knowledge shape society tp-philosophers John Rawls Wrote A Theory of Justice with the veil of ignorance tp-philosophers Robert Nozick Libertarian philosopher who wrote Anarchy, State, and Utopia tp-philosophers Peter Singer Utilitarian ethicist known for work on animals and global poverty tp-philosophers Martha Nussbaum Philosopher of the capabilities approach and emotions tp-philosophers Alan Turing Mathematician who posed the Turing test for machine intelligence tp-philosophers Gottlob Frege Founder of modern logic and philosophy of language tp-philosophers Kurt Godel Logician whose incompleteness theorems limit formal systems tp-philosophers John Searle Proposed the Chinese room argument tp-philosophers Daniel Dennett Philosopher of mind who wrote about consciousness and evolution tp-philosophers Thomas Nagel Asked 'What is it like to be a bat?' tp-philosophers Derek Parfit Philosopher of personal identity and ethics tp-philosophers W.E.B. Du Bois Scholar who developed the idea of double consciousness tp-philosophers Frantz Fanon Thinker on colonialism and identity tp-philosophers Mahatma Gandhi Developed nonviolent resistance as a philosophy and strategy tp-philosophers Martin Luther King Jr. Applied nonviolent philosophy to civil rights tp-philosophers Rumi Persian poet and mystic of the 13th century tp-philosophers Al-Farabi Philosopher who blended Greek and Islamic thought tp-philosophers Al-Ghazali Islamic theologian who critiqued the philosophers tp-philosophers Nagarjuna Buddhist philosopher of emptiness tp-philosophers Zhuangzi Daoist thinker known for stories about perspective and freedom tp-philosophers Mozi Chinese philosopher who taught impartial care tp-philosophers Xunzi Confucian who held that human nature needs shaping tp-philosophers Wang Yangming Chinese Neo-Confucian who stressed the unity of knowledge and action tp-philosophers Hypatia Alexandrian philosopher and mathematician tp-philosophers Aristotle's Lyceum School Aristotle founded in Athens tp-philosophers Plato's Academy School Plato founded in Athens tp-philosophers