6 – Seven thinkers and how they grew: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz; Locke, Berkeley, Hume; Kant.

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

Much of Western philosophy finds its basis in the thoughts and teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. You can’t begin a study of world philosophy without talking about these guys: the Big Three ancient Greek philosophers.

• Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
• Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
• Confucius (551–479 BCE)
• René Descartes (1596–1650)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 82)
• Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
• David Hume (1711–77)
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

10 Contemporary Philosophers to Read Today

• Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947)
• Cornel West (b. 1952)
• Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949)
• Gayatri Spivak (b. 1942)
• Judith Butler (b. 1956)
• Gu Su (b. 1955)
• Thomas Nagel (b. 1937)
• John McDowell (b. 1942)

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Twelve Philosophers are Min Sun (Ziqian), Ran Yong (Zhonggong), Duanmu Ci (Zigong), Zhong You (Zilu), Bu Shang (Zixia), You Ruo (Ziruo), Zai Yu (Ziwo), Ran Geng (Boniu), Ran Qiu (Ziyou), Yan Yan (Ziyou), Zhuansun Shi (Zizhang) – all disciples of Confucius – and Zhu Xi, who established Neo-Confucianism during the Song …

Thales

Classical Greek philosophers

• Socrates (469 – 399 BCE)
• Euclid of Megara (450 – 380 BCE)
• Antisthenes (445 – 360 BCE)
• Aristippus (435 – 356 BCE)
• Plato (428 – 347 BCE)
• Speusippus (407 – 339 BCE)
• Diogenes of Sinope (400 – 325 BCE)
• Xenocrates (396 – 314 BCE)

Author of Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr. Hypatia, (born c. 355 ce—died March 415, Alexandria), mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who lived in a very turbulent era in Alexandria’s history.

In his natural philosophy, Aristotle combines logic with observation to make general, causal claims. For example, in his biology, Aristotle uses the concept of species to make empirical claims about the functions and behavior of individual animals.

The moral theory of Aristotle, like that of Plato, focuses on virtue, recommending the virtuous way of life by its relation to happiness. In subsequent books, excellent activity of the soul is tied to the moral virtues and to the virtue of “practical wisdom” – excellence in thinking and deciding about how to behave.

In metaphysics Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental among them (the Good, or the One); in ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) …

Plato is also considered the founder of Western political philosophy. His most famous contribution is the theory of Forms known by pure reason, in which Plato presents a solution to the problem of universals known as Platonism (also ambiguously called either Platonic realism or Platonic idealism).

He does this to address the second and driving question of the dialogue: “is the just person happier than the unjust person?” or “what is the relation of justice to happiness?” Given the two central questions of the discussion, Plato’s philosophical concerns in the dialogue are ethical and political.