Ethical Philosopher

Socrates

469 BCE

During his life Socrates was predominantly interested in ethics. Self-knowledge is a sufficient condition to the good life. Socrates identifies knowledge with virtue. If knowledge can be learned, so can virtue. Thus, Socrates states virtue can be taught. He believes “the unexamined life is not worth living.” One must seek knowledge and wisdom before private interests. In this manner, knowledge is sought as a means to ethical action.

Plato

428 BCE

An exploration of Plato's everlasting contributions to philosophy.
- Theory of Forms
- Platonic epistemology
- Justice
- Theory of Education Plato's contributions to philosophy laid down a foundation that has survived the sands of time and maintains relevance even today – an achievement few philosophers can boast of. The inventor of written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, Plato has left a truly indelible mark in world history.

Aristotle

384 BCE

Contributions of Aristotle
- Invented the logic of the categorical syllogism
- Classification of living beings
- Founder of Zoology
- Contributions in Physics
- Influences in history of psychology
- Advances in Meteorology
- Ethics
- Aristotelianism
- Politics
- Poetics
significantly incline towards scientific orientation such as physics and biology, about the nature of knowledge, reality, and existence – his contributions truly make him one of the most influential people in human history.

Augustine

354

Augustine Contributed to Philosophy
- Theory of Time
- Learning Language
- Faith Seeking Understanding
- Ontological Argument
- Refutation of Skepticism
- Existence of God from Eternal Ideas
- Response to the Problem of Evil
- Divine Illumination
- Creation Ex Nihilo
- The Examined Self
Augustine developed the Christian principles of original sin, divine grace, and predestination. The theological aspects of both Catholic and Protestant theology are based Augustine's ideas.

Thomas of Aquinas

1225

He contributed the 5 ways of proving the existence of God, the “analogy of being” wherewith one can explain how two incommensurate beings, God and the created world, can both be said to be. He contributed analyses of the character of evil, of truth, and the first (and perhaps only) really successful union of Aristotle and Church doctrine. Ethics, epistemology, “psychology”, you name it, Aquinas dramatically influenced those who came after him.

Francis Bacon

1561

Bacon drew up an ambitious plan for a comprehensive work that was to appear under the title of Instauratio Magna (“The Great Instauration”), but like many of his literary schemes, it was never completed.

- De Augmentis Scientiarum
- De Augmentis Scientiarum
- natural history
- ladder of the intellect
- “human and civic philosophy”
Bacon’s personality has usually been regarded as unattractive: he was cold-hearted, cringed to the powerful.

Rene Descartes

1596

the father of modern western philosophy.
- HE WROTE ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
- HIS STATEMENT “I THINK, THEREFORE I AM” BECAME FUNDAMENTAL TO WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
- HE INVENTED THE INFLUENTIAL CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEM
- REGARDED AS THE FATHER OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY
- HIS MATHEMATICAL WORK LAID THE BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CALCULUS
- HE HAD AN INFLUENTIAL ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHYSICS
- HE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN PROPAGATING THE THEORY OF FOUNDATIONALISM

John Locke

1632

John Locke was an English philosopher whose works have had an enormous and profound influence on western philosophy. He is regarded as the founder of modern philosophical empiricism, a concept that the human mind is a blank slate at birth and that knowledge is based on experience. Locke is also considered as the father of the political philosophy called Liberalism, which is based on the principle of liberty and equality.

Immanuel Kant

1724

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western philosophy. His contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics have had a profound impact on almost every philosophical movement that followed him. This article focuses on his metaphysics and epistemology in one of his most important works, The Critique of Pure Reason. A large part of Kant’s work addresses the question “What can we know?”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

1770

German philosopher who developed a dialectical scheme that emphasized the progress of history and of ideas from thesis to antithesis and thence to a synthesis.As an absolute idealist inspired by Christian insights and grounded in his mastery of a fantastic fund of concrete knowledge, Hegel found a place for everything—logical, natural, human, and divine—in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis.

Charles Darwin

1809

Charles Darwin is often cited as the greatest biologist in history. His most famous work, On the Origin of Species, explains the theory of evolution by natural selection, providing numerous supporting examples. Darwin believed that all of life on earth had descended from a common ancestor, whose offspring could vary slightly from the previous generation.
- Principles of Geology explained uniformitarian ideas in geology – the theory of gradualism,

John Dewey

1859

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose thoughts have great influence in education and social reform. But he also has written about many other topics, including experience, logic, ethics, inquiry, democracy, nature, and art. John Dewey, one of the greatest American modern thinker's, theorist and educator.
The main aims of education as advocated by Dewey are:-
-Social Efficiency
-Education is life:
-Education is experience