Famous Philosophers

Immanuel Kant

1804 BCE

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher whose work was centered on metaphysics, the study of the essential character of reality. His most famous work, Critique of Pure Reason, which combines reason with experience to go beyond what is found in conventional philosophy, establishes the bounds and range of metaphysics.

John Locke

1704 BCE

John Locke was an English philosopher and Enlightenment thinker who came to be known as the Father of Classical Liberalism.

Pascal

1662 BCE

The modern theory of probabilities, a branch of mathematics concerned with the analysis of random phenomena, was founded by the French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher of religion Blaise Pascal.

Dante

1321 BCE

Dante was a Medieval Italian poet and moral philosopher regarded as the father of the modern Italian language. He is best remembered for his poetic trilogy, The Divine Comedy, which comprised of sections that represented three tiers of the Christian afterlife: purgatory, heaven, and hell. The poem features an array of learning, an analysis of contemporary problems, and creativity in language and imagery.

Confuciu (551–479 B.C.)

479 BCE

Confucius, also known as Kong Qui or K'ung Fu-tzu, was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and teacher who is widely regarded as the founder of Eastern philosophy. His messages centered on fostering moral interpersonal relationships, establishing educational standards, and elevating justice and integrity.

Socrates

399 BCE

Greek philosopher Socrates is regarded as the founder of Western thought. Most of what we know about his life was recorded by his students Plato and Xenophon because he was unable to read or write. His "Socratic method" gave rise to the idea that truth can be discovered through questioning, laying the foundation for Western logic and philosophy.

Plato

348 BCE

Greek philosopher Plato was a student of Socrates and later became a teacher of Aristotle. He was a priori, a rational philosopher who sought knowledge logically rather than from the senses. He went on to establish the Academy in Athens, one of the first institutions of higher learning in the Western world.

Aristotle

322 BCE

Aristotle studied under Plato after enrolling in his Academy at the age of seventeen and is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers in politics, psychology, and ethics. He later became an instructor for Alexander the Great. Immanuel Kant coined the phrase "a posteriori routes of knowledge," which refers to ways of knowing that are formed based on actual observation and data. Aristotle focused on these methods.