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551 BCE
Confucius
Believed in the value of achieving ethical harmony through skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules, denoting that one should achieve morality through self-cultivation. -
428 BCE
Socrates
Believed misdeeds were a consequence of ignorance, that those who engaged in nonvirtuous behavior did so because they didn’t know any better. -
428 BCE
Plato
Articulated the theory of forms, the belief that the material world is an apparent and constantly changing world but that another, invisible world provides unchanging causality for all that we do see. -
384 BCE
Aristotle
In addition to being a philosopher, Aristotle was also a scientist, which led him to consider an enormous array of topics, and largely through the view that all concepts and knowledge are ultimately based on perception. -
1225
Saint Thomas Aquinas
His most important contribution to Western thought is the concept of natural theology (sometimes referred to as Thomism in tribute to his influence). -
1469
Niccolo Machiavelli
Identified as a “humanist,” and believed it necessary to establish a new kind of state in defiance of law, tradition and particularly, the political preeminence of the Church. -
René Descartes
Discards belief in all things that are not absolutely certain, emphasizing the understanding of that which can be known for sure. -
John Locke
Coined the term tabula rasa (blank slate) to denote that the human mind is born unformed, and that ideas and rules are only enforced through experience thereafter;
Established the method of introspection, focusing on one’s own emotions and behaviors in search of a better understanding of the self;
Argued that in order to be true, something must be capable of repeated testing, a view that girded his ideology with the intent of scientific rigor. -
David HUme
Articulated the “problem of induction,” suggesting we cannot rationally justify our belief in causality, that our perception only allows us to experience events that are typically conjoined, and that causality cannot be empirically asserted as the connecting force in that relationship. -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Suggested that the further we deviate from our “state of nature,” the closer we move to the “decay of the species,” an idea that comports with modern environmental and conservationist philosophies. -
Immanuel Kant
First described the concept of angst, defining it as a dread the comes from anxieties over choice, freedom, and ambiguous feelings. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wrote on the importance of subjects such as self-reliance, experiential living, and the preeminence of the soul;
Referred to “the infinitude of the private man” as his central doctrine. -
John Stuart Mill
Advocated strongly for the human right of free speech, and asserted that free discourse is necessary for social and intellectual progress -
Karl Marx
Characterized capitalism as a production system in which there are inherent conflicts of interest between the bourgeoisie (the ruling class), and the proletariat (the working class), and that these conflicts are couched in the idea that the latter must sell their labor to the former for wages that offer no stake in production. -
Friedrich Nietzsche
Believed in the individual’s creative capacity to resist social norms and cultural convention in order to live according to a greater set of virtue. -
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Argued that conceptual confusion about language is the basis for most intellectual tension in philosophy;
Asserted that the meaning of words presupposes our understanding of that meaning, and that our particular assignment of meaning comes from the cultural and social constructs surrounding us. -
Michel Foucault
Believed oppressed humans are entitled to rights and they have a duty to rise up against the abuse of power to protect these rights.