most famous philosophers

For a look at the philosophers with the greatest influence on the field today, check out: With this limitation acknowledged, we bring you What follows is a list, in order, of the most influential philosophers who ever lived. Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Christian Friedrich Tieck, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, 1809, via Sammlung German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi made his name in the late 18th and early 19th century. It takes bravery to irritate the strong and dispute widely held beliefs to promote more humanitarian ones. This, Hume argued, predisposed human beings to knowledge founded not on the existence of certain absolutes but on personal experience. He was the founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Karl Popper - signature thesis: science is not about finding confirming evidence for a theory, but about striving hard to find disconfirming evidence. Famous philosophers, both ancient and modern, have developed innovative ideas and produced advances in a wide range of businesses and fields. He also argues that every human being is born with a morality that alerts them to the fact that the moral law governs them. And yet, this is by no means a comprehensive discussion. More broadly speaking, his examination of power and social control has had a direct influence on the studies of sociology, communications, and political science. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Kant argues that if a person is unable to behave in any other way, his or her actions have no moral value. Indeed, his most important works would identify personal property as the root to inequality and would refute the premise that monarchies are divinely appointed to rule. Discards belief in all things that are not absolutely certain, emphasizing the understanding of that which can be known for sure; Is recognized as the father of analytical geometry; Regarded as one of the leading influences in the Scientific Revolution a period of intense discovery, revelation, and innovation that rippled through Europe between the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras (roughly speaking, 15th to 18th centuries). He proposed a notion of the self as a blank page, with understanding and character developing only from collected experience, in his works. Their Zodiac sign is Capricorn. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. The discipline dates back to ancient times with some of the greatest philosophers being Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir is regarded as a seminal text in the history of feminism. Voltaire (1694 - 1778) 3. He promoted stable family loyalty, ancestor reverence, and reverence for seniors by children and spouses by wives, suggesting family as the foundation for perfect governance. In it, he developed his theory of experience to answer the question of whether synthetic a priori knowledge is possible, which would in turn make it possible to determine the limits of metaphysical inquiry. However, it remains a foundational philosophy underlying Asian and Chinese attitudes toward scholarly, legal, and professional pursuits. There is controversy as to the relationship between his philosophy and his Nazism. Her opinions were divisive during her lifetime and remain so today. Thus, the body of his thoughts and ideas is left to be deciphered through the works of his two most prominent students, Plato and Xenophon, as well as to the legions of historians and critics who have written on him since. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Marx predicted that the inequalities and violence inherent in capitalism would ultimately lead to its collapse. Mary took up the mission of assisting women in achieving a better life for themselves, their children, and their spouses. Active in movements against racism, human rights abuses, prisoner abuses, and marginalization of the mentally ill, he is often cited as a major influence in movements for social justice, human rights, and feminism. Aphorisms about his teachings were gathered in the Analects only after his death, several years later. He believed that the goal of human life revolved around happiness, resulting from the absence of mental disturbances and physical pain. After a visit to Florence in 1636, he became a regular debater in Marin Mersenne Frances philosophic clubs. He viewed them negatively, believing that they were primarily responsible for societal deterioration and despotism. Heideggers later work includes criticism of the view, common in the Western tradition, that all of nature is a standing reserve on call, as if it were a part of industrial inventory. Socrates embarked a whole new perspective of achieving practical results through application of philosophy in our daily lives. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a prominent German polymath and one of the most important logicians, mathematicians and natural philosophers of the Enlightenment. He advocated for resistance to oppressive social constructs and argued for the importance of achieving an authentic way of being. As a result, he tried to defend himself, but the jury (made up of hundreds of male Athenian residents) found him guilty of all charges. The list here is a portal to the history of human thought, a window into everything and nothing all at once. Logically speaking (which is an important way to speak within the context of philosophy), the most influential philosophers in history are responsible for the most influential ideas in history. David Hume (1711-77) . Advocated strongly for the human right of free speech, and asserted that free discourse is necessary for social and intellectual progress; Determined that most of history can be understood as a struggle between liberty and authority, and that limits must be placed on rulership such that it reflects societys wishes; Stated the need for a system of constitutional checks on state authority as a way of protecting political liberties. Plato is famous for teaching that peace will only be achievable, and evil consequently banished, when the world is ruled by philosophers, people with . He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Ren Descartes (1596 - 1650) 2. Born in Geneva, then a city-state in the Swiss Confederacy, Rousseau would be one of the most consequential thinkers of the Enlightenment era. Voltaire(1778) by Jean-Antoine Houdon, made from marble;Jean-Antoine Houdon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) . Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) 4. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. Ren Descartes is credited with establishing the foundations of modern philosophy. He was focused on creating a naturalistic science of man that delves into the psychological conditions defining human nature. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto and the three-volume Das Kapital. He often distinguished himself by refuting or attempting to undo the ideas of those that came before him. Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the late nineteenth century, one of the most influential philosophers of the United States, and the Father of American psychology. The-Philosophy.com - 2008-2022, Presocratic Philosophy of Heraclitus and Parmenides, Stuart Mill Philosophy: Interest, Economics and Politics. A small sampling of topics covered in Aristotles writing includes physics, biology, psychology, linguistics, logic, ethics, rhetoric, politics, government, music, theatre, poetry, and metaphysics. 1. However, his performance using our Ranking Analytics made this inclusion unavoidable. Mill wrote a famous treatise - ' On Liberty' which defined the limits of state involvement in human liberty. The 25 Most Influential Psychologists of All TimeA Study Starter, Best Online Bachelors of English Degree Programs for 2022, 30 Common Logical FallaciesA Study Starter, Best Online Bachelors in Philosophy Degree Programs Ranked for 2022, Best Colleges and Universities for Philosophy Degrees, Study Guide to Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 20 Wars That Shaped the Modern WorldA Study Starter, Boost Your Study Skills with Study Starters, Best Research Universities for Philosophy Degrees. We just get the ball rolling. Thomas Hobbes was interested in broadening his philosophical understanding, which piqued his interest in key philosophical debates. However, in most traditional tellings, Lao-Tzu was the living embodiment of the philosophy known as Taoism and author of its primary text, the Tao Te Ching. Her political views are traditional liberal, with ties to John Lockes focus on individualism, democratic protection of personal rights to life, freedom, and ownership, and personal liberty. Bust of Socrates carved by Victor Wager from a model by Paul Montford, located at the University of Western Australia in Crawley, Western Australia;Photograph by Greg OBeirne. Historians differ on exactly when Lao-Tzu lived and taught, but its largely held that some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, the old master founded philosophical Taoism. Socrates is one of historys most famous personalities for his contribution to the creation of ancient Greek philosophy, which served as the basis for all Western philosophy. Nonetheless, Leibnizs later years were overshadowed by a bitter feud with Isaac Newton about who invented calculus first, and he was frequently mocked in court for his old-fashioned garb. In the 8th century CE, Taosim became the religion of the Tang dynasty. Rousseau was not a big fan of philosophers. Moreover, our rankings are limited to those thinkers whose work has enjoyed extensive translation in the English-speaking world. The chi (or qi) is the energy that guides the universe, and he believed that we should exist in harmony. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. His moral concept is one of liberation. Of these 18, 2 (11.11%) of them are still alive today. 2 Plato. A Review of General Psychology analysis, published in 2002, ranked James as the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, Italy. Painting of Pascal made by Franois II Quesnel for Grard Edelinck in 1691, located in the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France;Palace of Versailles, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. As such, Taoism is equally rooted in religion and philosophy. A philosophers views are occasionally expressed in ways that make millions of peoples lives simpler. Nietzsches writing spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Plato: Plato was born in Athens in 428-7 B.C. Today, he is most remembered for the first logic, or systematic treatment of principles of correct reasoning, along with identifying the three main methods of rhetoric: ethos (ethics), pathos (emotions), and logos (logic). This orientation provided a newly concreted framework for considering questions of ethics, politics, knowledge, and theology. A native of the Kingdom of France, he spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic after serving for a while in the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces. TheHistoryofphilosophyis as rich as it is complex. Kant drew a parallel to the Copernican revolution in his proposal that the objects of the senses must conform to our spatial and temporal forms of intuition, and that we can consequently have a priori cognition of the objects of the senses. The planets three major Abrahamic faiths owe much to Platonic ideas, whether straight or via his pupil and companion Aristotle, whose doctrines remained constant with Platos perception of the significance of compassion for ones soul and preserving a righteous style of life, even though Aristotle would drift away from a few of Platos ideas. Asserted the use of logic as a method of argument and offered the basic methodological template for analytical discourse; Espoused the understanding that knowledge is built from the study of things that happen in the world, and that some knowledge is universal a prevailing set of ideas throughout Western Civilization thereafter; Defined metaphysics as the knowledge of immaterial being, and used this framework to examine the relationship between substance (a combination of matter and form) and essence, from which he devises that man is comprised from a unity of the two. His worldview was unique, and it is still employed in current politics. This is why he is regarded as one of the best Scottish Enlightenment thinkers. Up until they were banned in the Communist takeover of 1959, Taoism was one of the main religions of China, existing alongside Confucianism and Buddhism. She was a true child of the French Revolution, anticipating a new era of reason and charity. Role in the First Great Awakening. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site. West was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1980. 1.

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