Philosophers Wiki

Laozi

trad. VIᵉ s. av. è.c.

Semi-legendary Chinese sage, traditional author of the Tao Te Ching. Founder of Taoism, he advocates non-action (wu wei) and harmony with the Dao, the invisible way that runs through all things.

Le Bouddha

trad. v. 563–483 av. è.c.

Indian prince turned ascetic then awakened one, founder of Buddhism. Teaches the Four Noble Truths and the middle way to free oneself from suffering.

Confucius

v. 551–479 av. è.c.

Chinese master and founder of Confucianism. Places humaneness (ren) and ritual at the heart of virtue, and moral example at the heart of good government.

Socrate

v. 470–399 av. è.c.

Athenian philosopher who wrote nothing, known through his disciples. Invents the method of questioning (maieutics) to bring forth truth and expose false certainties.

Platon

v. 428–348 av. è.c.

Disciple of Socrates, founder of the Academy. Develops the theory of Forms: the sensible world is only an imperfect image of a perfect intelligible world.

Aristote

384–322 av. è.c.

Student of Plato, tutor to Alexander the Great. Founds formal logic and a philosophy of nature and ethics grounded in observation of the real.

Mencius

v. 372–289 av. è.c.

Disciple of the Confucian school, argues that human nature is good at its origin and that the people may legitimately overthrow a tyrant.

Zhuangzi

v. 369–286 av. è.c.

Playful Taoist sage, author of famous fables such as the butterfly dream. Relativizes all human distinctions in the name of the great flow of the Dao.

Épicure

v. 341–270 av. è.c.

Founder of Epicureanism. Advocates a simple, serene life, freed from fear of the gods and of death, to reach ataraxia.

Épictète

v. 50–135

Former slave turned Stoic master. Teaches how to distinguish what depends on us from what does not, the only path to inner freedom.

Nagarjuna

v. 150–250

Indian Buddhist philosopher, founder of Madhyamaka. Develops the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā): nothing exists independently, everything is interdependent.

Augustin d’Hippone

354–430

Bishop and theologian, converted after a dissolute youth. Explores time, evil and divine grace in the Confessions and The City of God.

Ādi Śaṅkara

v. 788–820

Indian master of Advaita Vedānta. Teaches that the individual self (ātman) and the absolute (brahman) are one, and that the sensible world is an illusion (māyā).

Avicenne

980–1037

Persian physician and philosopher, author of The Canon of Medicine. Distinguishes essence and existence, and demonstrates the immateriality of the soul through the 'floating man' experiment.

Averroès

1126–1198

Andalusian philosopher and jurist, great commentator on Aristotle. Defends the compatibility of philosophical reason and religious faith.

Thomas d’Aquin

1225–1274

Dominican theologian, synthesizes Aristotle and Christian faith in the Summa Theologiae. Formulates five rational proofs of God's existence.

Machiavel

1469–1527

Florentine diplomat, author of The Prince. Analyzes political power as it is actually exercised, without moral naivety.

Thomas Hobbes

1588–1679

English philosopher of Leviathan. Describes the state of nature as a war of all against all, which only an absolute sovereign can quell.

Descartes

1596–1650

Father of methodical doubt and mind-body dualism. Grounds philosophical certainty on 'I think, therefore I am.'

Spinoza

1632–1677

Dutch philosopher of Sephardic origin. Identifies God with Nature in a deterministic system where freedom consists in understanding the causes that determine us.

Leibniz

1646–1716

German philosopher and mathematician, co-inventor of calculus. Argues that our world, despite its imperfections, is 'the best of all possible worlds.'

Voltaire

1694–1778

Enlightenment writer and philosopher, tireless defender of tolerance and freedom of expression, often through irony and pamphlet.

Hume

1711–1776

Scottish empiricist philosopher. Shows that causality is never perceived, only a habit of mind born from repetition.

Rousseau

1712–1778

Genevan philosopher of The Social Contract. Argues that man is naturally good and that it is society that corrupts him.

Diderot

1713–1784

Editor of the Encyclopédie, materialist and free-thinker of the French Enlightenment, curious about everything and readily provocative.

Kant

1724–1804

Philosopher of Königsberg, author of the three Critiques. Grounds morality on the categorical imperative: act only according to a rule you could will to be universal.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803–1882

American essayist, central figure of Transcendentalism. Advocates self-reliance and the rejection of social conformity.

Marx

1818–1883

German philosopher and revolutionary theorist. Analyzes history as class struggle and announces the overcoming of capitalism by communism.

Dostoïevski

1821–1881

Russian novelist exploring freedom, faith and suffering through tormented characters (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov).

Tolstoï

1828–1910

Russian novelist (War and Peace) who, after a spiritual crisis, became a preacher of a radical Christianity founded on non-violence.

Charles Sanders Peirce

1839–1914

American logician and scientist, founder of pragmatism: the meaning of an idea is measured by its conceivable practical consequences.

William James

1842–1910

American psychologist and philosopher. Argues that the truth of an idea is verified by its concrete effects on lived experience.

Nietzsche

1844–1900

German philosopher, critic of traditional morality. Announces the death of God, the will to power and eternal recurrence.

Freud

1856–1939

Austrian physician, founder of psychoanalysis. Reveals the unconscious, repressed drives and their influence on psychic life.

John Dewey

1859–1952

American pragmatist philosopher, major thinker on education. Thought always arises from a concrete situation to be resolved, never from pure speculation.

Berdiaev

1874–1948

Exiled Russian philosopher, Christian thinker of freedom. Places personal freedom above any totality — state, society, church.

Wittgenstein

1889–1951

Austrian philosopher of language. First a logician with the Tractatus, then a critic of his own work: the meaning of a word is its use within a shared language game.

Jean-Paul Sartre

1905–1980

French existentialist philosopher. 'Existence precedes essence': man defines himself through his choices, condemned to be free.

Hannah Arendt

1906–1975

German-born, American-naturalized political philosopher. Analyzes the origins of totalitarianism and the 'banality of evil.'

Simone de Beauvoir

1908–1986

French existentialist and feminist philosopher, author of The Second Sex: 'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.'

Simone Weil

1909–1943

French philosopher and mystic, committed alongside factory workers. Reflects on attention, affliction, and the need for roots.

Kwame Nkrumah

1909–1972

First president of independent Ghana, theorist of Pan-Africanism. Denounces neo-colonialism and advocates the political unity of Africa.

Camus

1913–1960

Writer and philosopher of the absurd. Facing a world without meaning or God, 'one must imagine Sisyphus happy.'

Deleuze

1925–1995

French philosopher, thinker of desire and difference. Develops with Félix Guattari the concepts of rhizome and becoming.

Richard Rorty

1931–2007

American neopragmatist philosopher. Criticizes the idea that the mind is a 'mirror of nature' and defends a contingent truth, shaped by our vocabularies.