Names like Socrates and Plato are actually fast to thoughts when considering of well-known philosophers. However philosophy isn’t just an outdated follow from centuries in the past. Learning philosophy helps college students construct essential expertise like problem-solving, analyzing ideas, creating arguments, and organizing concepts, to call just some. The historical past of assorted political and non secular ideologies also can normally be discovered within the research of philosophy. Try this record of well-known philosophers everybody ought to know.
1. Socrates (c. 470 BCE to 399 BCE)
Socrates, who’s credited with being the founding father of Western philosophy, belongs on each record of well-known philosophers. Whereas there aren’t any present texts from Socrates, he’s recognized largely by means of the writings of his college students Plato and Xenophon. He’s significantly well-known for the Socratic Methodology of query and reply and his deal with morality.
Be taught extra: Socrates at Britannica
2. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche is thought for his unwavering criticisms of conventional European morality and faith. A lot of his criticism had its foundations in psychological diagnoses and due to this fact he’s usually related to Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.
Be taught extra: Friedrich Nietzsche at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
3. Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
German American Jew Hannah Arendt was a thinker and political theorist finest recognized for her ideas concerning the character of energy and evil. She coated subjects together with politics, totalitarianism, revolution, and freedom. Arendt coined the time period “the banality of evil” in her 1961 ebook Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Be taught extra: Hannah Arendt at Britannica
4. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
Few thinkers have been extra influential in fashionable Western philosophy than German Immanuel Kant. His doctrine of “transcendental idealism” put forth that human beings expertise solely appearances, not issues (objects in house and time) in themselves. He additionally wrote extensively on epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.
Be taught extra: Immanuel Kant at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
5. Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
Simone de Beauvoir was a French author and feminist activist. Whereas she didn’t take into account herself a thinker, she had a major affect on feminist existentialism and feminist principle. She emphasised the necessity for girls to be handled equally to males and for societal establishments to be modified accordingly. She authored 1943’s She Got here to Keep and 1954’s The Mandarins.
Be taught extra: Simone de Beauvoir at Britannica
6. Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 355 CE to 415 AD)
It might be onerous to make a listing of well-known philosophers and never embrace Hypatia of Alexandria. She was the chief of the Neoplatonist faculty of philosophy and was additionally a famend mathematician and astronomer. Hypatia confronted sexism in addition to criticism for her pagan beliefs, nevertheless, she can be eternally remembered for her teachings, which influenced fashionable theories of astronomy and arithmetic.
Be taught extra: Hypatia of Alexandria at Britannica
7. Judith Butler (b. 1956)
American Judith Butler is likely one of the solely dwelling well-known philosophers on our record. Butler has written a number of books that rebuke conventional notions of gender whereas additionally establishing a principle of the performative nature of gender and intercourse. Their writings have confirmed influential inside Francocentric philosophy in addition to cultural and queer principle. Butler, who believes that gender is only a social assemble, prefers to go by the pronouns they/them.
Be taught extra: Judith Butler at Britannica
8. bell hooks (1952–2021)
Gloria Jean Watkins was an American writer, educator, social critic, and theorist who selected to go by the pseudonym bell hooks after her great-grandmother. She used solely lowercase letters to spell her identify each to honor her great-grandmother in addition to to place the deal with the books fairly than herself. Hooks was an intersectional feminist whose feminist principle was primarily based on the concept that social classifications comparable to race, gender, sexual id, and so forth., are interconnected. She due to this fact believed that ignoring these intersections created oppression towards girls.
Be taught extra: bell hooks at NPR
9. Plato (428/427 BCE to 348/347)
When folks consider well-known philosophers, they probably consider the traditional Greek thinker Plato. He based the Academy and was an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic types in philosophy. He was additionally a scholar of Socrates, one other well-known thinker on our record.
Be taught extra: Plato at Britannica
10. Voltaire (1694–1778)
Voltaire was a prolific French author who wrote quite a few books, performs, poems, and polemics throughout his lifetime. Typically regarded as the thinker of progress, Voltaire used satire to talk out in opposition to tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty.
Be taught extra: Voltaire at Britannica
11. Karl Marx (1818–1883)
Karl Marx was a German thinker whose writings would type the idea for Marxism. Marxism argues that class wrestle will outline financial relations in a capitalist economic system and can due to this fact result in a communist revolt. His principle favors communism and socialism over capitalism.
Be taught extra: Karl Marx at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
12. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
Genevan Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a thinker, author, and composer. His thought “marked the end of the European Enlightenment.” He’s in all probability finest recognized for his work The Social Contract, which argued in opposition to monarchs being ordained by God to legislate. As a substitute, he argued in favor of the suitable to legislate belonging solely to the final will of the folks.
Be taught extra: Jean-Jacques Rousseau at Britannica
13. David Hume (1711–1776)
David Hume was a Scottish economist, essayist, historian, and thinker who promoted philosophical empiricism and skepticism and whose work was usually denounced as atheism. Certainly one of his lasting legacies is the notion that human beings should be motivated by ardour fairly than cause. Notably, Charles Darwin’s principle of evolution was influenced by Hume’s work.
Be taught extra: David Hume at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
14. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)
Niccolo Machiavelli was a Florentine thinker whose identify has truly been reworked into the adjective Machiavellian, which means to be typically crafty or scheming. Whereas well-known, many take into account his theories questionable, together with that the tip at all times justifies the means and it’s higher to be feared than cherished.
Be taught extra: Niccolò Machiavelli at Britannica
15. John Dewey (1859–1952)
American thinker and educator John Dewey was one of many founding members of the pragmatist philosophical motion, or “cultural naturalism” as he most well-liked to name it. He was additionally a pioneer in practical psychology. His overarching perception was in democracy, whether or not it took its type in schooling, politics, or journalism.
Be taught extra: John Dewey at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
16. René Descartes (1596–1650)
It might be not possible to have a listing of well-known philosophers with out together with René Descartes since he’s usually heralded as being the Father of Trendy Philosophy. He was a pure scientist and a mathematician, and arithmetic was an essential part in his technique of inquiry. Though many have heard the phrase “I think, therefore I am,” few notice that it’s truly credited to Descartes.
Be taught extra: René Descartes at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
17. Karl Popper (1902–1994)
Karl Popper is taken into account probably the most influential philosophers of science throughout the twentieth century. He favored empirical falsification over classical inductivist views on the scientific technique. His principle of falsifiability (the capability to show a principle or speculation incorrect) was meant to be the answer to the issues of induction and demarcation of science and non-science. His political beliefs tried to reconcile many various democratic ideologies together with libertarianism and socialism.
Be taught extra: Karl Popper at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
18. Cornel West (b. 1953)
American Cornel West wears many hats together with thinker, political activist, theologist, and social critic. West, who considers himself to be a non-Marxist socialist, graduated from Harvard College after three years and holds a PhD in philosophy from Princeton. Whereas he has authored many books, he’s maybe finest recognized for his books Race Issues and Democracy Issues. West is at present a professor of Philosophy and Christian Observe at Union Theological Seminary and professor emeritus at Princeton College.
Be taught extra: Cornel West at Britannica
19. Angela Davis (b. 1944)
Angela Davis identifies as a revolutionary Marxist and feminist political activist. She can be a thinker, writer, and educator who has been an energetic member in each the Communist and Black Panther events. Through the Nineteen Eighties, she was the Communist Social gathering’s candidate for vice chairman throughout two separate campaigns. She has additionally advocated for the abolition of the jail system.
Be taught extra: Angela Davis at Britannica
20. Kong Qiu/Confucius (551–479 BCE)
Kong Qiu, or Confucius as he was nicknamed by Jesuit missionaries, promoted the notion of constructing schooling broadly accessible. He’s recognized for serving to to determine the artwork of instructing as a vocation. Confucianism is a lifestyle that facilities across the thought of the cultivation of morality on a person foundation.
Be taught extra: Confucius at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy