Just as I did with my recent post on influential Christian theologians, I'm going to do this chronologically. I enjoy to see the development and evolution of these ideals and movements. However I'm still quite a novice in this field, so will not be covering 100 philosophers (more like 50). I find these philosophical studies can be quite challenging to fully comprehend some of these very complex theories. I often spend hours on just one thinker; researching, watching videos, and back-and-froth with AI so that I can make sense of it. This is why I am adamant to summarize each one of these thinkers with my own words. I also like to see who they were influenced by and who they later influenced. These philosophical movements essentially became the foundation of society as we know it ranging from theology, government, politics, economics, science, and the betterment of civilization.
Since I've already covered so many theologians, I'll include only a few of the giants here with an emphasis on their philosophical ideals. I'll also do my best to include not just the Western thinkers but also the Eastern thinkers. I want to get the full picture of all the biggest names and their movements that have spanned throughout history. I'm currently re-reading thru a book I bought in college, The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee which will serve as my primary source material. I already covered many of the philosophical terms in my post (Philosophy of Religion) so this will be a focus on the philosophers rather than the general practice. The two foundational questions to consider here are; what is the nature of existence (ontology), and how do we know (epistemology)? This post will provide a vast array of perspectives that seek to answer those two major philosophical questions.
Ancient Philosophy
Thales of Miletus
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Naturalism
Dates: 624-546 BC
Location: Miletus, Iona (modern day Turkey)
Occupation: Philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman
School of Thought: Milesian School, Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Key Concepts:
- Water is the first principle. It is the source of all things, and without it there can be no life or reality.
- Natural explanation- Nature could be understood thru observation and inquiry rather then divine mythology
- Unity of Nature- All nature was united in one reality, almost like something that was alive and inner connected (like Animism)
- Astronomical Contributions- observed and studied the movement of stars; seasonal patterns, navigation, and famously predicted an eclipse.
- Mathematical Contributions
- Thale's Theorem
- Geometry
- Intercept theorem
Influenced:
- Milesian School (Anaximander, Anaximenes)
- Pythagoras
- Pre-Socratic philosophy
Summary: He is considered one of the first major philosophers of Western tradition from Ancient Greece. He was one of the leading members of the Seven Sages who played a significant role in establishing law and wisdom in Ancient Greece. He is considered one of the first major thinkers to reject divine reasoning, and approach things thru deductive reasoning. This approach included naturalism, observation, reason, and mathematics. His most famous claim was that water was the primary principle by which all things came from (almost like a divine source). He also saw nature as having some form of divine life or inner-connected energy to it (thus making him one of the first major Naturalists).
Mahavira
Philosophical Legacy: Architect of Jainism
Dates: 599-527 BC
Location: Northern India (Ganges)
School of Thought: Jainism
Influenced by: Earlier Jain teachers Parshvanatha (23rd Tirthankara)
Key Concepts:
- Ahimas- Radical nonviolence toward all living beings
- Jiva- The eternal individual soul
- Ajiva- non-living reality
- Karma- all our choices become attached to our soul and lead to counter effects
- Samsara- the cycle and rebirth of life
- Moksha- liberation from samsara
- Anekantavada- reality is multi-perspective
- Aparigaha- detachment from materialism
- Asceticism- rigorous self-discipline, meditation, and purificaiton
Influenced: Later Jainism, Mahatma Gandhi
Summary: He was the 24th and final Tirthankara (Supreme Preacher) of the religion of Jainism. He basically revitalized the religion into it's final current state. He was one of the early advocates of non-violence and ascetical living. He was a contemporary of Buddha however they had different perspectives on achieving purification. Mahavira adhered to rigorist discipline while Buddha preferred the Middle Way approach. They also disagreed on the existence of a soul where Mahavira strongly advocated for its presence and Buddha rejected it. Mahavira also promotes the concept of an eternal soul that is achieved thru Moksha (the spiritual purification similar to Nirvana). Mahavira is considered the final spiritual teacher of Jainism because he systemized the concepts into not just a philosophical way of life but also a religion.
Confucius
Philosophical Legacy: Founder of Confucianism
Dates: 551-479 BC
Location: Lu, China
Occupation: Teacher, philosopher, government official
School of Thought: Confucianism
Influenced by: Ancient Chinese traditions and customs, Zhou dynasty tradition
Key Concepts:
- Ren- the highest virtue of righteousness, compassion, benevolence, courage, trustworthiness, and empathy
- Li- ceremony ritual, proper conduct, and social form
- Xiao- Respect for parents, ancestors, and elders. Humility towards others
- Junzi- To be of good upstanding morals
- Virtue- To achieve moral excellence through education, piety, and daily practice
- Social harmony- Society functions best when everyone works as a team in harmony rather then their own individual goals
- Five Relationships
- Ruler and Subject
- Father and Son
- Husband and Wife
- Elder brother and younger brother
- Friend and friend
Major Works:
- The Analects- A collection of his most famous sayings and conversations with his disciples
Influenced: Mencius, Xunzi, Chinese philosophy, Neo-Confucianism
Summary: He is considered one of the great religious founders of ancient China. Although he seems like a traveling prophet like Jesus or Muhammad, he was not proclaiming the existence of a God. Instead he was proclaiming a way of life, a philosophy on how people should live in harmony with themselves and with one another. Although it might be somewhat farsighted to say, he was arguably one of the first major teachers to promote moral goodness. In an ancient world of survival and savagery Confucius challenged humanity to look deeper within so they could cultivate stronger character. This philosophy continues to survive to this day as one of China's most iconic religions. It's core principles does not celebrate some divine power, yet rather on humanity and their path to righteousness and social harmony.
Heraclitus
Dates: 540-480 BC
Location: Ephesus, Ionia (modern day Turkey)
Occupation: Philosopher
School of Thought: Milesian school, Ionian, Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Influenced by:
- Anaximander- shaped the concept of the boundless infinitude
- Anaximenes- believed air was the principle arche
Key Concepts:
- Flux- everything is constantly changing
- Unity of Opposites- Opposing forces are interconnected in a symmetrical balance and thus depend on one another (such as positive and negative, light and day, or hot and cold)
- Fire as the primary arche, the central source of nature
- Strife is a fundamental reality of nature and our existence
- Logos as the rational principle order that governs the universe
- Reality is an ever changing process, rather than a permanent state of being
Major Works:
- On Nature
Influenced: Plato, Socrates, The Stoics, Hegel, Nietzsche,
Summary: He is considered the father of change theory who believed the universe was in a process of constant change rather than permeant being. He was influenced by the Milesian school, however established his own philosophical movement. He considered fire as the principle arche, instead of Thales' arche of water, Anaximander's arche of boundlessness, and Anaixmenes' arche of air. He also pioneered a theory of opposites which believed that everything worked together in unison, such as harmony and strife (very similar to the Asian concept of yin-yang). Heraclitus also established the concept of the Logos as a principle order that governs everything (almost like a god). This concept was later adopted by the Christians to refer to Christ as the Logos of God.
Dates: 6th century- 5th century
Location: Ancient China
Occupation: Philosopher, sage, archivist
School of Thought: Daoism (Taoism)
Influenced by: Earlier Chinese philosophy
Key Concepts:
- Tao as the Way- finding complete harmony with the natural order of reality
- Wu Wei "Non-action"- Allowing things to happen in a natural flow rather than forcing them
- Ziran (Naturalness/spontaneity)- Accepting things for what they are and not trying to change them
- Yin and Yang- Opposites as complinetary forces that work together to achieve a necessary balance
- Simplicity- Appreciating the simple things over excessive materialism, wealth, and desire
- Harmony- The path to wisdom is thru aligning oneself with the way of Dao
Major Works:
- Dao De Jing (Classic of the Way and Virtue)- debated authorship but often attributed to Laozi
Influenced: Zhuangzi (Later Daoist philosopher), The religion of Taoism
Summary: Similar to Confucius, Laozi also established a philosophical mentality that became a way of life, and even a religion. His practice of Taoism puts heavy emphasis on seeking harmony with the natural order of existence. It considers the way of Tao as the underlying ultimate reality and principle source of all existence (not any specific God or deity). Taoism also introduced new concepts of harmony, acceptance, simplicity, and non-action by trusting the metaphysical flow of the natural order. He also established the famous yin and yang concept as a symmetry of opposites, very similar to Heraclitus' Unity of Opposites. The philosophy of Laozi quickly grew into a religious movement, and to this day Taoism has become one of the most popular Asian religions with nearly 173 million followers.
Pythagoras
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Mathematic-Philosophy
Dates: 570-495 BC
Occupation: Philosopher, mathematician, religious teacher
School of Thought: Pythagoreanism, Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Influenced by: Early Greek and Egyptian philosophers, Orphism
Key Concepts:
- Reality has an underlying mathematical and systematic structure to it
- Theory of Proportions- Mathematic ratios are everywhere, and establish a necessary harmony and balance, most especially in music
- Cosmology- the universe is an ordered mathematical equation of harmony
- The Sphericity of the Earth
- Identifying the planet Venus as the same morning and evening star
- Five Regular Solids- 3D shapes that are perfectly identical and symmetrical (Tetrahedron, Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron, Icosahedron)
- Transmigration of the Soul- the soul is an invisible force within the body that reincarnates after death
Influenced: Plato, Aristotle, Neoplatonism
Summary: He is considered one of the first great mathematician-philosophers who incorporated mathematics in most of his concepts. He made great contributions to the study of cosmology with groundbreaking claims of the earth as a sphere and the planet Venus. He also emphasized that all of reality had a mathematical structure to it that followed a systematic process. He even promoted some of the earliest concepts of the soul and reincarnation which he referred to as transmigration. This concept of reincarnation added a metaphysical religious layer to his mathematical approach which established his school of Pythagoreanism that later influenced the big 3 Greek philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle). I actually first came to know of his legacy while playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey, one of my all time favorite games set during the golden age of Classical Greece.
Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)
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Dates: 563-483 BC
Location: Northern India, Nepal
Occupation: Spiritual teacher, philosopher
School of Thought: Buddhism
Influenced by:
- Vedic/Brahmanical traditions- foundational beliefs of Hinduism
- Upanishadic philosophy- the sacred texts of the Veda
- Teachings of Jainism
Key Concepts:
- Four Noble Truths
- Dukkha-Suffering exists thru constant unfulfillment
- Samudaya- the unending thirst for desire, craving, and attachment leads to the suffering
- Nirodha- One can let go of these material restraints that lead to suffering thru discipline and confinement of desires
- Marga- The Noble Eightfold path is the guide to achieve freedom from suffering and true nirvana (spiritual awakening)
- Annica- Nothing is permanent since change is constant which leads to dukkha.
- Anatta- Rejection of soul,
- Dependent Origination- Everything arises because of conditions and causes
- Karma- Every intentional action has consequences (often in the long-term)
- Samsara- The Cycle of Rebirth
- Nirvana- Liberation from suffering. Spiritual awakening
- The Middle Way- Finding a balance between excessive indulgence and extreme asceticism
- The Noble Eightfold Path
- Wisdom (1. Right Understanding, 2. Right Intention)
- Ethical Conduct (3. Right Speech, 4. Right Action, 5. Right Livelihood)
- Mental Discipline- (6. Right Effort, 7. Right Mindfulness, 8. Right Meditation)
Influenced:
- Nagarjuna (developed the Middle Way approach)
- Adi Shankara (Founder of Advaita Vedanta)
- Modern philosophers: Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Mahatma Gandhi
Summary: He is the most famous of the four great Asian philosophers that established a religious way of life (alongside Mahavira, Confucius, and Laozi). Buddha established a very organized system of how one should live their life to find peace-and-harmony. His philosophy centers on the Four Noble Truths which basically accept that suffering is a natural part of existence. However he offers an answer thru his Eightfold Path that can break free from this suffering to achieve a form of liberation and salvation. Once again this philosophy does not believe in a God, it rejects the concept of a soul, and even reincarnation. Instead Buddhism believes in the cycle of rebirth, which leads to a great philosophical debate on how one can even achieve rebirth without some form of metaphysical source (like a soul). Buddhism puts more emphasis on karma where your actions in one life, will affect the next (even though it is not the same person as before). The ultimate goal in Buddhism is to achieve nirvana, and break free from this cycle of suffering. This leads to another question of what happens when the samsara cycle comes to an end. Buddhists ultimately reject any form of spiritual eternal afterlife, and rather put focus on ending suffering thru a state of Nirvana.
Parmenides
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Ontology
Dates: 515-450 BC
Location: Elea, Italy
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher, statesman
School of Thought: Eleatic School, Pre-Socratic
Influenced by: Xenophanes, Pythagoreanism
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- Being- What truly exists must be (What is=is. What is not= is not).
- Being is eternal- something cannot simply come into existence or cease to exist
- Monism- There is one single entity that exists and makes up all of reality
- Being is unchanging- Even though it grows or ages, being is still in an eternal state of existence
- Sensory appearance vs reality- Although we see change unfolding before us, there is a deeper reality at work
- Reason over perception- We must constantly use reason to explore what is perceived through our sense
Major Works:
- On Nature
- Way of Truth
- Way of Opinion
Influenced: Zeno of Elea, Melissus of Samos, Plato, Aristotle
Summary: He is considered the father of Ontology, which is the main philosophical question on the nature of existence. His major claim was that everything that existed was "being" and everything that did not exist was "non-being". Therefore the two could not intercede with one another and this held in a constant eternal unchanging state. He claimed that all the change we see before us is simply a sensory error or illusion. His reasoning was that true change could only come from what was "non-being", and non-being did not exist. This basically went directly against Heraclitus' core concept of an ever-changing reality. However although his concepts were influential in starting the discussion on existence, it created many problems. Such as how does change occur if our senses are misleading us? If the state of being is eternal then why are we born and why do we die? How is motion possible if change is not possible? Much of his concepts were somewhat refined and strengthened by his disicple Zeno.
Zeno of Elea
Philosophical Legacy: Champion of the Infinity Paradox
Dates: 490-430 BC
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Occupation: Philosopher and teacher
School of Thought: Eleatic School, Pre-Socratic
Influenced by: Parmenides
Key Concepts:
- Paradoxes of Motion- logical contradictions that occur in space, time, and motion
- Achilles and the Tortoise
- Dichotomy Paradox- arguments that focus on the infinite subdivisions within a destination
- The Arrow- How can an arrow move, if there are an infinite amount of points it must occupy to reach it's target
- Paradox of Plurality- If many things exist, they must be separated by an infinite number of other things; otherwise they are separated by nothing which does not exist.
- Infinity and divisibility- The infinite division of space and time
- Reductio and absrudum- For something to be considered a thing, there must be something separated it from another thing, and this could go on infinitely.
Influenced: Plato, Aristotle
Summary: Zeno was a famous disciple and advocate of the teachings of Parmenides, who believed in a single entity of being (known as Monism). He essentially strengthened Parmenides concepts against change-and-motion with some incredible thought-provoking paradoxes. He introduced the mathematical problem of the infinitude thru it's subdivisions. That is to say there are infinite points within a finite quantity. For example, in a 100-meter race, a person must reach the 25-meter mark, 50, 75, 75.1, 75.001, 75.0000001 and so forth. So how can it be possible that a person can reach 100 meters if they must travel thru an infinite amount of numbers? This paradoxical concept can be transferred to almost everything pertaining to space, time, and motion. Thru this mathematical question Zeno reaffirms the concept of one-being, since if there was plurality, it would introduce the problem of the infinitude.
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Questioning
Dates: 470-399 BC
Location: Athens, Greece
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher
School of Thought: Socratic philosophy
Influenced by: Parmenides, Heraclitus, the Sophists rhetorics
- The Socratic Method- Thru questioning everything meaningful discourse can result
- The Examined Life- Everyone should fully examine their existence
- Know Thyself- Recognizing one's limits and what makes them who they are
- Intellectual Humility- Accepting that not everything can truly be known
- Virtue- Moral excellence is required for living a good happy life
- Knowledge and Virtue- The pursue of knowledge helps improve one's virtuous actions
- Care of the Soul- developing one's internal character is more important than achieving wealth and status.
- Belief in a Divine Order- the universe is not some random event but is the product of some source of divine intelligence and providence. This became a slight rejection of the Greek gods who were often described with humanistic traits and qualities.
Influenced: Plato, Aristotle, Cynicism, Stoicism, Skepticism, Christian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Renaissance humanism
Summary: Considered one of the major fathers of Greek philosophy, he completely changed the philosophical approach. Instead of attempting to have answers for everything he specialized in knowledge thru inquiry. This pertained to topics ranging from justice, courage, virtue, knowledge, morality, and ethics. He also emphasized the importance of knowing one's self above all. He believed in the existence of a soul as the deepest source of the internal being that produce character, virtue, and wisdom. The basis of his philosophy was not so much a question of reality, but rather a question of being a good human being. This was a complete break from previous philosophy thus the reasoning for the term "pre-Socrates". He went on to influence many great philosophers after him, most notable his apprentice Plato. He was eventually executed for not honoring the pagan gods and what was seen as heresy of the time.
Democritus
Dates: 460-370 BC
Location: Abdera, Thrace (modern day Greece)
Occupation: Philsopher
School of Thought: Pre-Socratic, Atomism
Influenced by: Leucippus, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea
Key Concepts:
- Atomism- Reality is made up of invisible particles known as atoms which brings everything to existence
- Void- Everything that is not in a state of existence, is considered the void, which atoms can travel across
- Materialism- All of reality consists of physical matter made up of atoms
- Change- Things do not come into existence out of nothing. They are rather a rearrangement of atoms
- Plurality- The universe is not one unified being, rather a plural state of countless atoms
- Mechanistic Causation- All events occur thru the movement and interaction of atoms, not thru some divine influence
- Natural Philosophy- All of nature can be explained through matter, motion, innerconnectivty, and atom arrangements
Influenced: Epicurus, Lucretius
Summary: He expanded on Parmenides' concept of the eternal state of being and the illusion of change. He did this by introducing the concept of Atomism and the Void. Everything in this existence consisted of atoms (which were particles that made up our state of being). Everything that is not in this state of being is considered part of the void. Atoms are eternal particles of energy that bring about change, life, or death thru its rearranging flow. This concept would reject the notion of a soul, however an atom technically serves that same purpose and could retain some of a person's essence after their death. And that essence is constantly interacting and merging with other atoms thru an eternal cycle. I really like this concept and can see how it also pertains to naturalism as an interconnected network of eternal energy.
Plato
Philosophical Legacy: Founder of the Academy
Dates: 428-348 BC
Location: Athens, Greece
Occupation: Philosopher, Founder of the Academy
School of Thought: Platonism
Influenced by: Socrates, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides
Key Concepts:
- Theory of Forms- He believed in two realms of reality, visible and invisible. Everything in our physical world was guided by this metaphysical realm.
- Form of the Good- a source of goodness behind everything (almost like a God)
- Theory of Knowledge- Since the world is constantly changing, genuine knowledge comes thru exploring what is eternal and unchanging
- The Allegory of the Cave- humans can only see reality based on their external appearances, when in truth that vision should be place inward towards the mind and soul
- The Tripartie Soul- Reason, spirit, and appetite
- Immortality of the Soul- The soul is eternal and uncappable of dying
- Justice- Finding harmony and order within oneself and society as a whole
- Recollection- The quest for knowledge is not so much learning new things, rather recollecting ideas and concepts that are already present in the soul
- Dialectic- philosophical reasoning thru the Socrates method of questioning and dialouge
- Mathematics- While the world is ever changing, a mathematical approach can help establish stable truths and facts
Major Works:
- Apology- Defense of Socrates' trial which he witnessed
- The Republic- His magnum opus of his philosophical beliefs
- Phaedo
- Symposium- exploration of love, beauty, and the inner self
- Meno
- Phaedrus
- Gorgias
- Timaeus
- Laws- Political and legal philsophy
Influenced: Aristotle, Neoplatonism, Christian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Renaissance platonism, modern Western philosophy
Summary: He is considered as THE greatest philosopher of all time who influenced many branches of philosophy and theology. Many of his concepts pertaining to the two realms of reality became highly influential in the development of Christianity and Islamic theology. He also promoted newer concepts of the existences of a soul, and the necessity to look inward versus outward. He believed that to know oneself was the path to true righteousness and understanding. He is considered the father of the "Academy" an institution for higher learning. He helped develop the foundational concepts of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, logic, education, and even mathematics. It is easy to see how his concept of the divine goodness and the eternal soul perfectly align with the Christian concepts of one true God. His metaphysical beliefs were later challenged by his pupil Aristotle who preferred to focus on the physical grounded world. Plato is one of the first philosopher where many of his writings are still preserved. He is best known for his works of Apology, The Republic, and the Symposium (which I read in college).
Diogenes of Sinope
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Cynicism
Dates: 412-323 BC
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher
School of Thought: Cynicism, Hellenistic Philosophy
Influenced by: Socrates, Antisthenes
Key Concepts:
- Living according to nature thru asceticism
- Self-sufficiency free from social status, material, and wealth
- Virtue as the primary goal
- Shamelessness (whatever was non-violent should be acceptable)
- Direct speech
Influenced: Crates of Thebes, Zeno of Citium, Cynicism, Stoicism
Summary: He is considered the father of Cynicism who taught by example thru a rejection of social status in favor of asceticism. His philosophical approach is that one should live a simple life in pursuit of virtue, rather than material wealth and desires. He famously lived in poverty in the streets and slums of Athens like a dog and gained a following. The word cynicism first referred to a dog, before it's meaning transformed to someone with a negative or pessimistic mindset. Diogenes' most legendary accounts was being approached by Alexander the Great (student of Aristotle). Alexander the Great asked him what he could do for him and Diogenes responded that he move out of his sunlight. This response demonstrates Diogenes' commitment to simplicity over fame and fortune. His movement of Cynicism was not so much a negative outlook (as the word means today) but rather one based on the practice of asceticism.
Aristotle
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Logic
Dates: 384-322 BC
Location: Macedonia; Athens, Greece
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher
School of Thought: Aristotelianism
Influenced by: Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides
Key Concepts:
- Four Causes (The Explanation of a thing)
- Material Cause- What is it made of? (the underlying material; bronze, wood, metal, etc)
- Formal Cause- What makes it this particular thing? (it's defining pattern, shape, or structure)
- Efficient Cause- What brought it about? (the source or producer of the thing; who made it)
- Final Cause- What is it for? (What is this thing's purpose or end goal)
- Substance- Individual things are fundamental physical realities
- Form and Matter (Hylomorphism)- Physical things are combinations of matter and form
- Potentiality and Actuality- The difference between the potential of change and achieving it's actual change
- Unmoved Mover- If everything is in a constant state of change, there must be some divine source that is unchanging
- Logic/Syllogism- Systematic rules come thru deductive reasoning
- Empiricism/Observation- Knowledge and wisdom comes thru experience
- Virtue Ethics- The importance of developing a moral good character
- Golden Mean- Virtue lies between two extremes. Doing too much and doing too little. (Similar concept to Buddha's Middle Way)
- Eudaimonia- The ultimate goal of human life is happiness which is achieved thru virtue and ethics
- Teleology- Everything has a purpose or some form of end goal
- Political philosophy- Humans are naturally political and social beings that seek a structure of organized community
- Natural philosophy- Systematic study of the laws of nature thru reasoning
- Biology- Systematic classification of the living organisms and it's anatomy
Major Works:
- Metaphysics
- Physics
- Niocmachaen Ethics
- Politics
- On the Soul
- Poetics
- categories
- On Interpretation
- Prior Analytics
- Posterior Analytics
- On the Heavens
- Parts of Animals
Influenced: Hellenistic philosophy, Neoplatonism, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, Scholasticism, Renaissance philosophy, modern logic
Summary: Aristotle is considered the last of the three great Greek philosophers, who followed a succession after Socrates and Plato. Although it's worth mentioning that Aristotle somewhat continued that influential succession in teaching the young Alexander the Great. Despite being a pupil of Plato, Aristotle's concepts were completely original and differed from previous Greek philosophy. Instead of supporting the concept of a metaphysical realm, he focused on the actual real world. He asked more practical questions thru an early practice of reasoning. His most famous approach was the Four Causes which explored what exactly made a thing what it was. He believed all things were made of matter and form, and without one you cannot have the other. He also believed that everything was in a constant state of change from it's actuality to it's potentiality (like an acorn that would become a tree). At the source of all this constant change Aristotle believed in the Unmoved Mover as the unchanging stable divine source of reality. Although not directly accepting it as a God, this also became an influential concept in Christianity, especially the theology of Thomas Aquinas. So Aristotle basically still accepts a metaphysical reality, however unlike Plato he sees it as one connected realm instead of two separate ones.
Pyrrho of Elis
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Skepticism
Location: Elis, Greece
Occupation: Philosopher
School of Thought: Pyrrhonism, Skepticism
Influenced by: Democritus, Anaxchrus
Key Concepts:
- Suspension of judgement- Nothing can be certain since nothing can be proved
- Equipollence- Both sides of an argument can be equally convincing
- Ataraxia- Seeking peace and tranquility by abandoning the quest for truth because it cannot be known
- Skepticism- Question everything that is not a concrete truth
Influenced: Timon of Phlius, Sextus Empiricus
Summary: He is considered the father of Skepticism who fairly argued that anything that is not certain should be questioned. This is especially the case for philosophy which is purely theoretical. Pyrro would argue that all these philosophical or even theological claims have no hard evidence or proof, and thus should be doubted. Along with this mentality of questioning everything he comes to the conclusion that is best to find peace in not knowing everything. This could be considered an agnostic approach, where one should ultimately ignore these theoretical questions as pure folly. On the flip side however it could also be seen as pure ignorance not to explores one's own self and the nature of that existence.
Zeno of Citium
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Stoicism
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Location: Citium, Cyprus; Athens, Greece
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher
School of Thought: Stoicism, Hellenistic Philosophy
Influenced by: Socrates, Heraclitus, Cynicism, Megarian philosophy
Key Concepts:
- Virtue as the highest good and primary purpose to existence
- Living in accordance with nature
- Using reason with rationality
- Emotional discipline (emphasis on avoiding extreme emotional reactions and staying neutral)
- Fate and determinism
- Distinction between what we can and cannot control
- Cosmopolitanism- world citizenship and diversity
Major Works:
- Republic
- On the Life According to Nature
- On Passions
- On the Universe
- On Laws
Influenced: Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Seneca the Younger, Epictetus, Marucs Aurelius, Roman Stoicism
Summary: Influenced by the Cynic movement, Zeno of Citium started his own branch of philosophy based on virtue and nature. Rather than seek the answers of epistemology, he sought to focus on our current physical state, where the virtue of goodness should be the central concern. This was also in accordance with nature and emphasized the mentality of accepting what could be and what could not be. It encourages a form of emotional discipline, self-control, rationality, and a systematic approach to living an ethical life of virtue. The Stoic movement was very popular for nearly 500 years and peaked during the rise of the Roman Empire most notably practiced by emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Epicurus
Dates: 341-270 BC
Location: Athens, Greece
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher, founder of the Epicurean school (The Garden)
School of Thought: Epicureanism
Influenced by: Democritus, Leucippus, Aristippus of Cyrene
Key Concepts:
- Ataraxia- Freedom from psychological disturbance
- Aponia- Absence of bodily pain
- Tetrapharmakos (Fourfold remedy)
- Don't fear the gods
- Don't fear death
- Everything that is good is relatively easy to obtain
- Everything that is terrible is relatively easy to endure
- Annihilationism- After death our atoms are dispersed and our consciousness ceases to exist
- Atomism- All of reality consists of atoms, energy, and an infinite void
- The swerve- Reality is not stable and atoms can frequently deviate from their standard paths unpredictably
- Death is nothing to us- We should not fear death, because thru our existence all we know is life
- Gods do not intervene in human affairs (they are too far away to concern themselves)
- Simple living- emphasis on friendship and moderation on excessive pleasure or materialism
- Justice for the betterment of society not for some eternal goal
- Seeking therapy thru philosophy
Major Works:
- Letter to Menoeceus- ethics and the pursuit of happiness
- Letter to Herodotus- physics and the nature of knowledge (epistemology)
- Letter to Pythocles- cosmology and natural phenomena
- Principle Doctrines- forty philosophical propositions
- Vatican Sayings
Influenced: Lucretius, Philodemus, Michel de Montaigne, Pierre Gassendi
Summary: He was one of the last major Greek philosophers of antiquity who established the school of Epicureanism (also known as the Garden). His main teachings were that all reality consisted of material atoms thus rejecting any concepts of a soul or a metaphysical realm. This ultimately meant that when we died the atoms left our body and our consciousness ceased to exist (like a form of annihilationism). Therefore, Epicurus emphasis a form of minimal hedonism, to seek and enjoy this life while we have it. However he would also push back against excessiveness and any form of material pursuit. Instead Epicurus promoted simple living as the path to achieving a happy and peaceful life.
Cicero
Philosophical Legacy: Father of Rhetoric
Dates: 106-43 BC
Location: Arpinum and Rome (Roman Republic
Occupation: Philosopher, statesman, orator, lawyer, writer, politician
School of Thought: Skepticism, Stoicism, Platonism
Influenced by: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics
Key Concepts:
- Natural law- General law and justice is grounded in nature and not just human political law
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- Duty- People have moral obligations that arise from their reasoning, roles, responsibilities, and relationships
- Virtue- Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Temperance are the most important qualities to living a good life
- Republican government- Government should establish the best interest of the people rather than it's rulers in power
- Reason and human nature- Humans are fundamentally meant to use reason and interact with society
- Academic skepticism- We should use caution in accepting theoretical concepts, and believe only was it most practical
- Rhetoric and philosophy- the art of public speaking and oratory as a means of sharing wisdom and understanding
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Major Works:
- On the Republic
- On the Laws
- On Duties
- On the Nature of the Gods
- On the Ends of Good and Evil
- Tusculan Disputations
- On the Orator
- Brutus
- Orator
- On Frienship
- On Old Age
- On Divination
Influenced: Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Montesquieu, Renaissance humanism, Enlightenment philoosphy
Summary: Although he did not create an original philosophical system, Cicero is still considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Roman Age. He is regarded as the father of political discourse and rhetoric, implementing his philosophical concepts into state practice. He envisioned the role of society as one based on ethics, virtues, reasoning, relationships, natural law, and civic duty. The government should also hold this framework and put the people's interest above their own. Perhaps his greatest contribution was not so much his concepts rather his art of rhetoric and transmitting these ideals to the public. Thru his many speeches and writings he played a foundational role in shaping Roman law and order. Many of his writings regarding justice and virtue went on to influence great Christian theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas.
Late Antique Philosophy
Seneca the Younger
Philosophical Legacy: Advocate of Mortality
Dates: 4 BC- 65 AD
Location: Cordoba, Spain (Roman Empire)
Occupation: Philosopher, statesman, playwright, orator, tutor
School of Thought: Stoicism
Key Concepts:
- Virtue is the highest good- moral character is more important than wealth or status
- Control and acceptance- consideration over what we need vs what we do not
- Living with nature and reason- humans can best flourish when they live in accordance with constant ration and virture
- Indifference to externals- things that happen externall are out of our control and should be met with restrained emotion (such as wealth, pleasure, or desire)
- Memento mori- awareness and acceptance of death can help us live more completely
- Self-mastery- self control over emotions and disciplines
- Inner freedom- even under intense external scenarios, a person can remain free internally
- Clemency and mercy- in regards to political authoritarians, ration should always be considered before instant harsh punishment
Major Works:
- Letters to Lucilius
- On the Shortness of Life
- On Anger
- On the Happy Life
- On the Tranquility of the Mind
- On Benefits
- On Clemency
- Natural Questions
- Dialogues
Influenced: Augustine of Hippo, Montaigne, Renaissance humanism
Summary: He was one of of the early major disciples of Stoicism, incorporating this philosophy in much of his plays and state matters. As tutor and advisor to the unruly Emperor Nero, Seneca applied many of the Stoic concepts into Roman governance. This primarily included the importance of self-discipline, virtue, and accepting what we can and cannot control. It is thru accepting death and the external forces as they are, that we can focus more on our inner self-mastery. Aside from his role as government advisor, Seneca was also a famous playwright, producing 10 tragedies. He was eventually executed by the maniacal Nero who accused Seneca of being involved in an assassination conspiracy against him.
Epictetus
Philosophical Legacy: Advocate of Stoic Discipline
Dates: 50-135 AD
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Occupation: Philosopher, teacher
School of Thought: Stoicism
Influenced by: Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Socrates
Key Concepts:
- Dichotomy of control- Distinction between what we can control and cannot control
- Determinism- Every event that happens in the universe comes from a chain of causes (including our own thoughts, choices, and actions). These causes are connected to a central order of the universe (the Logos)
- Centrality of Virtue
- Mastering oneself
- Using rational judgement
- Acceptance of fate
- Living in accordance with nature
- Maintaining discipline and emotional restraint over desire
- Focus on inner self and simplicity over external goods
Major Works:
- Discources
- Enchiridion
Influenced: Marcus Aurelius, Neo-Stoicism, Renaissance philosophy
Summary: Continuing with the Stoic tradition, Epictetus further strengthened the philosophy established by Zeno of Citium. He emphasized that life is essentially divined into two categories; what we can control and what we cannot control. Thus one should accept this as a matter of fate and nature. We should focus only on the things we can control such as our choices, intentions, or emotions. He believed that suffering comes not so much from the event, but rather how we responded to it. Thus a truly free person should seek not to be enslaved by the external forces of nature but rather on their own interior control.
Nagarjuna
Dates: 150-250 AD
Location: Southern India
Occupation: Philosopher, Buddhist monk, teacher
School of Thought: Mahayana Buddhism, Madhaymaka (Middle Way)
Influenced by: Buddha
Key Concepts:
- Emptiness- things lack independent permanent essence (such as a soul). Rather they are made up of countless organisms and conditions
- Dependent origination- Everything arises from a cause or condition (Determinism)
- Two Truths
- Conventional Truth- The world as we see it in it's present state
- Ultimate Truth- Everything we see lacks independence, essence, and eternal nature
- The Middle Way- Finding a balance between rigorist eternalism and faithless nihilism
- Every cause, motion, or change comes from a previous cause that lacks true independence
Major Works:
- Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way
- The Dispeller of Dipsutes
- Sixty Verses on Reasoning
- Seventy Verses on Emptiness
Influenced: Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Bhaviveka, Xandrakirti, Madhyamika Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy, Chinese Buddhism (Sanlun tradition)
Summary: He was a Buddhist monk who strengthened Buddha's concept of the Middle Way with a throughout explanation. Nagarjuna considered all things to be dependent upon one another thru causes and conditions and thus lacked any true form of independent eternal essence (like a soul). Thus if something lacked it's own independence it was essentially a form of emptiness that was dependent on other things. But this does not mean nothing exists, rather that everything must rely on one another to continue to function. Thus this explains the Middle Way approach which rejects any concept of an eternal essence but also rejects the concept of Nihilism (that nothing really exists). Things do exist, not in an eternal nature, but in a dependent nature. This concept paved the way for a new branch of Middle Way Buddhism known ad Madhyamika.
Marcus Aurelius
Dates: 121-180 AD
Location: Rome, Roman Empire
Occupation: Roman Emperor
School of Thought: Stoicism
Influenced by: Epictetus, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, Socrates
Key Concepts:
- Control- Focus on what is within your power and accept you have no control of what is not
- Pursue the four main virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance
- Acceptance of fate- Accept the natural order of fate and do not resist reality
- Impermanence- Everything changes and eventually passes away
- Cosmopolitanism- All humans belong to one common human community
- Duty- Fulfil your obligations to society
- Rationality- Control your emotions through reason and discipline
- Memeto mori- Awareness of death puts this life into perspective
Major Works:
- Meditations- A collection of personal reflections
Influenced: Later stoicism
Summary: He is another famous advocate of the school of Stoicism and arguably one of the most powerful philosophers ever to have lived. He reigned for 19 years as one of the Five Good Emperors, defending the borders against German tribes while improving the economic and social infrastructure. His greatest writing, Meditations was written almost as a journal of self-discipline and later became one of the most famous books of ancient western philosophy. He sought to explain his purpose in a world that was beyond his control. His ideals were completely aligned with stoicism seeking inner peace thru virtue and rationality. I first came to know of this great philosopher-king in one of my all time favorite movies, The Gladiator.
Plotinus
Dates: 204-270 AD
Location: Alexandria, Egypt; Rome, Roman Empire
Occupation: Philosopher and teacher
School of Thought: Neoplatonism
Influenced by: Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoreanism, Stoicism
Key Concepts:
- The One- There is an ultimate monist reality, beyond being, thought, and comprehension
- Nous (Intellect)- It is the realm of intellect that connects to human minds required for perception, reason, and understanding.
- World Soul- The inner essence of a person that connects them with the nous and the physical world
- Emanation- Reality flows from the One, to the Nous, to the Soul, to the material world
- Reverse Emanation- The Soul can reverse this flow thru virtue and meditation to move towards the one
- Mystical Union- The highest goal is to achieve a union with this divine source
- Hierarchy of reality- Spiritual reality is more important than material reality
- Matter- It is seen as the privation of the nous, like an empty shell. It cannot exist without a soul.
Major Works:
- Enneads
Influenced: Porphyry, Iamblichus, Augustine of Hippo, Pseudo-Dionysius
Summary: He expanded on Plato's concept of the Forms (physical and metaphysical realms) through a very extensive systematic approach. He defined the source of all this reality as the One, a single divine entity (like a God). He then advanced the concept of the Nous, as the main realm of intellect that connects all human consciousness with the One entity. This creates a clearer hierarchy that begins with the One as the source, then emanates to the Nous, then to our Souls, then to the Material World. From here Plotinus adds a layer of faith to his philosophy by emphasizing the flow can be reversed, and actually should be reversed to achieve a mystical union with this source. It's worth mentioning here that despite all these theological concepts of a God, a soul, and a mystical union Plotinus himself was not a Christian.
Hypatia of Alexandria
Philosophical Legacy: Scholar of Mathematics and Astrology
Dates: 355-415
Location: Alexandria, Egypt
Occupation: Philosopher, Mathematician, Astronomer, Teacher
School of Thought: Neoplatonism
Influenced by: Plato, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Theon of Alexandria
Key Concepts:
- Rational inquiry and philosophical education
- Mathematics as a tool to understand reality
- Neoplatonic metaphysics
- The pursuit of wisdom and virtue
Influenced: Neoplatonism
Summary: She is considered one of the first great female philosophers, who helped turn the city of Alexandria, Egypt into a capital of learning. She used mathematics and astronomy to further strengthen the concepts of Neoplatonism. She was also an advocate for reason and intellectual freedom especially during the rise of Christianity and tensions with the pagans. Although she herself was not a Christian she did believe in Plotinus' theory of the one being as the source of reality. Despite having many Christian students she was eventually killed by a Christian mob at the young age of 45.
Augustine of Hippo
Dates: 354-430
Location: Carthage, North Africa
Occupation: Bishop, Theologian, Philosopher
School of Thought: Christian Platonism, Augustinianism
Influenced by: Plato, Plotinus, Cicero, Neoplatonism
Key Concepts (non-Theological):
- Radical self-awareness- Even if you doubt everything, that fact that you can even think or doubt means that you exist. This rejected the school of skepticism and could be seen as early Descartes.
- Inner experience- Truth and knowledge can be explored by looking internally through one's own mind and consciousness
- Memory- The sheer enormity of stored events, visuals, and data from our past. Like a library of archives preserved deep within the mind.
- Time- The past and future do not exist. There is only the present. The past is the present of our memories, while the future is the present of our expectations.
- Language- The meanings behind words and the many signs used to communicate these words
- The Will- Within the human mind there is an intellect of reason, but also a will that makes the choices of action. And the will can often conflict with the intellect.
Major Works:
- Confessions
- City of God
- On the Trinity
- On Free Choice of the Will
Influenced: Anselm, Bonaventure, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Augustinism
Summary: Not only was he one of the greatest Christian theologians in history, but also was one of the great philosophers in general. He was a scholar of Platonism and Neoplatonism and later merged these concepts into his Christian theology. He made many groundbreaking contributions outside of religion pertaining to the mind, the will, existence, memory, and time. He challenged the school of skepticism by arguing that thought itself was some form of existence. He explored the inner segments of the human mind and it's many complexities pertaining to it's intellect, consciousness, will, and memory. He also made famous the concept of time as only a matter of present attention. The past is the present of our memory while the future is the present of our expectation.
Boethius
Dates: 477-524 AD
Location: Ostrogothic Italy
Occupation: Philosopher, statesman, theologian
School of Thought: Neoplatonism
Influenced by: Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plotinus, Porphyry
Key Concepts (non-Theological):
- Fortune and happiness- external happiness is unstable. Genuine happiness comes by seeking something that is more nonmaterial and everlasting (Wheel of Fortune)
- Free will vs determinism- Humans choices can coexist with divine foreknowledge
- Eternity vs time- The distinction between time as a sequence of events and eternity as a no sequence rather an ever-present state
- Bridge between Greek classical philosophy (Plato and Aristotle) with Christian theology
Major Works:
- The Consolation of Philosophy
- De Topicis Differentiis
- Isagoge
- De Trinitate
Influenced: Medieval philosophy, Scholasticism, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Chaucer
Summary: He is considered one of the major bridges between Greek Classical philosophy and Christian Theology best known for his magnum opus the Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius believed in a mixture of Platonism with Stoicism, emphasizing that there are external forces beyond our control and we should only focus on the internal ones we can control. This went along with his Wheel of Fortune concept, that most good things were unstable, and could easily come-and-go. True happiness came from seeking something more eternal and stable (which in his case was belief in God). Perhaps his most famous concept was the difference between time and eternity. Time is a sequential line of past, present and future moments, while eternity is all of those moments at once. Humans experience time, while God experiences eternity (everything happening in the present moment). The best example here is humans listening to a 3-minute song, while God simply looks at the sheet of music and hears it all in one moment.
Medieval Philosophy
Adi Shankara
Dates: 788-820 AD
Location: Kerala and Karnataka, South India
Occupation: Philosopher, Theologian, Hindu monk, religious teacher
School of Thought: Advaita Vedanta, Hinduism
Influenced by: Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, Bhagavad Gita
Key Concepts:
- Brahman- Ultimate absolute reality
- Atman- The deepest inner self that is one with the reality of Brahman
- Advaita- Ultimate reality is not a dual system, but one monist reality
- Maya- The physical world we see and experience is a mistaken perception
- Avidya- Ignorance of reality
- Moksha- Liberation from ignorance and cycle of rebirth (Nirvana)
- Jnana- liberating knowledge or insight
- Neti neti- "not this, not this"- a method of distinguishing the reality of Brahman
Major Works:
- Brahma Sutra Bhasya- his commentary on the Brahma Sutra texts
- Upanishad commentaries
- Bhagavad Gita Bhasya- commentary on the life of Bhagavad Gita
Influenced: Advaita Vedanta, Hindu theology
Summary: He is considered the father of Advaita Vedanta, a Hindu branch that completely changed the polytheistic system to a monistic system based on one reality; Brahma. Thru his extensive study of the Brahma Sutra texts Shankara claimed the universe was not to be confused as a dualist system of physical and metaphysical, but rather one state of reality. All of life and consciousness was connected to this one reality known as Brahma. He also borrowed several Buddhist concepts into this Hindi belief, such as rebirth, karma, and seeking liberation thru enlightenment. Other important themes of this practice was to accept suffering as the norm, beware of ignorance, and detach from worldly things. He was like the Martin Luther of the time, completely reforming and revitalizing the Hindu religion. He essentially moved Hinduism away from ancient mythological traditions and more towards the metaphysical and soteriologocal philosophy.
Al Kindi
Dates: 801-873
Location: Kufa and Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate (modern day Iraq)
Occupation: Philosopher, mathematician, physician, astronomer, polymath
School of Thought: Islamic Peripatetic philosophy, Neoplatonism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Plato, Plotinus, Neoplatonism
Key Concepts:
- God as the Absolute One (contrary to Christian Trinitary belief)
- Unity and divine simplicity (God is not made up multiple parts, rather one being)
- First Cause- Everything in the universe depends on something else. It is a chain reaction with God as the ultimate cause
- Intellect (Nous)- Understanding reality thru human reason and philosophy
- Soul- The existence of a soul as a non-material source of reason and intellect
- Creation- the universe was not eternal, but had a beginning brought about by God
- Reason and Revelation must work together in unison and cannot contradict one another
- Philosophy is the pursuit of truth and knowledge which leads us closer to God
- Mathematics as a rational tool of understanding nature and reality
Major Works:
- On First Philosophy
- On the Intellect
- On the Definition of Things
- On the Use of Indian Numerals
- On the Rays
Influenced: Al-Farabi, Avicenna, later Islamic philosophy
Summary: He is considered the father of Arab philosophy and the first major philosopher to bridge Greek philosophy with Islamic tradition. Similar to Augustine or Aquinas, he merged many Greek classical concepts with Islam theology. This especially includes the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus pertaining to the chain of causes, the nous, and a soul. Al-Kinda was considered a polymath, well versed in mathematics, physics, and even musical theory. He used an early scholastic approach to merge faith with reason during the Islamic Golden Age. He went on to inspire many other great Muslim philosophers such as Avicenna and Averroes.
Al-Farabi
Dates: 872-950
Location: Farab, Baghdad, Aleppo. Damascus
Occupation: Philosopher, political theorist, musician, polymath
School of Thought: Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, Islamic philosophy
Influenced by: Aristotle, Plato, Plotinus
Key Concepts:
- First Cause/First Being- God is the ultimate source and cause of everything
- The Necessary Existent- God exists because it it necessary rather then contingent. He can exist without us, but we cannot exist without him
- Emanation- reality proceeds from the First Being, and emanates in hierarchical order
- Intellect- hierarchical structure of active intellect that ties living beings to God (like the nous)
- Virtuous City- ideal community that is governed by a genuine happiness with belief in God
- Human happiness- humanity's ultimate goal is to be happy
- Political philosophy- Every ruler should have not only political means but also philosophical wisdom
- Logic and science- Considered as an essential tool to acquire knowledge
Major Works:
- The Virtuous City
- The Political Regime
- The Attainment of Happiness
- Enumeration of the Sciences
- The Principles of the Opinions of the Virtuous City
- The Book of Letters
- The Great Book of Music
Influenced: Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides
Summary: Carrying on with al-Kindi's legacy, al-Farabi followed a similar approach in merging Islam philosophy with Greek classical philosophy. He borrowed concepts from Aristotle and applied them to Allah, regarding his role as the first cause, the first being, and the necessary existent (as opposed to contingent ones). Once again the concept of the nous is central in connecting humanity's active intellect with God. Al-Farabi's greatest claim was the importance of happiness, and that it should be central pursuit of all life. This is achieved thru intellect and seeking God. According to his most famous work, the Virtuous City, society should work together to sustain this ideal of happiness for every citizen.
Avicenna
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Dates: 980-1037
Location: Burkhara, Persia
Occupation: Philosopher, physician, scientist, logian, polymath
School of Thought: Avicennian philosophy, Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Al-Farabi
Key Concepts:
- Necessary Existent- God exists necessarily and is not dependent on anything else
- Contingent Being- Every other form of existence is dependent on God
- Essence vs Existence- What something is, is different from the fact they exist
- First Cause- Every even is contingent upon another, and the source of these causes is God
- Emanation- There is an ordered hierarchy that emanates from the First Being, to the Intellect
- Intellects- The immaterial nous that flows thru the universe and connects existence with God
- Active Intellect- The actualized intellect of humanity
- Flying Man- The self is immediately aware of it's own existence even before sensory experiences
- Soul- the principle immaterial source of the body where intellect comes from
Major Works:
- The Book of Healing
- The Canon of Medicine
- The Book of Salvation
- Remarks and Admonitions
- The Metaphysics of the Healing
Influenced: Averroes, Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus
Summary: He is considered one of the greatest Islam philosophers and a polymath of the Islamic Golden Age. He made many contributions in astronomy, alchemy, geography, geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and poetry. His philosophy expanded on Aristotle and Al-Farabi concepts, with God as the Necessary Existent (free from any dependency). The rest of the universe however was contingent on this first being, and required some form of emanation to create a chain of causes that developed intellect and the soul. He also pioneered the distinction between essence and existence, a concept that Aquinas would later expand on (by stating that God's essence was his existence). Avicenna's influence went far beyond Islam theology, but also played a major role in advancing medicine thru his Canon of Medicine. His scholastic approach on metaphysic concepts inspired many prominent Western philosophers including Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas.
Anselm of Canterbury
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Dates: 1033-1109
Location: Aosta, Italy; Bec, Normandy; Canterbury, England
Occupation: Philosopher, monk, theologican, Archbishop
School of Thought: Augustinianism, Christian Platonism
Influenced by: Augustine, Plato, Boethius, Neoplatonism
Key Concepts:
- Reason and rational argument- All philosophical (or theological) questions can be explored through reasoning
- Truth is the ultimate form of correct order. It is exactly what it should be. It is total rightness.
- Necessity and possibility- The distinction between what must be and what could be
- Logic and language- How words, concepts, and theories relate to what is truth
- Ontological reasoning- If we can conceive of the greatest possible being, and existing is better than a non-existent idea, then the greatest possible being must surely exist.
Major Works:
- Proslogion
- Monologion
- De Veritate (On Truth)
- On the Grammarian
- On Free Will
Influenced: Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel
Summary: He is considered one of the fathers of Scholasticism, who sought to explain philosophy thru reason. He believed all philosophical questions could be explored through proper analysis and rationalism. He introduced the concept of truth as the ultimate source of what was right and in it's correct order (associated to God). He is also famous for his ontological theory which defended the concept of God and existence, because it could be conceived. And if it could be conceived then it made more sense for it to exist then not exist. This was a similar concept introduced earlier by Augustine against Skepticism, and also a concept Descartes would further expand on.
Al-Ghazali
Dates: 1058-1111
Location: Tus, Persia
Occupation: Theologian, Philosopher, Jurist, Mystic, teacher
School of Thought: Ash'arite theology, Sunni theology, Sufism
Influenced by: Ash'arite theologians, Al-Farabi, Avicenna
Key Concepts:
- Divine Omnipotence- God as the ultimate source and power over everything
- Occasionalism- Things are not caused by other things, but by God
- Critique of Necessary Causation-
- Rejection of Eternal Creation- The universe was not eternal but was created by God
- Revelation over Philosophy- Although reason is a helpful tool, revelation is the superior truth
- Skepticism and Certainty- Nothing can be truly proved so must be handled with a degree of skeptisim
- Sufism and Spiritual Knowledge- True union with God comes thru purification and experience more than knowledge
- Intention of the Heart- Religious practice must transform the person from within, not just by outward appearance
- Moral Psychology- The purification of the soul is essential
Major Works:
- The Incoherence of the Philosophers
- The Revival of the Religious Sciences
- Deliverance from Error
- The Beginning of Guidance
- The Moderation in Belief
Influenced:
Summary: He was considered a major critic and skeptic of many of the famous Islam philosophers. His approach was one of skepticism and criticism of many of the presented metaphysical concepts. Al-Ghazali ultimately preferred revelation over philosophical reasoning as the rightful source of truth. His concept of Occasionalism was his claim to fame, which argued against necessary causation in favor of God as the source of all causes (not some sequential chain reaction or emanation). He became one of the early advocates of Sufism by incorporating many concepts of spiritual discipline with Sunni theology and Islamic law.
Averroes
Dates: 1126-1198
Location: Cordoba, Al-Andalus (modern day Spain)
Occupation: Philosopher, physician, jurist, judge, theologian, polymath
School of Thought: Aristotelianism, Averroism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Plato, Al-Farabi, Avicenna
Key Concepts:
- Neo-Aristotelianism- Restore, revitalize, and preserve the teachings of Aristotle
- Reason and Revelation cannot contradict one another and both can lead to truth
- Demonstration(burhan)- the process of philosophical reasoning as the highest form of achieving wisdom
- God as the First Cause- God is the ultimate cause of order and reality
- Active Intellect- The immaterial essence of human intellectual understanding
- Unity of the Intellect- The universe of the intellect is a shared force rather than an individual one (very much against nominalism)
- Allegorical interpretation of scripture
- Medicine and natural philosophy
Major Works:
- The Incoherence of the Incoherence
- Decisive Treatise
- The Long Commentatires on Aristotle
- Middle Commentaries on Aristotle
- Exposition of the Methods of Proof
- Colliget
Influenced: Latin Averroists, Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Siger of Brabant
Summary: If ever there was a greater advocate for Aristotelianism it was the Muslim philosopher Averroes. He was influenced by the teachings of the great Avicenna, however later challenged that Aicenna's concepts were more Platonism then they were Aristotelianism. Averroes emphasized God's role as the First Cause and Unmoved Mover, and the universe as an eternal state not one of emanating flow. He also made medical contributions pertaining to the sicknesses of stroke and Parkinson disease. Many of his concepts were later deemed somewhat controversial especially the Unity of the Intellect. This claimed that humanity shared intellect which was rejected by many Muslim and Christian scholars who supported the individual concept of Nominalism.
Maimonides
Dates: 1138-1204
Location: Cordoba, Spain
Occupation: Philosopher, rabbi, Jewish scholar, physician, theologian
School of Thought: Jew Aristotelianism, Medieval Scholasticism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Al-Ghazali
Key Concepts:
- Negative Theology (apophaticism)- Since God is incomprehensible it is best to describe what God is NOT rather than what he is
- Divine simplicity- God is one unified being and does not consist of multiple parts or entities
- Reason and revelation- Philosophy and faith cannot contradict with one another
- Creation and cosmology- The eternal universe was created by God
- Free will- Human beings possess genuine freedom to make their choices based on a moral compass
- Intellectual perfection- Contemplation of God is the highest form of human perfection
- Purpose of the commandments- The Ten Commandments are not only religious law but are also rational, ethical, and social law
- Law and philosophy- Religious law can help humans better achieve intellectual enlightenment
Major Works:
- The Guide for the Perplexed
- Mishneh Torah
- Commentary on the Mishnah
- Eight Chapters
Influenced: Gersonides, Hasdai Crescas, Spinoza, Thomas Aquinas
Summary: He is considered one of the greatest Jewish philosophers, who championed the practice of negative theology. Rather than use human-qualities to define God, he believed it was more accurate to use terms of what he is not (Not physical, Not mortal, Not Finite). He was an advocate of using both faith and reason together, while accepting the revelation of God as the untouchable truth. He emphasized the Ten Commandments were more then just religious laws, rather the foundational creed of humanity. He also promoted the practice of meditation as a form of reaching God in a higher transcendent state (which could be seen as an early form of the mystical practice of Kabbalah).
Thomas Aquinas
Philosophical Legacy: Architect of Scholasticism
Dates: 1225-1274
Occupation: Philosopher, theologian, Dominican friar, university professor
School of Thought: Aristotelianism, Augustinianism, Scholasticism, Thomism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius, Albert Magnus the Great, Avicenna, Averroes
Key Concepts:
- Distinction between essence and existence
- Empirical Epistemology- The mind starts with a blank slate and all learning comes from sensory data thru experience (humans are not born with innate talents)
- Actuality and Potency- In regards to change all things undergo a process of potency and actuality. The acorn is the actual state with a potency to become a tree and so forth.
- Natural Law Ethics- Human nature contains rational inclinations such as self-preservation, social cooperation, and a pursuit of knowledge.
- Mind-Body Unity- The Soul is the unifying form of the physical body
Major Works:
- Summa Theologiae
- Summa Contra Gentiles
- Commentary on the Sentences
- On Being and Essence
Summary: Aside from being one the greatest theologians in Christian history, Aquinas also made many great philosophical contributions. He was especially keen on Aristotle's concepts, and expanded on various elements of empiricism (role of experience), hylomorphism (form and matter), actuality and potency, and the nature of a soul. He used several of Aristotle's concepts to explain the existence of a God, such as the source of all causation, as well as the Unmoved Mover. He used the scholastic method of reason to introduce new concepts of human character and inclinations. His theories on the Natural Law of Ethics and empiricism could be seen as early precursors to the branch of psychology. Perhaps his greatest philosophical breakthrough was his distinction of essence and existence. A concept can have essence (a form of potency) however existence is the actual state of that being. This essentially means that all essence is a potential form, and is dependent on existence to achieve it's actual form.
William of Ockham
Dates: 1287-1347
Location: England, Avignon, France
Occupation: Philosopher, Theologian, Franciscan friar
School of Thought: Scholasticism, Nominalism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Augustine, Peter Abelard, Duns Scotus
Key Concepts:
- Nominalism- Universals such as humanity or redness do not exist as independent entities. They are a form of classification that groups up individual things. There is no humanity. There are only individual humans.
- Ockham's Razor- Don't present more entities and assumptions then necessary to explain something. In other words do not overcomplicate a theory.
- Mental language- Thought itself has a structured language like character
- Logics and semantics- careful analysis of how terminology can represent certain things
- Intuitive vs abstract cognition- The distinction between knowing something exists and analyzing it's abstraction
- Limits of metaphysics- Although reason is very useful in understanding the nature of things, it cannot explain everything and thus faith is required.
Major Works:
- Summa Logicae
- Ordinato
- Quodlibetal Questions
- Dialogus
Influenced: Medieval Scholasticism, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume
Summary: He is another of the major medieval Scholastic philosophers with an emphasis on Christian theology. However William of Ockham's greatest contributions were more so in philosophical practice then in theology. His concept of nominalism clarified the distinction between universal terms that are often grouped as one entity (such as humanity or dogs). This is a misleading term because in truth there is no humanity or dogs, rather only individual humans and individual dogs. As a champion of scholasticism, he introduced the approach of Ockham's Razor to simplify a theory and not overcomplicate it. This became a very important method in modern scientific philosophy. Ockham ultimately accepted that although reason can bring us great answers it cannot explain everything and true reality lies in faith and revelation.
Jon Duns Scotus
Dates: 1265-1308
Location: Scotland, England, France
Occupation: Philosopher, theologian, Franciscan friar, university professor
School of Thought: Scholasticism, Scotism, Franciscan philosophy
Influenced by: Aristotle, Augustine, Anselm, Avicenna, Thomas Aquinas
Key Concepts:
- Univocity of Being- the term "Being" can be understood in the same sense for anything (divine or worldly). This helps identify and explore the nature of that being and existence.
- Haecceity (thisness)- What makes something unique
- Formal distinction- the distinction between two items within one thing (such as God's mercy and God's wrath)
- Universals- Universals do not exist, and are only a term of classification, however he does believe in a shared nature (moderate Realist)
- Free Will- Humans have a genuine freedom to choose between alternatives
- Metaphysics of being
Major Works:
- Ordinatio
- Lectura
- Quaestiones Quodlibetles
- De Primo Principio
Influenced: William of Ockham, Medival Scholasticism
Summary: Another of the major Christian theologian-philosophers and champions of Scholasticism. He is quite similar to William of Ockham with an emphasis on universals, terminology, and individuality. He would however slightly differ from Ockham's nominalism hard rejection of universals. Scotus would claim that although universals do not exist, there is still a shared nature between the individuals that make up that universal. So he would reject the concept of humanity as an entity, however support the concept of human nature within individual humans. Scotus also pioneered the concept of Haecceity as the defining feature that makes someone unique.
Early Modern Philosophy
Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli
Dates: 1469-1527
Location: Florence, Italy
Occupation: Diplomat, political philosopher, historian, civil servant, writer
School of Thought: Political Realism, Renaissance Humanism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Livy, Cicero, Polybius
Key Concepts:
- Political realism- politics should be understood thru practical operation, rather than idealist views
- Virtu- a leader's practical ability to lead based on their strength, decisiveness, intelligence, confidence, courage, and adaptability
- Fortuna- The variable of luck which can often affect the circumstances of politics
- The ends and means problem- Political necessity must sometimes require unethical or immoral actions
- Human nature- People are all self-interested, fickle, and ambitious. They are motivated by fear, survival, happiness, and success
- Republicanism- High value on a representative democracy with civic liberty
- Conflict as productive- Political disagreements can lead to positive outcomes of compromise, balance, and preservation
Major Works:
- The Prince- His most famous work on political power
- Discourses on Livy
- The Art of War
- Florentine Histories
Influenced: Thomas Hobbes, Francis Bacon, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Baruch Spinoza
Summary: Considered the greatest philosopher of the Italian Renaissance and the school of Humanism. His specialty was focused on political science with strands of psychology and sociology. Machiavelli is often presented in a mischievous light because he saw the cutthroat nature of politics as a necessary evil. This approach of political realism puts more emphasis on practicality, self-interest, and winnability over sheer idealism. Machiavelli argued that all humans were driven by their own ambitions and thus society should function accordingly. Despite his pragmatic approach Machiavelli still supported democracy and political discourse as a means of balance.
Francis Bacon
Dates: 1561-1626
Location: London, England
Occupation: Philosopher, statesman, writer, scientist
School of Thought: Empiricism, Renaissance Humanism, Scientific Revolution
Influenced by: Aristotle, Renaissance Humanism
Key Concepts:
- Empiricism- All knowledge should come from experience and observation
- Deductive Reasoning- Knowledge should begin with observation and then studied thru reason and broader principles
- Experimental Method- An approach of rational tests rather than theoretical speculation
- Idols of the Mind- Systematic errors that can blur human reasoning
- Knowledge as power- understanding reality can improve the human condition
- Mastery of nature- An understanding of science can help manipulate the natural order (such as medicine)
Major Works:
- Novum Organum
- The Advancement of Learning
- The New Atlantis
- Essays
Influenced: Thomas Hobbes, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, John Locke
Summary: He is considered the father of the Scientific Method and modern empiricism. During the Scientific Revolution many religious concepts of the universe were challenged by astronomers such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Isaac Newton. Francis Bacon is one of the first modern philosophers who breaks free from theology and puts more emphasis on scientific reasoning (however he was still a devout Christian who served Queen Elizabeth and King James). He claims that all knowledge begins with experience, and from there can be understood thru study, examination, and reasoning. Bacon warns that the human mind can easily be manipulated by dogma or biased views, and should seek understanding thru personal empiricism. He also claims that society as a whole can benefit from scientific study that can manipulate the natural processes (such as medicine, electricity, technology, the internet).
Mulla Sadra
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Dates: 1571-1640
Location: Shiraz and Isfahan (modern Iran)
Occupation: Philosopher, theologian, mystic
School of Thought: Transcendent Philosophy
Influenced by: Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Islamic theology
Key Concepts:
- Four Journeys of the Intellect
- Journey away from reality- Questioning existence leads us to God
- Journey towards God- Understanding God's divine reality
- Journey back to reality- Thru Knowledge of God, reality becomes clearer
- Journey with God and reality as one- Form of Enlightenment
- Primacy of Existence- Existence is reality and is more fundamental the essence
- Substantial Motion- Reality is constantly in a process of "becoming"
- Gradation of Existence- Different degrees of existence (not all-or-nothing)
- Existence vs Essence- Essence is what something is, while Existence is that something is (Aquinas)
- Existence is ultimately dependent on God, but not the other way around
- Transcendent theosophy- Going beyond physical reality to understand God on a deeper more mystical level
Major Works:
- The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect
- The Book of Metaphysical Penetrations
Influenced: Shi'a Islamic Philosophy, Illuminationist
Summary: He is considered one of the most influential Muslim philosophers and scholars of the modern era. While his philosophy is based mostly on theology, he also offers some great insight on the topics of reality and existentialism. He even explores elements of mysticism in his later works and is regarded as the founder of transcendent theosophy. Mulla Sadra essentially creates a common theological roadmap of seeking wisdom by unlearning everything you know regarding to physical existence. He claims it is thru knowledge of God that one could achieve a higher form of understanding, peace, and enlightenment. Perhaps my favorite of his concepts is the gradation of existence, as something that is not all-or-nothing. This idea of levels of existence makes perfect sense when you consider the intellect and consciousness of humans compared to dogs, plants, or even insects. I've even heard there are certain organisms whose existence is nothing but a flash of a second. This is such a fascinating element to the topic of existentialism.
Thomas Hobbes
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Dates: 1588-1679
Location: Wiltshire, England
Occupation: Philosopher, Political theorist, tutor, writer
School of Thought: Political realism, materialism, social contract theory
Influenced by: Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Euclid, Machiavelli
Key Concepts:
- Social Contract Theory- Individuals will surrender certain freedoms to an authority in exchange for peace and security
- State of Nature- Government authority is a necessity to avoid social chaos and insecurity
- "War of all against all"- Humans would be at constant conflict with one another without a government institution
- Leviathan- A powerful sovereign is necessary to maintain stability and civil peace
- Materialism- All of reality consists of matter and motion. Even the human mind has a mechanical function
- Psychological egoism- Human behavior is motivated by self-interest, desire, and preservation
- Fear of death- All humans fear death and thus a government society is necessary for security
- Mechanistic philosophy- All of biology and nature can be understood thru physical process and motion
- Leviathian
- De Civi (On the Citizen)
- The Elements of Law
- De Corpore (On Body)
- Behemoth
Influenced: John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume
Summary: He was like a fusion of Machiavelli and Francis Bacon, who supported the scientific method while also promoting the concepts of political realism. Thomas Hobbes lived thru much of the English Civil War, which inspired many of his philosophical and political writings. The basis of his belief was that all humans possessed a self-interest to survive, and that government was required to maintain this stability. He also promoted the practice of science as the more practical approach to understanding the laws of nature. He emphasized that the world was purely material and motion (which could be seen as an early afront to any earlier metaphysical concepts).
Rene Descartes
Dates: 1596-1650
Location: France
Occupation: Philosopher, mathematician, scientist, writer
School of Thought: Rationalism, Cartesianism
Influenced by: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine
Key Concepts:
- Methodic Doubt- Anything that could be mistaken should be doubted (minimal skepticism)
- "I think therefore I am"- The process of thinking itself is a form of certainty against any form of skepticism
- Mind-body dualism- The mind and body are two fundamental different substances
- Rationalism- reason can provide genuine knowledge free from sensory experience
- Innate ideas- certain ideas are present in the mind rather than learned thru experience
- Clear and distinct ideas- truths recognized in the mind with rational clairty
- The thinking self- consciousness provides the first certainty of philosophy
- Cartesian coordinate system- connected algebra and geometry mathematically
Major Works:
- Discourse on the Method
- Meditations on First Philosophy
- Principles of Philosophy
- The Passions of the Soul
- Rules for the Direction of the Mind
Influenced: Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Kant, Malebranche, Modern rationalism
Summary: He is considered one of the greatest Modern philosophers (arguably on the Mount Rushmore aside Plato, Aristotle, and maybe Kant). Thru his most famous concept, " I think therefore I am" Descartes proved that thought itself was a form of certainty. This directly challenged any concept of skepticism, and even promoted early concepts of existentialism. The question isn't so much about what we are or why we are here, rather an affirmation that we DO have a consciousness and that is a certain form of existence. Descartes also famously distinguished the difference between the mind and body as a dualistic system. The body is a physical substance while the mind is a non-physical substance. This of course ties into religion, by which Descartes was heavily influenced by Augustine and saw rational reasoning for the existence of a soul. Another major claim Descartes made was a direct challenge to pure empiricism in favor of a built-in rationalism. The best example is how mathematics and logic can be achieved without any prior sensory experience. This is ultimately why Descartes is also considered the father of rationalism.
Baruch Spinoza
Dates: 1632-1677
Location: Jewish/Portuguese; Amsterdam and the Hague, Dutch Republic (modern day Netherlands)
Occupation: Philosopher
School of Thought: Rationalism, pantheism, monism, naturalism
Influenced by: Rene Descartes, Maimonides, stoicism,
Key Concepts:
- Substance Monism- There is ultimately one substance that makes up reality, nature, and God. Everything that exists is an individual form of this same substance.
- "God=nature"- Nature as we know it is the embodiment of God.
- Attributes- this one substance has an infinite amount of attributes (thought, space, time, motion)
- Modes- this one substance has an infinite amount of modes, which includes humans, animals, plants, objects, events, metaphysics, and all forms of the natural order
- Determinism- everything happens in a systematic chain of causality determined by the natural order, NOT free will
- Mind-Body Parallelism- The Mind and Body are not two individual substances, rather two different ways of understanding their one reality (challenges Descartes' Mind-Body Dualism)
- Conatus- every individual thing seeks to preserve it's own survival and existence
- Freedom through Understanding- True wisdom comes from understanding the causes that determine our existence (and not fighting or escaping the causes)
- Intellectual Love of God- understanding reason and rationality can bring us a stronger understanding and love of God
Major Works:
- Ethics
- Theological-Political Treatise
- Political Treatise
- Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
Influenced: Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, GWF Hegel, Schelling, von Goethe, Nietzsche
Summary: He is considered one of the first major Pantheists, who merged the schools of rationalism and naturalism into a Monistic system. Spinoza believed that all of nature, life, and existence were not separate forms of substance but rather one in the same substance. All of reality was essentially the same being in an infinite amount of forms and attributes. This nature was essentially God, and all it's forms were different modes or manifestations of the one God. Everything in the universe was interconnected as one united being. This also explains his theories of causality and determinism, where everything that happens in the universe is part of a systematic reason pre-determined by the will of nature (aka God). Spinoza was greatly influenced by Descartes' school of rationalism, but challenged him on his concept of Mind-Body dualism. He argued the question was not how the mind-and-body communicate with one another, rather that the mind-and-body were two ways to interpret reality.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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Dates: 1646-1716
Location: Leipzig, Germany
Occupation: Philosopher, mathematician, logician, diplomat, political adviser, historian, librarian
School of Thought: Rationalism, metaphysical pluralism
Influenced by: Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, Nicolas Malebranche
Key Concepts:
- Monads- Everything that exists is composed of these miniscule particles of immaterial
- Pre-established harmony- The mind and body work together in perfect synchronization according to God's will
- Principle of sufficient reason- Everything that happens has a sufficient explanation of why it happened versus the alternative
- Principle of non-contradiction- Something cannot be true and false at the same time
- Best Possible World- God conceived of many worlds, but ultimately decided on ours since it was the most perfect
- Identity of indiscernible- If two things the exact same disposition, then they are not two distinct things (in regards to metaphysics)
- Innate ideas- The human mind is capable of ration without any form of experience required
- Mathematic fields of calculus, arithmetic, and statistics
- Optimism- Reality ultimately possesses a rational order that is grounded in divine wisdom and goodness
Major Works:
- Discourse on Metaphysics
- New Essays on Human Understanding
- Theodicy
- Monadology
- Principles of Nature and Grace
Influenced: Christian Wolff, Immanuel Kant, GWF Hegel
Summary: He is considered one of history's greatest polymaths, well versed in so many scientific and mathematic fields. His greatest philosophical claim was that reality consisted of small particles of metaphysical energy known as Monads (similar to atomism, however atoms are physical particles). Leibniz challenged Spinoza's claim of one single reality, with this concept of an infinite amount of separate individual substances that were coordinated thru God's harmony. He argued that everything in this universe has a sufficient reason for existing and is the best possible outcome compared to any alternatives (especially in the case of God's creation of this world). Leibniz's vast analytical contributions spanned the fields of philosophy, mathematics, theology, ethics, politics, law, history, music, economics, biology, geology, psychology, and even early concepts on technology.
John Locke
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Dates: 1632-1704
Location: Oxford and London, England
Occupation: Philosopher, physician, political theorist, government official
School of Thought: Empiricism, liberalism, social contract theory
Influenced by: Aristotle, Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Gassendi
Key Concepts:
- Tabula rasa: The human mind does NOT begin with innate ideas, but must acquire all knowledge thru experience
- Empiricism- All knowledge comes thru sensory experience and reflection upon that experience
- Primary and secondary qualities- An object has two forms of qualities. The concrete physical ones would be the shape, size, or it's motion; while the sensory ones would be it's color, smell, or taste.
- Natural rights- All humans possess inherent rights of life, liberty and property which the government must protect
- Consent of the governed- Government authority comes from the consent of the people rather then consent from God
- Limited government- Government must operate for the betterment of society without violating their liberties
- Right of Revolution- If the government fails to honor the peoples' liberty, they have a right to replace it by any means necessary
- Personal identity- Our personalities are made up of our consciousness, rather then our body or soul
Major Works:
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- Two Treatises of Government
- A Letter Concerning Toleration
- The Reasonableness of Christianity- defended the Christian faith
Influenced: George Berkeley, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant
Summary: He is considered one of the great political theorists of the Scientific Revolution alongside Machiavelli or Thomas Hobbes. He was heavily influenced by the writings of Hobbes and strongly defended the concept of empiricism over rationalism (Descartes and Leibniz). He is considered alongside Hobbes as one of the key founders of the school of empiricism. Locke claimed that all things consisted of two forms of qualities; physical and sensory. He also made great contributions in the field of politics where he introduced the new position of Liberalism. This was essentially strongly in favor of the liberties of humanity, and the necessity for government to protect those freedoms. If the government could not honor the peoples' liberty then they had just cause to change the government (this sort of thinking was no doubt influential to the French and American Revolutions). He was also a firm supporter of the Christian faith (amidst growing skeptics) and used the scholastic approach of reason to defend many of it's teachings.
George Berkeley
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Dates: 1685-1753
Location: Ireland, England, Rhode Island, America
Occupation: Philosopher, Anglican bishop, theologian, writer
School of Thought: Empiricism, Idealism, Immaterialism
Influenced by: John Locke, Rene Descartes, Nichols Malebranche
Key Concepts:
- Immaterialism- Physical objects do not exist as independent substances outside our perception
- Esse est percipi- "To be is to be perceived". All objects exist as they are perceived
- Ideas- everything we experience is a perception of ideas
- Spirit/mind- We are all just spirits that conceive ideas
- God continuously perceives everything, which guarantees the existence of a substance
- Critique of material substance- Although we experience certain attributes such as color or size, we do not directly experience the material substance
- Empiricism- knowledge begins with experience however only sees the materialism, and thus we cannot claim knowledge over something that cannot be truly experienced
Major Works:
- An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision
- A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
- Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
- Alciphron
Influenced: David Hume, Immanuel Kant
Summary: Berkeley expands on Locke's concept of primary and secondary qualities that is focused on perception. He introduces a new concept of immaterialism to define all forms of material substance in this universe. His major claim is that we experience things merely as ideas thru attributes such as the size, shape, or structure of something. Berkeley completely rejects the concept of physical materialism and claims we are all just spirits, perceiving ideas. This of course leads to a major problem in explaining our physical sensory experiences. How can there be a physical world if everything is purely perception? Berkely's simple answer is God. It is through God that our sensory experiences are realized. This to me is a classic religious cheat-code of using God as the answer to a complex theory. However, Kant took this idea of perception and immaterialism even further with a more reasonable solution.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Dates: 1712-1778
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Occupation: Philosopher, political theorist, writer, composer, teacher
School of Thought: Enlightenment, Social Contract theory, Republicanism, Romanticism
Influenced by: Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu
Key Concepts:
- State of human nature- Humans in their natural condition are independent and peaceful. It is thru the institutions of society that they must be transformed
- Natural goodness- Humans are good by nature and are mostly corrupted by the injustice or inequalities of society
- Social contract- Political societies arise when individuals work collectively on a shared belief
- General will- The collective will of the people over the will of an individual based on self-interest
- Popular sovereignty- The government belongs to the people, not the leaders in power
- Freedom- True freedom means living in accordance with the laws, rather then doing whatever one wants
- Equality- Economic inequality can undermine the people's sense of freedom, justice, and legitimacy
- Civil religion- Religion serves as a necessary good that can unite a community based on principles and beliefs
- Education and natural development- Children should be allowed some natural development over strict rigorist institutions
Major Works:
- Discourse on the Science and Arts
- Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men
- The Social Contract
- Emile, or On Education
- Confessions
Influenced: The French Revolution, Immanuel Kant, GWF Hegel, Karl Marx
Summary: He is considered one of the most influential political theorists that inspired the French Revolution. He was an advocate of Locke's school of liberalism and applied to it the qualities of the human individual and their collective will. Rousseau made several great claims on human nature regarding their peaceful, independent, and good dispositions. It is only thru society institutions and inequality that their poor qualities are revealed. Thus he lays out the simple solution. Improve the social institutions (especially the economic inequality) and you improve the collective will of the people. This concept is strongly against the Christian teachings of inherited sin, however Rousseau was by no means rejecting Christianity and even advocated for the positive role of organized religion. It is clear to see how Rousseau's ideals of economic inequality later influenced further left politics such as Marxism.
David Hume
Dates: 1711-1776
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation: Philosopher, historian, essayist, economist, librarian, diplomat
School of Thought: Empiricism, skepticism, naturalism
Influenced by: John Locke, George Berkely, Joseph Butler, Francis Hutcheson, Isaac Newton
Key Concepts:
- Empiricism- Strongly in favor of the concept that all ideas come thru experience. There are vivid direct experiences and weaker experiences that are derived from impressions
- Problem of causation- Events unfold due to causation, however we can never completely perceive what the causes are. We can only observe and sometimes anticipate the effect
- Problem of induction- There is no logical justification that the future will follow the same pattern or structure as the past.
- Bundle theory of the self- When we look inward we do not see a stable identity rather a constant changing bundle of perception, memories, emotions, sensations, thoughts, and so forth.
- Skepticism- Human reason and philosophy has many limits and it is only thru experience that the truth can be revealed
- Naturalism- Rather then trying to understand the metaphysics of reality, humans should concern with the physical nature of themselves, with one another, and with their surroundings
- Reason and emotion- Human behavior is driven by desire and emotions. It is through reason that we can pursue those desires
- Is-Ought Problem- Just because something is a certain way doesn't mean it ought to be another way
- Moral sentimentalism- Human judgement comes from feelings of approval or disapproval rather than through pure reason
- Critique of miracles- Questioned the scientific credibility of any religious miracle
- Critique of metaphysics- Questioned the concepts of substance, necessary connection, and the soul
Major Works:
- A Treatise of Human Nature
- An Enquire Concerning Human Understanding
- An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
- The Natural History of Religion
- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
- The History of England
Influenced: Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin
Summary: He is considered one of the most influential skeptics of the modern age, questioning almost every previous philosophical concept with reasonable theories. He was a strong advocate of the school of empiricism, that held experience as the only true form of knowledge or reason. He completely questions the validity of many theories such as causation, haecceity, induction, metaphysics, and theological miracles. His theory on induction is a fair case where just because the past unfolded one way, doesn't mean the future will follow the same course (such as the sun rising each morning). He also provided a fair analysis of the inner-self not as a distinguishable identity but rather as an ever-changing bundle of characteristics. Hume was ultimately against any form of metaphysical or spiritual approach and encouraged the practice of empiricism and naturalism.
Immanuel Kant
Dates: 1724-1804
Location: Konigsberg, Prussia
Occupation: Philosopher, professor
School of Thought: Transcendental Idealism, German Enlightenment, Rationalism, Empiricism
Influenced by: Leibniz, Christian Wolff, Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, Isaac Newton, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Key Concepts:
- Transcendental Idealism- While we experience reality as we see it, we cannot directly understand the reason we are experiencing that reality
- Phenomena and noumena- Phenomena are the things we experience, while noumena are the things that exist but we do not experience. We can only think of the noumena but not experience it (also known as the thing-in-itself)
- The mind structures experience- The mind has an innate structure that organizes sensory information and experiences that lead to proper cognitive reasoning
- A priori knowledge- Some knowledge is possible prior to any sensory experience such as Mathematics or fundamental principles (Rationalism)
- Categories of understanding- The mind categorizes all concepts into causality, substance, unity, plurality, and necessity
- Space and time- We cannot confirm the existence of space or time, rather use it as a form to measure our experience of reality
- The Copernican Revolution- The mind doesn't conform to the world, rather the world conforms to the mind thru it's experience of reality
- Moral autonomy- Rational beings have a moral compass to govern themselves rather then a necessary external authority
- Categorical imperative- An act or decision based on a universal moral principle (considered an acceptable norm)
- Human dignity- All humans should be treated as , not merely as tools for another person
- Freedom- All humans should be considered free rational beings, despite any laws of the natural world
- Religion and reason- Metaphysical claims about God or the soul cannot be established thru reason alone
Major Works:
- Critique of Pure Reason
- Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
- Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals
- Critique of Practical Reason
- Critique of Judgement
- Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason
Influenced: GWF Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Fredrich Schelling, Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche
Summary: He is considered among the greatest modern philosophers who completely changed the way we consider knowledge and experience. His philosophy is based on the schools of empiricism, rationalism, and idealism. His main focus is on our perception of reality (expanding on the concepts introduced by Locke and Berkely). According to Kant it is the mind, not the world, that categorizes everything into understanding and intuition (such as space, time, substance, necessity, causality, etc). His main system of Transcendental Idealism pertains to our experience of one thing vs the actual existence of the thing-in-itself. He refers to this as two different types of experience; the phenomena is what we see from our perspective while the noumena, is outside of our perspective. To put it simply we see a tree from our perspective, but that does not define the tree as it is, since it is coming from our perspective. We never actually see the thing as it truly is. Humans can even share perspectives of the tree (such as it being tall or green), but they are only seeing the tree from within their human perspective. A dog, bird, or even insect would experience the tree entirely different, and thus there lies the difference or the question of what exactly is the tree. This is ultimately a question that cannot be known thru our perception. His ability to question our perception is often considered the beginning of true epistemology; the study of knowledge (what we know and how can we know it).
Modern Philosophy
GWF Hegel
GWF Hegel
Dates: 1770-1831
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Occupation: Philosopher, professor, academic
School of Thought: German idealism, absolute idealism, dialectical philosophy
Influenced by: Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schelling, Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Rousseau
Key Concepts:
- Absolute Idealism- Reality is an interconnected rational system where thought, consciousness, nature, and history are all connected
- Dialectic- Contradiction is a good thing for developing philosophy and knowledge
- Geist- The spirit or mind or constantly developing towards further self-understanding and freedom
- Absolute Spirit- The spirit comes to better understand itself thru art, religion, and philosophy
- History as development- History represents the progression of human freedom and self-awareness
- Alienation- Feeling separated from something that is actually a part of you.
Major Works:
- Phenomenology of Spirit
- Science of Logic
- Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences
- Elements of the Philosophy of Right
- Lectures on the Philosophy of History
Influenced: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche
Summary: Hegel presented a new form of German idealism, that saw reality as one united whole that was constantly developing. He basically rejected Kant's concept that we could not truly know something outside of our perception. Instead, Hegel considered history as a developing sequence with a greater goal leading to true knowledge and freedom. This of course had a theological component to it, since Hegel was a devout Christian who saw the human spirit as seeking to get closer to God. It was thru the processes of dialectic and alienation, the human spirit could better understand itself. His concept of alienation (seeing our consciousness outside of ourselves; like an artist and his painting or a father and his child) would later inspire Marx's concept of alienation of labor.
Friedrich Willhelm Joseph Schelling
Dates: 1775-1854
Location: Wurtemberg, Germany
Occupation: Philosopher, academic
School of Thought: German Idealism, Naturphilosophie (Philosophy of Nature)
Influenced by: Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Spinoza, Jakob Bohme
Key Concepts:
- Nature as dynamic and creative- It is an ongoing process of interconnective development and organization
- Identity of mind and nature- Both the mind and nature are forms of spirit connected to reality. Nature is the visible spirit, while the mind is the invisible spirit.
- Absolute- The underlying reality of nature and the mind
- Freedom- Can humans be truly free if God is the ultimate source of reality?
- Human consciousness- Reality becoming aware of itself
- Relationship between God and creation
- Reality of evil- A genuine free person should have the ability to freely choose good or evil. Thus lies the nature of evil.
Major Works:
- Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature
- System of Transcendtel Idealism
- Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom
- The Ages of the World
Influenced: Hegel, German Romanticism, existentialism
Summary: Influenced by German Idealism and Kant's structure of perception, Schelling offers a slightly different view based on nature. He considers all of reality as a form of "absolute" that consists of two major manifestations; nature and the mind. Nature is the visible form of this reality, while the mind (or the consciousness) is the invisible form. The two forms share a relation through the process of development, where the natural world creates consciousness (or life). Schelling also explores the concepts of human freedom and their ability to choose good or evil (which aligns with Christian theology). Despite his appreciation of Nature, Schelling is not a pure Naturalist (Nature is all that exists) nor a pure Pantheist (where God is nature). He is regarded as a nature-philosopher that almost bridges the two concepts together. It is a form of spiritualized naturalism where an Absolute nature exists under a divine reality.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Dates: 1788-1860
Location: Danzig and Frankfurt, Germany
Occupation: Philsopher, writer, academic
School of Thought: German Idealism, Pessimism, Metaphysics, Existentialism
Influenced by: Immanuel Kant, Plato, Buddhism, Hindi philosophy, Upanishadic, Transcendental idealism
Key Concepts:
- Will- The fundamental reality that drives everything to exist and desire
- Will to live- The unending drive of every living thing to survive and pursue it's desires
- Representation- The world as it appears to us through our perception (noumenal)
- Pessimism- suffering is an unavoidable part of life since our desires can never be fully satisfied and ultimately we are doomed for death
- Asceticism- the practice of asceticism as a beneficial way to detach from the cycle of materialism and suffering
- Compassion- Emphasizing the importance of compassion and empathy since all humans share in their suffering
- Art can temporarily free us from our unending will, desire, and cycle of suffering
Major Works:
- The World as Will and Representation
- On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- On the Will in Nature
- Essays and Aphorisms/ Parerga and Paralipomena
Influenced: Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Jung, Richard Wagner
Summary: Schopenhauer expanded on Kant's philosophy of transcendental idealism with his own theory of will and representations. Everything in this universe is a representation (or a manifestation of our perception) that is ultimately driven by our will and desire to survive. This constant desire for gratification is unending and leads to suffering since we always want more. This concept is very central to many Buddhist and Hindu themes which Schopenhauer was inspired by. It however also presents a fairly pessimistic and almost aesthetic viewpoint to our existence. Schopenhauer's saving grace is his encouragement of asceticism, compassion, and art as a temporary means to escape this harsh reality of suffering.
John Stuart Mill
Dates: 1806-1873
Location: London, England
Occupation: Philosopher, Political economist, Member of Parliament
School of Thought: Utilitarianism, liberalism, empiricism
Influenced by: John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, David Hume
Key Concepts:
- Harm Principle- Humans should be free to act as they choose unless those acts lead to harm of others
- Individual Liberty- government and society should protect the induvial freedom of all humans
- Utilitarianism- institutions should seek to provide society with the greatest means of overall happiness
- Higher and Lower pleasures- The higher pleasures are intellectual and emotional ones (such as reading or friendship) while the lower pleasures are the physical ones of instant gratification (such as food or sex)
- Freedom of Expression- Society should have complete freedom of speech even if it is offensive to government or religious institutions
- Individuality- developing oneself free from the expected standards or norms of society
- Representative Government- a government with a body of representatives gives the people an interactive voice
- Women's equality- women should have the same legal rights as men
Major Works:
- A System of Logic
- Principles of Political Economy
- On Liberty
- Utilitarianism
- The Subjection of Women
- Three Essays on Religion
Influenced: Modern liberalism, feminism, Bertrand Russell, John Rawls, Isiah Berlin
Summary: John Stuart Mill expanded on the concepts of Liberalism established by John Locke. He promoted a society of complete individual freedom driven by a goal of overall happiness, Utilitarianism. As long as there was no harm in this freedom, all humans should have the right of free speech, expression, choice, and lifestyle. This also includes the equal freedom of women, thus making Stuart Mill one of the first major feminist thinkers. His most famous writing, On Liberty became a highly influential work of modern liberalism, civic liberties, political economy, democratic thought, and individual liberty.
Soren Kierkegaard
Dates: 1813-1855
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Occupation: Philosopher, theologian, writer
School of Thought: Existentialism, Christian theology
Influenced by: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Martin Luther, GWF Hegel
Key Concepts:
- Existence- the philosophical study of an individual's reality and experience
- Subjectivity- truth can differ from one person to another depending on their own experience or perspectives
- Angst/Anxiety- there is a natural anxiety that arises from our freedom of endless choices
- Despair- the failure to become one's authentic self (or greatest form of oneself)
- Leap of Faith- faith is ultimately a belief of the unknown that cannot be proved through reason
- The Individual- Humans are ultimately alone in their decision making and the consequences of those decisions
- Stages of existence (Three ways a person can live)
- The Aesthetic Approach- to live for experience
- The Ethical Approach- to live out of responsibility
- The Religious Approach- to live purely for God
- Authenticity- Becoming one's true self rather then following the norms of society
Major Works:
- Either/Or
- Fear and Trembling
- Philosophical Fragments
- The Concept of Anxiety
- The Sickness Unto Death
- Concluding Unscientific Postscript
Influenced: Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Campus, Martin Buber, Karl Barth
Summary: Kierkegaard is regarded as the father of existentialism who began exploring the great questions of what it means to exist. At the core of his philosophy is the individual themself and what consists of their experience or reality. He claims that every person ultimately has a unique "thisness" or authenticity which creates a reality of subjective truth. Each person however is burdened by despair and anxiety due to their overwhelming freedom of choices. He is heavily influenced by Plato's "Know Thyself" concept with an emphasize on becoming ones true authentic self instead of following the crowd. As a devout Christian, Kierkegaard ultimately encourages the pursuit of faith as the best solution to achieving the highest form of existence.
Karl Marx
Dates: 1818-1883
Location: Prussia (modern day Germany)
Occupation: Philosopher, economist, political theorist, journalist, revolutionary
School of Thought: Communism, Marxism, Historical Materialism, Socialism
Influenced by: GWF Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, Adam Smith, David Ricardo
Key Concepts:
- Historical Materialism- human history is shaped by material and economic conditions rather than through philosophical ideas
- Class Struggle- conflict between social classes is the major driving force of social change
- Bourgeoise and Proletariat- The wealthy elite owns the working class
- Alienation of Labor- capitalism separates workers from their labor, and removes them of any sense of fulfillment
- Surplus Value- Workers produce more economic value then they receive in wages, making for an unethical gap of distribution
- Exploitation- Capitalism enables business owners to take advantage of their laborers thru the legal structure
- Communism- a classless society that completely removes private ownership and enables pure anarchism
- Marxism- His political manifesto to revolutionize the current economic structure of capitliasm
Major Works:
- The Communist Manifesto
- The German Ideology
- The Eighteen Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
- Das Kapital
Influenced: Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxembourg, Mao Zedong, Georg Lukacs, socialism, communism
Summary: Considered the father of Communism and extreme-leftist politics he completely changed the political landscape. Inspired by the events of the Industrial Revolution, Marx directly discarded the philosophical approach by putting more emphasis on politics over ontology or epistemology. He felt society was determined by economics instead of whether we existed or not, or what our perception truly was. He directly challenged the economic system of capitalism as an unethical means of abusing the working class. He borrowed from Hegel's concept of alienation by claiming that workers were robbed of any sense of value or fulfilment in their work through the system of capitalism. He ultimately advocated for a class struggle as a means to overthrow this system of exploitation. It's important to note that his belief of Communism was considered an intermediary state that would ultimately lead to a classless state without government, also referred to as anarchism. This ideology was eventually put into effect by Russia and China in the early 20th century, but eventually collapsed (whether it was the state or the ideology itself is open for interpretation).
Charles Sanders Pierce
Dates: 1839-1914
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA)
Occupation: Philosopher, logician, mathematician, scientist, academic
School of Thought: Pragmatism, American philosophy
Influenced by: Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, John Locke, George Berkeley,
Key Concepts:
- Pragmatism- a scientific approach of practicality
- Pragmatic Maxim- the best way to understand a concept is through it's practical effect
- Fallibilism- Human theory or knowledge is not an absolute certainty, thus it is prone to error and open to correction
- Abduction- reasoning through multiple observations to conclude the best possible outcome
- Semiotics- the study of signs and the meanings they produce
- Community of the inquiry- Truth is approached through constant development, critique, investigation, and dialogue rather then blind dogma
Major Works:
- The Fixation of Belief
- How to Make Our Ideas Clear
- The Monist Metaphysical Series
- Collected Papers
Influenced: William James, John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, C.I. Lewis
Summary: Considered the greatest American philosopher and founder of the Pragmatic approach. This outlook is often considered the middle ground between optimism and pessimism. It is the practical and realistic approach to any concept, often relying on scientific reason. He also was a stern advocate of continuous discourse and dialogue as a way to further develop theoretical concepts. This went against any form of pre-established theories considering them ultimately prone to error or fallibility. He ultimately considered the notion of absolute certainty as impossible and thus felt it was to approach everything from a practical sense. Despite his approach of practicality, Pierce was by no means an atheist. He still believed in Christianity, and accepted that it could not be proved by reason thus must be a matter of faith.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Dates: 1844-1900
Location: Rocken, Prussia (modern day Germany)
Occupation: Philosopher, philologist, writer
School of Thought: Existentialism, Nihilism, Nietzschean philosophy
Influenced by: Heraclitus, Plato, Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner
Key Concepts:
- Will to Power- the fundamental drive toward survival, growth, strength, achievement, success, and self-interest
- Ubermensch (Overman)- to transcend conventional values and establish a higher value for oneself. To truly know thyself in utter confidence.
- Self-Overcoming- To continue to challenge and test oneself rather than accept complacency
- External Recurrence- To be at such peace with your current life situation that you could live it over and over again.
- Nihilism- the concept that there is no purpose to this life (especially in regards to spiritual faith)
- God is dead- advocacy of Atheism where the concept of God (or Christianity) had lost much of it's credibility due to scientific breakthroughs
- Master and Slave Morality- it is common to resent what we can't have, thus we must stride to overcome and focus on what we can control
- Perspectivism- all human knowledge comes from human perspective, thus is subjective and free from any detached viewpoints
- Self-creation- the practice of continuously developing one-self thru experience, knowledge, and philosophy. Striding to achieve external recurrence.
Major Works:
- The Birth of Tragedy
- Human, All to Human
- The Gay Science
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Beyond Good and Evil
- On the Genealogy of Morality
- Twilight of the Idols
- The Antichrist
Influenced: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Campus, Michel Foucault, Giles Deleuze
Summary: Influenced by Schopenhauer's pessimistic views, Nietzsche is often considered the father of Nihilism. He boldly affirmed that organized religion and the concept of God (and Christianity) had become a thing of the past due to modern scientific reasoning. This lack of an authoritative figure created a new sort of void known as nihilism, a life without meaning. With this atheist belief at the core of his philosophy Nietzsche then focused on the inner self and how one can exist in such a state of meaningless. He promoted the practice of "Overman", a form of embracing one's authentic self and seeking to continuously overcome obstacles and complacency. Rather than hiding from this cruel reality Nietzsche argues we should live life to the fullest as amor fati (love of fate). His two books Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil are considered some of the all-time essentials of philosophy (especially modern philosophy).
Contemporary Philosophy
Edmund Husserl
Dates: 1859-1938
Location: Prossnitz, Moravia (modern day Czech Republic)
Occupation: Philosopher, professor, mathematician
School of Thought: Phenomenology, transcendental philosophy
Influenced by: Immanuel Kant, Franz Brentano, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Rene Descartes, Carl Stumpf, Bernard Bolzano
Key Concepts:
- Phenomenology- the systematic study of consciousness and perception as it is experienced
- Intentionality- consciousness is always conscious of something; thoughts, reasoning, memory, desires, opinions, emotions, perception
- Epoche- setting aside assumptions of the external world in order to experience it ourselves
- Phenomenological reduction- focusing on the inner state of consciousness and how things appear to us
- Lifeworld (Lebenswelt)- the everyday world of lived experience that cannot be measured by scientific means
- Essences- the fundamental structure that makes something what it is
- Intersubjectivity- the shared world of experience between different conscious subjects
Major Works:
- Logical Investigations
- Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy
- Cartesian Meditations
- The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomonelogy
- Philosophy as a Rigorous Science
Influenced: Martin Heidegger, Edith Stein, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre
Summary: Influenced by the study of epistemology and perception made famous by Immanuel Kant, Husserl creates his own academic study that is focused purely on the consciousness. Husserl's big question is not so much what is reality, rather how is reality experienced thru consciousness. This is of course a purely subjective study since we can only truly know our own consciousness. However Husserl's phenomenology sets aside individual relativism or subjectivism, and approaches it from a general shared sense. He does this through his concept of intersubjectivity where different conscious subjects share a similar experience. The best example is multiple people agreeing that a tree is large or a tree is brown. Although they may see the tree slightly different from one another, they still share a general perspective on it's characteristics. Husserl's ultimate goal is to establish a principle of universal laws that are shared by all human consciousness. This later influenced further phenomenological fields pertaining to the individual's embodied, interpretive, social, and existentialist aspects of perception.
Muhammad Iqbal
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Dates: 1877-1938
Location: Sialkot (British-India)
Occupation: Philosopher, poet, scholar, lawyer, political theorist
School of Thought: Islamic philosophy, Islamic modernism, idealism
Influenced by: Rumi, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Arabi, Immanuel Kant, GWF Hegel, Nietzsche, Bergson, Goethe
Key Concepts:
- Khudi (Selfhood)- The individual self should continuously develop their identity thru strength, courage, independence, and awareness of God. This is the process of their selfhood
- Self-actualization- Humans should actively seek to develop their potential rather then passively accepting fate
- Dynamic Islam- Islam should not just be understood as an ancient religion of traditional values, but one of dynamic and modern engagement
- Free will and creativity- Humans all possess genuine creativity and should not ignore their own potential within a communal structure
- Spiritual development- Humans should constantly thrive to grow in spirit and intellect
- God and the self- The individual self becomes stronger thru a relationship with God
Major Works:
- The Development of Metaphysics in Persia
- Asrar-e-Khudi
- Rumuz-i-Bekhudi
- The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
- Javid Nama
Influenced: Modern Islam philosophy
Summary: He is considered one of the most influential modern Muslim philosophers, who sought to reform some of it's more conservative traditions. Influenced by German idealism, Iqbal put central focus on the individual self within the Muslim community. This completely challenged their mentality of submission and surrendering completely to God. Instead Igbal emphasized a process of dynamic individualism where people should continuously develop their self-actualization (on par with Nietzsche's Overman concept). He was by no means minimizing the role of God, rather realigning one's individual pursuit to live in fullness with God at one's side. This could ultimately be seen as a form of reformist or revivalist movement that united Islam philosophy with Western philosophy, reason, and modern science.
Nishida Kitaro
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Dates: 1870-1945
Location: Kyoto, Japan
Occupation: Philosopher, academic, professor, mathematician
School of Thought: Kyoto School, Japanese Philosophy, Zen Buddhism
Influenced by: Zen Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Kant, Hegel, William James, Fichte, Bergson
Key Concepts:
- Pure Experience- Direct experience before it is over-analyzed with subjective conceptual thought
- Absolute Nothingness (Zettai Mu)- Reality is not grounded by physical things rather through a metaphysical field of nothingness that is based on relational interaction
- Basha (Place)- Reality as a place where the material and immaterial or the self and nature interact with one another
- Self-awareness- the self becomes aware of itself not thru internal exploration but rather thru external exploration of the world and people around it
- Subject-object unity- experience is an interconnected relation of a subject (the individual person) and the objects around it (nature or other people). Both share a different subjective perspective, however they are united in that experience
- Self-negation- In order to achieve true wisdom and self-awareness, one must let go of their ego and gain experience from the world and other people
Major Works:
- An Inquiry into the Good
- Intuition and Reflection in Self-Consciousness
- Artistic Creation as an Act of Historical Formation
- The Logic of Basho and the Religious Worldview
Influenced: Kyoto School, Hajime Tanabe, Kitaro Nishitani, Keiji Nishitani, modern Buddhist philosophy
Summary: Nishida offers a unique modern perspective that integrates the concepts of Zen Buddhism with modern Western philosophy (primarily German Idealism). He begins with a fresh claim of absolute nothingness, where reality does not consist of objects, rather a metaphysical field of interaction. He refers to this field as the Basha (Place) where pure experience and self-awareness can be realized. What I especially like about the theme of his philosophy is that true knowledge comes from looking externally then internally. Nishida puts emphasis on the role of relations and interactions we have with other people or the world around us. In order to achieve true self-awareness the subject must let go of it's ego, and seek unity with the object (in other words interacting with the world around us).
Bertrand Russell
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Dates: 1872- 1970
Location: Trelleck, Wales
Occupation: Philosopher, mathematician, logician, writer, professor
School of Thought: Analytic Philosophy, Logicism, Philosophy of Mathematics, Logical Atomism
Influenced by: Gottlob Frege, GE Moore, David Hume, Immanuel Kant
Key Concepts:
- Logical Analysis- Complex philosophical concepts can be clarified and explained through the use of logic, reason, language, propositions, and mathematics
- Logicism- The important role of mathematics in all of logic
- Logical Atomism- Reality consists of basic facts, while language can represent those facts through structured propositions
- Theory of Descriptions- Analyzing sentences to discover their logical structure
- Epistemology- Distinction between knowledge through direct awareness and knowledge thru description
- Empiricism- Experience and evidence as the foundation of all knowledge
- Paradox- Discovered a fundamental problem in mathematics set theory and used analytic philosophy to establish more rigorous logical foundations
Major Works:
- The Principles of Mathematics
- Pricipia Mathematica
- Problems of Philosophy
- Our Knowledge of the External World
- Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
- The Analysis of Mind
- History of Western Philosophy
Influenced: Ludwig Wittgenstein, AJ Ayer, Rudolf Carnap, WVO Quine
Summary: Influenced by the great logicians Aristotle and Gottlob Frege's, Bertrand Russell took logical analysis to the next level. With a passion for mathematics he used this tool as the foundation of his analytical approach. He demonstrated how mathematics is the purest form of logic. With this foundation he argued that all of reality could be analyzed through logical structure using math and language. He was also an early pioneer of the power of language, and how it can often be misused in propositions (this later inspired Wittgenstein). He also supported the fields of empiricism and epistemology believing that all knowledge begins with experience and can be separated between direct experience and indirect experience. Russell ultimately became an advocate for precise logic in both mathematics and language as the primary means of philosophical analysis.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Dates: 1889-1951
Location: Vienna, Austria
Occupation: Philosopher, teacher, engineer
School of Thought: Analytic Philosophy, Logical Atomism, Philosophy of Language
Influenced by: Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Kierkegaard, Augustine
Key Concepts:
- Picture Theory of Language- Language represents reality through meaningful structure
- Logical structure- language and reality share a logical structure
- Language games- words acquire their meaning in conjunction with human activities
- Meaning as use- rather than asking what a word means, examine it's context or how that word is used
- Forms of life- language is embedded within our intellect and shared human nature
- Private language- Conversations with oneself cannot be considered a rational language
- Philosophical confusion- many problems or errors arise in theoretical reasoning due to a misuse of proper language (terminology)
- Limits of language- some things cannot be meaningfully expressed thru just words and propositions
- Silence- In regards to philosophical concepts, when meaningful language ends it is best to remain silent
Major Works:
- Tractatus Logico Philosphicus
- Philosophical Investigations
- The Blue and Brown Books
- On Certainty
- Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics
- Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief
Influenced: GE Moore, Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Carnap, philosophy of language
Summary: Wittgenstein offers a unique modern approach to his philosophy by not so much focusing on concepts of perception or existentialism rather on the language we use to describe our thoughts. He argues that the world we perceive is not so much based on empirical ideas, rather the words and propositions we absorb through language. It is through meaningful and accurate language that we reach factual conclusions. He was ultimately an advocate of logic and truth and felt if something could not be explained thru proper wording it should not be explained at all. It's easy to see this more as a linguistics or literary study, however when considering the importance of terminology it can most certainly also applied to philosophy. The best example I can think of is the careful wording of the Trinity concept in Christian theology.
Martin Heidegger
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Dates: 1889-1976
Location: Messkirch, Germany
Occupation: Philosopher, professor
School of Thought: Phenomenology, Existentialism, Ontology, Hermeneutics
Influenced by: Edmund Husserl, Aristotle, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche
Key Concepts:
- Dasein- the human being as a conscious existence that question's its own being
- Being-in-the-world- human minds are not isolated in abstraction rather are integrated with one another in a meaningful way
- Being-toward-death- Accepting death as the inevitable outcome helps us live more authentically
- Authenticity- Living according to one's own desires and beliefs rather then following society standards
- The Question of Being- the fundamental question of what it means to exist
- Thrownness- Humans find themselves existing in a world they did not freely choose
- The They (Das Man)- The social experience outside are own, that establishes conventions and standards of how people should live
Major Works:
- Being and Time
- What is Metaphysics
- Introduction to Metaphysics
- The Question Concerning Technology
- Letter on Humanism
Influenced: Jean-Paul Sartre, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hannah Arndt, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida
Summary: Influenced by Husserl's phenomenological approach, Martin Heidegger dives further into the study of conscious and existentialism. However unlike Husserl's epistemological study of perception, Heidegger is more concerned on the ontological question of our being. He creates a fairly organized system of identifying the internal individual experience, the world of experience, and the external social experience. He believes consciousness gives us purpose to exist in meaningful way, thus rejecting elements of the modern school of nihilism. He believes all humans find themselves in a state of existence that they did not freely choose however have adapted to. The individual perspective must stride to fulfill their true authentic self (know thyself) by accepting death and not following the conventions of society.
Jean Paul Sartre
Philosophical Legacy: Champion of Existentialism
Dates: 1905-1980
Location: Paris, France
Occupation: Philosopher, writer, novelist, playwright, political activist, professor
School of Thought: Existentialism, Phenomenology, Marxism, Existentialist Humanism
Influenced by: Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx
Key Concepts:
Existence precedes essence- humans are not born with some predetermined purpose, nature, soul, or fate. They determine their own fate through their free choices and actions- Radical freedom- humans are fundamentally free to choose how they respond to all circumstances
- Responsibility- Through our freedom, we are responsible for all the choices and actions we make
- Bad Faith- The sense of being brainwashed or misled by social institutions that limit one's true freedom
- Anguish- the anxiety that comes with the overwhelming amount of freedom, decisions, and who to become
- Nothingness- Consciousness has the ability to question our existence, thus giving humans true freedom and control. This is essentially the gap from what is to what could be.
- The Look- Our awareness of other people's consciousness can affect our own consciousness
- Being-in-itself vs Being-for-itself - Objects that exist as they are is (the being-in-itself), while the consciousness is capable of choosing what it becomes (the being-for-itself)
Major Works:
- Being and Nothingness
- Existentialism is a Humanism
- Nausea
- No Exit
- Critique of Dialectical Reason
Influenced: Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Frantz Fanon, Existentialism
Summary: Sartre is considered among the most influential modern philosophers for his contributions to phenomenology and existentialism. Influenced by both Heidegger and Husserl he expands on the fundamental role of freedom in controlling our consciousness. The core of his argument was that we first come to existence then we choose our essence (who we shall become). This of course would reject any religious notion that God has predetermined our destiny with a form of essence. Sartre claims that humans are complete free to do as they please but also must face the responsibilities of those freedoms. With this great freedom comes not only great responsibility but also great anxiety (at the overwhelming amount of decisions to choose from). His greatest claim is that people often escape this responsibility, by following the common routes established by society (which he calls bad faith). His philosophy also has a political element to it very keen on the school of Communism. He felt that a Communist structure could relieve people of their social constraints of achieving true freedom. However this is ultimately created a contradiction since the Communists states completely repressed much individual freedom in favor of the collective society. One could make the case however that Sartre's vision of individual freedom within communism was not put into the effect that Marx had originally intended it to.
Albert Camus
Dates: 1913-1960
Location: Mondovi, Algeria
Occupation: Philosopher, writer, novelist, essayist, journalist
School of Thought: Absurdism, Existentialism
Influenced by: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Schopenhauer
Key Concepts:
- The Absurd- the conflict between our desire for meaning with the lack-of-answers from the universe
- Meaningless- The universe does not provide any concrete factual evidence or truthful purpose to our existence
- Revolt- Despite life not having any absolute answers, we must still continue to defy this absurdity by living a meaningful life
- Freedom- there are no predetermined cause for our existence, thus we are completely free of our choices and actions
- Suicide- explored whether suicide is a logical response to the absurdity, however rejected it
- The Myth of Sisyphus- the Greek myth of Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill for eternity is the symbol of humanity's endless quest for answers despite having none
- Solidarity- Despite not having meaning, it is important for humans to show empathy in their suffering and find meaning through relationships and compassion
Major Works:
- The Stranger
- The Myth of Sisyphus
- The Plague
- The Rebel
- The Fall
Influenced: Existentialism and absurdism
Summary: He is considered the Father of absurdism, an offshoot on the philosophical branch of existentialism. Rather then attempt to explain the meaning of our existence, Camus concludes that there is no answer and this leads to a endless conflict of absurdity. We ultimately do not know our meaning and the universe gives us no justification whatsoever on this question. Despite religious, philosophical, even scientific theories there is no absolute truth only theory. Humans must live with this unknown nature and attempt to find meaning in a world that appears to lack meaning. It's a fair claim and Camus uses the image of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up a hill for eternity as a representation of humanity's endless struggle to find meaning. Despite this fairly grim outlook he does provide some hope in the total freedom we have. By acknowledging this absurdity he claims we should revolt against it and embrace compassion from others. It is through human solidarity that we can share this empathy of suffering, and establish meaning through relationships.
Simone de Beauvoir
Philosophical Legacy: Pioneer of Feminist Existentialism
Dates: 1908-1986
Location: Paris, France
Occupation: Philosopher, writer, novelist, essayist, professor
School of Thought: Existentialism, Feminist Philosophy, Phenomenology
Influenced by: Jean-Paul Sartre, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche
Key Concepts:
- Woman as "Other"- men have always been treated as the standard while women are defined by their relation to men
- Social Construction of Gender- Society establishes many of the norms, roles, and expectations associated to gender
- Freedom and Choice- people have the freedom to choose who they will become, however are constrained by social circumstances
- Immanence vs Transcendence- Being controlled by society standards versus actively pursing one's true individual potential
- Ambiguity- although human consciousness is free we are limited by the physical laws of our body and society
- Ethics of Ambiguity- true freedom requires not only personal awareness of this freedom, but also recognition from others
Major Works:
- The Second Sex
- The Ethics of Ambiguity
- Pyrrhus and Cineas
- She Came to Stay
- The Mandarins
- The Woman Destroyed
Influenced: Feminist philosophy, existentialism, Judith Butler
Summary: Influenced by the schools of phenomenology and existentialism Simone de Beauvoir applied a modern analysis on the experience of women. While the feminist movement had become a hot political topic for the last hundred years, she reshaped some of the philosophical conversation. This basically expanded on Sartre's concept that true human freedom is restrained by social circumstances (with a primary focus on women). She claimed that throughout history women had been defined as a byproduct of men and this was ingrained in our experience at an early age. She claimed that the only way women can break this cycle is through pursuing their own individual authenticity free from social conventions. She also claimed that this change must not only come from the individual but must also be a mutual understanding of society as a whole So from a philosophical stance she not only challenged the political climate of feminism, but also asked a fairly sound question; what does free consciousness mean if that existence is to be shaped by society?
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