Ancient
33 philosophers
Socrates
The father of Western philosophy. Never wrote anything down, all we know comes from Plato....
Plato
Founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning. The Theory of For...
Aristotle
Tutored Alexander the Great. Founded the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school. Invented forma...
Confucius
His teachings became the state ideology of China for 2,000 years. The Analects are a colle...
Laozi
Traditionally considered the founder of Daoism and author of the Dao De Jing. The name mea...
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who renounced his privileged life. The Four Noble Truths d...
Marcus Aurelius
The philosopher-king who ruled Rome at its peak. Meditations was his private journal never...
Epictetus
Born a slave, became one of the greatest philosophers. His master reportedly twisted his l...
Seneca
Tutor and advisor to Emperor Nero, one of the richest men in Rome. His letters and essays ...
Plotinus
Founded Neoplatonism, which merged Plato with mysticism. The One is beyond all categories ...
Augustine
The Confessions is the first Western autobiography. Converted from Manichaeism after heari...
Diogenes
Lived in a barrel in Athens and carried a lamp in daylight looking for an honest man. Told...
Epicurus
His garden school admitted women and slaves, unheard of in ancient Greece. Often misunders...
Zeno of Citium
Founded Stoicism after being shipwrecked in Athens and discovering philosophy in a booksto...
Protagoras
Man is the measure of all things is the first expression of relativism. Charged high fees ...
Thales
The first philosopher in Western history. Predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BC. Fell into a...
Heraclitus
You cannot step into the same river twice. Everything flows is his central doctrine. Known...
Parmenides
Argued that change and motion are illusions. Being is, non-being is not. His poem On Natur...
Pythagoras
More than a mathematician, he founded a religious and philosophical community. Believed in...
Anaximander
Student of Thales who wrote the first surviving prose book in philosophy. Introduced the a...
Xenophanes
The first critic of anthropomorphic religion. If horses had hands, he joked, they would dr...
Zeno of Elea
Defended Parmenides with paradoxes designed to prove motion is impossible. Achilles can ne...
Democritus
The laughing philosopher who found human affairs comic. Co-founded atomism with Leucippus:...
Lucretius
Wrote De Rerum Natura, an epic poem explaining Epicurean atomism. The universe is atoms mo...
Sextus Empiricus
Compiled the definitive handbook of ancient skepticism. Systematized Pyrrhonism with modes...
Hypatia
The most renowned female scholar of the ancient world. Taught mathematics and philosophy a...
Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy was written in prison while awaiting execution. Lady Philoso...
Mozi
Founded Mohism, the great rival of early Confucianism. Taught jian ai, impartial care for ...
Mencius
The Second Sage of Confucianism. Argued human nature is good, like water that flows downhi...
Xunzi
The great realist of the Confucian school. Insisted human nature is bad and becomes good o...
Zhuangzi
Author of the most playful book in philosophy. The butterfly dream asks how we can know wa...
Han Feizi
The master theorist of Legalism. Synthesized law, technique, and position as the tools of ...
Nagarjuna
The greatest Buddhist philosopher after the founder himself. Established the Madhyamaka or...