
The History of philosophy is as rich as it is complex. Here is an overview of great philosophers and major schools of thought that have punctuated the long history of philosophy from Ancient Greece to the Modern World.
Below you will find a comprehensive list of great philosophers and links to their philosophy, their quotes, or their major philosophical works. They stand as major philosophers and to this day are still read by philosophy students because of their contributions to the field and history of philosophy.
Some schools of thought are still represented in contemporary philosophical thought while others have been left dormant for over 2000 years. We’ve sorted the philosophical schools of thought by period (Antiquity / Middle Ages / Modernity / Contemporary) for easier visibility on and clearer understanding of the currents in the history of philosophy.
Contents
Philosophers of Antiquity:
- Plato: Philosophy of Plato / Plato Quotes / Democracy Plato / Plato’s Cave / Socratic Method / Know Yourself / Plato and Forms
- Aristotle: Philosophy of Aristotle / Aristotle Quotes / Ethics and Politics of Aristotle / Aristotle Democracy
- Epicurus: Philosophy of Epicurus / Epicurus Quotes
- Heraclitus / Parmenides: Presocratic Philosophy of Heraclitus and Parmenides
- Epictetus: Epictetus Quotes
- Marcus Aurelius: Marcus Aurelius Quotes
- Seneca: Seneca Quotes
Philosophers of the Middle Ages:
- St. Augustine: Philosophy of St. Augustine / St. Augustine Quotes / St Augustine Confessions
- St. Thomas: Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas / Thomas Aquinas Quotes
Modern Philosophers:
- Descartes: Descartes Philosophy / Metaphysics of Descartes / Descartes Quotes / Descartes Cogito / Descartes and Conscience
- Diderot: Diderot Quotes
- Fichte: Fichte Quotes
- Hume: Empiricist and moralist philosopher. Hume’s Philosophy / Hume Quotes / Kant vs Hume / Hume and Miracles / Hume and Ideas
- Hobbes: Creator of the contractualist school, main branch of the political philosophy, competing with the liberalism.
- Kant: Philosophy of Kant / Kant Quotes / Peace Kant / Kant politics / Kant ethics / Kant and Imperative
- Kierkegaard: Kierkegaard Philosophy / Quotes by Kierkegaard / The aesthetic life in Kierkegaard
- Leibniz: Leibniz Quotes
- Locke: Political philosopher and empiricist, theorist of the rule of law. Locke Quotes / Locke: On Natural Rights / Personal Identity
- Machiavelli: Machiavelli’s Philosophy / Analysis of Machiavelli’s Prince / Machiavelli Quotes / Machiavelli Political Philosophy
- Montaigne: Montaigne Quotes / Philosophize is to learn to die
- More: Quotes by more
- Nietzsche: Nietzsche Philosophy / Nietzsche Quotes / Nietzsche and God’s Death / Nietzsche Ethics / Nietzsche : Become what you are
- Rousseau: Philosophy of Rousseau / Rousseau Quotes
- Sade: Philosophy of Sade
- Schopenhauer: Philosophy of Schopenhauer / Schopenhauer Quotes / Morality Schopenhauer
- Smith: Economist and moral philosopher
- Spinoza: Philosophy of Spinoza / Spinoza Quotes / Spinoza : stone and determinism
- Stuart Mill : John Stuart Mill Quotes / Stuart Mill Philosophy: Interest, Economics and Politics
- Tocqueville: Democracy in Tocqueville / Tocqueville Quotes
- Voltaire: Quotes by Voltaire / Voltaire Philosophy
Contemporary philosophers:
- Adorno / Horkheimer: Adorno’s Philosophy
- Arendt: Arendt Quotes
- Bachelard: Philosophy of Bachelard
- Baudrillard: Baudrillard’s sociology
- Bourdieu: Bourdieu”s Quotes / On Television
- Camus: Camus Philosophy
- De Beauvoir: De Beauvoir Quotes / De Beauvoir and Feminism
- Derrida: Derrida Quotes
- Dewey: Founder of the pragmatic school. Philosopher of the education
- Durkheim: Durkheim Quotes
- Foucault: Foucault and Power
- Habermas: Habermas’s Philosophy
- Heidegger: Heidegger’s Philosophy / Quotations from Heidegger
- Husserl: Husserl’s Philosophy / Husserl Quotes
- Nozick: American philosopher, related to libertarianism. Distributive Justice, State and Utopia / Libertarianism
- Karl Popper: Epistemologist (Principles of Knowledge) and theorist of the open Society
- Rawls: Theorist of the justice, creator of the principle of the positive action. Theory of Justice / Justice as Fairness
- Ricoeur: Ricoeur Quotes
- Sartre: Philosophy of Sartre / Quotations Sartre / Morality Sartre / Existentialism is a Humanism Sartre / Sartre Nausea / Sartre and Others / Sartre, essence and existence / Sartre Freedom
- Sloterdijk: Eugenics by Sloterdijk
- Walzer: Communautarist philosopher
Related articles on major philosophers:
- Philosophy Quotes – Best of (the-philosophy.com)