Philosophers
Thales
Thales of Miletus is traditionally regarded as the first philosopher in the Western tradition and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He inaugurated the …
Anaximander
Anaximander of Miletus was a student of Thales and one of the most original thinkers of the ancient world. He proposed the apeiron (the boundless …
Laozi
Laozi (also Lao Tzu, 'Old Master') is the legendary founder of Daoism (Taoism) and the reputed author of the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), …
Anaximenes
Anaximenes of Miletus, the third and last of the Milesian school, proposed air (aēr) as the fundamental substance of all reality. His most important innovation …
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos founded one of the most influential intellectual and religious movements in the ancient world. He established a community in Croton (southern Italy) …
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha ('the Awakened One'), is the founder of Buddhism and one of the most influential figures in human history. Born a …
Confucius
Confucius (Kong Qiu, also known as Kongzi, 'Master Kong') is the most influential philosopher in Chinese history and one of the most important figures in …
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus, known in antiquity as 'the Obscure' (ho skoteinos) and 'the Weeping Philosopher,' was one of the most profound and enigmatic thinkers of …
Parmenides
Parmenides of Elea is arguably the most important Pre-Socratic philosopher and one of the most consequential thinkers in the entire Western tradition. In his philosophical …
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was the first philosopher to bring the Ionian intellectual tradition to Athens, where he became part of Pericles' circle and helped establish …
Empedocles
Empedocles of Acragas was a philosopher, poet, physician, and quasi-religious figure who proposed the first pluralistic physical theory in Western philosophy. Responding to Parmenides' challenge …
Zeno of Elea
Zeno of Elea was a student of Parmenides who devised a series of brilliant paradoxes — Achilles and the Tortoise, the Dichotomy, the Arrow, the …
Protagoras
Protagoras of Abdera was the most celebrated of the Greek Sophists — professional itinerant teachers who, for a fee, taught rhetoric, argumentation, and practical wisdom …
Mozi
Mozi (Master Mo, Mo Di) founded the Mohist school, the first major philosophical challenger to Confucianism in Chinese thought. Against the Confucian emphasis on graded …
Aspasia
Aspasia of Miletus was an ancient Greek intellectual, rhetorician, and companion of the Athenian statesman Pericles, who was renowned in antiquity for her philosophical acumen, …
Socrates
Socrates of Athens is one of the most important figures in the entire history of philosophy, yet he wrote nothing. Everything we know about him …
Democritus
Democritus of Abdera, building on the work of his teacher Leucippus, developed the most comprehensive and influential version of ancient atomism. He proposed that all …
Thucydides
Thucydides was an Athenian historian and political thinker whose *History of the Peloponnesian War* is widely regarded as the foundational work of political realism and …
Antisthenes
Antisthenes of Athens was a student of Socrates and is traditionally regarded as the founder (or forerunner) of the Cynic movement. He took Socrates' indifference …
Isocrates
Isocrates was an Athenian rhetorician, educator, and political thinker who founded one of the most influential schools of the ancient world and articulated a vision …
Aristippus
Aristippus of Cyrene was a student of Socrates who founded the Cyrenaic school, the first explicitly hedonistic philosophy in the Western tradition. He argued that …
Xenophon
Xenophon of Athens was a soldier, historian, and philosopher who provides an invaluable alternative portrait of Socrates independent of Plato. His Socratic writings — the …
Plato
Plato of Athens is, together with his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle, one of the three foundational figures of Western philosophy. He founded the …
Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope — 'the Dog' (ho Kyōn) — was the most famous and radical of the Cynic philosophers. He lived in deliberate, provocative poverty …