Philosophers
Eriugena
Johannes Scottus Eriugena was the most original and daring philosopher of the early Middle Ages — an Irishman at the Carolingian court who possessed a …
Al-Farabi
Abu Nasr al-Farabi — known as the 'Second Teacher' (al-Mu'allim al-Thani, after Aristotle the 'First Teacher') — was the greatest Islamic philosopher before Avicenna and …
Avicenna
Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina — known in the Latin West as Avicenna — was the most influential philosopher in the Islamic tradition and one …
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury — often called the 'Father of Scholasticism' — was an Italian-born Benedictine monk who became Archbishop of Canterbury and produced some of …
Al-Ghazali
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali is one of the most important and influential thinkers in Islamic history — a theologian, philosopher, jurist, and mystic whose intellectual crisis …
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard was the most brilliant and controversial philosopher of the twelfth century, renowned for his dialectical skill, his tragic love affair with Héloïse, and …
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess, mystic, philosopher, composer, and polymath whose visionary writings, natural philosophy, medical treatises, and musical compositions make her …
Ibn Tufayl
Ibn Tufayl was an Andalusian Arab philosopher, physician, and polymath best known for his philosophical novel *Hayy ibn Yaqzan* ('Alive, Son of Awake'), one of …
Averroes
Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Rushd — known in the Latin West as Averroes, and to the Islamic tradition as 'the Commentator' (al-Sharih) — was the …
Maimonides
Moses ben Maimon — known as Maimonides or by his Hebrew acronym Rambam — was the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and one …
Ibn Arabi
Ibn Arabi was an Andalusian Arab Sufi mystic, philosopher, and poet who is widely considered the greatest metaphysical thinker of Islam. Known as *al-Sheikh al-Akbar* …
Dogen
Dogen Zenji (1200–1253) was the founding master of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism in Japan and one of the most philosophically original thinkers in …
Rumi
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was a thirteenth-century Persian poet, Sufi mystic, and Islamic scholar whose poetry of divine love, spiritual longing, and the dissolution of …
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon was an English Franciscan friar and one of the earliest European advocates of empirical science and experimental method. Known as 'Doctor Mirabilis' (Wonderful …
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas is the most important philosopher-theologian of the medieval period and one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. A Dominican friar who …
Ramon Llull
Ramon Llull (c. 1232–1316) was a Catalan philosopher, theologian, mystic, and missionary whose *Ars Magna* (Great Art) constituted the first systematic attempt to construct a …
Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart was a German Dominican theologian, philosopher, and mystic whose radical sermons on detachment, the birth of the Word in the soul, and the …
Duns Scotus
John Duns Scotus — known as 'Doctor Subtilis' (the Subtle Doctor) — was a Scottish Franciscan friar and one of the most brilliant and technically …
William of Ockham
William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar and one of the most influential philosophers of the late medieval period. He is best known for …
Ibn Khaldun
Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun was a 14th-century North African polymath who is widely regarded as the founder of sociology, historiography as a science, …
Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) was a German cardinal, philosopher, mathematician, and theologian who developed one of the most original philosophical visions of the Renaissance — …
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam was the preeminent humanist scholar of the Northern Renaissance, whose prodigious literary output, biting wit, and commitment to the 'philosophy of …
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli was a Florentine diplomat, political philosopher, and historian whose unflinching analysis of power, statecraft, and human nature inaugurated modern political thought. Writing from …
Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming (1472–1529) was the most influential Neo-Confucian thinker of the Ming dynasty, whose philosophy of *xin* (mind-heart) radicalized the Confucian tradition by arguing that …