Plato

Philosopher · 470 BC – 399 BC

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as a founder of Western philosophy, famous for the Socratic method of questioning and for his trial and execution in Athens.

• Socratic method
• The examined life

Why Plato's teacher and the central character of most of his dialogues.

Philosopher · 384 BC – 322 BC

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, biology, politics and metaphysics shaped Western thought for over two millennia.

• Formal logic
• Virtue ethics

Why His student at the Academy for nearly twenty years.

Philosopher · 1632 – 1677

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of the early modern era whose rationalist masterpiece, the Ethics, advanced a radical monism identifying God with Nature and made him a foundational figure of modern thought.

• Ethics
• Pantheism (God or Nature)

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1770 – 1831

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and the leading figure of German idealism, whose dialectical method and grand vision of history as the self-development of Spirit profoundly shaped modern philosophy.

• German idealism
• The dialectic

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Economist · 1723 – 1790

Adam Smith was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and economist, the father of modern economics, whose work The Wealth of Nations laid the foundations of free-market thought.

• The Wealth of Nations
• The invisible hand

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1126 – 1198

Averroes was a philosopher and polymath of Al-Andalus whose commentaries on Aristotle profoundly shaped medieval European philosophy and the relationship between reason and faith.

• Commentaries on Aristotle
• Defending reason and philosophy

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Physician · 980 – 1037

Avicenna was a Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, one of the greatest physicians and philosophers of the medieval world, whose Canon of Medicine was a standard text for six centuries.

• The Canon of Medicine
• The Book of Healing

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Statesman · 106 BC – 43 BC

Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator and philosopher whose speeches and writings defined Latin prose, transmitted Greek philosophy to Rome, and championed the values of the Roman Republic.

• Roman oratory
• Defending the Republic

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1711 – 1776

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist of the Enlightenment whose rigorous empiricism and skepticism—especially his analysis of causation and the problem of induction—made him one of the most important philosophers in the English language.

• Empiricism
• Problem of induction

Why Also a philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1724 – 1804

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the Enlightenment, one of the most influential thinkers in history, who reconciled rationalism and empiricism and transformed ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.

• Critique of Pure Reason
• The categorical imperative

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics & metaphysics

Philosopher · 334 BC – 262 BC

Zeno of Citium was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Stoicism, teaching that virtue and reason are the path to a good life, in lectures given at the Painted Porch (Stoa) in Athens.

• Founding Stoicism
• Teaching at the Stoa

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics

Philosopher · 571 BC – 471 BC

Laozi was a semi-legendary ancient Chinese philosopher traditionally regarded as the founder of Daoism and the author of the Tao Te Ching, the foundational text on living in harmony with the Dao.

• Founding Daoism
• Tao Te Ching

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in metaphysics & ethics

Spiritual Leader · 563 BC – 483 BC

Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was a spiritual teacher of ancient India whose insights into suffering and liberation founded Buddhism, now one of the world's major religions.

• Founding Buddhism
• The Four Noble Truths

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics & metaphysics

Theologian · 1225 – 1274

Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian theologian and philosopher whose synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy became central to Catholic thought and the high point of scholasticism.

• Summa Theologica
• Reconciling faith and reason

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics & metaphysics

Mathematician · 570 BC – 495 BC

Pythagoras was an ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who founded the Pythagorean school and is remembered for the Pythagorean theorem and the idea that number underlies the cosmos.

• Pythagorean theorem
• Pythagoreanism

Why Also a philosopher · Active in the same era

Philosopher · 551 BC – 479 BC

Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and teacher whose ideas on ethics, family and good government became the foundation of Confucianism and shaped East Asian civilization for over two thousand years.

• Confucianism
• The Analects

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics

Theologian · 354 – 430

Augustine of Hippo was a Roman North African theologian and philosopher whose works, including Confessions and City of God, shaped Western Christianity and laid intellectual foundations for medieval and modern thought.

• Confessions
• City of God

Why Also a philosopher · Shared school of thought

Emperor · 121 – 180

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, the last of the "Five Good Emperors", whose private journal, the Meditations, is the most cherished work of Stoic thought.

• The Meditations
• Stoic philosophy

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics

Mathematician · 360 – 415

Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer and Neoplatonist philosopher of late-antique Alexandria, the most prominent woman scholar of the ancient world, whose brutal murder came to symbolize the end of classical learning.

• Leading the Neoplatonist school of Alexandria
• Mathematics and astronomy

Why Also a philosopher · Shared school of thought

Military Leader · 356 BC – 323 BC

Alexander the Great was the king of Macedon who built one of the largest empires in history by his early thirties, spreading Greek culture across three continents.

• Conquest of Persia
• The Hellenistic Age

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Mathematician · 287 BC – 212 BC

Archimedes was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist and inventor, widely regarded as the greatest mathematician of antiquity and a founder of mathematical physics and engineering.

• Archimedes' principle
• Calculating pi

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Mathematician · 325 BC – 265 BC

Euclid was an ancient Greek mathematician, the "father of geometry", whose treatise the Elements is the most influential mathematics textbook ever written.

• The Elements
• Euclidean geometry

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Physician · 460 BC – 370 BC

Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician regarded as the father of Western medicine, who established medicine as a rational discipline distinct from superstition and inspired the Hippocratic Oath.

• Father of medicine
• The Hippocratic Oath

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Poet · b. 800 BC

Homer was the legendary ancient Greek poet to whom the great epics the Iliad and the Odyssey are attributed, foundational works of Western literature.

• The Iliad
• The Odyssey

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization