Thomas Aquinas

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 Aquinas built his entire system on Aristotle, whom he called simply 'The Philosopher'.

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 Avicenna's metaphysics shaped Aquinas's arguments about being and God.

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 Aquinas engaged closely with — and contested — Averroes's reading of Aristotle.

Composer · 1098 – 1179

Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess and one of the most remarkable polymaths of the Middle Ages — a visionary, composer, writer, healer and natural philosopher.

• Visionary theology
• Sacred music

Why A fellow towering figure of medieval Christian intellectual and spiritual life.

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 theologian & philosopher · Comparable historical impact

Theologian · 1483 – 1546

Martin Luther was a German theologian and reformer whose challenge to the Catholic Church sparked the Protestant Reformation and reshaped the religious, political and cultural landscape of Europe.

• Ninety-Five Theses
• The Protestant Reformation

Why Also a theologian · 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 · 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

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 · 1561 – 1626

Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman and writer who served as Lord Chancellor and, in works such as the Novum Organum and his Essays, founded the modern scientific method of reasoning from evidence and experiment.

• Scientific method
• Novum Organum

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 philosophy & 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

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

Philosopher · 428 BC – 348 BC

Plato was a Greek philosopher who founded the Academy in Athens, wrote the foundational dialogues of Western philosophy, and developed the influential theory of Forms.

• Theory of Forms
• The Academy

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in metaphysics & 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 · Worked in philosophy

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

Writer · 1759 – 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English Enlightenment writer and philosopher, a pioneer of feminist thought whose A Vindication of the Rights of Woman argued for the education and equality of women.

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• Founding feminist philosophy

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in philosophy

Philosopher · 1596 – 1650

René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, the "father of modern philosophy", famous for "I think, therefore I am" and for founding analytic geometry.

• I think, therefore I am
• Analytic geometry

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in philosophy

Writer · 1694 – 1778

Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher and wit, a tireless champion of reason, free speech and religious tolerance and one of the most influential figures of his age.

• Candide
• Defending free speech and tolerance

Why Also a philosopher · Worked in philosophy

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 · 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

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 Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics

Poet · 1207 – 1273

Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose ecstatic verse on divine love became some of the most beloved poetry in the world and made him, centuries later, one of the most widely read poets in the West.

• The Masnavi
• Sufi mystical poetry

Why Also a theologian · Active in the same era