Philosophy & Thought

The thinkers who asked the biggest questions about existence, knowledge, morality, and the human condition.

571 BCE–471 BCE · Founder of Taoism, author of Tao Te Ching

551 BCE–479 BCE · Founder of Confucianism

470 BCE–399 BCE · Founder of Western moral philosophy

428 BCE–348 BCE · Founder of the Academy in Athens

384 BCE–322 BCE · Father of Western philosophy

570–632 · Prophet and founder of Islam

1225–1274 · Greatest medieval philosopher and theologian

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

1469–1527 · Author of The Prince

1483–1546 · Sparked the Protestant Reformation

René Descartes

1596–1650 · "I think, therefore I am"

1632–1704 · Father of liberalism

1694–1778 · Enlightenment writer and philosopher

1724–1804 · Critique of Pure Reason

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

1759–1797 · Vindication of the Rights of Woman, feminist pioneer

1818–1883 · Das Kapital, Communist Manifesto

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900 · "God is dead," Beyond Good and Evil

1856–1939 · Father of psychoanalysis

1875–1961 · Analytical psychology, archetypes

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

1905–1980 · Existentialism, declined the Nobel Prize

1906–1975 · The Banality of Evil, political theorist

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir

1908–1986 · The Second Sex, feminist existentialist

1928–present · Father of modern linguistics, political activist

1935–present · Tibetan spiritual leader, Nobel Peace Prize

1936–2025 · First pope from the Americas

Key Events in Philosophy & Thought

1265 Thomas Aquinas begins Summa Theologica

1513 Machiavelli writes The Prince

1620 Francis Bacon publishes Novum Organum

1637 Descartes publishes Discourse on the Method

1651 Hobbes publishes Leviathan

1689 Locke publishes Two Treatises of Government

1739 Hume publishes A Treatise of Human Nature

1762 Rousseau publishes The Social Contract

1781 Kant publishes Critique of Pure Reason

1807 Hegel publishes Phenomenology of Spirit

1843 Kierkegaard publishes Either/Or

1844 Marx writes Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts

1859 John Stuart Mill publishes On Liberty

1883 Nietzsche publishes Thus Spoke Zarathustra

1921 Wittgenstein publishes Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

1927 Heidegger publishes Being and Time

1943 Sartre publishes Being and Nothingness

1949 Simone de Beauvoir publishes The Second Sex

1953 Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations published posthumously

1971 John Rawls publishes A Theory of Justice