130 thinkers
Life, core ideas, position on the 11 axes and three books for each one. Want to know which one you resemble most? Take the test.
Greek and Roman antiquity
PythagorasPythagorean · 570 BC
HeraclitusPresocratic · 535 BC
ParmenidesEleatic · 515 BC
ProtagorasSophist · 490 BC
SocratesSocratic · 470 BC
DemocritusAtomist · 460 BC
AristippusCyrenaic · 435 BC
PlatoIdealist · 428 BC
DiogenesCynic · 412 BC
AristotleAristotelian · 384 BC
PyrrhoSkeptic · 360 BC
EpicurusEpicurean · 341 BC
LucretiusRoman Epicureanism · 99 BC
SenecaStoic · 4 BC
EpictetusStoic · 50
Marcus AureliusStoic · 121
PlotinusNeoplatonist · 204
Medieval and Renaissance
Saint AugustineChristian Neoplatonist · 354
AverroesAristotelian (falsafa) · 1126
MaimonidesJewish philosophy · 1138
Thomas AquinasScholastic · 1225
William of OckhamNominalist · 1287
MachiavelliPolitical realist · 1469
John CalvinReformer · 1509
MontaigneHumanist skeptic · 1533
Modern era
Thomas HobbesContractarian · 1588
DescartesRationalist · 1596
PascalFideist · 1623 SpinozaRationalist · 1632
John LockeClassical liberal · 1632
LeibnizOptimistic rationalist · 1646
George BerkeleyEmpiricist idealist · 1685
VoltaireEnlightenment thinker · 1694
Julien Offray de La MettrieEnlightenment materialism · 1709
David HumeEmpiricist · 1711
RousseauRomantic contractarian · 1712
Adam SmithEconomic liberalism · 1723
KantTranscendental idealism · 1724
Edmund BurkeConservative · 1729
Jeremy BenthamUtilitarian · 1748
Joseph de MaistreReactionary · 1753
William GodwinUtilitarian anarchism · 1756
Mary WollstonecraftLiberal feminism · 1759
HegelGerman idealist · 1770
Charles FourierUtopian socialism · 1772
SchopenhauerPessimist · 1788
Auguste ComtePositivist · 1798
John Stuart MillLiberal utilitarian · 1806
Max StirnerEgoist · 1806
ProudhonMutualist anarchist · 1809
KierkegaardChristian existentialist · 1813
Mikhail BakuninAnarchist · 1814
Henry David ThoreauTranscendentalist · 1817
Karl MarxHistorical materialist · 1818
Henry SidgwickUtilitarianism · 1838
NietzschePerspectivist · 1844
Oscar WildeAestheticism · 1854
Contemporary
William JamesPragmatist · 1842
Gottlob FregeLogicism · 1848
Edmund HusserlPhenomenologist · 1859
Bertrand RussellAnalytic philosophy · 1872
G. K. ChestertonChristian traditionalist · 1874
WittgensteinPhilosophy of language · 1889
HeideggerExistential ontology · 1889
Antonio GramsciGramscian Marxism · 1891
Herbert MarcuseCritical theory (Frankfurt School) · 1898
Friedrich HayekAustrian liberalism · 1899
Hans-Georg GadamerHermeneutics · 1900
Michael OakeshottSkeptical conservatism · 1901
Karl PopperCritical rationalism · 1902
Theodor AdornoFrankfurt School · 1903
Jean-Paul SartreExistentialist · 1905
Ayn RandObjectivist · 1905
Hannah ArendtPolitical philosophy · 1906
Mário Ferreira dos SantosConcrete philosophy · 1907
Simone de BeauvoirFeminist existentialist · 1908
Claude Lévi-StraussStructuralist · 1908
Simone WeilChristian mystic · 1909
Arne NaessDeep ecology · 1912
Albert CamusAbsurdist · 1913
Russell KirkTraditionalist conservatism · 1918
John RawlsEgalitarian liberal · 1921
Paulo FreireCritical pedagogy · 1921
Frantz FanonPostcolonial · 1925
Gilles DeleuzePhilosophy of difference · 1925
Michel FoucaultPost-structuralist · 1926
Murray RothbardAnarcho-capitalist · 1926
Alasdair MacIntyreCommunitarian · 1929
Jürgen HabermasCritical theory · 1929
Jacques DerridaDeconstructionist · 1930
Robert NozickLibertarian · 1938
Marilena ChauíPolitical Spinozism · 1941
Roger ScrutonContemporary conservative · 1944
Peter SingerContemporary utilitarian · 1946
Slavoj ŽižekLacanian Marxism · 1949
Judith ButlerQueer theory · 1956
Michel OnfrayContemporary hedonist · 1959
Byung-Chul HanContemporary critic · 1959
Eastern thought
LaoziTaoist · 571 BC
BuddhaBuddhist · 563 BC
ConfuciusConfucian · 551 BC
- Yang ZhuYangism · 440 BC
ShankaraAdvaita Vedanta · 788
DōgenZen Buddhist · 1200
English-speaking world
Ralph CudworthCambridge Platonism · 1617
- Mary AstellEarly feminist (Anglican) · 1666
Thomas PaineRadical republican · 1737
John Henry NewmanCatholic theology · 1801
Ralph Waldo EmersonTranscendentalist · 1803
Frederick DouglassAbolitionist · 1818
John DeweyPragmatist · 1859
Jane AddamsSocial pragmatist · 1860
W. E. B. Du BoisPan-Africanist · 1868
Emma GoldmanAnarchist · 1869
B. R. AmbedkarAnti-caste reformer · 1891
C. S. LewisChristian apologist · 1898
C. L. R. JamesCaribbean Marxist · 1901
Isaiah BerlinLiberal pluralist · 1909
Alan WattsZen popularizer · 1915
- Iris MurdochMoral Platonist · 1919
Elizabeth AnscombeCatholic analytic philosopher · 1919
Mary MidgleyPhilosophical naturalist · 1919 Noam ChomskyLibertarian socialist · 1928
Martin Luther King Jr.Christian nonviolence · 1929
Thomas SowellFree-market conservative · 1930
Charles TaylorCommunitarian · 1931
Daniel DennettNaturalist philosopher of mind · 1942
Martha NussbaumCapabilities approach · 1947
bell hooksBlack feminist · 1952
Kwame Anthony AppiahCosmopolitan liberal · 1954