All 204 thinkers

Every thinker in the atlas, by tradition, from the Upanishadic sages to philosophers alive today.

China & East Asia

From the Hundred Schools of the Warring States to Neo-Confucianism, Chan and the Kyoto School: philosophy as a way of ordering self, family and state.

traditionally 6th c. BCELaoziLegendary sage credited with the Daodejing 551–479 BCE (traditional)ConfuciusTeacher from Lu who sought to revive the Zhou way c. 470–391 BCEMoziFounder of Mohism and critic of Confucian partiality c. 390–338 BCEShang YangQin minister whose reforms built Qin’s power c. 372–289 BCEMenciusConfucian who argued that human nature is good c. 370–310 BCEHui ShiWei statesman, logician and Zhuangzi’s debating partner c. 369–286 BCEZhuangziDaoist writer of parables, paradoxes and freedom c. 320–250 BCEGongsun LongDisputer famous for “a white horse is not a horse”c. 310–235 BCEXunziConfucian realist who held human nature to be bad c. 280–233 BCEHan FeiziPrince of Han who synthesised Legalist thought c. 179–104 BCEDong ZhongshuHan scholar who helped make Confucianism the state learning 226–249Wang BiProdigy commentator who founded Xuanxue metaphysics c. 252–312Guo XiangEditor and commentator who shaped the Zhuangzi we read 638–713HuinengSixth Patriarch of Chan, emblem of sudden awakening 1017–1073Zhou DunyiSong scholar honoured as the pioneer of Neo-Confucianism 1020–1077Zhang ZaiNeo-Confucian who saw all things as condensations of qi 1032–1085Cheng HaoElder Cheng brother, teacher of humaneness as oneness 1033–1107Cheng YiYounger Cheng brother who made “principle” central 1130–1200Zhu XiGreat synthesiser of Song Neo-Confucianism 1139–1193Lu Jiuyuan (Lu Xiangshan)Song scholar who taught that the mind is principle 1200–1253DōgenJapanese monk who founded Sōtō Zen 1472–1529Wang YangmingMing official, general and master of the School of Mind 1501–1570Yi Hwang (Toegye)Leading Neo-Confucian scholar of Joseon Korea 1536–1584Yi I (Yulgok)Korean statesman-scholar and Toegye’s younger rival 1870–1945Nishida KitarōFounder of the Kyoto School 1885–1962Tanabe HajimeKyoto School philosopher and Nishida’s critic 1885–1968Xiong ShiliFounder of New Confucian metaphysics 1891–1962Hu ShiMay Fourth reformer who brought pragmatism to China 1893–1988Liang ShumingPhilosopher and rural reformer, called “the last Confucian”1895–1990Feng YoulanHistorian of Chinese philosophy and builder of a “new principle learning”1900–1990Nishitani KeijiKyoto School thinker of nihilism and emptiness 1909–1995Mou ZongsanLeading second-generation New Confucian and translator of Kant

India

Orthodox and heterodox schools arguing for two millennia about self, consciousness, valid knowledge and liberation.

fl. c. 8th c. BCE (traditional)Uddālaka ĀruṇiUpanishadic teacher who told his son ‘You are that’fl. c. 8th–7th c. BCE (traditional)YājñavalkyaSage who wins the great debate at King Janaka’s court traditionally 599–527 BCE (many scholars: c. 499–425 BCE)MahāvīraTwenty-fourth Jain tīrthaṅkara, a contemporary of the Buddha fl. 6th–5th c. BCEAjita KesakambalīMaterialist teacher of the Buddha’s time, named for his hair blanket c. 480–400 BCE (debated; an older dating is c. 563–483 BCE)The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)Founder of Buddhism, who taught a middle way out of suffering c. 3rd–2nd c. BCE (traditional)JaiminiTraditional author of the Mīmāṃsā Sūtra c. 2nd c. BCE? (dates uncertain)KaṇādaFounder of Vaiśeṣika, India’s classic atomism c. 2nd c. BCE – 2nd c. CE (traditional author)Akṣapāda GautamaTraditional author of the Nyāya Sūtra c. 150–250NāgārjunaFounder of Madhyamaka, revered as a ‘second Buddha’c. 4th c. CEAsaṅgaCo-founder of Yogācāra, elder half-brother of Vasubandhu c. 4th–5th c. CEVasubandhuAbhidharma master who became Yogācāra’s great systematiser c. 2nd–5th c. CE (dates uncertain)UmāsvātiAuthor of the Jain text accepted by both main sects c. 4th–5th c. CEĪśvarakṛṣṇaAuthor of the classical summary of Sāṃkhya c. 4th–5th c. CE? (dating disputed)PatañjaliCompiler of the Yoga Sūtra fl. 5th c. CEBuddhaghosaTheravāda commentator who systematised doctrine in Sri Lanka c. 480–540DignāgaFounder of Buddhist logic and epistemology c. 6th c. CEGauḍapādaEarliest known Advaita teacher, by tradition Śaṅkara’s teacher’s teacher c. 600–650CandrakīrtiMadhyamaka commentator whose reading became orthodox in Tibet c. 600–660 (some scholars: mid-6th century)DharmakīrtiBuddhist logician whose theory of knowledge dominated Indian debate fl. c. 660Kumārila BhaṭṭaMīmāṃsā champion of Vedic authority against the Buddhists c. 700–750 (older scholarship: 788–820)ŚaṅkaraAdvaita master whose commentaries defined non-dual Vedānta fl. c. 800 (estimates range from 725 to 840)Jayarāśi BhaṭṭaRadical sceptic who attacked every theory of valid knowledge c. 1077–1157 (traditionally 1017–1137)RāmānujaVaiṣṇava theologian and founder of Viśiṣṭādvaita 1238–1317 (some sources: 1199–1278)MadhvaFounder of Dvaita, the dualist school of Vedānta fl. 14th c., MithilāGaṅgeśa UpādhyāyaFounder of Navya-Nyāya, the ‘new logic’1863–1902Swami VivekanandaMonk who introduced Vedānta and yoga to the West 1869–1948Mohandas K. GandhiLeader of Indian independence and theorist of non-violent resistance 1872–1950Sri AurobindoNationalist revolutionary turned philosopher of spiritual evolution 1891–1956B. R. AmbedkarDalit leader, jurist and chief architect of India’s constitution

Greece & Rome

From the first natural philosophers to Neoplatonism: the invention of argument about nature, knowledge and the good life.

c. 624–546 BCEThalesSage of Miletus, traditionally the first Greek philosopher c. 610–546 BCEAnaximanderThales’ successor, credited with the first Greek world map c. 586–526 BCEAnaximenesThird Milesian, who made air the first principle c. 570–495 BCEPythagorasFounder of a philosophical and religious brotherhood at Croton c. 535–475 BCEHeraclitusRiddling sage of Ephesus who saw the world as ordered flux c. 515 – after 450 BCEParmenidesFounder of the Eleatic school and of deductive argument c. 500–428 BCEAnaxagorasFirst philosopher to settle in Athens; tried for impiety c. 494–434 BCEEmpedoclesSicilian poet, healer and statesman of the four roots c. 490–430 BCEZeno of EleaParmenides’ pupil, famous for paradoxes of motion and plurality c. 490–420 BCEProtagorasThe most famous sophist, who taught virtue for a fee c. 483–375 BCEGorgiasSicilian master of rhetoric and envoy to Athens 5th c. BCELeucippusFounder of atomism, about whom almost nothing is known c. 470–385 BCEPhilolausPythagorean whose book first set out the school’s doctrines c. 470–399 BCESocratesAthenian questioner, executed for impiety in 399 BCE c. 460–370 BCEDemocritusThe “laughing philosopher” of Abdera, who developed atomism c. 446–366 BCEAntisthenesDevoted follower of Socrates, later seen as the Cynics’ founder c. 428–348 BCEPlatoSocrates’ student, founder of the Academy, master of the dialogue c. 412–323 BCEDiogenes of SinopeExile from Sinope who lived as a “dog” in Athens 384–322 BCEAristotlePlato’s student, Alexander’s tutor, founder of the Lyceum c. 371–287 BCETheophrastusAristotle’s successor at the Lyceum and founder of botany c. 360–270 BCEPyrrhoFounder of Pyrrhonian skepticism, who went to India with Alexander 341–270 BCEEpicurusFounder of the Garden, a philosophical community near Athens c. 334–262 BCEZeno of CitiumMerchant from Cyprus who founded Stoicism in Athens c. 279–206 BCEChrysippusThird head of the Stoa, its great systematiser and logician 106–43 BCECiceroRoman orator and statesman who brought Greek philosophy into Latin c. 99–55 BCELucretiusRoman poet who set Epicurus’ philosophy in verse c. 4 BCE – 65 CESenecaRoman statesman, playwright and tutor to Nero c. 50–135EpictetusFreed slave who taught Stoicism at Nicopolis 121–180Marcus AureliusRoman emperor who wrote Stoic notes to himself fl. 2nd–3rd c. CESextus EmpiricusPhysician whose books are our main source for ancient skepticism c. 204–270PlotinusFounder of Neoplatonism, teaching in Rome c. 234–305PorphyryPlotinus’ student, editor and biographer born c. 350–370; died 415HypatiaMathematician and Neoplatonist teacher in Alexandria 412–485ProclusHead of the Platonic school in Athens and Neoplatonism’s great systematiser

The Islamic world

Theologians, philosophers and mystics who absorbed Greek thought in Arabic and Persian, and remade it.

c. 801–873Al-KindīBaghdad polymath called “the philosopher of the Arabs”c. 870–950Al-FārābīLogician called the “Second Teacher” after Aristotle c. 874–936Abū al-Ḥasan al-AshʿarīMuʿtazili theologian who broke with his school around 912 980–1037Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)Persian physician-philosopher, the most influential Islamic philosopher c. 1058–1111Al-GhazālīAshʿarite theologian who left his Baghdad chair for Sufism c. 1105–1185Ibn ṬufaylAndalusian court physician and philosophical novelist 1126–1198Ibn Rushd (Averroes)Córdoban judge, known in Europe simply as “the Commentator”1154–1191Shihāb al-Dīn SuhrawardīPersian founder of Illuminationism, executed in Aleppo 1165–1240Ibn ʿArabīAndalusian mystic, called “the Greatest Master” by followers 1207–1273Jalāl al-Dīn RūmīPersian poet and Sufi teacher in Konya 1332–1406Ibn KhaldūnNorth African historian and judge, founder of a science of society c. 1571–1636Mullā ṢadrāSafavid philosopher of Shiraz, founder of Transcendent Theosophy

Medieval Europe

Christian and Jewish thinkers reconciling faith with reason, Plato and then Aristotle with scripture.

354–430Augustine of HippoNorth African bishop who fused Christianity with Platonism c. 477–524 or 526BoethiusRoman statesman who translated Aristotle’s logic into Latin 882–942Saadia GaonEgyptian-born head of the Sura academy in Babylonia 1033–1109Anselm of CanterburyBenedictine monk and Archbishop of Canterbury 1079–1142Peter AbelardParis logician famed for his dialectic and his love for Héloïse 1138–1204Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon)Rabbi, physician and philosopher from Córdoba, later in Cairo 1225–1274Thomas AquinasDominican friar who wove Aristotle into Christian theology c. 1240–c. 1284 (born 1235–40, died 1281–84)Siger of BrabantRadical Aristotelian master at the Paris arts faculty c. 1266–1308John Duns ScotusFranciscan theologian, the “Subtle Doctor”c. 1287–1347William of OckhamEnglish Franciscan logician who defied the pope c. 1300–c. 1360Jean BuridanParis arts master, logician and natural philosopher

Early modern Europe

From humanism and the new science to Kant and Hegel: the self, knowledge and the state rebuilt from first principles.

1463–1494Giovanni Pico della MirandolaItalian humanist who proclaimed humanity’s freedom to shape itself 1466 or 1469–1536Desiderius ErasmusDutch humanist scholar, editor of the Greek New Testament 1469–1527Niccolò MachiavelliFlorentine diplomat who studied power as it actually works 1533–1592Michel de MontaigneFrench magistrate who invented the essay as self-examination 1561–1626Francis BaconEnglish statesman who called for science built on experiment 1588–1679Thomas HobbesEnglish materialist who grounded the state in fear and consent 1596–1650René DescartesFrench mathematician who rebuilt philosophy on the certainty of thought 1632–1677Baruch SpinozaDutch lens-grinder, expelled by his synagogue, who equated God with Nature 1632–1704John LockeEnglish physician and philosopher of experience, consent and toleration 1646–1716Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizGerman polymath, co-inventor of calculus, theorist of monads 1685–1753George BerkeleyIrish bishop who argued that to be is to be perceived 1689–1755MontesquieuFrench magistrate who compared the laws of many nations 1694–1778VoltaireFrench writer who campaigned against intolerance and fanaticism 1711–1776David HumeScottish skeptic who traced knowledge and morals to experience and feeling 1712–1778Jean-Jacques RousseauGeneva-born writer who blamed society, not nature, for human corruption 1713–1784Denis DiderotChief editor of the Encyclopédie, materialist and critic 1723–1790Adam SmithScottish moral philosopher and founder of political economy 1724–1804Immanuel KantKönigsberg professor whose critical philosophy redrew modern thought 1748–1832Jeremy BenthamEnglish legal reformer who founded utilitarianism 1759–1797Mary WollstonecraftEnglish writer who argued that women are rational beings owed education 1762–1814Johann Gottlieb FichteGerman idealist who grounded all knowledge in the self’s activity 1770–1831Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelGerman philosopher of spirit, history and dialectic 1775–1854Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph SchellingGerman idealist philosopher of nature, art and freedom 1788–1860Arthur SchopenhauerGerman pessimist who saw a blind will behind all things 1806–1873John Stuart MillEnglish philosopher of liberty, utility and women’s equality

Continental

After Hegel: history, existence, experience, power and interpretation, mostly in German and French.

1768–1834Friedrich SchleiermacherBerlin theologian and translator of Plato, father of modern hermeneutics 1813–1855Søren KierkegaardDanish Christian thinker of the anxious, choosing individual 1818–1883Karl MarxGerman philosopher, economist and revolutionary in London exile 1820–1895Friedrich EngelsManufacturer’s son who co-founded Marxism with Marx 1833–1911Wilhelm DiltheyGerman historian of ideas who defended the human sciences 1844–1900Friedrich NietzscheGerman philologist who diagnosed the death of God 1857–1913Ferdinand de SaussureGeneva linguist whose lectures founded structural linguistics 1859–1938Edmund HusserlMoravian-born mathematician turned philosopher, founder of phenomenology 1889–1976Martin HeideggerGerman philosopher of Being, compromised by his Nazi party membership 1891–1937Antonio GramsciItalian communist leader who wrote his major work in Mussolini’s prisons 1892–1940Walter BenjaminBerlin critic who joined Marxism, messianism and media theory 1895–1973Max HorkheimerDirector of the Frankfurt Institute who defined critical theory 1898–1979Herbert MarcuseFrankfurt School exile who became the New Left’s philosopher 1900–2002Hans-Georg GadamerHeidegger’s student, who made hermeneutics a philosophy of understanding 1903–1969Theodor W. AdornoFrankfurt philosopher, music theorist and critic of the culture industry 1905–1980Jean-Paul SartreParisian novelist and philosopher, the public face of existentialism 1906–1995Emmanuel LevinasLithuanian-born French philosopher of ethics as first philosophy 1906–1975Hannah ArendtGerman-Jewish political theorist who fled Nazism for America 1908–1986Simone de BeauvoirFrench existentialist whose The Second Sex reshaped feminism 1908–1961Maurice Merleau-PontyFrench phenomenologist of perception and the lived body 1908–2009Claude Lévi-StraussFrench anthropologist who founded structural anthropology 1913–1960Albert CamusAlgerian-born French writer of the absurd and of revolt 1913–2005Paul RicœurFrench philosopher who joined phenomenology, hermeneutics and narrative 1915–1980Roland BarthesFrench critic who read everyday culture as signs 1924–1998Jean-François LyotardFrench philosopher who defined the postmodern condition 1925–1995Gilles DeleuzeFrench philosopher of difference, desire and becoming 1925–1961Frantz FanonMartinican psychiatrist and theorist of anticolonial liberation 1926–1984Michel FoucaultFrench historian of madness, prisons and sexuality 1929–2026Jürgen HabermasLeading second-generation Frankfurt theorist of democracy and communication 1930–2004Jacques DerridaAlgerian-born French philosopher who founded deconstruction 1935–2003Edward SaidPalestinian-American literary critic at Columbia University born 1942Gayatri Chakravorty SpivakIndian-born theorist and translator of Derrida, at Columbia University born 1956Judith ButlerAmerican philosopher at Berkeley, theorist of gender performativity

Analytic & pragmatist

Logic, language, science and mind, mostly in English: clarity first, then the old questions again.

1839–1914Charles Sanders PeirceLogician and scientist who founded pragmatism and semiotics 1842–1910William JamesPsychologist and philosopher who made pragmatism famous 1848–1925Gottlob FregeJena mathematician who invented modern logic 1859–1952John DeweyPhilosopher of education and democracy; lectured in China 1919–21 1872–1970Bertrand RussellLogician, public intellectual and Nobel laureate; lectured in China 1920–21 1873–1958G. E. MooreCambridge defender of common sense against idealism 1882–1936Moritz SchlickPhysicist-philosopher who led the Vienna Circle 1889–1951Ludwig WittgensteinViennese-born Cambridge philosopher who overturned his own first philosophy 1891–1970Rudolf CarnapVienna Circle’s great system-builder, later in Chicago and Los Angeles 1900–1976Gilbert RyleOxford philosopher who mocked the “ghost in the machine”1902–1994Karl PopperViennese-born philosopher of science and defender of the open society 1908–2000W. V. O. QuineHarvard logician who attacked the analytic–synthetic distinction 1910–1989A. J. AyerOxford philosopher who brought logical positivism to English readers 1911–1960J. L. AustinOxford philosopher of language who founded speech-act theory 1919–2001G. E. M. AnscombeWittgenstein’s student and translator who relaunched virtue ethics 1920–2010Philippa FootOxford moral philosopher who devised the trolley problem 1921–2002John RawlsHarvard philosopher who revived political philosophy with justice as fairness 1922–1996Thomas KuhnPhysicist turned historian of science who coined “paradigm shift”1926–2016Hilary PutnamHarvard philosopher who launched functionalism, then criticised it 1929–2025Alasdair MacIntyreScottish-born philosopher who moved from Marxism to Thomism 1931–2007Richard RortyNeopragmatist who challenged philosophy’s claim to mirror reality 1932–2025John SearleBerkeley philosopher of language and mind, author of the Chinese Room born 1937Thomas NagelNYU philosopher who asked what it is like to be a bat 1938–2002Robert NozickHarvard libertarian who answered Rawls 1942–2024Daniel DennettTufts philosopher who explained consciousness as the brain’s work born 1946Peter SingerAustralian utilitarian of animal liberation and effective giving born 1947Martha NussbaumChicago philosopher of the capabilities approach and the emotions born 1966David ChalmersAustralian philosopher who named the “hard problem” of consciousness