1.

THALES: Traditionally considered the first ever western

philosopher. None of his writings survive.
2. SOCRATES: Ancient Greek, changed philosophy from a study of natural science to
ethics and politics. Wrote nothing.
3. PLATO: Ancient Greek, student of Socrates, most influential philosopher of all time.
Works: The Republic.
4. ARISTOTLE: Ancient Greek, student of Plato, second most influential philosopher of all
time. Works: The Nichomachean Ethics, The Metaphysics, The Politics.
5. : Fused Platonic principles with Christian teaching. The last of the ancient Greek
philosophers. Works: The Enneads.
6. St Augustine: Continued Plotinus' project of Platonic Christianity. The first of the
Scholastic philosophers. Works: The Confessions, The City of God.
7. St Anselm: Scholastic, mostly famous for his argument for the existence of God, the
Ontological Argument, which was based on the argument that it would be contradictory to
God's nature for him not to exist. Works: The Monologion.
8. ST AQUINAS: The greatest Scholastic, he changed their emphasis from Plato to
Aristotle, promoting him as the greatest of all philosophers and attempting to fuse
Aristotelianism and Christianity. Works: The Summa Theologica.
9. Duns Scotus: Scholastic. I don't know much about him.
10. William of Ockham: Scholastic. Mostly famous for Ockham's razor, which argues for
simplicity in arguments.
11. Machiavelli: Political philosopher, famous for the ruthless advice he gave to rulers in
The Prince. Works: The Prince, The Discourses.
12. DESCARTES: The father of modern philosophy for challenging the blind acceptance of
Aristotle. Works: The Meditations, Discourse on Method.
13. HOBBES: Political philosopher. Explosively infamous in his day for being a suspected
atheist, among other reasons. Works: Leviathan.
14. SPINOZA: As infamous as Hobbes, his contemporary, in his day. Thought that the
universe was God and we were all part of it. Works: Ethics.
15. Malebranche: Considered the equal of Descartes or Spinoza in his day, now mostly
ignored. Works: The Search After Truth.

16. Arnauld: Equal to Leibniz and Malebranche in his day, now suffers the same fate as
Malebranche. Works: His correspondance is highly important, but also Logic or the Art of
Thinking.
17. LOCKE: Empiricist. Famous for his views on the human mind, knowledge and how we
can own property. Currently my favourite philosopher. Works: An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding, Two Treatises of Government.
18. LEIBNIZ: Rationalist, famous for his justification of evil and his ideas on substance.
Works: Discourse on Metaphysics, Monadology, Theodicy.
19. BERKELEY: Idealist, argued that the physical didn't really exist, only the mental did.
Not a popular view nowadays. Works: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human
Knowledge, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous.
20. HUME: Empiricist, most famous for arguing that inductive knowledge is not certain.
Works: A Treatise on Human Nature, The Enquiries.
21. Rousseau: Political philosopher mostly. Some consider him great, others, like me, think
him a sloppy and shallow thinker. Works: The Social Contract, The Origins of Social
Inequality, Emile.
22. KANT: Considered to be the greatest of the modern philosophers, his influence is allpervasive in almost every area of philosophy. Works: Critique of Pure Reason,
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.
23. Fichte: Follower of Kant, one of the founders of nationalism.
24. HEGEL: Argued that all history was progressing towards a perfect state of being.
Works: Phenomenology of Spirit, The Philosophy of Right.
25. Marx: Follower of Hegel, took his ideas and changed them into Communism. Works:
The Communist Manifesto, Capital.
26. Kierkeguaard: First major objector to Hegel, consider to be a founder of existentialism.
Works: Either/Or, Sickness Unto Death, Fear and Trembling.
27. Schopenhauer: Famous mostly for his pessimistic outlook and for influencing Nietzsche.
Works: The World as Will and Representation.
28. J.S. Mill: Utilitarian, follower of Bentham. Works: On Liberty, Utilitarianism.
29. NIETZSCHE: Mostly a moral philosopher, famously rejected traditional Christian and
Jewish morality as 'slave morality'. Works: Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and
Evil.

30. James: Important US philosopher, proponent of pragmatism. Works: Pragmatism,

Varieties of Religious Experience.
31. Frege: Most important logician since Aristotle.
32. Russell: Perhaps the greatest philosopher of the last century. Works: Problems of
Philosophy, History of Western Philosophy, Principia Mathematica (with Whitehead).
33. Wittgenstein: Student of Russell, another contender for greatest of the last century,
premier philosopher of language. Works: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical
Investigations.
34. Heidegger: Important German philosopher. Works: Being and Time.
35. Sartre: Famous French existentialist. Works: Being and Nothingness.