-
469 BCE
Socrates (469- 399 BC)
A necessary inclusion by virtue of his role as, essentially, the founder of Western Philosophy. Socrates was an Athenian Philosopher whose questions and opinions clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society. His inquisitive approach also positioned him as a central social and moral critic of the Athenian leadership, which ultimately led to his trial and execution for corrupting the minds of young Athenians. -
428 BCE
Plato (428- 348 BC)
Plato ranks among the greatest philosophers of the world and is viewed by many scholars as the most important Philosopher of Western civilization. Plato held that moral values are objective in the sense that they exist in a spirit-like realm beyond subjective human conventions. He held that they are absolute, or eternal, in that they never change, and also that they are universal insofar as they apply to all rational creatures around the world and throughout time. (Racelis, 2017) -
384 BCE
Aristotle (384- 322 BC)
In Arabic Philosophy, he was known simply as " The First Teacher", in the West, he was "The Philosopher." The ethics of Aristotle is concerned with action, not as being right in itself irrespective of any other consideration, but with actions conducive to man's good. Aristotle sets himself to discover what this good is and what the science corresponding to it is. (Copleston, 1993). -
René Descartes (1596- 1650)
A French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, Descartes was born in France but spent 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic. Regarded as one of the leading influences in the Scientific Revolution — a period of intense discovery, revelation, and innovation that rippled through Europe between the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras (roughly speaking, 15th to 18th centuries). -
David Hume (1711- 1777)
A Scottish-born historian, economist, and philosopher. He was focused on creating a “naturalistic science of man” that delves into the psychological conditions defining human nature. His belief system would help to inform the future movements of utilitarianism and logical positivism, and would have a profound impact on scientific and theological discourse thereafter. -
Immanuel Kant (1724- 1804)
Prussian-born (and therefore identified as a German philosopher), Kant is considered among the most essential figures in modern philosophy, an advocate of reason as the source for morality, and a thinker whose ideas continue to permeate ethical, epistemological, and political debate. To his own way of thinking, Kant was pointing a way forward by resolving a central philosophical impasse. -
John Stuart Mill (1806- 1873)
British economist, public servant, and philosopher John Stuart Mill is considered a linchpin of modern social and political theory. He contributed a critical body of work to the school of thought called liberalism, an ideology founding on the extension of individual liberties and economic freedoms. Mill himself advocated strongly for the preserving of individual rights and called for limitations to the power and authority of the state over the individual.
