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He was the founder of the Milesian School of natural philosophy, and the teacher of Anaximander. He was one of the first Western philosophers who attempted to find naturalistic explanations of the world (Naturalism or Materialism) without reference to supernatural or mythological explanations, such as the Greek anthropomorphic gods and heroes. -
Founder of astronomy and an early proponent of science and is sometimes considered to be the first true scientist and to have conducted the earliest recorded scientific experiment. He tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe and its origins, and to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. He made contributions to cosmology, physics, geometry, meteorology, and geography as well as to Metaphysics. -
Anaximenes was the first Greek to distinguish clearly between planets and stars, and he used his principles to account for various natural phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, rainbows, earthquakes, etc. Anaximenes' main concern was to identify the single source of all things in the universe (Monism).
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He was the founder of the influential philosophical and religious movement or cult called Pythagoreanism, and he was probably the first man to actually call himself a philosopher (or lover of wisdom). -
The concepts of respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, and the moral values of these four prima facie principles have been expressly identified in Confucius’ ethics. -
Socrates is one of the few individuals who one could say has shaped the cultural and intellectual development of the world that, without him, history would be profoundly different. He is best known for the Socratic method of question and answer, his claim that he was ignorant, and his claim that unexamined life is not worth living, for human beings. -
Plato maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics. That is to say, happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues (aretê: ‘excellence’) are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it. -
Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance, and theatre. He argued that virtues are good habits that we acquire, which regulate our emotions. -
St. Augustine is a fourth-century philosopher whose groundbreaking philosophy infused Christian doctrine with Neoplatonism. He is famous for being an inimitable Catholic theologian and for his agnostic contributions to Western philosophy. -
He was a Greek philosopher of the Hellenistic period. He was the founder ancient Greek philosophical school of Epicureanism, whose main goal was to attain a happy, tranquil life, characterized by the absence of pain and fear, through the cultivation of friendship, freedom, and an analyzed life. -
A stoic philosopher which according to him, only virtue is good, the only vice is bad, and the things which we normally busy ourselves with are all indifferent to our happiness (for our lives are not made good or bad by our having or lacking them). -
Developed rational arguments for God's existence. Thought that reason can lead the mind to God. -
Hobbes believes that the morals derived from natural law, however, do not permit individuals to challenge the laws of the sovereign; the law of the commonwealth supersedes natural law, and obeying the laws of nature does not make you exempt from disobeying those of the government.
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According to Descartes, the goal of human life is happiness. Happiness is mental flourishing, contentment, and tranquility: "to love life without fearing death."
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