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428 BCE
Plato
Plato, (born 428/427 BCE, Athens, Greece—died 348/347, Athens), ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE), teacher of Aristotle (384–322 BCE), and founder of the Academy, best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence. -
427 BCE
Socrates
Socrates, (born c. 470 BCE, Athens [Greece]—died 399 BCE, Athens), ancient Greek philosopher whose way of life, character, and thought exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy. -
384 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, one of the greatest intellectual figures of Western history. He was the author of a philosophical and scientific system that became the framework and vehicle for both Christian Scholasticism and medieval Islamic philosophy. Even after the intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, Aristotelian concepts remained embedded in Western thinking. -
354 BCE
Augustine
St. Augustine, also called Saint Augustine of Hippo, original Latin name Aurelius Augustinus, (born November 13, 354, Tagaste, Numidia [now Souk Ahras, Algeria]—died August 28, 430. He believes that time is not infinite because God “created” it. Augustine tries to reconcile his beliefs about freewill, especially the belief that humans are morally responsible for their actions, with his belief that one’s life is predestined. -
341 BCE
Epicurus
Epicurus, (born 341 BC, Samos, Greece—died 270, Athens), Greek philosopher, author of an ethical philosophy of simple pleasure, friendship, and retirement. He founded schools of philosophy that survived directly from the 4th century BC until the 4th century -
1201
Thoma Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas was called to defend the unity of man's mind. Siger of Brabant's theology seemed to say a statement could be true in theology although false in philosophy. Aquinas won that battle. He could have become proud. -
1561
Francis Bacon
Was an English philosopher, lawyer and statesman, who served as Attorney General, and as Lord Chancellor of England. He claimed all knowledge as his province. His works are credited with developing the scientific method, and remained influential through the scientific revolution. He is one of the founders of the concept of natural essence of morality. The subject of the study of ethics considered the will of man, which directs and organizes his mind and triggers the emotions. -
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), whose current reputation rests largely on his political philosophy, was a thinker with wide-ranging interests. In philosophy, he defended a range of materialist, nominalist, and empiricist views against Cartesian and Aristotelian alternatives. -
Rene
Was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He is generally considered as one of the most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age. He developed the conception of moral virtue and happiness along with other accounts of values and norms. His metaphysical and epistemological claims promote eudaemonia. -
Immanuel Kant
Was a German philosopher who is a central figure in modern philosophy. He is the most important proponent in philosophical history of deontological, or duty based, ethics. His ethical theory exerted a powerful influence on the subsequent history of philosophy and continues to be a dominant approach to ethics, rivaling consequentialism and virtue ethics. He believed that reason is the source of morality, and that aesthetics arise from a faculty of disinterested judgment.