—
10
Aristotle (384-322BC)
(Stokes 100:8|Academics)
(Perry 80:3|Life)
(TopXBest 51:3)
(StreetPoll 10:3)
(ListVerse 10:1)
(Cattell 1000:6) [RGM:5|1,500+] (Murray 4000:3|CS / 1|WP) (Glenn 20:1) (Perry 80:3|Li) (EPD:M&F) [LPKE] (RE:62) [CR:537] Greek physicist-philosopher;
—
98
Plato (c.423-348BC)
(Murray 4000:2|WP)
(Stokes 100:8|Academics)
(Perry 80:1|Life)
(TopXBest 51:2)
(StreetPoll 20:2)
(ListVerse 11:1)
(OldWizard 10:2)
[RGM:5|1,240+] (Cattell 1000:10) (Murray 4000:2|WP) (Perry 80:1|Li) (CR:271) Greek philosopher;“The intense yearning which lovers have toward each other does not appear to be the desire for sexual intercourse, but for something else which the soul of each desires and cannot tell, and of which he or she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.”
— Plato (c.380BC), voice of Aristophanes, Symposium
teacher of Aristotle; known for: Plato’s cave (expositor: Socrates), Plato’s god, soul mate theory (expositor: Aristophanes), allegory of the charioteer, etc.; upgrade ↑ for his first law of affinity, i.e. likes attract; downgrade ↓for saying that to buy up and burn all the works of Democritus; downgrade ↓ for harsh reviews by d’Holbach (1770), who calls him the ‘great inventor of chimeras’, and Jefferson (1820), who says ‘no writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with more ignes fatui [misleading influence]’.
—
92
Thales(c.624-546 BC)
(Stokes 100:1|Presocratics)
(TopXBest 51:23)
(Cattell 1000:914) [RGM:84|1,500+] (Eells 100:62) (Stokes 100:1) (EvT:1|21+) [CR:91] Greek physical scientist and philosopher;“Thales is the ‘father’ of Greek philosophy.”
— Aristotle (c.350BC), Publication
root scholar of Greek philosophy (70+ philosophers); after studying in Egypt, he reformulated Egyptian water god Nun into a secular first principle of science, i.e. water as first principle, out of which fire and earth are formed (see: three element theory; four element theory).
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13
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
(Stokes 100:33|Rationalists)
(Perry 80:11|Man/Self)
(TopXBest 51:6)
(StreetPoll 20:7)
(OldWizard 11:3)
(ListVerse 10:4)
(Cattell 1000:23) [RGM:33|1,500+] (Murray 4000:6|CS / 7|M / 4|WP) (Gottlieb 1000:25) (GPE:13) (GME:6) (Library:2,000) [CR:441] French physicist, philosopher, and mathematician;“Descartes is the restorer of modern philosophy.”
— Baron d’Holbach (1770), System of Nature
Outlined a matter and motion theory of everything.
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51
Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677)
(Stokes 100:36|Rationalist)
(Perry 80:4|God)
(TopXBest 51:26)
“All our modern philosophers, though often perhaps unconsciously, see through the glasses which Spinoza ground.”
— Heinrich Heine (c.1835), Publication
Known as a "celebrated atheist" (Holbach, 1770), noted for, in hmolscience, his 1676 posthumously-published Ethics: Demonstrated in Geometrical Order, a treatise on morality written, supposedly, in the style of Euclid's Elements, as a series of geometrical proofs of numerous philosophical points, accompanied by definitions, axioms, demonstrations, and corollaries, as well as intervening stretches of friendlier prose (scholia).
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50
Epicurus(341-270BC)
(Perry 80:1|Free Will)
(TopXBest 51:12)
(ListVerse 10:9)
(Cattell 1000:240) [RGM:72|1,500+] (FA:22) (GAE:3) [CR:356] Greek atomic theory philosopher; “Democritus, when at ripe old age warned him that mind and memory were failing, went freely to place his person in death’s path. Epicurus himself died when life’s light ran out, he who in mind surpassed all men—eclipsed them all, as the sun hung high in heaven, the stars.”
— Lucretius (55BC), On the Nature of Things (pg. 81; 3:1039-44)
student of Democritus, mentor to Lucretius; name-dropped by nearly ever genius thereafter (e.g. Pierre Gassendi, Thomas Jefferson, etc.); eponym of Epicureanism, Epicurean atheism.
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1
1
Johann Goethe(1749-1832)
(Cattell 1000:7) (Gottlieb 1000:131) [RGM:36|1,500+] (Murray 4000:2|WL) (GMG:1) (Perry 80:1|Li) [LUG] [LPKE] [TCG] [polymath] [uberman] (SN:1) (HD:19) (FA:56) (GA:6) (LR:2) (Re:82) (EvT:8|21+) [CR:2151] German poly-intellect; via his 1809 Elective Affinities, he has become the main expositor of "physico-chemical philosophy", a philosophy wherein people are viewed as reactive chemicals, and nature of affairs is determined by the forces of the chemical affinties; semi-classified as “philosophical romanticism” (Kompridis, 2006). [4]—
79
Heraclitus (c.535-450BC)
(Stokes 100:4|Presocratics)
(Perry 80:1|Death)
(TopXBest 51:30)
“Heraclitus, to the contemporary reader, is a philosopher of the first rank.”
— Charles Kahn (1981), The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (pg. ix)
noted for his now lost On Nature (c.500BC), on the universe, politics, and theology, wherein he outlines a three element theory, according to which the universe is comprised of three principle elements: fire, earth, and water, but that fire was the primary element, controlling and modifying the other two, and that everything is in a continuous state of flux, or change, and war and strife between opposites is the eternal condition of the universe; Nietzsche considered his world view to be Heraclitean one;
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170
Socrates(c.469-399BC)
(Murray 4000:12|WP)
(Stokes 100:7|Academics) (TopXBest 51:1)
(StreetPoll 20:1)
(OldWizard 11:1)
—
31
Baron d’Holbach(1723-1789)
[RGM:414|1,500+] [SN:12] (FA:74) (GAE:1) [CR:251] German-born French-raised atheism-explicit, anti-chance based, matter-and-motion philosopher; “Holbach’s System of Nature is the most exhaustive [and intellectually thorough-going] discussion of atheism — from a scientific, philosophical, moral, and political perspective — ever written.”
— Sunand Joshi (2014), The Original Atheists (pg. #)
aka “Newton of the atheists” (Ѻ) (V|1:45); a top-ranked extreme atheist; the Hume-Holbach dinner party (1763) encounter situate him between Voltaire and David Hume in intellect, if not above [?] Voltaire; his mentally-penetrating The System of Nature turned both Goethe and Percy Shelley into the atheist natural philoosphy mode of thinking.
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69
John Mill(1806-1873)
—
202
Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919)
(Murray 4000:16|B) (FA:74) (GPhE:11) [CR:127] was a German physician, turned Goethe-promoting, Darwin-promoting zoologist;“The fundamental unit of affinity in the whole of nature, from the simplest chemical process to the most complicated love story, [as] was recognized by Empedocles [and] Goethe, [can be] reduced, on logical analysis, to matter (space filling substance) and energy (moving force), [which] are but two inseparable attributes of one underlying substance.”
— Ernest Haeckel (1899), The Riddle of the Universe
characterized an "unabashed atheist" (Brix, 1992), noted for his "physico-chemical monism" philosophical conception "of the world" (1892); a rare Goethe and Empedocles scholar.
—
29
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
(Stokes 100:70|Existentialists)
(Perry 80:7|Life)
(TopXBest 51:16)
(StreetPoll 20:5)
(OldWizard 11:5)
[RGM:30|1,500+] (Murray 4000:15|WP) (Perry 80:7|Li) [HD:44] (FA:138) (GAE:2) [RGA:21|370+] [CR:320] Polish-ethnicity German-born atheist asoulist philosopher;“Do you know what the ‘world’ is to me? Shall I show it to you in my mirror? This world: a monster of energy, without beginning, without end; a firm, iron magnitude of force that does not grow bigger or smaller, that does not expend itself but only transforms itself.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche (1885), The Will to Power (WP:1067)
third generation student of Goethe, via Schopenhauer, noted for his 1882 "god is dead"; his unfinished magnum opus The Will to Power, wherein he grapples, via 1,067 fragments, or numbered "apothegms", as Henry Mencken (1920) calls them, with the "god void" replacement issue, i.e. what is to replace god or belief in the existence of god in the wake of his absence, via modern physical science based reformulated outlines of new classical philosophy.
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95
Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1527)
(TopXBest 51:50)
(StreetPoll 20:8)
(Cattell 1000:83) [RGM:54|1,500+] (Gottlieb 1000:40) (CR:53) Italian realism philosopher, historian, politician, and diplomat; “We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.”
— Francis Bacon (1605), The Advancement of Learning (Ѻ)
best known for his 1513 leadership advice book The Prince, political ethics discourse advocating an ‘ends outweigh the means’ (or "end justifies the means") philosophy; influential to: Francis Bacon and Vilfredo Pareto.
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74
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
(Stokes 100:31|Age of Science)
(Perry 80:1|Man/Self)
(TopXBest 51:36)
“That when a thing lies still, unless somewhat else stir it, it will lie still forever, is a truth that no man doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally be in motion, unless somewhat else stay it, though the reason be the same, namely, that nothing can change itself, is not so easily assented to. For men measure, not only other men, but all other things, by themselves; and because they find themselves subject after motion to pain, and lassitude, think everything else grows weary of motion, and seeks repose of its own accord; little considering, whether it be not some other motion, wherein that desire of rest they find in themselves, consistent.”
— Thomas Hobbes (1651), Leviathan (§2: On Imagination) (pg. 3)
His 1651 book Leviathan, draws analogies between the laws of mechanics and the features of society.
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60
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
(Stokes 100:49|Idealists)
(Perry 80:3|Love)
(TopXBest 51:43)
[RGM:89|1,500+] (Murray 4000:13|WP) (SN:15) (FA:93) (GA:10) (GPhE:#) [CR:250] German atheistic natural philosopher; “The will of the copper, claimed and preoccupied by the electrical opposition to the iron, leaves unused the opportunity that presents itself for its chemical affinity for oxygen and carbonic acid, behaves exactly as the will does in a person who abstains from an action to which he would otherwise feel moved, in order to perform another to which he is urged by a stronger motive.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer (1844), The World as Will and Representation
his The World as Will and Representation (1814, 1844), building on Goethe's human elective affinities theory (see: elective affinity problem), explains "will" in a universal manner.
—
24
Empedocles(495-435BC)
(EvT:5|21+)
(Cattell 1000:896) [RGM:401|1,500+] (ACR:11) (FA:8) (EvT:5|21+) [CR:276] Greek physical science philosopher; “There is neither birth nor death for any mortal, but only a combination and separation of that which was combined, and this is what amongst laymen they call ‘birth’ and ‘death’. Only infants or short-sighted persons imagine any thing is ‘born’ which did not exist before, or that any thing can ‘die’ or parish totally.”
— Empedocles (c.450BC), Fragment I21 / DK8 + Fragment I23 / DK11;
outlined a "two-force / four-element" philosophical theory of everything.
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75
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
(Stokes 100:45|Idealist)
(Perry 80:5|Life)
(TopXBest 51:15)
(StreetPoll 20:10)
(OldWizard 11:6)
—
136
Michel Montaigne(1533-1592)
(TopXBest 51:45)
(Cattell 1000:171) [RGM:222|1,500+] (Gottlieb 1000:432) (HD:2) (FA:29) (CR:73) French atomic theory based realism philosopher; “Montaigne was the first Frenchman who dared to think.”
— Julien la Mettrie (1751), “Anti-Seneca” (pg. 129)
His three-volume 1580 Essays, attempts to explore thoughts on existence and learning, much of which themed the 55BC On the Nature of Things, particularly those views of Epicurus, cautioned with the more conserved views of Lucretius, followed by those of Cicero, thirdly; many of the essays centered around: sex and death; wore a medallion around his neck that said "what do I know?" and "I hold back, or reserve judgment" around his neck (adjacent).
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103
Cicero(106-43BC)
“Cicero provided the ‘renaissance’ with its prime methods of philosophical dialogue, and its fullest knowledge about the ancient philosophical schools.”
— Michel Montaigne (c.1580), Publication
noted for his 45BC On the Nature of the Gods, a discourse on Greek and Roman theologies, namely a dialogue on a comparison of the pros and cons of stoicism (character: Balbus), Epicurean theology (character: Velleius), and Platonic Academy based skepticism (character: Cotta); also known for thoughts on morals, society, the legal system, etc., as both religion and and Epicurean atomic theory would each see things
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161
Plutarch (c.46-120)
—
111
David Hume (1711-1776)
(Stokes 100:39|Empiricists)
(Perry 80:17|Knowledge)
(TopXBest 51:18)
(OldWizard 11:9)
(Cattell 1000:58) [RGM:109|1,500+] (Murray 4000:4|WP) (Gottlieb 1000:185) (SN:49) (GMG:7) (EPD|F2) [CR:90] Scottish philosopher;“There is nothing to be learned from a professor, which is not to be met with in the books.”
— David Hume (1735), “Letter to Jemmy Birch”
aka “Newton of moral sciences” (Foley, 1990); noted for his 1740 A Treatise of Human Nature; his 1783 essay “On the Immortality of the Soul”, argued that “it appears difficult by the mere light of reason to prove the immortality of the soul”; Kant's 1788 Critique of Practical Reason and his categorical imperative, according to Miguel Unamuno, are both criticism launching points off the two latter works; his posthumous Dialog Concerning Natural Religion (1777) did a modern remake of Cicero’s The Nature of the Gods; famously-known, in atheist circles, for his encounter with Baron d’Holbach, wherein boasted “I do not believe in atheists, because I have never met one” (see: Hume-Holbach dinner party).
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123
Marcus Aurelius(121-180)
(Perry 80:4|Life)
(TopXBest 51:7)
—
105
Bertrand Russell(1872-1970)
(Stokes 100:77|Linguistics)
(Perry 80:|Language)
(TopXBest 51:38)
(StreetPoll 20:12)
(RGM:145|1,500+) (Gottlieb 1000:593) (EPD:M2/F4) [HD:51] [FA:117] (GAE:21) (Stokes 100:77) [CR:165] British mathematician and philosopher; 20th century's greatest atheism advocate.
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362
Plotinus(207-270)
(Stokes 100:18|Neoplatonist)
(Perry 80:1|Time)
—
360
Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274)
(Stokes 100:22|Scholastics)
(Perry 80:3|God)
(TopXBest 51:8)
(ListVerse 10:6)
—
126
Parmenides (510-450BC)
—
16
Voltaire (1694-1778)
(TopXBest 51:9)
(StreetPoll 20:1)
—
183
John Locke(1632-1704)
(Stokes 100:38|Empericists)
(Perry 80:2|Free will)
(TopXBest 51:13)
(ListVerse 10:10)
—
125
Leucippus (c.500-450BC)
(GCE:10) [CR:212] Greek atomic physicist and philosopher; “Nothing happens in vain, but everything from reason and by necessity.”
— Leucippus (c.460BC), On Mind (Fragment L1)
noted for conceiving of the atomic theory, which was a reactionary theory developed in response to Greek philosopher Parmenides’ 485BC denial of the void;
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27
Francis Bacon(1561-1626)
(TopXBest 51:20)
—
324
Zeno of Citium (c.334-c.262BC)
(ListVerse 10:8)
(Cattell 1000:859) [RGM:792|1,500+] (GPhE:#) (CR:44) Greek natural philosopher, noted for employing a determinism philosophy of action, particularly in regards to crime and punishment (see: slave stealing parable; flower stealing model), and also the founder of stoicism, a philosophy which holds that the wise man should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law and or one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain.—
70
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
(Stokes 100:66)
—
483
Karl Popper(1902-1994)
(TopXBest 51:51)
(Spenko 27:14)
(RGM:1182|1,500+) (Stokes 100:94) (GPhE:25) (CR:25) Austrian-born English philosopher, noted for his 1919 falsifiability model of good science, according to which to know if something is true or not, e.g. a new theory like relativity, there must be a way to test it, e.g. measure during an eclipse if the mass of the sun bends light, and for his latter discussions on the arrow of time in relation to entropy as well as his critique on general laws of science. —
342
Georg Hegel (1770-1831)
(Stokes 100:48|Idealists)
(Perry 80:3|Art)
(TopXBest 51:21)
(OldWizard 11:4)
“Philosophy, if one still wants to call it that, has had to sink lower and lower, until it finally reached the lowest level of abasement in the ministerial creature Hegel, who in order to smother again the ‘freedom of thought’, which Kant had struggled for and won, made of ‘philosophy’, the daughter of reason and the future mother of truth, a tool of state aims, obscurantism, and Protestant Jesuitism. In order to cover up the disgrace and at the same time to bring about the greatest possible stupefaction of minds, he drew over it a cloak of the emptiest word rubbish and silliest gallimathias that have ever been heard outside the insane asylum.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer (1839), Essay on the Freedom of the Will (pgs. 85-86)
semi-classified a “modern Aristotle” (Ladlier, 2000) (Ѻ), specifically in "young Marx's eyes" (McBride, 1977) (Ѻ).
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452
Martin Heidegger(1889-1976)
(Perry 80:4|Language)
(TopXBest 51:42)
(Spenko 27:5)
—
264
Thomas More(1478-1535)
(Stokes 100:28)
—
625
Zeno of Elea (495-435BC)
(Stokes 100:6|Eleatics)
—
247
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
(TopXBest 51:22)
[RGM:219|1,500+] (Gottlieb 1000:634) (CR:38) Austrian-British philosopher; noted for comments on Schopenhauer’s “elective affinity will” or “will to power” (attacking one’s fears); his two biggest works are Philosophical Investigations and Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which according to some “show more raw intellect than anything Shakespeare has written”; downgrade for having so many “god-this” and “god-that” quotes attributed to him; some have ranked him above Bertrand Russell. —
62
Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637) ↑
