Ancient philosophy

Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionians Ancient Greeks mathematician and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mysticism and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy....
(582-496 BC)

Philolaus

Philolaus

Philolaus was a Greeks Pythagoreanism and Presocratic. He argued that all matter is composed of limited and unlimited things, and that the universe is determined by numbers....
 (470-380 BC)

Alcmaeon of Croton

Alcmaeon of Croton

Alcmaeon of Crotone was one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity. His father's name was Pirithus, and he is said by some to have been a pupil of Pythagoras, and must therefore have lived in the latter half of the 6th century BC....

Archytas

Archytas

Archytas was an Ancient Greece philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and military strategy. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato....
 (428-347 BC)

Xenophanes

Xenophanes

of Colophon was a Greece philosopher, poet, and social and religious critic. Our knowledge of his views comes from fragments of his poetry, surviving as quotations by later Greek writers....
 (570-470 BC)

Parmenides

Parmenides

Parmenides of Elea was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy....
 (510-440 BC)

Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Velia was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic....
 (490-430 BC)

Melissus of Samos

Melissus of Samos

Melissus of Samos Island is the third and last member of the ancient school of Eleatics, whose other members include Zeno of Elea and Parmenides, the most important of the Pre-Socratic Philosophy....
 (c 470 BC - unknown)

Empedocles

Empedocles

Empedocles was a Hellenic civilization pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin of the cosmogenesis theory of the four classical elements....
 (490-430 BC)

Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Greek philosophy famous for introducing the cosmological concept of Nous , the ordering force....
 (500-428 BC)

Leucippus

Leucippus

Leucippus or Leukippos was the first to develop the theory of atomism ? the idea that everything is composed entirely of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms ? which was elaborated in far greater detail by his pupil and successor, Democritus....
 (first half of 5th century BC)

Democritus

Democritus

Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera in the north of Greece. He was the most prolific, and ultimately the most influential, of the pre-Socratic philosophers; his atomic theory may be regarded as the culmination of early Greek thought....
 (460-370 BC)

Metrodorus of Chios

Metrodorus of Chios

Metrodorus of Chios was a Ancient Greece Pre-Socratic philosophy, belonging to the school of Democritus, and an important forerunner of Epicurus....
 (4th century BC)

Protagoras

Protagoras

Protagoras was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Ancient Greeks philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras , Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist or teacher of virtue....
 (490-420 BC)

Gorgias

Gorgias

Gorgias , "the Nihilist", Greece sophist, pre-socratic philosophy and rhetorician, was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophism....
 (487-376 BC)

Antiphon

Antiphon (person)

Antiphon the Sophist lived in Athens probably in the last two decades of the 5th century BC. There is an ongoing controversy over whether he is one and the same with Antiphon of the Athenian deme Rhamnus in Attica, Greece , the earliest of the ten Attic orators....
 (480-411 BC)

Prodicus

Prodicus

Prodicus of Ceos He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as a speaker and a teacher. Like Protagoras, he professed to train his pupils for domestic and civic service; but it would appear that, while Protagoras's chief instruments of education were rhetoric and style, Prodicus made linguistics prominent in his curriculum....
 (465/450-after 399 BC)

Hippias

Hippias

Hippias of Elis Ancient Greece Sophist, was born about the middle of the 5th century BC and was thus a younger contemporary of Protagoras and Socrates....
 (middle of the 5th century BC)

Thrasymachus

Thrasymachus

Thrasymachus was a sophist of Ancient Greece best known as a character in Plato's Republic ....
 (459-400 BC)

Callicles

Callicles

Callicles is a character in Plato?s Dialogue#Platonic_dialogues Gorgias . He is an Athens citizen, who is a student of the sophist Gorgias....

Critias

Critias

Critias , born in Classical Athens, son of Callaeschrus, was an uncle of Plato, and a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent....

Lycophron

Lycophron

Lycophron was a Greece poet and grammarian .He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ....

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Western philosophy

Presocratic philosophers

Pre-Socratic philosophy

The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophy were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. The popularity of the term originates with Hermann Diels' work Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker ....

• Milesian School
  Milesian school
  
  The Milesian school was a school of thought founded in the 6th Century BC. The ideas associated with it are exemplified by three philosophers from the Ionian town of Miletus, on the Aegean coast of Anatolia: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes of Miletus....
  

Thales

Thales

Thales of Miletus , was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Greek philosophy from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek philosophy....
(624 BC–ca. 546 BC)

Anaximander

Anaximander

Anaximander was a pre-Socratic Ancient Greece philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales....
 (610-546 BC)

Anaximenes of Miletus

Anaximenes of Miletus

Anaximenes of Miletus was a Greece Pre-Socratic philosopher from the latter half of the 6th century BC, probably a younger contemporary of Anaximander, whose pupil or friend he is said to have been....
 (c. 585-c. 525 BC)

• Pythagoreans
  Pythagoreanism
  
  Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metaphysics beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were much influenced by mathematics and probably a very inspirational source for Plato and Platonism....
  

Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionians Ancient Greeks mathematician and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mysticism and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy....
(582-496 BC)

Philolaus

Philolaus

Philolaus was a Greeks Pythagoreanism and Presocratic. He argued that all matter is composed of limited and unlimited things, and that the universe is determined by numbers....
 (470-380 BC)

Alcmaeon of Croton

Alcmaeon of Croton

Alcmaeon of Crotone was one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity. His father's name was Pirithus, and he is said by some to have been a pupil of Pythagoras, and must therefore have lived in the latter half of the 6th century BC....

Archytas

Archytas

Archytas was an Ancient Greece philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and military strategy. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato....
 (428-347 BC)

• Heraclitus
  Heraclitus
  
  Heraclitus of Ephesus was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Greeks philosopher, a native of Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor.Heraclitus is known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe, and that the Logos is the fundamental order of all....
   (535-475 BC)

• Eleatic School

Xenophanes

Xenophanes

of Colophon was a Greece philosopher, poet, and social and religious critic. Our knowledge of his views comes from fragments of his poetry, surviving as quotations by later Greek writers....
 (570-470 BC)

Parmenides

Parmenides

Parmenides of Elea was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy....
 (510-440 BC)

Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Velia was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic....
 (490-430 BC)

Melissus of Samos

Melissus of Samos

Melissus of Samos Island is the third and last member of the ancient school of Eleatics, whose other members include Zeno of Elea and Parmenides, the most important of the Pre-Socratic Philosophy....
 (c 470 BC - unknown)

• Pluralists
  Pluralist School
  
  The Pluralist School was a school of pre-Socratic philosophers who attempted to reconcile Parmenides' rejection of change with the apparently changing world of sense experience....
  

Empedocles

Empedocles

Empedocles was a Hellenic civilization pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin of the cosmogenesis theory of the four classical elements....
 (490-430 BC)

Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Greek philosophy famous for introducing the cosmological concept of Nous , the ordering force....
 (500-428 BC)

• Atomists
  Atomism
  
  In natural philosophy, atomism is the philosophical theses that was theoryzed by Leucippus in the fifth century BC. For it all the objects in the universe are composed of very small, indestructible building blocks ? atoms ....
  

Leucippus

Leucippus

Leucippus or Leukippos was the first to develop the theory of atomism ? the idea that everything is composed entirely of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms ? which was elaborated in far greater detail by his pupil and successor, Democritus....
 (first half of 5th century BC)

Democritus

Democritus

Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera in the north of Greece. He was the most prolific, and ultimately the most influential, of the pre-Socratic philosophers; his atomic theory may be regarded as the culmination of early Greek thought....
 (460-370 BC)

Metrodorus of Chios

Metrodorus of Chios

Metrodorus of Chios was a Ancient Greece Pre-Socratic philosophy, belonging to the school of Democritus, and an important forerunner of Epicurus....
 (4th century BC)

• Pherecydes of Syros
  Pherecydes of Syros
  
  Pherecydes of Syros was a Greek thinker from the island of Syros, of the 6th century BC. Pherecydes authored the Pentemychos, one of the first attested prose works in Greek literature, which formed an important bridge between mythic and pre-Socratic thought....
   (6th century BC)

• Sophists
  Sophism
  
  Sophism can mean two very different things: In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone....
  

Protagoras

Protagoras

Protagoras was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Ancient Greeks philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras , Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist or teacher of virtue....
 (490-420 BC)

Gorgias

Gorgias

Gorgias , "the Nihilist", Greece sophist, pre-socratic philosophy and rhetorician, was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophism....
 (487-376 BC)

Antiphon

Antiphon (person)

Antiphon the Sophist lived in Athens probably in the last two decades of the 5th century BC. There is an ongoing controversy over whether he is one and the same with Antiphon of the Athenian deme Rhamnus in Attica, Greece , the earliest of the ten Attic orators....
 (480-411 BC)

Prodicus

Prodicus

Prodicus of Ceos He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as a speaker and a teacher. Like Protagoras, he professed to train his pupils for domestic and civic service; but it would appear that, while Protagoras's chief instruments of education were rhetoric and style, Prodicus made linguistics prominent in his curriculum....
 (465/450-after 399 BC)

Hippias

Hippias

Hippias of Elis Ancient Greece Sophist, was born about the middle of the 5th century BC and was thus a younger contemporary of Protagoras and Socrates....
 (middle of the 5th century BC)

Thrasymachus

Thrasymachus

Thrasymachus was a sophist of Ancient Greece best known as a character in Plato's Republic ....
 (459-400 BC)

Callicles

Callicles

Callicles is a character in Plato?s Dialogue#Platonic_dialogues Gorgias . He is an Athens citizen, who is a student of the sophist Gorgias....

Critias

Critias

Critias , born in Classical Athens, son of Callaeschrus, was an uncle of Plato, and a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent....

Lycophron

Lycophron

Lycophron was a Greece poet and grammarian .He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ....

• Diogenes of Apollonia (c. 460 BC-unknown)

Classical Greek philosophers

Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception....

• Socrates
  Socrates
  
  Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
   (469-399 BC)
• Euclid of Megara
  Euclid of Megara
  
  Euclid of Megara, , was a Ancient Greece Socrates philosopher who founded the Megarian school of philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BC, and was present at his death....
   (450-380 BC)
• Antisthenes
  Antisthenes
  
  Antisthenes , lived ca. 445-365 BCE, was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates....
   (445-360 BC)
• Aristippus
  Aristippus
  
  Aristippus of Cyrene, , was the founder of the Cyrenaics of Philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates, but adopted a very different philosophical outlook, teaching that the goal of life was to seek pleasure by adapting circumstances to oneself by maintaining proper control over both adversity and prosperity....
   (435-356 BC)
• Plato
  Plato
  
  Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
   (428-347 BC)
• Speusippus
  Speusippus
  
  Speusippus was an ancient Greece philosopher. Speusippus was Plato's nephew by his sister Potone. After Plato's death, Speusippus inherited the Platonic Academy and remained its head for the next eight years....
   (407-339 BC)
• Diogenes of Sinope
  Diogenes of Sinope
  
  Diogenes "the Cynic", Ancient Greece philosopher, was born in Sinope about 412 BC , and died in 323 BC, at Corinth. Details of his life come in the form of anecdotes , especially from Diogenes La?rtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers....
   (400-325 BC)
• Xenocrates
  Xenocrates
  
  Xenocrates of Chalcedon was a Ancient Greece philosopher, mathematician, and leader of the Platonic Academy from 339 to 314 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato's, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements....
   (396-314 BC)
• Aristotle
  Aristotle
  
  Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
   (384-322 BC)
• Stilpo
  Stilpo
  
  Stilpo , Hellenistic Greece philosopher of the Megarian school of philosophy , was a contemporary of Theophrastus and Crates of Thebes. None of his writings survive, he was interested in logic and dialectic, and his ethical teachings approached that of the Cynics and Stoics....
   (380-300 BC)
• Theophrastus
  Theophrastus
  
  Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
   (370-288 BC)

Hellenistic philosophy

Hellenistic philosophy

Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with Neoplatonism....

• Pyrrho
  Pyrrho
  
  Pyrrho , a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC....
   (365-275 BC)
• Epicurus
  Epicurus
  
  Epicurus was an Greek philosophy and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works....
   (341-270 BC)
• Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger) (331–278 BC)
• Zeno of Citium
  Zeno of Citium
  
  Zeno of Citium was a Greeks philosopher from Citium , Cyprus. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy which he taught in Athens, from about 300 BC....
   (333-263 BC)
• Cleanthes
  Cleanthes
  
  Cleanthes of Assos, lived c. 330- c. 230 BC, was a Stoic philosopher and the successor to Zeno of Citium as the second head of the Stoic school in Athens....
   (331-232 BC)
• Timon
  Timon (philosopher)
  
  Timon of Phlius, , the son of Timarchus, was a Hellenistic Greece Philosophical skepticism, a pupil of Pyrrho, and a celebrated writer of satire poems called Silloi ....
   (320-230 BC)
• Arcesilaus
  Arcesilaus
  
  Arcesilaus was a Greece philosopher and founder of the Second or Middle Platonic Academy—the skepticism phase of the Academy. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates of Athens as head of the Academy c....
   (316-232 BC)
• Menippus
  Menippus
  
  File:Diego Vel?zquez 022.jpgMenippus of Gadara, was a Cynic and satirist who lived during the 3rd century BCE. The Menippean satire genre is named after him....
   (3rd century BC)
• Archimedes
  Archimedes
  
  Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematics, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity....
   (c. 287-212 BC)
• Chrysippus
  Chrysippus
  
  Chrysippus of Soli was Cleanthes' pupil and his successor, in 232 BC, as third head of the Stoa . A prolific writer, Chrysippus expanded the fundamental doctrines of Zeno of Citium , which earned him the title of Second Founder of Stoicism....
   (280-207 BC)
• Carneades
  Carneades
  
  Carneades was a radical skeptic born in Cyrene, Libya and the first of the philosophers to pronounce the failure of metaphysics who endeavored to discover rational meanings in religious beliefs....
   (214-129 BC)
• Clitomachus (187-109 BC)
• Metrodorus of Stratonicea
  Metrodorus of Stratonicea
  
  Metrodorus of Stratonikeia , was at first a disciple of the Epicurean school, but afterwards attached himself to Carneades. His defection from the Epicurean school is almost unique....
   (late 2nd century BC)
• Philo of Larissa
  Philo of Larissa
  
  Philo or Philon of Larissa was a Greeks philosopher of the first half of the 1st century BC. He was a pupil of Clitomachus , whom he succeeded as head of the Platonic Academy....
   (160-80 BC)
• Posidonius
  Posidonius
  
  Posidonius "of Apamea " or "of Rhodes" , was a Greeks Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, History of Syria....
   (135-51 BC)
• Antiochus of Ascalon
  Antiochus of Ascalon
  
  Antiochus , of Ashkelon, , was an Platonism philosopher. He was a pupil of Philo of Larissa at the Platonic Academy, but he diverged from the philosophical skepticism of Philo and his predecessors....
   (130-68 BC)
• Aenesidemus
  Aenesidemus
  
  Aenesidemus was a Greece sceptical philosopher, born in Knossos on the island of Crete. He lived sometime during the 1st century BC, taught in Alexandria and flourished shortly after the life of Cicero....
   (1st century BC)
• Philo of Alexandria (30 BC - 45 AD)
• Agrippa
  Agrippa the Sceptic
  
  Agrippa was a Sceptic philosopher who probably lived towards the end of the 1st century AD. He is regarded as the author of "five grounds of doubt" or tropes , which are purported to establish the impossibility of certain knowledge....
   (1st century AD)

Hellenistic schools of thought

• Cynic
  Cynic
  
  The Cynics were an influential group of philosophers from the ancient School of Cynicism. Their philosophy was that the purpose of Personal life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature....
  ism
• Epicureanism
  Epicureanism
  
  Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus , founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomism materialism, following in the steps of Democritus....
  
• Hedonism
  Hedonism
  
  Hedonism is a school of philosophy which argues that pleasure has an intrinsic value and is the most important pursuit of humanity....
  
• Eclecticism
  Eclecticism
  
  Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases....
  
• Neo-Platonism
• Skepticism
  Skepticism
  
  In ordinary usage, skepticism or scepticism refers to:* an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object;...
  
• Stoicism
  Stoicism
  
  Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
  
• Sophism
  Sophism
  
  Sophism can mean two very different things: In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone....
  

Philosophers during Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 times

• Cicero
  Cicero
  
  Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
   (106-43 BC)
• Lucretius
  Lucretius
  
  Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman Republic poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem on Epicureanism De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things....
   (94-55 BC)
• Seneca
  Seneca the Younger
  
  Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
   (4 BC - 65 AD)
• Musonius Rufus
  Musonius Rufus
  
  Gaius Musonius Rufus, was a Roman Stoic philosopher of the 1st century AD. He taught philosophy in Rome during the reign of Nero, as consequence of which he was sent into exile in 65 AD, only returning to Rome under Galba....
   (30 AD - 100 AD)
• Plutarch
  Plutarch
  
  Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 ? 120 ? commonly known in English as Plutarch ? was a Ancient Rome historian , biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonism....
   (45-120 AD)
• Epictetus
  Epictetus
  
  Epictetus was a Ancient Greece Stoicism philosophy. He was probably born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until his exile to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece, where he lived most of his life and died....
   (55-135 AD)
• Marcus Aurelius
  Marcus Aurelius
  
  Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important stoicism philosophy....
   (121-180 AD)
• Clement of Alexandria
  Clement of Alexandria
  
  Clement of Alexandria , was the first notable member of the Christianity of Alexandria, and one of its most distinguished teachers. He was born about the middle of the 2nd century, and died between 211 and 216....
   (150-215 AD)
• Alcinous_(philosopher)
  Alcinous (philosopher)
  
  __FORCETOC__Alcinous , or Alcinoos, or Alkinoos, was a Middle Platonist philosopher. He probably lived in the 2nd century, although nothing is known about his life....
   (2nd century AD)
• Sextus Empiricus
  Sextus Empiricus
  
  Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
   (3rd century AD)
• Alexander of Aphrodisias
  Alexander of Aphrodisias
  
  Alexander of Aphrodisias was the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was styled, by way of pre-eminence, "the expositor" ....
   (3rd century AD)
• Ammonius Saccas
  Ammonius Saccas
  
  Ammonius Saccas was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria who was often referred to as one of the founders of Neoplatonism. He is mainly known as the teacher of Plotinus, whom he taught for eleven years from 232 to 243....
   (3rd century AD)
• Plotinus
  Plotinus
  
  Plotinus was a major Philosophy of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism . Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry 's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads....
   (205-270 AD)
• Porphyry
  Porphyry (philosopher)
  
  Porphyry of Tyre was a Phoenician Neoplatonism philosopher. He is important in the history of mathematics because of his Life of Pythagoras and his commentary on Euclid's Euclid's Elements, used by Pappus of Alexandria when he wrote his own commentary....
   (232-304 AD)
• Iamblichus (242-327 AD)
• Themistius
  Themistius
  
  Themistius , named , was a statesman, rhetorician and philosopher,...
   (317-388 AD)
• Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)
• Proclus
  Proclus
  
  Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek philosophy Neoplatonist philosophy, one of the last major Classical philosophers ....
   (411-485 AD)
• Philoponus of Alexandria
  John Philoponus
  
  John Philoponus , also known as John Grammarian of Alexandria, was a Christian and commentaries on Aristotle and the author of a considerable number of philosophical treatises and theological works....
   (490-570 AD)
• Damascius
  Damascius
  
  Damascius , known as "the last of the Neoplatonism," was the last scholarch of the School of Athens. He was one of the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Sassanid empire court, before being allowed back into the Byzantine empire....
   (462-540 AD)
• Boethius
  Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
  
  Anicius Manlius Severinus Bo?thius was a Christian or pagan philosopher of the 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many Roman consul....
   (472-524 AD)
• Simplicius of Cilicia
  Simplicius of Cilicia
  
  Simplicius of Cilicia, lived c. 490-c. 560 AD, was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonism. He was one of the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Sassanid empire court, before being allowed back into the Byzantin...
   (490-560 AD)

Indian philosophy

Vedic philosophy

• Vedas
  Vedas
  
  The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in History of India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu scripture of Hinduism....
  
• Upanishads
• Hindu philosophy
  Hindu philosophy
  
  Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
  

Sramana Philosophy

Classical Indian philosophy

• What is the ontological nature of consciousness?
• How is cognition itself experienced?
• Is mind (chit) intentional or not?
• Does cognition have its own structure?

• Nyaya
  Nyaya
  
  is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic. The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on texts known as the Nyaya Sutras, which were written by Aksapada Gautama from around the 2nd century AD....
  
• Vaisheshika
  Vaisheshika
  
  'Vaisheshika', or , is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
  
• Samkhya
  Samkhya
  
  Sankhya, also Samkhya, is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible....
  
• Yoga
  Yoga
  
  Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in both Buddhism and Hinduism....
  
• Mimamsa
  Mimamsa
  
  , a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation" , is the name of an astika school of Hindu philosophy whose primary enquiry is into the nature of dharma based on close hermeneutics of the Vedas....
   (Purva Mimamsa)
• Vedanta
  Vedanta
  
  Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman....
   (Uttara Mimamsa)

• Hindu philosophy
  Hindu philosophy
  
  Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
  
• Buddhist philosophy
  Buddhist philosophy
  
  Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, Phenomenology , ethics, and epistemology.The Buddha rejected certain precepts of Indian philosophy that were prominent during his lifetime....
  
• Jain philosophy
• Sikh
  Sikhism
  
  Sikhism , founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak and ten successive Sikh Gurus in fifteenth century Punjab region, is the Major religious groups organized religion in the world....
   philosophy
• Carvaka
  Carvaka
  
  ' is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. It is also known as '....
   (atheist) philosophy

Ancient Indian philosophers

• Asanga
  Asanga
  
  Asa?ga , , was an exponent of the yogacara school of Buddhist philosophy. Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the founders of this school....
   (c. 300), exponent of the Yogacara
  Yogacara
  
  Yogacara The orientation of the Yogacara school is largely consistent with the thinking of the Pali Nikayas. It frequently treats later developments in a way that realigns them earlier versions of Buddhist doctrines....
  
• Bhartrihari (c 450–510 AD), early figure in Indic linguistic theory
• Bodhidharma
  Bodhidharma
  
  Bodhidharma was the Buddhism Bhikkhu traditionally credited as the transmitter of Zen to China. Very little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend, but most accounts agree that he was a South Indian Pallava prince-turned-monk who journeyed to Southern China and subse...
   (c. 440–528 AD), founder of the Zen
  Zen
  
  Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Ch?n. Ch?n is itself derived from the Sanskrit Dhyana, which means "meditation" ....
   school of Buddhism
  Buddhism
  
  Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
  
• Chanakya
  Chanakya
  
  Chanakya was an adviser and a prime minister to the first Maurya Empire Emperor Chandragupta Maurya , and architect of his rise to power. Kautilya and Vishnugupta, the names by which the ancient Indian political treatise called the Arthasastra identifies its author, are traditionally identified with Chanakya....
   (c.350 - c.275 BC) , author of Arthashastra
  Arthashastra
  
  The Arthashastra is an ancient Indian treatise on Public administration, economics policy and military strategy which identifies its author by the names Kautilya and , who are traditionally identified with Chanakya , who was a professor at Taxila and later the prime minister of the Maurya Empire....
  , professor (acharya
  Acharya
  
  In Indian religions and society, an acharya is a guide or instructor in religious matters; founder, or leader of a sect; or a title affixed to the names of learned men....
  ) of political science at the Takshashila University
• Dignaga
  Dignaga
  
  Dignaga was an Indian scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian logic.He was born into a Brahmin family in Simhavakta near Kanchi , and very little is known of his early years, except that he took as his spiritual preceptor Nagadatta of the Vatsiputriya school....
   (c. 500), one of the founders of Buddhist school of Indian logic
  Indian logic
  
  The development of Indian logic can be said to date back to the anviksiki of Medhatithi Gautama ; the Vyakarana rules of Pa?ini ; the Vaisheshika school's analysis of atomism ; the analysis of inference by Nyaya Sutras , founder of the Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy; and the tetralemma of Nagarjuna ....
  .
• Gautama Buddha
  Gautama Buddha
  
  Siddhartha Gautama was a Spirituality teacher in the northern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is generally seen by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddhahood of our age....
   (563 BC - 483 BC), founder of Buddhist school of thought
• Gotama
  Gotama
  
  The Sanskrit name Gautama or Gautam may refer to:*Gautama Maharishi , one of the Saptarshis in Hinduism.*Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism....
   (c. 2nd–3rd century AD), wrote the Nyaya Sutras
  Nyaya Sutras
  
  The 'Nyaya Sutras' are an ancient Indian text on of philosophy composed by The sutras contain five chapters, each with two sections. The core of the text dates to roughly the 2nd century AD, although there are significant later interpolations....
  , considered to be the foundation of the Nyaya
  Nyaya
  
  is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic. The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on texts known as the Nyaya Sutras, which were written by Aksapada Gautama from around the 2nd century AD....
   school.
• Haribhadra
  Haribhadra
  
  Haribhadra Suri was a Svetambara mendicant Jainism leader and author....
   (8th Century CE) , a Jaina thinker, author and great proponent of anekantavada
  Anekantavada
  
  is one of the most important and fundamental doctrines of Jainism. It refers to the principles of Pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints, the notion that truth and reality are perceived differently from diverse points of view, and that no single point of view is the complete truth....
   and classical yoga, as a soteriological system of meditation in Jaina context. His works include and Yogabindu.
• Hemacandra (1089–1172 CE) - a Jaina thinker, author, historian, grammarian and logician. His works include Yogasastra and Trishashthishalakapurushacharitra.
• Jaimini, author of Purva Mimamsa Sutras
  Purva Mimamsa Sutras
  
  Purva Mimamsa Sutras or Mimamsa Sutras, written by Rishi Jaimini is one of the most important ancient Hindu philosophical texts. It forms the basis of Mimamsa, the earliest of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy....
  
• Kanada
  Kanada
  
  It has been claimed that Kanada was a Hindu sage who founded the philosophy school of Vaisheshika. . He talked of Dvyanuka and tryanuka He probably lived around 600 BCE according to some accounts....
   (c. 600 BC), founded the philosophical school of Vaisheshika
  Vaisheshika
  
  'Vaisheshika', or , is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
  , gave theory of atomism
  Atomism
  
  In natural philosophy, atomism is the philosophical theses that was theoryzed by Leucippus in the fifth century BC. For it all the objects in the universe are composed of very small, indestructible building blocks ? atoms ....
  
• Kapila (c. 500 BC), proponent of the Samkhya
  Samkhya
  
  Sankhya, also Samkhya, is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible....
   system of philosophy
• Kundakunda
  Kundakunda
  
  Kundakunda is a celebrated Jainism Acharya, Jain scholar monk, 2nd century CE, composer of spiritual classics such as: Samayasara, Niyamasara, Pancastikayasara, Pravacanasara, Atthapahuda and Barasanuvekkha....
   (2nd Century CE), exponent of Jain mysticism and Jain nayas
  Anekantavada
  
  is one of the most important and fundamental doctrines of Jainism. It refers to the principles of Pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints, the notion that truth and reality are perceived differently from diverse points of view, and that no single point of view is the complete truth....
   dealing with the nature of the soul and its contamination by matter, author of Pañcastikayasara
  Pancastikayasara
  
  Pa?castikayasara, or the essence of reality, is a Digambara text by Kundakunda is part of his trilogy, known as the prahbrta-traya or the nataka-traya....
   (Essence of the Five Existents), the Pravacanasara (Essence of the Scripture) and the Samayasara (Essence of the Doctrine)
• Lonka
  Sthanakvasi
  
  Sthanakvasi is a sect of Jainism originally founded by a merchant named Lavaji about 1653 CE that believes that God is 'nirakar' and hence do not pray to any statue....
   (15th Century CE) – His opposition to idol worship and rituals eventually led to establishment of non-iconic sects of Sthanakvasi
  Sthanakvasi
  
  Sthanakvasi is a sect of Jainism originally founded by a merchant named Lavaji about 1653 CE that believes that God is 'nirakar' and hence do not pray to any statue....
   and Terapanthi.
• Nagarjuna
  Nagarjuna
  
  File:Nagarjuna at Samye Ling Monastery.JPGFile:Nagarjuna.JPGAcharya Nagarjuna was an Indian philosophy and the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism....
   (c. 150 - 250 AD), the founder of the Madhyamaka
  Madhyamaka
  
  Madhyamaka is a Buddhist Mahayana tradition systematized by Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of Gautama Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the Nikayas....
   (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism.
• Panini (520–460 BC), grammarian, author of Ashtadhyayi
• Patañjali
  Patañjali
  
  Pata?jali is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice, and also the author of the Mahabha?ya, a major commentary on Panini Ashtadhyayi....
   (between 200 BC and 400 AD), developed the philosophy of Raja Yoga
  Raja Yoga
  
  Raja Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Raja yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve moksha....
   in his Yoga Sutras.
• Pingala
  Pingala
  
  Pingala was an Ancient Indian writer, famous for his work, the Chandas Shastra , a Sanskrit treatise on prosody considered one of the Vedanga....
   (c. 500 BC), author of the Chandas shastra
• Adi Shankara
  Adi Shankara
  
  Adi Shankara ; , also known as ' and ', was an Indian philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, the most influential sub-school of Vedanta....
   (788-820 AD), the first philosopher to consolidate the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta
  Advaita Vedanta
  
  Advaita is more often than not deviantly interpreted as monism/monistic system of thought. Advaita Vedanta is a sub-school of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy....
  , a sub-school of Vedanta
  Vedanta
  
  Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman....
  
• Siddhasena Divakara
  Siddhasen Diwakar
  
  Siddhasen Diwakar was a highly intelligent Jain acharya of his time. Siddhasen could study the scriptures and realize their truth in a short time....
   (5th Century CE), Jain logician and author of important works in Sanskrit and Prakrit, such as, Nyayavatara (on Logic) and Sanmatisutra (dealing with the seven Jaina standpoints, knowledge and the objects of knowledge)
• Syntipas
  Syntipas
  
  Syntipas was an History of India Indian philosophy and Indian literature supposed to have lived around 100 BC, and the reputed author of a collection of tales known generally in Europe as Seven Wise Masters....
   (c. 100 BC), author of The Story of the Seven Wise Masters.
• Tiruvalluvar
  Tiruvalluvar
  
  Thiruvalluvar was a celebrated Tamil language poet who wrote the Thirukkural, a work on ethics in Tamil literature. He is claimed by both the Tamils who practice Hinduism and the Tamils who practice Jainism as their own....
   (between 100 BC and 300 AD), author of Thirukkural, one of the greatest ethical works in Tamil language
  Tamil language
  
  Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has Official language in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore....
  
• Umasvati or Umasvami (2nd Century CE), author of first Jain work in Sanskrit, Tattvarthasutra
  Tattvartha Sutra
  
  Tattvartha Sutra is a Jaina text written by Acharya Umaswati or Umasvami. It was an attempt to bring together the different elements of the Jain Path, epistemological, metaphysical, cosmological, ethical and practical, otherwise unorganized around the scriptures in an unsystematic format....
  , expounding the Jain philosophy
  Jain philosophy
  
  Jain philosophy deals extensively with the problems of metaphysics, reality, cosmology, ontology, epistemology and divinity. Jainism is essentially a transtheistic religion of ancient India....
   in a most systematized form acceptable to all sects of Jainism.
• Vasubandhu
  Vasubandhu
  
  Vasubandhu was, according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition, an Indian Buddhist scholar-monk, and along with his half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogacara school....
   (c. 300 AD), one of the main founders of the Indian Yogacara
  Yogacara
  
  Yogacara The orientation of the Yogacara school is largely consistent with the thinking of the Pali Nikayas. It frequently treats later developments in a way that realigns them earlier versions of Buddhist doctrines....
   school.
• Vyasa
  Vyasa
  
  Vyasa is a central and revered figure in the majority of Hinduism traditions. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyasa , or Krishna Dvaipayana ....
  , author of several important works in Hindu philosophy
  Hindu philosophy
  
  Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
  
• Yajnavalkya
  Yajnavalkya
  
  Sage Yajnavalkya of Mithila was a legendary rishi of Vedic India, credited with the authorship of the Shatapatha Brahmana , besides Yogayajnavalkya Samhita and the Yaj?avalkya Sm?ti....
   (c. 800 BC), linked to philosophical teachings of the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, and the apophatic teaching of 'neti neti
  Neti neti
  
  In Hinduism, and in particular Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, neti neti is a chant or mantra, meaning "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that" ....
  ' etc.
• Yasovijaya (1624–88 CE) – Jain logician and considered last intellectual giant to contribute to Jaina philosophy.

Old Iranian philosophy

• Zoroastrianism
  Zoroastrianism
  
  Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e., the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority....
  
• Zarathustra
• Avesta
  Avesta
  
  The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language....
  
• Gathas
  Gathas
  
  The Gathas are 17 hymns believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. They are the most sacred texts of the Zoroastrianism faith....
  
• Mazdakism
• Manichaeism
  Manichaeism
  
  Manichaeism was one of the major Iranian Gnosticism religions, originating in Sassanid Persia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived....
  

Chinese philosophy

External links