Zeno of EleaInfluenced by: Parmenides

Influenced: Plato, Aristotle

~490 – 430BC

ItalyAncient

Key Works & Ideas:• He said that reality was simple and

unchanging• Famous for his paradoxes, many of which

were discussed for centuries after his death• The arrow – if time is a series of points on a

line and an arrow travels along that line, what can be said about its movement in an instant? It can’t move in an instant as an instant has no duration, therefore it must be at rest…so is it moving at all?

• Achilles and the tortoise – Achilles gives the tortoise a 10 m start, by the time he reaches the 10 m, the tortoise will have moved on a little, by the time he reaches the second spot, the tortoise will have moved on, and so on infinitum. So Achilles can never catch the tortoise.

The reason we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may hear more

and speak less

Key personal characteristics:• All reports of the resistance

against Elea say he was courageous even though stories are different, even whether he met his death or not

Summary: Was interested in time, motion, space and change which he said were all in the mind.

All things are parts of one single system, which is

called Nature; the individual life is good

when it is in harmony with Nature

Life History• Very little known about him, only

fragments of his work survive. Most of what is known is through Plato and Aristotle.

• Visited Athens – Plato said he met Socrates but this is not thought to be true

• When he returned home one report says he smuggled weapons to rebels who wanted to oppose the tyrant ruling Elea (where he was born)

PythagorasInfluenced by:

Anaximander, ThalesInfluenced: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and later, Galileo

~ 580 - 500 BC

GreeceAncient

Key Works & Ideas:• Pythagoras's Theorem – formula to

calculate the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle form the length of its sides, a2 + b2 = c2

• Helped show that music had a mathematical structure i.e. different length of strings produce notes with precise ratios that match intervals of the music scale

• Is credited with discovering that the evening and morning star was the same heavenly body i.e. Venus

As long as man continues to be the

ruthless destroyer of lower beings he will

never know health or peace. For as long as

men massacre animals, they will kill each other.

Summary: One of the earliest known Greek philosophers. Showed how reality could be explained by numbers such as in music, mathematics and science

The soul of man is divided into three parts,

intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and

passion are possessed by other animals, but reason

by man alone

Life History• Fled Samos to live in Italy where

he founded a religious sect with strict diet (vegetarian and no beans!)

• No written works survive

Criticism• Many of his followers took the

ideas of numbers explaining everything too far and developed a kind of numbers-mysticism that blocked the truth to many unexplained phenomenon at the time, such as the orbit of heavenly bodies.

SocratesInfluenced by:

PythagorasInfluenced: Plato (his

student, who called him the best of all men I

have ever known) and many that came after

him

~ 470 – 399 BC

GreeceAncientKey Works & Ideas:

• Would strike up a dialogue with someone and ask them questions such as ‘what is piety? what is justice? what is courage?’ and would then analyse their response.

• Elenchus – his technique of raising a topic for discussion, challenging the responses of others until they contradicted themselves. Like a cross examination. Became known as the Socratic Method.

• Debates never really concluded and Socrates views not clear.

• He featured in Plato’s dialogues which are used as a key source of his ideas. 3 striking examples are Apology (Socrates response to his charge), Crito (Socrates ethical views discussed with his friend Crito)and Phaedo (an emotional account of his final hours)

• One of his viewpoints that no-one does wrong voluntarily or deliberately became known as The Socratic Paradox.

The only thing I know is that I don’t know anything

Key personal characteristics:• Was thought to be good

humoured with a passion for knowledge and drink

• Loved a public debate• Loved challenging people on

their ideas• Seemed more satisfied with the

act of examining than the outcomes of the examination

Summary: Established the importance of argumentation.

I am the gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all

places am always fastening upon you,

arousing and persuading and reproaching you

(from Plato’s dialgoues)

Life History• Didn’t write things down, if he did,

nothing survived• Father a sculptor, mother a mid-wife• Started life as a sculptor, fought in

Athenian wars, took part in running the city

• Tried and sentenced to death for ‘corrupting the youth’ and ‘not believing in the city Gods.’

• Could have fled but chose to die. After drinking the lethal poison hemlock he continued with a philosophical debate.

• Died in poverty.Criticism

• Athenian authority critical of his continual questioning

PlatoInfluenced by:

Socrates (his teacher) Influenced: Aristotle (his student)

~427 – 347 BC

GreeceAncientKey Works & Ideas:

• Epistemology: We cannot have genuine knowledge of the temporary and changing world of our everyday lives e.g. When does green cease to be green (when in the dark, when faded? What makes a dog a dog? Is a bald dog that loses a leg and a tail still a dog?). We can have true beliefs which are useful to use. Genuiune knowledge is recollected from a previous incarnation which a teacher helps us remember. Said we forget knowledge during the trauma of birth.

• Metaphysics: Theory of Ideal Forms – said there are unchanging, ideal entities of which other things are merely shadowy copies. I.e. there is an ideal colour green and an ideal dog

• Politics: Republic - his greatest work. Main theme is that the ideal state is ruled over by a philosopher king as he would be most able to achieve true knowledge and wisdom. Did not believe in democracy, instead argued for an “aristocracy of merit,” that could be ruled by the best and the wisest people.

• Thought that most ideas were innate• Platonic relationships are ones that are

based on intellectual exchanges.• Meno deals with virtue and knowledge.• Used metaphor such as in Myth of the Cave.

Key personal characteristics:• Almost all his writings in

dialogue form• Paid homage to his mentor

Socrates by writing him in to his philosophical dialogues where Socrates seldom met his match

Summary: Recognised as the father of Western Philosophy by some, his well preserved writing remain amongst the most interesting, rich, subtle, broad and beautiful in philosophy and will probably still be read in another 2,000 yrs.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or

of humanity itself till philosophers become

kings in this world, or till those we now call kings

and rulers really and truly become philosophers.

Life History• Very little know about his life but his

works remarkably well preserved.• ‘Plato’ a nickname meaning ‘the broad

one’ a reference to his shoulders! • Real name was Aristolces.• From an aristocratic family.• ?father died when he was young• Left Greece for over 10 yrs when

Socrates was executed.• When he returned he started a school

called the Academy that stayed open for over 900 years. Closed by Roman Emperor Justinian for being pagan.

• Some reports say Academy could have been his house where he took pupils (rather than a Uni.)

AristotleInfluenced by: Plato (was Plato’s student), Pythagoras, Socrates

Influenced: everyone who came after him including Arab philosophers

384 – 322 BC

GreeceAncientKey Works & Ideas:

• Suggested that the pursuit of knowledge can be divided into 2 groups, Natural Philosophy (now called Science) and Metaphysics (now called philosophy)

• Insisted on data collection and true experimentation – Empirical enquiry – as a kind of scientific method.

• Examined hundreds of species of animals, designed classification system for animals that is similar to the one used today.

• Thought observation and reason was important to find truth.

• Famous works; Nichomachean Ethics (important treaty on morality), Politics (discussed the ideal state), Physics (matter, form, space, time.)

• Doctrine of the Mean explained that things existed because they had a function. Mans function was to reason. A virtuous human is one that behaves well by avoiding excess and inappropriate moderation when responding to what comforts them.

• Not a great deal of his work exists, possibly some draft lecture notes that many others have edited.

• Formalized the rules of reasoning.• Devised 4 questions of nature: What is it made of?

What is it? What brought it into being? What is it for?

Come, let us get on with the inquiry.

Summary: Worked in logic, poetry, metaphysics, politics, ethics, biology and psychology (memory & dreams). First to promote ‘scientific’ approach to finding new knowledge by using experimentation, observation and gathering data.

A likely possibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

Life History• Father was court physician

who died when Aristotle was young.

• Was educated by a guardian who sent him to Athens to study.

• Entered Plato’s Academy where he stayed for 20 years both as student and then as a teacher.

• Left Athens when Plato died and travelled for a few years. Not known if he left through loyalty to Plato or in disgust for not being ask to run Academy.

• While away from Athens he tutored a young boy who would later become Alexander the Great.

• Later returned to start his own school called the Lyceum which , like Plato’s Academy taught using discussion instead of blind acceptance of teachers views.

• Taught there for 13 years before returning to home town where he died the year after returning.

St AugustineInfluenced by: Plato Influenced:354 - 430

AlgeriaMedieval

Key Works & Ideas:• Man is corrupt through and through due to

inheriting original sin and cannot complain if we go to eternal hell because we deserve it. Only a chosen few will go to heaven but no-one can do anything to earn a place in heaven.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Significant father of the Christian church, known as a theocrat

What is time? If no one asks me, I know: if they ask and I try to explain, I

do not know.

Life History• Early life as a scholar, his family

making financial sacrifices to keep him at school.

• Moved to Rome and then to Milan• Baptized in 387• 391 became a priest• 396 became a Bishop of Hippo• Died in a seize of Hippo

Criticism• Russell notes that cruelty

and superstition was at its greatest in the history of humanity and questions the influence of Augustine and his intellectual equals of the time

Roger BaconInfluenced by:

Aristotle, AugustineInfluenced: experimental science

1214 - 1292

EnglandMedieval

Key Works & Ideas:• Was interested in discussing

primary vision, perception, as a way of observing in order to gain knowledge.

• Argued for the use of mathematics in science to give science clarity and because mathematics is innate – a priori knowledge – so can be used to build science understanding.

• Was credited with inventing gunpowder and spectacles but may have simply expanded on Arabic knowledge and use of these.

• Works include Opus Maius, Opus Minus Opus Tertius, Compedium of Philosophy.

Key personal characteristics:• Believed in empirical science

but was also swayed by myths, common tales about him tell of his magical powers.

• Was very well read in Arab philosophy where he probably enhanced his knowledge of gunpowder and lenses

Summary: First great Oxford philosopher. Probably could have been more influential if he hadn’t had personal issues with the church but certainly helped develop epistemological philosophy and empirical science.

…experimental science is the mistress of the

speculative sciences, it alone gives us important

truths…which those sciences can learn in no

other way…

Life History• Not much is known of early life, family was

wealthy but lost land in war, was educated at Oxford then went to Paris to take a second degree and teach.

• Taught Socrates when his work was banned.• On return to England joined the Franciscan

monks where he interest in science grew. He taught there for a while but after a dispute was forbidden to publish his work and ended up under house arrest back in Paris.

• Wrote while in Paris and was later allowed to return to Oxford.

Criticism• Franciscan order were upset at his attitude

towards religion and some of his mythological beliefs such as the Philosophers Stone.

William of OckhamInfluenced by:

AristotleInfluenced: Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume

1285 - 1359

EnglandMedieval

Key Works & Ideas:• Ockham’s Razor is the idea that the

simplest explanation for something is probably the most likely.

• Promoted Nominalism, which denies the existence of universals. This means he believed that only individual things existed and that any groups they were put in was an abstract concept. For example, bananas and apples existed, but not fruit. ‘Fruit’ does not exist because ‘fruit’ is simply a name and has no real meaning.

Only individuals exist

Key personal characteristics:

Summary:

Life History• Became a Franciscan monk before

going to study at Oxford and Paris but failed to gain his qualifications to teach due to begin outspoken about the church.

• A Franciscan minister who came to investigate his case and ended up sided with him. They escaped together to Pisa in Italy.

• From here travelled to Munchen where he wrote philosophy and papers supporting the separation of the church and state.

Criticism• Was accused by church of ‘erroneous

teaching’ and later disputed the church. • The realists said that universals are

necessary to understand the world

Niccolò MachiavelliInfluenced by:

AristotleInfluenced: Hobbs1469 - 1527

ItalyEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• In The Prince he shows how leaders have to

learn not to be good and put aside moral considerations to rule effectively. Did not believe in cruelty for cruelty sake though.

• Wanted Italy united • If someone is said to be Machiavellian they

would be thought to be lacking in moral sensibility and not suitable for a position of authority such as in Government.

Successful political leaders need to posses

the strength of a lion and the cunning of a fox.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Promoted the birth of Political Science by considering the efficiency of government.

‘…a prince…cannot observe all those things that are good in men,

being obliged, in order to maintain the state, to act

against faith, against charity, against

humanity…’Life History

• Little known of his early life• Well educated like his father who

was a scholar• Political career involved a position

of secretary to the council responsible for Florence’s military and diplomatic activities.

• When leadership changed in Florence he was accused of plotting against it and tortured and put in jail.

• When released he wrote The Prince, which was published 7 years after his death to popular acclaim.

Criticism• Was accused of being an

amoralist with no concern as to whether leaders behave morally or not.

i

Sir Francis BaconInfluenced by: Plato Influenced: Hobbs,

Hume, Locke1561 - 1626

EnglandModern

Key Works & Ideas:• Although he had a political career,

philosophically he was mostly interested in science.

• In the New Organon (unfinished) he published his ideas about how the process of science should build our knowledge by collecting data from experiments. He wrote about how to carry out correct scientific procedure.

• He was an Empiricist that used Inductive Logic to build knowledge

• His four idols were false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. Idols of the Tribe relate to the uncritical way way we accept information from our senses; Idols of the Den /Cave are the false notions particular to an individual and come from their education and upbringing; Idols of the Marketplace come from the misuse of language and social interaction; and Idols of the Theatre from the abuse of authority.

• He spoke about a cooperative scientific research institution that lay foundation for the Royal Society that was established 100 years later.

Science is for teams in laboratories, not

individuals in armchairs

Key personal characteristics:• Highly intelligent• Precocious• Ambitious

Summary: An empiricist who introduced scientific method and inductive reasoning after rejecting earlier Greek models of scientific inquiry.

Knowledge is power

Life History• Youngest child in a powerful and well

educated family. Both parents lives were independently linked to Royal circles

• Educated at home until he entered Cambridge University at the age of 12.

• When his father died when he was 18 he was forced to work and finished his legal studies before becoming a lawyer and then an MP at 23. Argued against the Queen Elizabeth’s tax policy so did not reach high office.

• When James 1 came to the throne, he rose rapidly through the ranks to Lord Chancellor.

• Spent his final years writing and conducting science experiments.

• Died from bronchitis after stuffing a dead chicken with snow to try to preserve it.

Criticism• At 60 he was arrested for accepting

bribes so was fined , imprisoned and banned from public office.

Thomas HobbsInfluenced by:

Aristotle, Machiavelli, Francis Bacon,

Galileo

Influenced: Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz,

Rousseau, Mill, Marx, Rawls

1588 - 1679

EnglandEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• His masterwork Leviathn has a very

pessimistic view of human nature which he called the state of nature

• In the State of Nature nothing curbs a persons absolute freedom – everyone has absolute liberty, therefore conflicts and crime are inevitable due to no desire to cooperate. People fear each other and there is no order, only chaos. It is not a state that once existed, but a constant state one needs to move away from

• The Social Contract Theory of the State describes a situation where people give up absolute freedom of the State of Nature to be content with as much liberty as they would allow others to have towards them. Therefore those that want to avoid a State of Nature sign up for a social contract which transfers absolute freedom from the individual to a group that aims for security for all.

• Was also interested in language and said that many problems of communication arose from the mis-use of language.

We agree to be ruled over in return for protection

against each other

Key personal characteristics:• Seemed to have the habit of

rubbing people up the wrong way by objecting to their idea and making false claims

Summary: An Empiricist that used inductive logic and believed in social contracts. Has been called the father of modern analytical philosophy.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.

Life History• Vicars son, educated at oxford.

Travelled Europe with his pupil where he met Galileo and Descartes.

• Worked with Francis Bacon and Charles 11

Criticism• Locke warned of the choice of

who wielded the power i.e. don’t defend your self from foxes with lions

René DescartesInfluenced by: Plato,

Aristotle, Ockham, Galileo

Influenced: Everyone who came after him.

1596 - 1650

FranceEarly ModernKey Works & Ideas:

• Meditations on First Philosophy describe his ideas on radical doubt with only one thing being certain – that is, because he is doubting everything he must exist . This led to his famous: Cogito ergo sum

• Cartesian dualism established that the mind is different to the body, but could not provide a reasonable explanation as to how they might interact.

• Thought that much knowledge (such as that of God) was innate

• Published The World which was a scientific treatise on astronomy, geometry, mathematics, optics, meteorology

• Four rules for rational enquiry; 1) accept nothing as true unless it is so clearly and distinctly presented there is no reason to doubt it, 2) break problems down into as many smaller problems as possible, 3) begin with what is most simply and easily understood and build on this to larger issues, 4) review entire chain of thinking so ensure nothing is omitted.

Nowhere in the world was there any knowledge

professed of the kind I had been encouraged to

expect.

Key personal characteristics:• Was a mathematical prodigy• Was deeply concerned with

the debate between the churc h and science over whether the Earth moved and what the planets were doing

Summary: A scientist and mathematician who described one of the most famous arguments in philosophy, that is our senses can be deceived to the point where we actually don’t know what is real or true.

I am thinking, therefore, I exist

Life History• Started studies in law but ended

up in a Military career. • Spent most of his life in the

Netherlands studying and writing philosophy.

• In his mid-fifties was invited to Sweden by the Queen. He wasn’t there long before he died.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Benedict/Baruch SpinozaInfluenced by: Influenced: Leibniz (also

believed our ignorance of ultimate reality precludued us from seeing true evil)

1632 - 1677

NetherlandsEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• Ethica describes a reality that is conceived and

controlled by one entity whether it be God or Nature that determines what happens so there is no free will. His belief in determinism was absolute as he says we are not aware we do not have free will even though we might be aware of what we are doing.

• Built his theories in his work on Ethics by examining definitions.

• Said we should strive to see reality from the perspective of eternity – this can be helpful when suffering i.e. to see our place in the whole and beyond our own misery.

• There is no absolute good or bad. Behaviour is relative to the endeavors & conceptions of various individuals. If viewed from God’s perspective there is no evil in sin due to there being a total perspective which the individual does not have.

• Believed human’s task was to see thing from the point of view of eternity so that we see our small place in a larger world and therefore free ourselves from our personal passions.

• Said the miracles in the bible were natural phenomenon misunderstood by the books writers.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does

not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

Key personal characteristics:• Reasonable and courteous

Summary: Ethica considered one of the greatest philosophical works. He made room for religious freedom. Was more famous when alive for his metaphysics than his ethics.

Men are deceived in they think themselves free, an

opinion which consists only in this, that they are conscious of their actions

and ignorant of the causes by which they are

determined

Life History• Was rejected from the

orthodox Jewish community in Amsterdam for his writings.

• Tutored influential men, worked a lens grinder.

• Suffered from Tuberculosis.• Died calmly and without

complaint.CriticismEthics difficult to read. Russell suggests reading the comments in the margins are more informative to understanding his ideas.

John LockeInfluenced by:

Aristotle, DescartesInfluenced: Hume, Berkeley, Kant

1632 - 1704

EnglandEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• In his Essay Concerning Human

Understanding he spoke against innate understanding saying that we are all blank slates (tabula rasa) which are then written on by experience. Said there was no evidence of innate ideas.

• His idea of primary and secondary properties of objects states that the primary properties cannot be separated from the object, such as its state, figure, bulk, motion. Secondary properties are the ones that produce sensations such as taste, sound, smell, touch. i.e. the shape of a lemon tells us about the world, but not its taste.

• States that ideas are simple and complex. Simple ideas cannot be broken down into other ideas and are a single conception in the mind. Complex ideas are composed of the shifting and sorting of simple ideas.

Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.

Summary: An empiricist saying that all knowledge comes from experience and interactions with the world so that we are born with a mind that is a ‘blank slate’

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any

other reason but because they are not already

common.

Life History• Home schooled until he was 14 then

went to Westminster University and then on to Oxford where he stayed for 30 years.

• In 1667 moved to London where he first became physician to Lord Ashley and then general advisor.

• As Ashley moved up in rank Locke took on more responsibility. Began writing political documents.

• Fled to the court of James 2 in Holland when his patron Earl of Shaftesbury was tried of treason. Was 10 years in exile.

• By the end of his life was back in the British courts writing on a broard range of topics from education, philosophy, politics, and religion.

Criticism• Evolutionary psychology &

sociobiology show that some behaviours/knowledge is innate (particularly those related to survival)

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of

knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read

ours.

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.

George BerkeleyInfluenced by: Locke Influenced: Hume1685 - 1753

Ireland/EnglandEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• As an immaterialist /idealist he believed that

we see is not the world itself but a representation of it

• Put one hand in hot and the other in cold water and then both hands in luke warm water. It will seem hot to one hand and cold to the other but cannot be both.

• He denied the existence of objects without human perception. Said that something still existed out of sight only because it was perceived by God.

• His Principles of Human Knowledge presented many of his argument.

• Distinguished between minds and ideas.• Said that all objects of human knowledge are

ideas through immediate experience such as; taste of food, cool of ice, visual stimulus of trees out the window, or ideas we have of our emotional states through imagination and memory, such as the taste of a lemon can exist only by remembering it.

Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about

liberty, and make an outward pretence to it;

but the free-thinker alone is truly free.

Key personal characteristics:Easy going and engaging personality

Summary: An empiricist and immaterialist/idelaist who believed that things only existed through being perceived

Many things, for aught I know, may exist,

whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.

Life History• Born in Kilkenny and educated in

Trinity College Dublin.• Was later welcomed into

intellectual life in London.• Travelled around Europe later in

life before returning to Ireland to become Dean of Derry.

Criticism:• Locke said that heat and cold

are examples of secondary qualities which are mind-dependent and we should not ignore the primary qualities that exist outside the mind.

• Most did not believe Berkeley’s idea that material objects only existed through our perception as the world goes on even when we take our eyes off it.

David HumeInfluenced by: Locke,

BerkelyInfluenced: Thomas Reid, Kant

1711 - 1776

ScotlandEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• Rejects the idea of personal identity and believes

that we change over time. Has no evidence that any part of our self endures in order to define who we are, even though we may have perceptions of enduring identity.

• Didn’t believe in causal relationships, just because something happens 100 times doesn’t mean we should expect it to happen 101 times.

• Many of his writings need to understand 3 distinctions; 1) impressions (something that happens in real time during an experience) and ideas, (copies of impressions in memory of them), 2) Simple ideas (can’t be broken down and formed from impressions) and complex ideas (made up of simple ideas and don’t necessarily need impressions ,3) Facts and Ideas. Ideas can come into being by thinking alone whereas facts need a truth from the world. From all this he concluded that reason has no hand in our beliefs of our self, the external world or inductive inference.

• On causality - because we have only limited sense experience we need to employ causal thinking. When we read about things we can say the ‘report’ is caused by the thing we are reading about.

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call

'thought

Summary: Greatest and most radical of modern Empiricists.

When men are most sure and arrogant they are

commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion

without that proper deliberation which alone

can secure them from the grossest absurdities

Life History• Born in Edinburgh into an

influential family on both sides.

• Studied at University of Edinburgh was pushed towards Law but loved philosophy, literature and history so took up self directed studies.

• After a nervous breakdown worked as a clerk for a while before being dismissed and recommencing his studies.

• Moved to France to write before returning to England. His writings were all ignored.

• Returned to France as assistant to England’s ambassador and became a popular social figure.

• The History of England was his most popular book in his day, many of his philosophical works published posthumously.

Criticism• People found him difficult to

understand h. Mostly other philosophers read him during his life. Was read more after his death.

Jean-Jacques RousseauInfluenced by: Hobbs Influenced:1712 - 1778

FrenchEarly ModernKey Works & Ideas:

• His most important work The Social Contract discusses how humans used to live peaceful solitary lives meeting their basic needs. When man decided to claim a piece of land as his own and enclose it, civilisation began. From this man had to justify and maintain his property which led to inequalities and moral depravity.

• Once people start to live in social groups their individual needs and freedoms are blocked unless they represent themselves as part of the groups Sovereign Body.

• His Discourse on the Science and Arts questioned whether their advancements had improved morals as the idea was that once we were comfortable through technology and the arts, we became decadent.

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in

chains.

Summary: An Enlightenment thinker that inspired the French revolution

Individual freedom is more important than state

institutions

Life History• Born in Geneva. • Father was watchmaker, mother

died when he was young. Was raised by his father until he was 10 when he was sent to a cousin due to his father fleeing at the threat of imprisonment after a fight. After 2 years went to live with an Uncle and then with Madame de Waren where he developed his thinking and a passion for music.

• Moved to Paris in 1742 where he developed a reputation in intellectual circles and wrote.

Criticism• People in a sovereign body do not

necessarily put aside their personal interests for the common good as common good is not always their political interests i.e. Hitler/tyranny of the majority.

• Was accused of being anti-enlightenment due to ideas in his Science and Arts discourse. (enlightenment says the best hope for humankind is the progress through science and arts out of superstition and myth.

Immanuel KantInfluenced by: Influenced:1724 - 1804

GermanEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• In Critique of Pure Reason he distinguished

between a noumenal world of things themselves which we cannot know and a phenomenal world of appearances that we can know something about by sorting and organising to find meaning.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Some consider him the greatest modern philosopher. Worked in ethics, metaphysics, aesthetics, free will and causality

Life History

Criticism:• Some philosophers find

the idea of a noumenal world that is out of our reach disturbing.

• Others point out that different minds will sort and organise the phenomenal world differently so the meaning

Georg HegelInfluenced by: Influenced:1770 - 1831

GermanyModern

Key Works & Ideas:• In The Phenomenology of Spirit he attempts

to map the unfolding of Being across history.• Described a system where a phenomenon

(thesis) has a contradictory element (antithesis) that provides conflict and must be resolved by movement to a new system (synthesis). The new system becomes the thesis with its own antithesis and so the cycle continues.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: considered the last of the great metaphysician

Life History

Criticism

Mary WoolstonecraftInfluenced by: the enlightenment view

Influenced:1759 - 1797

EnglandEarly Modern

Key Works & Ideas:• Believed that the artificial distinctions of rank

prevented the flourishing of human potential• In A Vindication of the Rights of Women

she argued that the docile role women were forced into affected the men as much as the women. If they were educated like men

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Considered the first feminist as she was a radical thinker and social reformer promoting the rights of women. Envisioned a new social order where person would be able to develop their own capabilities free from superstition and false authority.

Life History

Criticism

John Stuart MillInfluenced by: his wife Harriet (who shared his work)

Influenced:1806 - 1873

Austria

Key Works & Ideas:

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Famous first for his system of logic, then for moral philosophy then to politics

Life History• In the 1860s was briefly a

member of parliament and was involved in many radical causes such as women’s rights.

Criticism

George SantayanaInfluenced by:

Aristotle, SpinozaInfluenced:1863 - 1952

SpainModern

Key Works & Ideas:• In The sense of Beauty (1896) he

discusses why, when and how beauty appear, what conditions an object must fulfill to be beautiful, how our natures make us sensitive to beauty and how an object can capture our attention. Said that beauty is the pleasure of contemplating an object.

• Advocated that beauty does not have a negative aspect

• Was also a poet, novelist and literary critic.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Rejected European idealism for a naturalistic view of the world and the place of humankind in it.

Beauty is an emotional element, a pleasure of

ours, which nevertheless we regard as a quality of

things

Life History• Moved to the UA when he was 9 .• In 1912 resigned his Harvard

professorship and lived in Europe, mostly in hotels in Rome.

• Wrote and published only in English.

Criticism• By seeing beauty as

an experience he takes focus off the object

Karl MarxInfluenced by: Hegel Influenced:1818 - 1883

GermanyModern

Key Works & Ideas:• Believed that human nature naturally

cooperates their labour for a common good.• Adopted Hegel’s theory of the process of

historical development, but gave matter the main focus rather than spirit

Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted

the world in various ways; the point, however, is to

change it

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Inspired socialist revolutions in Russia and China.

Life History

Criticism

John DeweyInfluenced by: Influenced:1859 - 1952

USAModern

Key Works & Ideas:• Advocates that truth is what works. People

have socially sanctioned habit that allow them to live their lives. When habits break down (or new scientific data does not fit with scientific thinking) we have genuine doubt and have to reconcile the situation. We do this by isolating the significant problem, provide a number of hypotheses and then systematically test them. New beliefs must then be incorporated into the existing framework. All this requires sophisticated and flexible thought.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Empiricist. Very influential thinker who worked in pedagogy, philosophy of mind,  epistemology, logic, philosophy of science, social and political theory, ethics, aesthetics, and religion. Represented a no-nonsense naturalism

Since education is not a means to living, but is

identical with the operation of living a life

which is fruitful…the only ultimate value which can

be set up is just the process of living itself

Life History

Criticism

Bertrand RussellInfluenced by: Influenced:1872 - 1970

EnglandModern

Key Works & Ideas:• The Russell Paradox asks if the set of all sets

which doesn’t include themselves as members, include itself as a member? E.g. Mayors can live in the towns they work in (set 1), or not (set 2). If the Mayors that don’t live in the town they work in live together in a town, where should their Mayor live?

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Laid the foundations of modern logic. The most widely read British philosopher of the C20.

Most men would rather die than think. Many do.

Life History

Criticism

Ludwig WittgensteinInfluenced by:

Augustine, Leibniz, Kierkegaard, Frege & Bertrand Russell who

mentored him at Cambridge

Influenced: almost everyone that followed, particularly Popper

1889 - 1951

AustriaC20

Key Works & Ideas:• Tractatus Logico philosophicus• Language is a determinate system that can

be specified in precise logical terms• Picture Theory of Meaning states that we

use words to represent reality• A name is a linguistic unit standing for a

thing• For a while he thought it solved all the

problems of philosophy

• Philosophical Investigations• Language is a lived practice which can be

employed in an almost limitless number of contexts for a variety of different purposes

• Meaning is linked to the behaviour of language users and the context they use speech ie ‘I love you’

• We can use language to speculate, give orders, hypothesize, curse, story tell, joke tell, report.

• Questioned the idea of the possibility of a private language that only one person could use.

‘Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment

of our intelligence by means of language’

Key personal characteristics:• Analytical• Intense & demanding• Precise and exact

Summary: Interested in Maths, Language, Logic, Metaphysics, Epistemology. Believed that philosophical confusions resulted from the misuse of language so spent his time analysing language and its meaning. Not an academic – Russell called him a great intellect.

Philosophical problems arise when language goes

on holiday that is, when we mistake nonsense for

something meaningful

Life History• Last of 8 children, extreme wealth

as child, cultured home (Brahms visited), home schooled

• Considered becoming a monk but went to engineering school in Berlin instead

• Went on to study doctorate in Aeronautical engineering in UK

• Went to Norway to stay in a remote cabin to write Tractatus

• Enlisted in Army, ended up in POW camp in Italy where he pursued his interest in philosophy

• Gave his sibling his fortune and became a primary school teacher, a gardner , a hospital porter, a lab technician

• Went to Cambridge to further his study, became professor

Criticism

W.V.QuineInfluenced by: Rudolf Carnap (his mentor)

Influenced:1889 - 1951

Austria

Key Works & Ideas:

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: took the view that philosophy sould be pursued as part of natural science

Life History

Criticism

Richard HareInfluenced by: Influenced:1889 - 1951

Austria

Key Works & Ideas:

Key personal characteristics:

Summary:

Life History

Criticism

Sir Peter StrawsonInfluenced by: Kant Influenced:

Wittgenstein1919 - 2006

BritishModern

Key Works & Ideas:

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Metaphysics questions

Life History

Criticism

John RawlsInfluenced by: Influenced:1921 - 2002

Austria

Key Works & Ideas:• A Theory of Justice writetn in the 1970s was

a careful elaboration of an original approach to the problem of accommodating egalitarianism and liberalism.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary:

Life History

Criticism

Thomas KuhnInfluenced by: Influenced:1889 - 1951

Austria

Key Works & Ideas:

Key personal characteristics:

Summary:

Life History

Criticism

Sir Karl PopperInfluenced by: Influenced:1902 - 1994

Austria

Key Works & Ideas:

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: argued that a good scientific theory is open to falsification and a good society, social institution or government is open to change by people

Life History

Criticism

Peter SingerInfluenced by: Influenced:b1946

AustraliaModern

Key Works & Ideas:• The Ethics of Food

The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval.

Key personal characteristics:

Summary: Currently one of the worlds leading moral philosophers.

Life History

Criticism