Philosophers
Philosophers associated with metaphysics, ethics, logic, knowledge, and human meaning.
Muhammad Iqbal
Iqbal shaped modern Muslim thought with a call for dynamic faith, selfhood, and intellectual renewal.
- Birth
- 1877 CE
- Region
- South Asia
Ismail al-Faruqi
Al-Faruqi helped shape late twentieth-century discussions of worldview, knowledge, and Muslim education.
- Birth
- 1921 CE
- Region
- Palestine and North America
Al-Kindi
Al-Kindi is often called the philosopher of the Arabs for his early role in Arabic philosophy.
- Birth
- c. 801 CE
- Region
- Iraq
Al-Farabi
Al-Farabi became one of the most important philosophers in the Arabic tradition after Aristotle and Plato.
- Birth
- c. 872 CE
- Region
- Central Asia, Iraq, and Syria
Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina was a philosopher-physician whose metaphysics and medicine had enormous influence.
- Birth
- 980 CE
- Region
- Central Asia and Persia
Ibn Rushd
Ibn Rushd became a central figure in debates over reason, revelation, and the legacy of Aristotle.
- Birth
- 1126 CE
- Region
- Al-Andalus and Morocco
Al-Razi
Al-Razi is remembered as both a physician and a provocative philosopher of the Islamic golden age.
- Birth
- c. 865 CE
- Region
- Persia
Ibn Tufayl
Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan became a classic of philosophical storytelling.
- Birth
- c. 1105 CE
- Region
- Al-Andalus and Morocco
Suhrawardi
Suhrawardi offered a distinctive philosophy of illumination and became a major post-Avicennan voice.
- Birth
- 1154 CE
- Region
- Persia and Syria
Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra reshaped later Islamic philosophy with a synthesis of Avicennan, Illuminationist, and mystical thought.
- Birth
- c. 1571 CE
- Region
- Persia
Ibn Miskawayh
Ibn Miskawayh is a key figure in Islamic ethical philosophy and historical writing.
- Birth
- c. 932 CE
- Region
- Persia and Iraq
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Al-Tusi was a polymath whose work influenced both philosophical theology and mathematical astronomy.
- Birth
- 1201 CE
- Region
- Persia and Iraq
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine is one of the most influential theologians in Latin Christianity and Western philosophy.
- Birth
- 354 CE
- Region
- Roman North Africa
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas became a defining voice for Catholic theology and a major figure in philosophy of religion.
- Birth
- 1225 CE
- Region
- Medieval Europe
Maimonides
Maimonides is one of the most influential Jewish legal and philosophical thinkers.
- Birth
- 1138 CE
- Region
- Al-Andalus and Egypt
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara became one of the most influential Hindu philosophers and commentators.
- Birth
- c. 788 CE
- Region
- South Asia
Ramanuja
Ramanuja shaped Hindu philosophy by combining Vedanta reasoning with devotion to Vishnu.
- Birth
- 1017 CE
- Region
- South Asia
Madhva
Madhva gave Hindu Vedanta a strongly dualist interpretation centered on Vishnu.
- Birth
- 1238 CE
- Region
- South Asia
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna is one of the most important philosophers in Mahayana Buddhism.
- Birth
- c. 150 CE
- Region
- South Asia
Asanga
Asanga is a major Buddhist philosopher associated with the Yogacara school.
- Birth
- c. 4th century CE
- Region
- South Asia
Baron d'Holbach
D'Holbach made atheism and materialism public philosophical positions in eighteenth-century Europe.
- Birth
- 1723 CE
- Region
- Western Europe
Ludwig Feuerbach
Feuerbach reframed religious belief as human self-alienation and projection.
- Birth
- 1804 CE
- Region
- Central Europe
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche became a major critic of religion, morality, metaphysics, and modern culture.
- Birth
- 1844 CE
- Region
- Central Europe
Bertrand Russell
Russell connected technical philosophy with public criticism of religion and dogma.
- Birth
- 1872 CE
- Region
- Britain
Karl Marx
Marx influenced atheist and secular political thought through his critique of religion and social power.
- Birth
- 1818 CE
- Region
- Western Europe
John Locke
Locke became a major source for modern arguments about toleration and civil authority.
- Birth
- 1632 CE
- Region
- Britain
Pico della Mirandola
Pico became a symbol of Renaissance confidence in human possibility and learning.
- Birth
- 1463 CE
- Region
- Italy
Corliss Lamont
Lamont helped define secular humanism for twentieth-century American audiences.
- Birth
- 1902 CE
- Region
- North America
Paul Kurtz
Kurtz gave organized secular humanism a durable institutional and publishing base.
- Birth
- 1925 CE
- Region
- North America
Mary Wollstonecraft
Wollstonecraft is a foundational figure in modern feminist political thought.
- Birth
- 1759 CE
- Region
- Britain
Simone de Beauvoir
De Beauvoir's The Second Sex became one of the most influential works of modern feminism.
- Birth
- 1908 CE
- Region
- Western Europe
Johann Gottfried Herder
Herder gave nationalism a cultural and linguistic vocabulary before modern nation-states hardened it.
- Birth
- 1744 CE
- Region
- Central Europe
Adam Smith
Smith shaped liberal thinking about markets, social order, and moral life.
- Birth
- 1723 CE
- Region
- Britain
John Stuart Mill
Mill is one of the most important theorists of modern liberal liberty.
- Birth
- 1806 CE
- Region
- Britain
John Rawls
Rawls became the defining liberal political philosopher of the late twentieth century.
- Birth
- 1921 CE
- Region
- North America