Timeline of Western philosophers

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This is a list of philosophers from the Western tradition of philosophy.

• Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.
• Pherecydes of Syros (c. 620 – c. 550 BC). Cosmologist.
• Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".
• Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585 – 525 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.
• Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580 – c. 500 BC). Of the Ionian School. Believed the deepest reality to be composed of numbers, and that souls are immortal.
• Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – 480 BC). Advocated monotheism. Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school.
• Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the universe.
• Epicharmus of Kos (c. 530 – 450 BC). Comic playwright and moralist.
• Parmenides of Elea (c. 515 – 450 BC). Of the Eleatics. Reflected on the concept of Being.
• Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500 – 428 BC). Of the Ionians. Pluralist.

• Empedocles (492 – 432 BC). Eclectic cosmogonist. Pluralist.
• Zeno of Elea (c. 490 – 430 BC). Of the Eleatics. Known for his paradoxes.
• Gorgias. (c. 483 – 375 BC). Sophist. Early advocate of solipsism.
• Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481 – 420 BC). Sophist. Early advocate of relativism.
• Leucippus of Miletus (First half of the 5th century BC). Founding Atomist, Determinist.
• Socrates of Athens (c. 470 – 399 BC). Emphasized virtue ethics. In epistemology, understood dialectic to be central to the pursuit of truth.
• Prodicus of Ceos (c. 465 – c. 395 BC). Sophist.
• Critias of Athens (c. 460 – 413 BC). Atheist writer and politician.
• Hippias (Middle of the 5th century BC). Sophist.
• Democritus of Abdera (c. 450 – 370 BC). Founding Atomist.
• Melissus of Samos. (c. 470 - 430 BC). Eleatic.
• Cratylus. Follower of Heraclitus.
• Antisthenes (c. 444 – 365 BC). Founder of Cynicism. Pupil of Socrates.
• Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 440 – 366 BC). A Cyrenaic. Advocate of ethical hedonism.
• Xenophon (c. 427 – 355 BC). Historian.
• Plato (c. 427 – 347 BC). Famed for view of the transcendental forms. Advocated polity governed by philosophers.
• Diogenes of Apollonia (c. 425 – c 350 BC). Cosmologist.
• Speusippus (c. 408 – 339 BC). Nephew of Plato.
• Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 408 – 355 BC). Pupil of Plato.
• Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404 – 323 BC). Cynic.

• Xenocrates (c. 396 – 314 BC). Disciple of Plato.
• Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BC). A polymath whose works ranged across all philosophical fields.
• Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC). Peripatetic.
• Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360 – 270 BC). Skeptic.
• Epicurus (c. 341 – 270 BC). Materialist Atomist, hedonist. Founder of Epicureanism
• Strato of Lampsacus (c. 340 – c. 268 BC). Atheist, Materialist.
• Zeno of Citium (c. 333 – 264 BC). Founder of Stoicism.
• Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 – c. 230 BC). Astronomer.
• Euclid (fl. 300 BC). Mathematician, founder of geometry.
• Archimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC). Mathematician and inventor.
• Chrysippus of Soli (c. 280 – 207 BC). Major figure in Stoicism.
• Eratosthenes (c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BC). Geographer and mathematician.
• Carneades (c. 214 – 129 BC). Academic skeptic. Understood probability as the purveyor of truth.
• Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190 – c. 120 BC). Astronomer and mathematician, founder of trigonometry.

• Cicero (c. 106 BC – 43 BC) Skeptic. Political theorist.
• Lucretius (c. 99 BC – 55 BC). Epicurean.
• Quintilian (c. 35 AD – c. 100 AD). Rhetorician and teacher.
• Philo (c. 20 BC – 50 AD). Believed in the allegorical method of reading texts.
• Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – 65 AD). Stoic.
• Jesus of Nazareth (c. 1 – 30 or 33 AD) the founder of Christianity.
• Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 – c. 70). Engineer.
• Plutarch (c. 46 – 119).
• Epictetus (c. 55 – 135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self–determination.

• Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180). Stoic.
• Sextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries AD). Skeptic, Pyrrhonist.
• Plotinus (c. 205 – 270). Neoplatonist. Had a holistic metaphysics.
• Porphyry (c. 232 – 304). Student of Plotinus.
• Iamblichus of Syria (c. 245 – 325). Late neoplatonist. Espoused theurgy.
• Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 360 – March 415). Late neoplatonist, astronomer, and mathematician.
• Augustine of Hippo (c. 354 – 430). Neoplatonist. Original Sin. Church father.
• Proclus (c. 412 – 485). Neoplatonist.
• Boethius (c. 480–524).
• John Philoponus (c. 490–570).

• Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 500).
• Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636). Christian philosopher.
• John of Damascus (c. 680-750).
• Alcuin (c. 735 – 804). Early Scholastic.
• Al-Kindi (c. 801 – 873). Major figure in Islamic philosophy. Influenced by Neoplatonism.
• Abbas ibn Firnas (809–887). Polymath.
• John the Scot (c. 815 – 877). neoplatonist, pantheist.
• al–Faràbi (c. 870 – 950). Major Islamic philosopher. Neoplatonist.
• al-Razi (c. 865 – 925). Rationalist. Major Islamic philosopher. Held that God creates universe by rearranging pre–existing laws.
• Saadia Gaon (c. 882 – 942). Jewish Philosopher
• Al-Biruni (c. 973 – 1050). Islamic polymath.
• Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980–1037). Islamic philosopher.
• Ibn Hazm (7 November 994 – 15 August 1064)

• Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) (c. 1021–1058). Jewish philosopher.
• Anselm (c. 1034–1109). Christian philosopher. Produced ontological argument for the existence of God.
• Omar Khayyam (c. 1048–1131). Islamic philosopher. Agnostic. Mathematician. Philosophical poet, one of the 5 greatest Iranian Poets.
• Al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111). Islamic philosopher. Mystic.
• Yehudah HaLevi (c. 1075- 1141). Jewish poet, physician and philosopher.
• Peter Abelard (c. 1079–1142). Scholastic philosopher. Dealt with the problem of universals.
• Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160). Scholastic.
• Ibn Tufail (c. 1105 – 1185)
• Averroes (Ibn Rushd, "The Commentator") (c. 1126–December 10, 1198). Islamic philosopher.
• Maimonides (c. 1135–1204). Jewish philosopher.
• Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 or 1150 – 1209)
• Suhrawardi (c. 1154–1191). Major Islamic philosopher.
• Ibn Arabi (1165–1240). Andalusian Muslim philosopher, mystic, poet, and scholar. Founder of Akbarism, one of the major current of later Islamic philosophy.
• Fibonacci (c. 1170–c. 1250), mathematician.
• Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253).
• Francis of Assisi (c. 1182–1226). Ascetic.
• Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) (c. 1193–1280). Early Empiricist.

• Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294). Empiricist, mathematician.
• Thomas Aquinas (c. 1221–1274). Aristotelian.
• Bonaventure (c. 1225–1274). Franciscan.
• Ramon Llull (c. 1232–1315) Spanish philosopher
• Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328). mystic.
• Ibn Taymiyya (c. 1263-1328) Islamic scholar, jurist and philosopher
• Dante Alighieri (c. 1265 – 1321).
• Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Franciscan, Scholastic, Original Sin.
• Marsilius of Padua (c. 1270–1342). Understood chief function of state as mediator.
• William of Ockham (c. 1288–1348). Franciscan. Scholastic. Nominalist, creator of Ockham's razor.
• Jean Buridan (c. 1300–1358). Nominalist.
• John Wycliffe (c. 1320–1384).
• Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–5 – 1382). Made contributions to economics, science, mathematics, theology and philosophy.
• Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406).
• Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340 – c. 1411). Jewish philosopher.
• Gemistus Pletho (c. 1355 – 1452/1454). Late Byzantine scholar of neoplatonic philosophy.

• Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). Christian philosopher.
• Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457). Humanist, critic of scholastic logic.
• Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). Christian Neoplatonist, head of Florentine Academy and major Renaissance Humanist figure. First translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin.
• Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494). Renaissance humanist.
• Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). Humanist, advocate of free will.
• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527). Political realism.
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.
• Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). Humanist, created term "utopia".
• Martin Luther (1483–1546). Major Western Christian theologian.

• John Calvin (1509–1564). Major Western Christian theologian.
• Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). Humanist, skeptic.
• Giordano Bruno (1548–1600). Advocate of heliocentrism.
• Francisco Suarez (1548–1617). Politically proto–liberal.
• Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Empiricist.
• Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Heliocentrist.
• Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.
• Molla-Sadra (1572–1640). Major Islamic philosopher.
• Hugo Grotius (1583–1645). Natural law theorist.
• Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). Cartesian.
• Robert Filmer (1588–1653). Absolutist, monarchist, patrimonialist. Divine right of kings.
• Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). Advocate of extensive government power, social contract theorist, materialist.
• Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655). Mechanicism. Empiricist.
• René Descartes (1596–1650). Heliocentrism, mind-body dualism, rationalism.

• Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658). Spanish Catholic philosopher
• François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).
• Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Physicist, scientist. Noted for Pascal's wager.
• Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673). Materialist, feminist.
• Robert Boyle (1627–1691).
• Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627 – 1704).
• Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). Rationalism.
• Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694). Social contract theorist.
• John Locke (1632–1704). Major Empiricist. Political philosopher.
• Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). Cartesian.
• Isaac Newton (1643–1727).
• John Flamsteed (1646 – 1719). Astronomer.
• Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716). Co-inventor of calculus.
• Pierre Bayle (1647–1706). Pyrrhonist.
• Jean Meslier (1664–1729). Atheist Priest.
• Giambattista Vico (1668–1744).
• John Toland (1670–1722).
• Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1671–1713).
• Dimitrie Cantemir (1674-1723)
• Christian Wolff (1679–1754). Determinist, rationalist.
• George Berkeley (1685–1753). Idealist, empiricist.
• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755). Skeptic, humanist.
• Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746). Proto–utilitarian.
• Voltaire (1694–1778). Advocate for freedoms of religion and expression.

• Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). American philosophical theologian.
• David Hartley (1705–1757).
• Julien La Mettrie (1709–1751). Materialist, genetic determinist.
• Thomas Reid (1710–1796). Member of Scottish Enlightenment, founder of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.
• David Hume (1711–1776). Empiricist, skeptic.
• Jean–Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Social contract political philosopher.
• Denis Diderot (1713–1784).
• Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762).
• Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771). Utilitarian.
• Etienne de Condillac (1715–1780).
• Jean d'Alembert (1717–1783).
• Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789). Materialist, atheist.
• Adam Smith (1723–1790). Economic theorist, member of Scottish Enlightenment.
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). Major contributions in nearly every field of philosophy, especially metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.
• Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). Member of the Jewish Enlightenment.
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781).
• Edmund Burke (1729–1797). Conservative political philosopher.
• Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788).
• Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794). Italian criminologist, jurist, and philosopher from the Age of Enlightenment.
• Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). Liberal political philosopher.
• Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819).
• Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803).
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829). Early evolutionary theorist.
• Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). Utilitarian, hedonist.
• Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827). Determinist.
• Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) Conservative
• Louis de Bonald (1754 – 1840).
• William Godwin (1756–1836). Anarchist, utilitarian.
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). Feminist.
• Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805).
• Comte de Saint-Simon (1760–1825). Socialist.
• Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).
• Madame de Staël (1766–1817).
• Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). Hermeneutician.
• Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843). Poet and philosopher.
• G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831). German idealist.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834).
• James Mill (1773–1836). Utilitarian.
• F. W. J. von Schelling (1775–1854). German idealist.
• Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848).
• Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). Pessimism, Critic, Absurdist.
• Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881).
• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883). Egalitarian, abolitionist.
• Auguste Comte (1798–1857). Social philosopher, positivist.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Transcendentalist, abolitionist, egalitarian, humanist.
• Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872).
• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859).
• Max Stirner (1806–1856). Anarchist.
• Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871). Logician.
• John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Utilitarian.
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865). Anarchist.
• Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858). Egalitarian, utilitarian.
• Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.
• Margaret Fuller (1810–1850). Egalitarian.
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). Existentialist.
• Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). Revolutionary anarchist.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902). Egalitarian.
• Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Transcendentalist, pacifist, abolitionist.
• Karl Marx (1818–1883). Socialist, formulated historical materialism.
• Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Egalitarian, dialectical materialist.
• Herbert Spencer (1820–1903). Nativism, libertarianism, social Darwinism.
• Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906). Feminist.
• Ernest Renan (1823 – 1892).
• Hippolyte Taine (1828 – 1893).
• Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911).
• T.H. Green (1836–1882). British idealist.
• Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). Rationalism, utilitarianism.
• Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Philosopher of science, influence on logical positivism.
• Franz Brentano (1838–1917). Phenomenologist.
• Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). Pragmatist.
• Philipp Mainländer (1841 — 1876). Pessimist.
• William James (1842–1910). Pragmatism, Radical empiricism.
• Hermann Cohen (1842-1918). Neo-Kantianism, Jewish philosophy.
• Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921). Anarchist communism.
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). Naturalistic philosopher, influence on Existentialism.
• W. K. Clifford (1845–1879). Evidentialist.
• F. H. Bradley (1846–1924). Idealist.
• Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). Social philosopher.
• Gottlob Frege (1848–1925). Influential analytic philosopher.

• Henri Poincaré (1854–1912).
• Josiah Royce (1855–1916). Idealist.
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). Neurologist, founded psychoanalysis, posited structural model of mind.
• Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). Linguist, Semiotics, Structuralism.
• Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Social philosopher.
• Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).
• Edmund Husserl (1859–1938). Founder of phenomenology.
• Henri Bergson (1859–1941). Vitalism.
• John Dewey (1859–1952). Pragmatism.
• Jane Addams (1860–1935). Pragmatist.
• Pierre Duhem (1861–1916).
• Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). Anthroposophy
• Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). Process Philosophy, Mathematician, Logician, Philosophy of Physics, Panpsychism.
• George Herbert Mead (1863–1931). Pragmatism, symbolic interactionist.
• George Santayana (1863–1952). Pragmatism, naturalism; known for many aphorisms.
• Max Weber (1864–1920). Social philosopher.
• Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936). Existentialist.
• Benedetto Croce (1866–1952).
• Emma Goldman (1869–1940). Anarchist.
• Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919). Marxist political philosopher.
• Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). Analytic philosopher, nontheist, influential.
• G. E. Moore (1873–1958). Common sense theorist, ethical non–naturalist.
• Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948). Existentialist.
• Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945). Neo-Kantianism.
• Max Scheler (1874–1928). German phenomenologist.
• Carl Jung (1875–1961). Psychoanalyst, metaphysicist.
• Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944). Idealist and fascist philosopher.
• Martin Buber (1878–1965). Jewish philosopher, existentialist.
• Jan Łukasiewicz (1878-1956). Logician.
• Oswald Spengler (1880 – 1936).
• Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973).
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Christian evolutionist.
• Hans Kelsen (1881–1973). Legal positivist.
• Moritz Schlick (1882–1936). Founder of Vienna Circle, logical positivism.
• Otto Neurath (1882–1945). Member of Vienna Circle.
• Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950).
• Jacques Maritain (1882–1973). Human rights theorist.
• José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955). Philosopher of History.
• Karl Jaspers (1883–1969). Existentialist.
• Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962).
• Georg Lukács (1885–1971). Marxist philosopher.
• Karl Barth (1886–1968).
• René Guénon (1886 – 1951).
• Carl Schmitt (1888 – 1985).
• Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). Analytic philosopher, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, influential.
• Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973). Christian existentialist.
• Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). Phenomenologist.
• Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). Marxist philosopher.
• Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
• Walter Benjamin (1892–1940). Marxist. Philosophy of language.
• Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977). Philosophy of the Law Idea.
• Max Horkheimer (1895-1973). Frankfurt School.
• Ernst Jünger (1895 – 1998).
• Susanne Langer (1895–1985).
• Georges Bataille (1897–1962).
• Julius Evola (1898 – 1974).
• Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979). Frankfurt School.
• C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963).
• Friedrich Hayek (1899 – 1992).
• Leo Strauss (1899–1973). Political Philosopher.

• Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976).
• Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002). Hermeneutics.
• Jacques Lacan (1901–1981). Structuralism.
• Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991). Marxist philosopher
• Alfred Tarski (1901–1983). Created T–Convention in semantics.
• Michael Oakeshott (1901 – 1990).
• Karl Popper (1902–1994). Philosopher of Science.
• Mortimer Adler (1902–2001).
• Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)
• Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930). Proposed redundancy theory of truth.
• Theodor Adorno (1903–1969). Frankfurt School.
• Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) comparative mythology and comparative religion
• María Zambrano (1904-1991)
• Raymond Aron (1905 – 1983).
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980). Humanism, existentialism.
• Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivist, Individualist.
• Kurt Gödel (1906–1978). Vienna Circle.
• Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995).
• Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Political Philosophy.
• H.L.A. Hart (1907–1992). Legal positivism.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). Influential French phenomenologist.
• Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). Existentialist, feminist.
• Willard van Orman Quine (1908–2000).
• Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), historian of ideas.
• Simone Weil (1909–1943).
• A. J. Ayer (1910–1989). Logical positivist, emotivist.
• J. L. Austin (1911–1960).
• Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980). Media theory.
• Alan Turing (1912–1954). Functionalist in philosophy of mind.
• Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989). Influential American philosopher
• Albert Camus (1913–1960). Absurdist.
• Paul Ricœur (1913–2005). French philosopher and theologian.
• Roland Barthes (1915–1980). French semiotician and literary theorist.
• Donald Davidson (1917–2003). Coherentist philosophy of mind.
• Louis Althusser (1918–1990). Structural Marxist.
• Russell Kirk (1918 – 1994).
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008).
• M. Bunge (1919–2020).
• P. F. Strawson (1919–2006). Ordinary language philosophy.
• John Rawls (1921–2002). Liberal.
• Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996). Author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
• Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017). Polish sociologist and philosopher, who introduced the idea of liquid modernity.
• Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). Postcolonialism
• Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995). Post-structuralism
• Michel Foucault (1926–1984). Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Postmodernism, and the concept of biopolitics.
• Hilary Putnam (1926–2016). Neopragmatism.
• Noam Chomsky (born 1928). Linguist.
• Robert M. Pirsig (1928–2017). Introduced the Methaphysics of Quality. MOQ incorporates facets of East Asian philosophy, pragmatism and the work of F. S. C. Northrop.
• Bernard Williams (1929–2003). Moral philosopher.
• Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007). Postmodernism, Post-structuralism.
• Jürgen Habermas (born 1929). Discourse ethics.
• Jaakko Hintikka (1929–2015).
• Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929). Aristotelian.
• Hubert Lederer Dreyfus (1929-2017)
• Allan Bloom (1930–1992). Political Philosopher.
• Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002). French psychoanalytic sociologist and philosopher.
• Jacques Derrida (1930–2004). Deconstruction.
• Thomas Sowell (born 1930). Political Philosopher, capitalist.
• Guy Debord (1931–1994). French Marxist philosopher.
• Richard Rorty (1931–2007). Pragmatism, Postanalytic philosophy.
• Charles Taylor (born 1931). Political philosophy, Philosophy of Social Science, and Intellectual History.
• John Searle (born 1932). Direct realism.
• Alvin Plantinga (born 1932). Reformed epistemology, Philosophy of Religion.
• Jerry Fodor (1935–2017).
• Alain Badiou (born 1937).
• Thomas Nagel (born 1937). Qualia theory.
• Robert Nozick (1938–2002). Libertarian.
• Tom Regan (1938–2017). Animal rights philosopher.
• Saul Kripke (1940-2022). Modal semantics.
• Jean-Luc Nancy (1940-2021) French philosopher.
• David K. Lewis (1941–2001). Modal realism.
• Derek Parfit (1942–2017).
• Giorgio Agamben (born 1942). State of exception, form–of–life, and Homo sacer.
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942). Postcolonialism, Feminism, Literary theory.
• Roger Scruton (1944-2020). Traditionalist conservatism.
• Peter Singer (born 1946) Moral philosopher on animal liberation, effective altruism.
• Bruno Latour (1947-2022) French Philosopher, Anhropologist, Sociologist.
• Camille Paglia (born 1947).
• Martha Nussbaum (born 1947). Political philosopher.
• Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born 1949).
• Slavoj Žižek (born 1949). German Idealism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
• Ken Wilber (born 1949). Integral Theory.

• Cornel West (born 1953).
• Judith Butler (born 1956). Poststructuralist, feminist, queer theory.
• Alexander Wendt (born 1958). Social constructivism.
• Michel Onfray (born 1959).
• Byung-Chul Han (born 1959).
• Nick Land (born 1962). Accelerationist.
• Ray Brassier (born 1965). Nihilist.
• David Benatar (born 1966). Antinatalist.
• Alenka Zupančič (born 1966). German Idealism, Nietzsche, Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
• Alain de Botton (born 1969).
• Nick Bostrom (born 1973).

• Contemporary philosophy
• Timeline of German Idealism
• List of years in philosophy
• Category:21st-century philosophers

• Kemerling, Garth (2002). "Timeline of Western Philosophers". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) http://www.philosophypages.com
• LaFave, Sandra (2006). "Chronological List of Western Philosophers". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) http://lafavephilosophy.x10host.com/CRONLIST.htm
• Russell, Bertrand (1959). Wisdom of the West. London: Rathbone Books, Ltd.

• Jewish Intellectual Timeline, a parallel history of Jewish and non-Jewish intellectual ideas