Timeline of Western philosophers

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Timeline of Eastern | Western philosophers

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

## Western philosophers

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### Ancient Greece

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#### 600–500 BC

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* 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.

#### 400 BC

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* 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.

### Hellenistic era

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#### 300–200 BC

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* 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.

### Classical Rome

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#### 100 BC–100 AD

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* 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 founding figure of Christianity.
* Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 – c. 70). Engineer.
* Plutarch (c. 46 – 119).
* Epictetus (c. 55 – 135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self–determination.

#### 100–400

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* 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).

### Middle Ages

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#### 500–900

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* 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)

#### 1000–1100

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* 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.

#### 1200–1300

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* 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.

#### 1400

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* 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.

### Early modern period

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#### 1500

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* 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.

#### 1600

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* 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.

#### 1700

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* 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.

### Modern philosophers

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#### 1800–1850

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* 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.

#### 1850–1900

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* 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).
* Lev Shestov (1868–1938).
* 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).
* Otto Rank (1884–1939).
* 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.

#### 1900–1950

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* 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.
* Paulo Freire (1921–1997). Pedagogy.
* 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.
* Daniel Dennett (born 1942–2024).
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942). Postcolonialism, Feminism, Literary theory.
* Roger Scruton (1944-2020). Traditionalist conservatism.
* Simon Blackburn (1944). Analytic philosophy.
* Peter Singer (born 1946) Moral philosopher on animal liberation, effective altruism.
* Bruno Latour (1947-2022) French Philosopher, anthropologist, 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.

#### 1950–2000

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* Cornel West (born 1953).
* Michael Sandel (born 1953). Political philosopher
* Judith Butler (born 1956). Poststructuralist, feminist, queer theory.
* Alexander Wendt (born 1958). Social constructivism.
* Michel Onfray (born 1959).
* Byung-Chul Han (born 1959).
* Simon Critchley (born 1960). Continental philosophy
* Nick Land (born 1962). Accelerationist.
* Ray Brassier (born 1965). Nihilist.
* David Benatar (born 1966). Antinatalist.
* Alenka Zupančič (born 1966). German Idealism, Nietzsche, Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
* Sam Harris (born 1967).
* Alain de Botton (born 1969).
* Nick Bostrom (born 1973).

## See also

[edit]

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

## References

[edit]

* 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.

## External links

[edit]

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

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