Philosophers — Philosophy Arena

Philosophers: 148
Works: 843
Passages: 298k+
Centuries spanned: 26

When the thinkers were born — philosophers per century

148 philosophers, born across 26 centuries from the 7th c. BCE to the 19th c. CE. The 19th c. CE is the fullest, with 29.

Philosophers born, by century
Century	Philosophers born
7th c. BCE	3
6th c. BCE	3
5th c. BCE	2
4th c. BCE	2
3rd c. BCE	3
2nd c. BCE	4
1st c. BCE	4
1st c. CE	4
2nd c. CE	4
3rd c. CE	1
4th c. CE	5
5th c. CE	6
6th c. CE	1
7th c. CE	4
8th c. CE	1
9th c. CE	4
10th c. CE	4
11th c. CE	10
12th c. CE	4
13th c. CE	5
14th c. CE	3
15th c. CE	3
16th c. CE	9
17th c. CE	9
18th c. CE	21
19th c. CE	29

Which traditions they come from — philosophers per tradition

148 philosophers across 6 traditions. Widths are shares of the roster; the names are in the legend.

The Western tradition 87
The Indian tradition 29
The Chinese tradition 15
The Japanese tradition 6
The Jewish tradition 6
The Islamic and Persian tradition 5

Philosophers by tradition
Tradition	Philosophers	Share
The Western tradition	87	59%
The Indian tradition	29	20%
The Chinese tradition	15	10%
The Japanese tradition	6	4%
The Jewish tradition	6	4%
The Islamic and Persian tradition	5	3%

What the corpus argues about — share of the canon per question

The six great questions, ranked by their share of every tagged passage in the corpus. Mind and knowledge leads at 11.5%. A passage can answer to more than one question, so the six do not sum to a whole.

Share of the canon by question
Question	Share of the canon
Mind and knowledge	11.5%
Metaphysics and the cosmos	10%
Politics and power	9.5%
Ethics and the good life	7.8%
Logic and language	4.4%
Being and existence	4.1%

Search the roster

6 philosophers match

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedānta, the non-dualist school of Vedānta, holds that only one thing is finally real: Brahman, pure awareness without qualities. The self in each person is identical with it, and the world of many separate things is an appearance produced by ignorance. Liberation comes from knowledge that the self is Brahman, not from ritual or good deeds, which can only prepare the mind. Against the qualified non-dualism of Viśiṣṭādvaita, it denies that Brahman has qualities; against the dualism of Dvaita, it denies that selves are finally distinct from Brahman.

6 in the arena

Yājñavalkya
700–600 BCE
The Upanishadic Age

Yājñavalkya, sage of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad, taught that the self is the unseen seer, knowable only as “not this, not this”.
2 works · 208 passages grounded
Uddālaka Āruṇi
700–600 BCE
The Upanishadic Age

Uddālaka Āruṇi, the father in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, argued that being, not nothing, came first, and taught it with fasting, a seed and salt water.
1 work · 51 passages grounded
Gauḍapāda
500–560
The Commentators

Gauḍapāda wrote the oldest surviving case for Advaita Vedānta: verses on the Māṇḍūkya Upanishad arguing that nothing was ever born and no one ever bound.
2 works · 134 passages grounded
Ādi Śaṅkara
700–750
The Commentators

Ādi Śaṅkara (c. 700–750), the most famous teacher of Advaita Vedānta, taught that the self is Brahman and that knowledge, not ritual or action, frees.
11 works · 4,707 passages grounded
Aṣṭāvakra
700–800
The Commentators

Aṣṭāvakra, teacher of the Aṣṭāvakra Gītā, tells King Janaka he is pure awareness and already free, and that no practice can bring freedom.
1 work · 38 passages grounded
Vācaspati Miśra
900–980
The Commentators

Vācaspati Miśra wrote for nearly every Indian school. His Bhāmatī places ignorance in each self and founded one of later Advaita's two schools.
1 work · 1,425 passages grounded

When the thinkers were born — philosophers per century

Which traditions they come from — philosophers per tradition

What the corpus argues about — share of the canon per question

Yājñavalkya

Uddālaka Āruṇi

Gauḍapāda

Ādi Śaṅkara

Aṣṭāvakra

Vācaspati Miśra