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The collection

The Philosophers

Every thinker here answers out of their own texts. Choose a voice and put your question to it.

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
CenturyPhilosophers born
7th c. BCE3
6th c. BCE3
5th c. BCE2
4th c. BCE2
3rd c. BCE3
2nd c. BCE4
1st c. BCE4
1st c. CE4
2nd c. CE4
3rd c. CE1
4th c. CE5
5th c. CE6
6th c. CE1
7th c. CE4
8th c. CE1
9th c. CE4
10th c. CE4
11th c. CE10
12th c. CE4
13th c. CE5
14th c. CE3
15th c. CE3
16th c. CE9
17th c. CE9
18th c. CE21
19th c. CE29

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
TraditionPhilosophersShare
The Western tradition8759%
The Indian tradition2920%
The Chinese tradition1510%
The Japanese tradition64%
The Jewish tradition64%
The Islamic and Persian tradition53%

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
QuestionShare of the canon
Mind and knowledge11.5%
Metaphysics and the cosmos10%
Politics and power9.5%
Ethics and the good life7.8%
Logic and language4.4%
Being and existence4.1%

3 philosophers match

By year of birth

7th c. BCE

1 in the arena

  1. 601 BCE

    Laozi

    601–531 BCE

    The Hundred Schools

    Laozi is the Old Master to whom the Tao Te Ching is ascribed. The book teaches the Tao (the Way), action without force and the strength of what yields.

    1 work · 81 passages grounded

6th c. BCE

2 in the arena

  1. 551 BCE

    Confucius

    551–479 BCE

    The Hundred Schools

    Confucius linked good government to personal virtue, ritual, and lifelong self-cultivation. Explore his thought in The Analects.

    1 work · 105 passages grounded

  2. 544 BCE

    Sun Tzu

    544–496 BCE

    The Hundred Schools

    Sun Tzu (Sunzi), the disputed author of The Art of War, held that war decides whether a state lives or dies, and that the best victory needs no battle.

    1 work · 30 passages grounded