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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%

7 philosophers match

By year of birth

4th c. CE

1 in the arena

  1. Buddhaghosa

    370–450

    The Commentators

    Buddhaghosa put Sri Lanka's commentaries into Pāli and wrote The Path of Purification, the Theravāda's map of conduct, meditation and insight.

    10 works · 17,872 passages grounded

5th c. CE

1 in the arena

  1. 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

7th c. CE

2 in the arena

  1. 140 years without a voice

    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

  2. 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

9th c. CE

2 in the arena

  1. 100 years without a voice

    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

  2. Utpaladeva

    900–950

    The Commentators

    Utpaladeva argued against the Buddhist logicians that the self lasts, knows itself and is already the Lord, so freedom needs only recognition.

    3 works · 145 passages grounded

10th c. CE

1 in the arena

  1. Abhinavagupta

    950–1016

    The Commentators

    Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1016), Kashmir's great Śaiva theologian, taught that one free consciousness appears as the world and that liberation is recognition.

    7 works · 1,762 passages grounded