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%

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1 philosopher matches

Kalam

Kalām — Arabic for "speech", the name Muslims gave to rational theology — holds that the teachings of the Quran (one God, a world created in time, prophecy, the resurrection) can be defended by argument against unbelievers and rival sects. Its schools, among them the Muʿtazilites and later the Ashʿarites, disputed whether reason alone can tell good from evil and whether God creates the acts of human beings. Unlike *falsafa*, the philosophers' discipline, kalām starts from revealed doctrine, not from philosophical proof.

1 in the arena

Al-Ghazali
1058–1111
The Great Controversy and the Sufis

Al-Ghazali (1058–1111) showed that the philosophers had not proved what they claimed, then found the certainty he sought beyond proof, in Sufi practice.
9 works · 1,400 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

Al-Ghazali