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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

Neo-Vedanta

Neo-Vedanta, begun by Hindu reformers in nineteenth-century Bengal, is the modern reworking of Vedanta, chiefly of its non-dual school, Advaita. It holds that the divine is the true self of every person, that this can be known by direct experience rather than accepted on authority, and that all religions are roads to it. Unlike classical Advaita, which counts the world as appearance and prizes withdrawal from it, Neo-Vedanta makes work in the world, service and social reform part of the spiritual life.

3 in the arena

  1. Rabindranath Tagore

    1861–1941

    Modern Indian Thought

    Rabindranath Tagore argued that God is met in nature, love and work rather than by renouncing them, and that organised national power crushes the person.

    4 works · 405 passages grounded

  2. Swami Vivekananda

    1863–1902

    Modern Indian Thought

    Swami Vivekananda taught that every self is divine, that weakness, not sin, is the enemy, and that work, love and knowledge lead to one freedom.

    4 works · 982 passages grounded

  3. Sri Aurobindo

    1872–1950

    Modern Indian Thought

    Sri Aurobindo, revolutionary turned yogi, read the Gita as a call to divine action and held that spirit evolves through matter toward a divine life.

    1 work · 388 passages grounded