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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%

6 philosophers match

Platonism

Platonism holds that reality includes stable, intelligible forms that cannot be reduced to the changing objects disclosed by the senses; unlike materialism, it gives these forms explanatory priority. Plato gives the school its name.

4 in the arena

  1. Plato

    428–348 BCE

    Classical Athens

    Plato’s dialogues ask how justice, knowledge, virtue, and truth shape a human life — from the Republic to the Apology.

    29 works · 2,773 passages grounded

  2. Philo of Alexandria

    20 BCE – 50 CE

    Hellenistic Judaism

    Philo of Alexandria read the Law of Moses as the best of Greek philosophy, taught by Moses first. Allegorist, Platonist, envoy to the emperor Caligula.

    30 works · 2,924 passages grounded

  3. Plutarch

    46–120

    Imperial Rome

    Plutarch of Chaeronea, Platonist and priest of Apollo at Delphi, held that virtue is emotion trained by reason, and superstition worse than atheism.

    2 works · 5,647 passages grounded

  4. Anne Conway

    1631–1679

    Early Modern

    Anne Conway (1631–1679), taught philosophy by letter, rejected Descartes: all creatures are alive, and body and spirit are one substance.

    1 work · 126 passages grounded

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism holds that all reality proceeds from the One, a highest unity beyond ordinary being, and that the soul can turn back toward this source through intellectual and moral purification. It differs from Platonism by placing the Forms within a graded procession from the One rather than treating them as the final structure of reality.

2 in the arena

  1. Plotinus

    204–270

    Late Antiquity

    Plotinus (204–270), whose teaching began Neoplatonism, traced all reality to the One beyond being and taught that the soul returns to it by turning inward.

    1 work · 1,233 passages grounded

  2. Boethius

    480–524

    Late Antiquity

    Boethius links fortune, free will, and happiness in The Consolation of Philosophy, while his works examine providence, virtue, and divine order.

    5 works · 206 passages grounded