Philosophers — Philosophy Arena

Philosophers: 38
Works: 291
Passages: 112,227
Centuries spanned: 24

When the thinkers were born — philosophers per century

38 philosophers, born across 15 centuries from the 6th c. BCE to the 19th c. CE. The 18th c. CE is the fullest, with 14.

Philosophers born, by century
Century	Philosophers born
6th c. BCE	1
5th c. BCE	1
4th c. BCE	2
2nd c. BCE	1
1st c. BCE	1
1st c. CE	1
2nd c. CE	1
4th c. CE	1
5th c. CE	1
13th c. CE	2
15th c. CE	1
16th c. CE	2
17th c. CE	3
18th c. CE	14
19th c. CE	6

Which traditions they come from — philosophers per tradition

38 philosophers across 2 traditions. Widths are shares of the roster; the names are in the legend.

The Western tradition 37
The Chinese tradition 1

Philosophers by tradition
Tradition	Philosophers	Share
The Western tradition	37	97%
The Chinese tradition	1	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 15.3%. 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	15.3%
Politics and power	11.5%
Ethics and the good life	9.6%
Metaphysics and the cosmos	9%
Logic and language	5.3%
Being and existence	4.5%

Search the roster

2 philosophers match

The Western tradition

2 in the arena

Positivism

Positivism holds that reliable knowledge must rest on observable facts and laws established through scientific inquiry, not on metaphysical speculation. Taking shape in the nineteenth century, it differs from empiricism by making scientific method—not experience alone—the standard for meaningful knowledge. Metaphysics falls outside that standard.

2 in the arena

Auguste Comte
1798–1857
The Nineteenth Century

He turned the study of society into a science—and science into a blueprint for society.
3 works · 1,726 passages grounded
Herbert Spencer
1820–1903
The Nineteenth Century

Evolution escaped biology, turning society, mind, and cosmos into historical processes.
12 works · 8,414 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

Auguste Comte

Herbert Spencer