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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

1st c. BCE

1 in the arena

  1. 4 BCE

    Seneca

    4 BCE – 65 CE

    Imperial Rome

    Seneca turned Stoic ethics into practical advice on anger, grief, wealth, power, and the shortness of life across 12 works.

    12 works · 826 passages grounded

1st c. CE

4 in the arena

  1. James the Just

    1–62

    Imperial Rome

    James the Just led Jesus' followers in Jerusalem. The letter in his name says faith without works is dead and warns the rich that judgment is near.

    1 work · 8 passages grounded

  2. Paul the Apostle

    5–65

    Imperial Rome

    Paul the Apostle argued in letters to his first churches that Jews and Gentiles are put right with God alike, by trust in Christ, not by the law.

    6 works · 148 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. Epictetus

    50–135

    Imperial Rome

    Epictetus made freedom a discipline of judgment and desire, separating what depends on us from what does not.

    2 works · 562 passages grounded

2nd c. CE

2 in the arena

  1. Marcus Aurelius

    121–180

    Imperial Rome

    Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and Stoic thinker, examined discipline, mortality, duty, and emotional control in Meditations.

    1 work · 376 passages grounded

  2. Sextus Empiricus

    160–210

    Imperial Rome

    Sextus Empiricus, a physician of the Roman Empire, left the only full ancient account of Pyrrhonism: suspend judgment, and calm follows.

    2 works · 2,769 passages grounded