Philosopher?

Question: Philosopher!?

Name some philosophers!? and what were their principles!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Thales: Traditionally considered the first ever western philosopher!. None of his writings survive!.

SOCRATES: Ancient Greek, changed philosophy from a study of natural science to ethics and politics!. Wrote nothing!.

PLATO: Ancient Greek, student of Socrates, most influential philosopher of all time!. Works: The Republic!.

ARISTOTLE: Ancient Greek, student of Plato, second most influential philosopher of all time!. Works: The Nichomachean Ethics, The Metaphysics, The Politics!.

Plotinus: Fused Platonic principles with Christian teaching!. The last of the ancient Greek philosophers!. Works: The Enneads!.

St Augustine: Continued Plotinus' project of Platonic Christianity!. The first of the Scholastic philosophers!. Works: The Confessions, The City of God!.

St Anselm: Scholastic, mostly famous for his argument for the existence of God, the Ontological Argument, which was based on the argument that it would be contradictory to God's nature for him not to exist!. Works: The Monologion!.

ST AQUINAS: The greatest Scholastic, he changed their emphasis from Plato to Aristotle, promoting him as the greatest of all philosophers and attempting to fuse Aristotelianism and Christianity!. Works: The Summa Theologica!.

Duns Scotus: Scholastic!. I don't know much about him!.

William of Ockham: Scholastic!. Mostly famous for Ockham's razor, which argues for simplicity in arguments!.

Machiavelli: Political philosopher, famous for the ruthless advice he gave to rulers in The Prince!. Works: The Prince, The Discourses!.

DESCARTES: The father of modern philosophy for challenging the blind acceptance of Aristotle!. Works: The Meditations, Discourse on Method!.

HOBBES: Political philosopher!. Explosively infamous in his day for being a suspected atheist, among other reasons!. Works: Leviathan!.

SPINOZA: As infamous as Hobbes, his contemporary, in his day!. Thought that the universe was God and we were all part of it!. Works: Ethics!.

Malebranche: Considered the equal of Descartes or Spinoza in his day, now mostly ignored!. Works: The Search After Truth!.

Arnauld: Equal to Leibniz and Malebranche in his day, now suffers the same fate as Malebranche!. Works: His correspondance is highly important, but also Logic or the Art of Thinking!.

LOCKE: Empiricist!. Famous for his views on the human mind, knowledge and how we can own property!. Currently my favourite philosopher!. Works: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Two Treatises of Government!.

LEIBNIZ: Rationalist, famous for his justification of evil and his ideas on substance!. Works: Discourse on Metaphysics, Monadology, Theodicy!.

BERKELEY: Idealist, argued that the physical didn't really exist, only the mental did!. Not a popular view nowadays!. Works: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous!.

HUME: Empiricist, most famous for arguing that inductive knowledge is not certain!. Works: A Treatise on Human Nature, The Enquiries!.

Rousseau: Political philosopher mostly!. Some consider him great, others, like me, think him a sloppy and shallow thinker!. Works: The Social Contract, The Origins of Social Inequality, Emile!.

KANT: Considered to be the greatest of the modern philosophers, his influence is all-pervasive in almost every area of philosophy!. Works: Critique of Pure Reason, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals!.

Fichte: Follower of Kant, one of the founders of nationalism!.

HEGEL: Argued that all history was progressing towards a perfect state of being!. Works: Phenomenology of Spirit, The Philosophy of Right!.

Marx: Follower of Hegel, took his ideas and changed them into Communism!. Works: The Communist Manifesto, Capital!.

Kierkeguaard: First major objector to Hegel, consider to be a founder of existentialism!. Works: Either/Or, Sickness Unto Death, Fear and Trembling!.

Schopenhauer: Famous mostly for his pessimistic outlook and for influencing Nietzsche!. Works: The World as Will and Representation!.

J!.S!. Mill: Utilitarian, follower of Bentham!. Works: On Liberty, Utilitarianism!.

NIETZSCHE: Mostly a moral philosopher, famously rejected traditional Christian and Jewish morality as 'slave morality'!. Works: Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil!.

James: Important US philosopher, proponent of pragmatism!. Works: Pragmatism, Varieties of Religious Experience!.

Frege: Most important logician since Aristotle!.

Russell: Perhaps the greatest philosopher of the last century!. Works: Problems of Philosophy, History of Western Philosophy, Principia Mathematica (with Whitehead)!.

Wittgenstein: Student of Russell, another contender for greatest of the last century, premier philosopher of language!. Works: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations!.

Heidegger: Important German philosopher!. Works: Being and Time!.

Sartre: Famous French existentialist!. Works: Being and Nothingness!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Ancient Philosophers:

Thales: The world is made up of Earth, Fire, Air and Water but Fire predominates!.
Democritus: The world is made up of Atoms, and everything is a substance whether air earth or fire!.
Socrates: If your questions and logic are faulty your answers are less than useless!. So the questions are more important than the answers!.
Plato: Everything comes from an ideal!. The world is a bad or illusions copy of an ideal!. Learning is actually remembering!. We once lived among ideals but we fell to this distorted world when we were born!.
Aristotle: Everything can be systematized and life is a series of related objects, people and things!. (Such as dogs are all canines, despite being different breeds!.)

More contemporary Philosophers:
Descartes: Life is a idea communicated by God, not a physical reality!. I think, therefore I am!.
Spinoza: All reality is one being, that we call God!. Everything is ordered because it is a part of God!.
Kant: (I have no idea what Kant is on about but he is important, because he said "truth is transcendent" meaning not what you see in front of your face!.)
Hegel: History is a process of refining and idea!. There is an idea (Thesis) it's opposite (Antithesis) and the two combine into something subtler and more complete (Synthesis!.) After this his idea veer and change and continuing this idea is called "hegelianism" and is NOT more of what Hegel thought!.
Marx: Applied "hegelianism" to politics and described communism as the synthesis of capitalism and worker uprising!.
Nietzsche: God is dead, morality is a joke!. Survival of the fittest!.
Sartre: Reality is infinite and nauseating!. The self is an illusion and other people are hell!.
Russel: Reality is what you can prove empirically!. Metaphysics (Thales, Plato) and Negativism (Nietzsche, Sartre) have no place in philosophy!.
Wittgenstein: Knowledge is a function of language!. How we communicate is rooted in human truth!.

This is a very short list!. Didn't even include my favorite Epicurus (who doesn't boil down well!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com

jon stewart !.!.!. irreverence and character assassination

monty python !.!.!. irreverence and character assassination

ma belle!.!.!.!.irreverence and character assassinationWww@QuestionHome@Com

Me!. Life is only worth living when striving to find a healthy way!.Www@QuestionHome@Com