Greatest Philosophers of All Time
Greatest Philosophers is a structured philosophy dataset with 25 entries. Its fields include Philosopher, Era, Nationality. The source values are preserved as a structured reference table.
Every row is shown below and is also available as CSV, JSON, or Excel.
Dataset details
- Table scope
- All 25 rows
- Fields
- 6 columns
- Source
- Not provided
- Data updated
- Not provided
Included fields: Philosopher, Era, Nationality, School, Major Work, and 1 more.
The table contains every record in this dataset; the same records are available in each download format.
Preview observations
No reliable range or grouping can be calculated from the loaded rows without interpreting the source data.
Useful for
- Comparing Philosopher, Era, and Nationality across philosophy entries
- Building reference tables, charts, or analyses from 25 downloadable records
Philosopher↕ | Era↕ | Nationality↕ | School↕ | Major Work↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Socrates | Ancient (470-399 BC) | Greek | Socratic | No written works (known through Plato) | The Socratic method; 'the unexamined life is not worth living' |
Plato | Ancient (428-348 BC) | Greek | Platonism | The Republic | Theory of Forms, Allegory of the Cave, founding the Academy |
Aristotle | Ancient (384-322 BC) | Greek | Aristotelianism | Nicomachean Ethics | Father of logic, virtue ethics, empirical observation |
Confucius | Ancient (551-479 BC) | Chinese | Confucianism | The Analects | Foundational figure of Chinese philosophy, ethics of relationships |
Laozi | Ancient (6th century BC) | Chinese | Taoism | Tao Te Ching | Founder of Taoism, wu wei (non-action), harmony with nature |
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) | Ancient (563-483 BC) | Indian | Buddhism | Dhammapada (attributed) | Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way, path to enlightenment |
Rene Descartes | 17th century | French | Rationalism | Meditations on First Philosophy | 'I think, therefore I am'; father of modern Western philosophy |
Immanuel Kant | 18th century | German | Kantianism | Critique of Pure Reason | Categorical imperative, synthesis of rationalism and empiricism |
Friedrich Nietzsche | 19th century | German | Existentialism / Nihilism | Thus Spoke Zarathustra | 'God is dead', will to power, Ubermensch, eternal recurrence |
Jean-Paul Sartre | 20th century | French | Existentialism | Being and Nothingness | 'Existence precedes essence'; radical freedom and responsibility |
Simone de Beauvoir | 20th century | French | Existentialism / Feminism | The Second Sex | 'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman'; existentialist feminism |
John Locke | 17th century | English | Empiricism | An Essay Concerning Human Understanding | Tabula rasa, natural rights (life, liberty, property) |
David Hume | 18th century | Scottish | Empiricism / Skepticism | A Treatise of Human Nature | Problem of induction, is-ought problem, radical empiricism |
Karl Marx | 19th century | German | Marxism | Das Kapital | Historical materialism, class struggle, critique of capitalism |
John Stuart Mill | 19th century | English | Utilitarianism | On Liberty | Refined utilitarianism, harm principle, champion of individual freedom |
Soren Kierkegaard | 19th century | Danish | Existentialism | Either/Or | Father of existentialism, leap of faith, subjective truth |
Thomas Aquinas | Medieval (1225-1274) | Italian | Scholasticism | Summa Theologica | Five Ways to prove God's existence, synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity |
Baruch Spinoza | 17th century | Dutch | Rationalism | Ethics | God and Nature are one substance; radical determinism |
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | 19th century | German | German Idealism | Phenomenology of Spirit | Dialectical method (thesis-antithesis-synthesis), absolute idealism |
Albert Camus | 20th century | French-Algerian | Absurdism | The Myth of Sisyphus | Absurdism: life is meaningless but worth living; Nobel Prize in Literature |
Michel Foucault | 20th century | French | Post-structuralism | Discipline and Punish | Power-knowledge, biopolitics, history of madness and sexuality |
Ludwig Wittgenstein | 20th century | Austrian-British | Analytic Philosophy | Philosophical Investigations | Language games, 'the limits of my language are the limits of my world' |
Hannah Arendt | 20th century | German-American | Political Philosophy | The Human Condition | Banality of evil, analysis of totalitarianism and political action |
Marcus Aurelius | Ancient (121-180 AD) | Roman | Stoicism | Meditations | Philosopher-king, personal Stoic journal still read worldwide |
Epicurus | Ancient (341-270 BC) | Greek | Epicureanism | Letter to Menoeceus | Pleasure as highest good (simple pleasures), death is nothing to fear |
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Frequently asked questions
How is Greatest Philosophers of All Time organized?
The table starts in the source data's default order. You can sort and filter the loaded rows by the displayed fields.
How much data is available on this page?
This dataset contains 25 entries, and every row is available in the table and in the downloadable files.
Can I download the complete dataset?
Yes. CSV, JSON, and Excel downloads contain all 25 rows. Before republishing the data, review the source and any usage terms listed on this page; dtbse does not replace the original source's licensing terms.
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