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Welcome to the site for the great philosophers. Here you will
find information on some of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known.
The philosophers are listed alphabetically. Feel free to vote on your favorite
and leave comments.

Anselm

Anselm of
Canterbury, born circa 1033 was an Italian philosopher and a Benedictine
Catholic monk. He also held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to
the time of his death at April 21st, 1109. He is known for the school of thought
of Scholasticism.

Anselm was born into a noble lineage and his family had considerable fortune.
At age fifteen, he wished to enter a monastery but was refused by his father.
After a short illness, he lived a largely carefree life and at age twenty three,
travelled to Normandy and entered an abbey at age twenty seven. At this time, he
entered under the rule of Saint Benedictine, which influenced much of thinking
later in life.

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Aquinas

Saint
Thomas Aquinas was an Italian philosopher and theologian in the school of
Scholasticism. He was born circa 1225 and died March 7th 1274. He was also a
priest at a Catholic Church in the Dominican Order. A very influential
philosopher of his time, much of modern thought has been derived as a criticism
of or in agreement with his ideas and beliefs relation to politics, ethics and
natural law.

Born in Aquino, Aquinas was of noble lineage and had his early studies at
Monte Cassino. He later studied at Naples, where he was introduced to Aristotle,
Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom had an effect on his later thinking. At age
nineteen, he decided to join the Dominican Order, which drew many negative
reactions from family.

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Aristotle

Aristotle
was one of Plato’s greatest students. He lived from 384 BC to 322 BC. His father
worked as a physician for the Mecadonian king. At the age of seven Aristotle was
sent to the academy to pursue his studies. His journey at the academy took him
from being merely a student at the beginning to a researcher followed by being a
teacher. He used dialogue form to understand, adopt and develop Platonic ideas
and express them. After leaving Athens Aristotle went to Asia Minor in Assos to
open a branch of academy. This branch focused more on biology as oppose to the
one in Athens that focused on mathematics.

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Descartes

The
world famous French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and writer Rene
Descartes was born on the 31st of March 1596 and died on the 11th of February
1650. Even though he had a short life of 54 years, he was a very accomplished
man. He spent the majority of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been
honored with the title of being the “father of modern philosophy.” He was born
in La Haye en Touraine in Indre-et-Loire, France. His mother passed away when he
was only a year old and his father raised him all alone. At a young eleven years
of age he entered the Jesuit College Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Fleche and
graduation from there he went on to pursue higher studies in a University. This
was the University of Poitiers and from there he obtained a degree in law. It
was his father’s wish that he become a lawyer.

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Hegel

On August
27, 1770, in Stuttgart, Georg Ludwig Hegel, a revenue officer with the Dutch of
Wurttemberg became a father. His son was named Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and
he died in 1831. Hegel was raised in a very strong protestant atmosphere with
big influential powers such as his parents. However his mother passed away when
he was just eleven years old. The psychosis of Hegel’s sister that could be
traced back to her jealousy towards his wife helped him develop psychiatric
ideas that were based on the concepts of dialectics.

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Hobbes

In the year 1588, Thomas Hobbes was born in the city of London, England. He
died on the 4th of December 1679. Hobbes received his college education from the
prestigious Oxford University in England. After graduating with a degree in the
classics he took on the job of traveling to other European countries. He did so
several times and met with the scientists in order to study the different types
of governments there were. It became of a great big interest to Hobbes to
investigate the reason people did not mind being ruled upon. This grew out to
spark Hobbes’ curiosity as to what type of governing entity would suit England
the best. Leviathan, 1651 was Hobbes’ most famous written work, in which he made
arguments such as, that people are not fit to trusted to become the government
because they are naturally wicked.

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Hume

David Hume was a great Scottish Philosopher and Historian. He lived from the
7th of May 1711 to the 25th of August 1776. He is regarded and renowned as one
of the key figures in the Scottish Enlightenment and the Western Philosophy.
During his lifetime Hume gained more fame and prestige by being known as a
historian rather than a philosopher. Today he is more renowned as a philosopher;
however back in his day his works such as the six-volume History of England was
one of the greatest bestsellers. He attended the University of Edinburgh at the
unusually young age of 12 years. Although he had the option of choosing law as a
career and making a decent life out of it, he seemed to be naturally drawn
towards philosophy, as such chose a career in that.

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Kant

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 and he died on February 12, 1804. He
was the son of the herness maker Johann Georg Kant. He was born and brought in
the capital of East Prussia, which is called Konigsberg and he never traveled
too far out of his homeland. In fact it is said that he maintained a traveling
diameter of 70 miles within the capital and never went beyond that. Kant was
sent to the Collegium Fredericianum that was directed by Kant’s family pastor.
This happened when he was eight years old on 1732. Unfortunately at the age of
thirteen his mother was infected and diagnosed with Rheumatic fever and died
shortly after. It was a devastating event in Kant’s life. At the age of sixteen
Kant went to the Albertus University of Königsberg as a student of philosophy
and pursued this higher learning until his father passed away in 1746.

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Kierkegaard

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian and
psychologist. Born on May 5th, 1813, he talked of the priority of concrete human
realities and the importance of personal choice and commitment till his death on
November 11th, 1855. He is known as one of the most influential thinkers in the
field of contemporary thought.

Kierkegaard is known for distinguishing his philosophical, theological and
psychological methods and regarded as the father of existentialism. Born in
Copenhagen, he was introduced to the concept of sin and penance and its
relationship with the Church by his father at an early age. Apart from his
father, Kierkegaard’s mother and fiancée Regine Olsen were two of the biggest
influences on his thinking.

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Locke

On August 29 in the year 1632, John Locke was born in the small village of
Somerset in Wrington. He died in Lady and Lord Masham’s country house in Essex
on 28th October 1704. His early childhood was very unfortunate as his mother
passed away while he was just an infant. His father passed away shortly after
his mother did, leaving him an orphan. He studied in the renowned Westminster
school from 1646 onwards and graduated from the University of Oxford in 1652.
His early studies were in the classics from Greek, Rhetoric, Moral Philosophy
and many more. Following that in the later years he underwent training in
medicine and experimental science. After that in the year 1666 he practiced
medicine on then famous Anthony aka Lord Anthony. This treatment fortunately
lead to a great friendship between the two men.

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