Thinkers

The life, the arguments and the books of every thinker in the academy, and what people get wrong about each one.

• Socratesc. 470–399 BCE, AthensWisdom starts with admitting how little you know.
• Platoc. 428–348 BCE, AthensBehind messy appearances lie perfect, unchanging Forms.
• Aristotle384–322 BCE, Stagira and AthensCharacter is a habit; you become good by practising good.
• Epictetusc. 50–135 CE, Hierapolis, Rome and NicopolisFreedom is knowing exactly what is and isn't up to you.
• Marcus Aurelius121–180 CE, RomeEven an emperor must rehearse his own smallness and mortality.
• Senecac. 4 BCE–65 CE, Córdoba and RomeWe don't have too little time; we waste most of what we have.
• Epicurus341–270 BCE, Samos and AthensPleasure is the absence of pain, and it is cheaper than you think.
• Diogenes of Sinopec. 412–323 BCE, Sinope, Athens and CorinthMost of what you are anxious about is convention, and convention can be refused.
• Augustine of Hippo354–430 CE, Thagaste and Hippo, North AfricaDesire is restless until it finds something infinite to rest in.
• Thomas Aquinas1225–1274, Italy and ParisFaith and reason cannot really conflict, because both lead to the same truth.
• René Descartes1596–1650, France, the Dutch Republic and SwedenDoubt everything you can, and see what survives.
• David Hume1711–1776, EdinburghReason is far weaker than we think, and habit does most of the work.
• Immanuel Kant1724–1804, Königsberg, PrussiaThe mind does not passively receive the world; it actively shapes it.
• Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900, Prussia, Basel and TurinOur morality has a history, and it was not written by the strong.
• Jean-Paul Sartre1905–1980, ParisYou are nothing but what you make of yourself, and there is no excuse available.
• Albert Camus1913–1960, French Algeria and ParisLife has no built-in meaning, and that is not a reason to give up on it.
• Simone de Beauvoir1908–1986, ParisWomanhood is not a fact of biology but a situation that is built and can be rebuilt.
• Karl Marx1818–1883, Trier and LondonIdeas don't drive history; the way we produce our lives does.
• John Stuart Mill1806–1873, LondonLet people run their own lives, unless they are harming someone else.
• John Rawls1921–2002, Baltimore and HarvardDesign society as if you didn't know who in it you'd be.
• Siddhārtha Gautamac. 480–400 BCE, north-eastern IndiaDissatisfaction has a cause, and the cause can be dismantled.
• Nāgārjunac. 150–250 CE, southern IndiaNothing has a nature of its own; everything is what it is only in relation.
• Confucius (Kǒngzǐ)551–479 BCE, state of Lu, ChinaCharacter is made by practice, and practice is made of form.
• Laozitraditionally 6th century BCE; text c. 4th century BCE, ChinaThe way that can be spoken is not the constant way.
• Zhuangzic. 369–286 BCE, state of Meng, ChinaEvery standpoint looks obvious from inside it, including yours.
• Ludwig Wittgenstein1889–1951, Vienna and CambridgePhilosophical problems are confusions about how our words are working.
• Karl Popper1902–1994, Vienna and LondonA theory is scientific to the extent that it could be proved wrong.
• Thomas Kuhn1922–1996, United StatesScience changes by revolution, not by accumulation.
• Philippa Foot1920–2010, OxfordThere is a moral difference between doing harm and allowing it.
• Peter Singerb. 1946, Melbourne and PrincetonDistance does not reduce what you owe someone.
• Hannah Arendt1906–1975, Germany and the United StatesEnormous evil can be done by people who are not thinking.