Philosophy in Credo: Western Philosophy

Greek philosopher, b. Stagira. He is sometimes called the Stagirite. Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great and founded the Peripatetic School. Aristotle studied (367–347 B.C.) under Plato at the Academy and there wrote many dialogues that were praised for their eloquence. Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was a noted physician.

Philosopher; particularly made his mark in the application of his theories of the universe to everyday morality and the simple goal of living a good life. Ancient writers believed that Democritus was the student of Leucippus. They are associated together as the first philosophers to hypothesize that invisible material objects—atoms—make up the universe.

Greek philosopher, b. Samos; son of an Athenian colonist. He claimed to be self-taught, although tradition states that he was schooled in the systems of Plato and Democritus by his father and various philosophers.

Greek philosopher. Plato's teachings have been among the most influential in the history of Western civilization.

Neoplatonist philosopher. A native of Egypt, perhaps of Roman descent, he went to Alexandria c.232 to devote himself to philosophy.

Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, founder of the Pythagorean school, best known for two teachings: the transmigration of souls and the theory that numbers constitute the true nature of things. Migrated from his native Samos to Crotona and established a secret religious society or order similar to, and possibly influenced by, the earlier Orphic cult.

Greek philosopher of Athens. Famous for his view of philosophy as a pursuit proper and necessary to all intelligent men, he is one of the great examples of a man who lived by his principles even though they ultimately cost him his life.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Scholastic philosopher, Doctor of the Church, called the Universal Doctor.

From Encyclopedia of World Religions
Scottish Franciscan theologian and philosopher, also known as Blessed John Duns Scotus; Johannes Duns Scotus. Duns Scotus was the foremost Franciscan metaphysician, philosopher, and theologian of the Middle Ages. He lectured at Oxford, Paris, and Cologne, where his remains are venerated. His celebrated argument for the existence of God is called On God as the First Principle. Known as the Subtle Doctor or the Marian Doctor, he had many followers and influenced theologians of the Protestant Reformation centuries later. Somewhat ironically, his name became the source for the epithet “dunce.” He was beatified by John Paul II in 1994.

French scholastic philosopher, teacher, and theologian. Born near Nantes, W France. He studied under Roscellinus and Guillaume de Champeaux (c.1070–1171). As lecturer in the cathedral school of Notre Dame in Paris, he became tutor to Héloïse, the 17-year-old niece of the canon Fulbert. They fell passionately in love; his love affair with Héloïse is one of the famous romances of history.

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Saint, called Anselm of Canterbury, Italian-born English philosophical theologian.

Italian theologian, scholastic philosopher, and Dominican friar, whose works include Summa contra Gentiles (1259-64) and Summa Theologiae (1267-73), the first attempt at a comprehensive theological system.

Dutch Humanist, scholar, and author (1466 or 1469-1536). Born in Rotterdam but determined to become a "citizen of the world," Erasmus earned that citizenship and with it a reputation as the chief intellectual of the European Renaissance.

Italian philosopher, b. Nola. The son of a professional soldier, he entered the Dominican order early in his youth and was ordained a priest in 1572, but was accused of heresy and fled (c.1576) to take up a career of study and travel. Bruno was the first to enunciate what is now called the cosmic theory, he pictured the world as composed of individual elements of being, governed by fixed laws of relationship. These elements, called monads, were in constant motion, ultimate, and irreducible and were based on a pantheistic infinite principle, or cause, or Deity, manifest in us and in all the world.

Italian author and statesman, one of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, b. Florence. Niccolò Machiavelli has exerted an extraordinary influence on modern thought and practice throughout the world. His writings and career are subject to varied interpretations, but the most common have given rise to a word found in most languages, Machiavellianism, suggesting deceit, tyranny, and the dictum that the end justifies the means.

Born in London on 7 February 1478, and executed on Tower Hill in the same city on 6 July 1535. English statesman and author of Utopia, celebrated as a martyr in the Roman Catholic Church. He received a Latin education in the household of Cardinal Morton and at Oxford.

Italian philosopher and Dominican friar. During his imprisonment by the Spaniards (1599-1626) he wrote his celebrated utopian fantasy, La città del sole.

Hume was born David Home on 7 May 1711 in Edinburgh, and died there on 25 August 1776. When David Home (as his name was spelled then) entered the University of Edinburgh in 1723-25, his family expected him to pursue a career in the law. Hume, however, soon turned his attention to philosophy.

English philosopher, politician, and writer, a founder of modern scientific research; Viscount St. Albans. His works include Essays (1597, revised and augmented 1612 and 1625), characterized by pith and brevity; The Advancement of Learning (1605), a seminal work discussing scientific method; Novum Organum (1620), in which he redefined the task of natural science.

Irish philosopher and cleric. Drawing on the empiricism of John Locke, he argued that there is no existence independent of subjective perception (esse est percipi).

German philosopher and mathematician who was one of the founders of the differential calculus and symbolic logic.

German metaphysician, one of the greatest figures in philosophy. German idealist philosopher. He sought to determine the limits of man's knowledge in Critique of Pure Reason (1781).

Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer who held that the individual is essentially good but usually corrupted by society. His written works include The Social Contract and Émile (both 1762). Few people have equaled Rousseau's influence in politics, literature, and education. What was new and important about his educational philosophy, as outlined in Émile, was its rejection of the traditional ideal: education was not seen to be the imparting of all things to be known to the uncouth child; rather it was seen as the "drawing out" of what is already there, the fostering of what is native.

Locke was born on 29 August 1632 at Wrington, Somerset, into a Puritan family of the minor gentry.

French philosopher and mathematician who worked in attempting to reduce the physical sciences to purely mathematical principles. With enough modest inherited wealth to live as he chose, he spent his life in travel, on his work in philosophy, mathematics, physics and physiology and as a soldier serving in Holland, Bohemia and Hungary.

English political philosopher. His greatest work is the Leviathan (1651), which contains his defence of absolute sovereignty. Hobbes was born at Westport (now a part of Malmesbury), Wiltshire on 5 April 1588. He died 4 December 1679 at Hardwick, Derbyshire.

French philosopher, founder of the school of philosophy known as positivism, educated in Paris.

American philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who cofounded pragmatism, made many contributions to logic, and was one of the original developers of semiotics.

Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, first came to prominence through the publication of his Logical Investigations (1900–1). It was on the basis of this book that the phenomenological movement was formed.

Post-Kantian German philosopher; put forward the concepts of the superman and the death of God in Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-85); one of the precursors of existentialism.

German idealist philosopher who interpreted nature and human history and culture as expressions of a dialectical process in which Spirit, or Mind, realizes its full potentiality. MORE

French philosopher, novelist, dramatist, and critic; chief French exponent of atheistic existentialism. Leading advocate of existentialism during the years following World War II.

British philosopher and jurist: a founder of utilitarianism.

British philosopher and economist; born in London on 20 May 1806 and died on 7 May 1873 in Avignon, in a house next to the cemetery where his wife was buried. Known especially for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism. His many works include A System of Logic (1843), Principles of Political Economy (1848), and The Subjection of Women (1869).

British philosopher born in Austria; explored language and meaning; influenced logical positivism.

German existentialist philosopher: he expounded his ontological system in Being and Time (1927). For Heidegger there was only one question, die Seinsfrage (the question of being).

Danish philosopher and religious thinker. Kierkegaard's outwardly uneventful life in Copenhagen contrasted with his intensive inner examination of self and society, which resulted in various profound writings.