World Philosophy Atlas

Timeline of World Philosophy

Every thinker on the site, century by century, with each tradition in its own lane: who was alive at the same time in Athens, Benares, Chang'an and Baghdad.

Being side by side here means being alive at the same time. It does not mean they knew of each other or influenced each other. For ideas that really travelled, see the Journeys, where every step is sourced.

Filters

Who was alive at the same time?

Year400 BCE

Bars show each life, or the known span, across two centuries around the year you choose. A dashed outline means the dates are approximate; a bar open at the right runs to today.

Traditions by century

How many thinkers on the site were active in each century, tradition by tradition. Choose a number to go to that century.

Thinkers by tradition (rows) and century (columns; B = BCE)
Tradition	8B	6B	5B	4B	3B	2B	1B	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Greek & Roman		5	9	6	3	1	2	4	2	3		1	1															3
Medieval Christian												1	1			1		1	5	4	5	2	3
Jewish				1				1									1	2	1		2				1	1	2
Islamic														1	1	4	5	9	4	1	3				1	1	6
Persian																		2	2	2				1
Indian	2	1	1	2		1		1	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	3	2	1	1	1	1					11
Buddhist			1			1			2		1	2	2	5	3						1						4
Chinese		2	2	4	3	2		1		2			1			1		4	1	1			1	2	1	1	5	1
Japanese & Korean																1			2	2	1	1	2	1	2	1	8
African & Africana																									1		18	3
Modern European																						1	6	14	27	24	15	2
Continental																										2	53	1
Analytic																										2	176	31
American																									4	7	49	1
Latin American																							1			2	15
Indigenous																											4

Century by century

692 thinkers

8th century BCE 2 thinkers

Indian

Uddālaka Āruṇi c. 8th century BCE
Yājñavalkya c. 8th – 7th century BCE (date of the texts that record him)

6th century BCE 8 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Thales c. 624 – 546 BCE
Anaximander c. 610 – 546 BCE
Anaximenes c. 586 – 526 BCE
Pythagoras c. 570 – 495 BCE
Xenophanes c. 570 – 478 BCE

Indian

Mahavira c. 599 – 527 BCE (traditional dates; many historians place him later)

Chinese

Laozi traditionally 6th century BCE (historicity uncertain)
Confucius trad. 551 – 479 BCE

5th century BCE 13 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Heraclitus c. 540 – 480 BCE
Parmenides c. 515 – 450 BCE
Anaxagoras c. 500 – 428 BCE
Empedocles c. 494 – 434 BCE
Protagoras c. 490 – 420 BCE
Zeno of Elea c. 490 – 430 BCE
Gorgias c. 483 – 375 BCE
Socrates 469 or 470 – 399 BCE
Democritus c. 460 – 370 BCE

Indian

Ajita Kesakambali contemporary of the Buddha (c. 5th century BCE)

Buddhist

The Buddha c. 480 – 400 BCE (disputed)

Chinese

Sunzi c. 5th century BCE
Mozi c. 470 – c. 391 BCE

4th century BCE 13 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Xenophon c. 430 – c. 354 BCE
Plato c. 428 – 348 BCE
Diogenes of Sinope c. 412 – 323 BCE
Diodorus Cronus c. 4th – 3rd century BCE
Aristotle 384 – 322 BCE
Pyrrho c. 360 – 270 BCE

Jewish

Qoheleth c. 4th – 3rd century BCE

Indian

Kaṇāda c. 6th – 2nd century BCE (disputed)
Kauṭilya trad. 4th century BCE

Chinese

Shang Yang c. 390 – 338 BCE
Mencius trad. c. 372 – 289 BCE
Zhuangzi c. 369 – c. 286 BCE
Hui Shi fl. 313 BCE

3rd century BCE 6 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Zeno of Citium c. 334 – 262 BCE
Arcesilaus c. 316 – 241 BCE
Chrysippus c. 280 – 207 BCE

Chinese

Gongsun Long c. 320 – 250 BCE
Xunzi c. 310 – after 238 BCE
Han Feizi c. 280 – 233 BCE

2nd century BCE 5 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Carneades c. 214 – 129 BCE

Indian

Bharata c. 200 BCE – 200 CE (date of the text)

Buddhist

Nagasena trad. 2nd century BCE

Chinese

Dong Zhongshu 179 – 104 BCE
Sima Qian c. 145 – 86 BCE

1st century BCE 2 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Cicero 106 – 43 BCE
Lucretius c. 99 – 55 BCE

1st century 7 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Seneca c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
Agrippa c. 1st century CE
Longinus c. 1st century CE
Epictetus c. 50 – c. 135 CE

Jewish

Philo of Alexandria c. 15/10 BCE – 45/50 CE

Indian

Patañjali c. 2nd century BCE – c. 400 CE (date of the text, disputed)

Chinese

Wang Chong 27 – c. 100 CE

2nd century 5 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Sextus Empiricus fl. 2nd century CE
Marcus Aurelius 121 – 180

Indian

Gautama (Akṣapāda) trad. c. 2nd century CE

Buddhist

Aśvaghoṣa c. 80 – c. 150 CE
Nagarjuna c. 150 – c. 250 CE

3rd century 6 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Diogenes Laërtius fl. 3rd century CE
Plotinus c. 204 – 270
Porphyry c. 234 – 305

Indian

Kundakunda trad. 2nd – 3rd century CE (disputed)

Chinese

Wang Bi 226 – 249
Guo Xiang d. 312

4th century 3 thinkers

Indian

Umāsvāti c. 2nd – 5th century CE (disputed)
Īśvarakṛṣṇa fl. c. 350 CE

Buddhist

Asaṅga fl. 4th century CE

5th century 6 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Proclus 412 – 485

Medieval Christian

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite fl. c. 500

Indian

Bhartrhari c. 5th century CE
Thiruvalluvar fl. c. 5th century

Buddhist

Vasubandhu c. 4th – 5th century CE
Buddhaghosa fl. 5th century CE

6th century 6 thinkers

Greek & Roman

John Philoponus c. 490 – 570

Medieval Christian

Boethius c. 480 – 524

Indian

Gauḍapāda fl. c. 6th century

Buddhist

Dignāga c. 480 – 540
Jizang 549 – 623

Chinese

Zhiyi 538 – 597

7th century 8 thinkers

Islamic

Abu Dharr al-Ghifari d. 652

Indian

Prabhākara fl. c. 7th century CE
Kumārila Bhaṭṭa fl. c. 660 CE

Buddhist

Dharmakīrti c. 6th – 7th century CE
Candrakīrti c. 600 – c. 650
Xuanzang c. 602 – 664
Huineng 638 – 713
Fazang 643 – 712

8th century 6 thinkers

Islamic

Al-Shaybani 749 – 805

Indian

Adi Shankara c. 700 – 750 CE (traditional dates 788 – 820)
Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa fl. c. 800

Buddhist

Dharmottara c. 8th century CE
Śāntideva fl. early 8th century
Śāntarakṣita c. 725 – c. 788

9th century 9 thinkers

Medieval Christian

John Scottus Eriugena c. 800 – c. 877

Islamic

Al-Shafi’i 767 – 820
Al-Jahiz c. 776 – 869
Al-Khwarizmi c. 780 – 850
Al-Kindi c. 800 – 870

Indian

Bhatta Lollata c. 9th century CE
Sankuka c. 9th century

Chinese

Linji Yixuan d. 866

Japanese & Korean

Kūkai 774 – 835

10th century 9 thinkers

Jewish

Saadia Gaon 882 – 942

Islamic

Abu Bakr al-Razi c. 865 – c. 925
Al-Farabi c. 870 – 950
Al-Ash’ari 874 – 936
al-Māturīdī d. 944
Miskawayh c. 932 – 1030

Indian

Bhatta Nayaka c. 10th century CE
Abhinavagupta fl. c. 1000
Kṣemarāja fl. c. 1000

11th century 20 thinkers

Medieval Christian

Anselm 1033 – 1109

Jewish

Solomon ibn Gabirol c. 1021 – c. 1058
Baḥya ibn Paqūda c. 1050 – c. 1120

Islamic

Ibn al-Haytham c. 965 – 1040
Ibn Sina c. 970 – 1037
Al-Mawardi 972 – 1058
Al-Biruni 973 – c. 1050
Al-Ma’arri 973 – 1057
Al-Qushayri 986 – 1072
Ibn Hazm 994 – 1064
Ibn Butlan d. 1066
Al-Ghazali c. 1056 – 1111

Persian

Nasir Khusraw 1004 – after 1072
Omar Khayyam 1048 – 1131

Indian

Udayana 11th century CE
Rāmānuja c. 1017 – 1137

Chinese

Zhou Dunyi 1017 – 1073
Zhang Zai 1020 – 1077
Cheng Hao 1032 – 1085
Cheng Yi 1033 – 1107

12th century 16 thinkers

Medieval Christian

Peter Abelard 1079 – 1142
Hugh of Saint Victor c. 1096 – 1141
Peter Lombard c. 1096 – 1160
Hildegard of Bingen 1098 – 1179
Heloise c. 1100 – 1164

Jewish

Judah Halevi c. 1075 – 1141

Islamic

Ibn Bajja c. 1085 – 1138
Ibn Tufayl c. 1110 – 1185
Ibn Rushd 1126 – 1198
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi 1149 – 1209 or 1210

Persian

Farid al-Din Attar c. 1145 – c. 1221
Suhrawardi 1154 – 1191

Indian

Sriharsa c. 12th century CE

Chinese

Yuanwu Keqin 1063 – 1135

Japanese & Korean

Kamo no Chōmei c. 1155 – 1216
Jinul 1158 – 1210

13th century 11 thinkers

Medieval Christian

Bonaventure c. 1221 – 1274
Ramon Llull c. 1232 – 1316
Marguerite Porete d. 1310
Meister Eckhart c. 1260 – c. 1328

Islamic

Ibn Arabi 1165 – 1240

Persian

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī 1201 – 1274
Rumi 1207 – 1273

Indian

Madhva c. 1238 – 1317

Chinese

Wumen Huikai 1183 – 1260

Japanese & Korean

Shinran 1173 – 1263
Nichiren 1222 – 1282

14th century 13 thinkers

Medieval Christian

Dante Alighieri 1265 – 1321
Duns Scotus c. 1266 – 1308
Marsilius of Padua c. 1275 – c. 1342
William of Ockham c. 1287 – 1347
Julian of Norwich c. 1343 – after 1416

Jewish

Gersonides 1288 – 1344
Hasdai Crescas c. 1340 – 1410/11

Islamic

Ibn Taymiyya 1263 – 1328
Al-Shatibi d. 1388
Ibn Khaldun 1332 – 1406

Indian

Gangesa c. 14th century CE

Buddhist

Tsongkhapa 1357 – 1419

Japanese & Korean

Yoshida Kenkō c. 1283 – c. 1350

15th century 5 thinkers

Medieval Christian

Christine de Pizan 1364 – c. 1430
Nicholas of Cusa 1401 – 1464

Indian

Raghunātha Śiromaṇi c. 1460 – 1540

Japanese & Korean

Zeami c. 1363 – 1443

Modern European

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1463 – 1494

16th century 13 thinkers

Medieval Christian

Francisco de Vitoria c. 1483 – 1546
Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
Francisco Suárez 1548 – 1617

Chinese

Wang Yangming 1472 – 1529

Japanese & Korean

Sen no Rikyū 1522 – 1591
Yi I 1536 – 1584

Modern European

Desiderius Erasmus c. 1466 – 1536
Niccolò Machiavelli 1469 – 1527
Thomas More 1478 – 1535
Jean Bodin 1530 – 1596
Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600

Latin American

Bartolomé de las Casas 1484 – 1566

17th century 18 thinkers

Persian

Mulla Sadra c. 1571 – 1635/6

Chinese

Huang Zongxi 1610 – 1695
Wang Fuzhi 1619 – 1692

Japanese & Korean

Itō Jinsai 1627 – 1705

Modern European

Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
Thomas Hobbes 1588 – 1679
René Descartes 1596 – 1650
Elisabeth of Bohemia 1618 – 1680
Blaise Pascal 1623 – 1662
Margaret Cavendish 1623 – 1673
Anne Conway 1631 – 1679
Baruch Spinoza 1632 – 1677
John Locke 1632 – 1704
Nicolas Malebranche 1638 – 1715
Isaac Newton 1643 – 1727
G. W. Leibniz 1646 – 1716

18th century 37 thinkers

Jewish

Moses Mendelssohn 1729 – 1786

Islamic

Shah Waliullah 1703 – 1762

Chinese

Dai Zhen 1724 – 1777

Japanese & Korean

Ogyū Sorai 1666 – 1728
Hakuin Ekaku 1686 – 1769

African & Africana

Anton Wilhelm Amo c. 1703 – after 1752

Modern European

Mary Astell 1666 – 1731
Giambattista Vico 1668 – 1744
Bernard Mandeville 1670 – 1733
Samuel Clarke 1675 – 1729
George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
Joseph Butler 1692 – 1752
Francis Hutcheson 1694 – 1746
Voltaire 1694 – 1778
Thomas Bayes 1702 – 1761
Émilie du Châtelet 1706 – 1749
Julien Offray de La Mettrie 1709 – 1751
Thomas Reid 1710 – 1796
David Hume 1711 – 1776
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
Cesare Beccaria 1738 – 1794
Marquis de Condorcet 1743 – 1794
William Paley 1743 – 1805
Johann Herder 1744 – 1803
Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
Olympe de Gouges 1748 – 1793
Brillat-Savarin 1755 – 1826
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759 – 1797

American

Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
John Jay 1745 – 1829
James Madison 1751 – 1836
Alexander Hamilton 1755 or 1757 – 1804

19th century 41 thinkers

Jewish

Hermann Cohen 1842 – 1918

Islamic

Muhammad Abduh 1849 – 1905

Chinese

Tan Sitong 1865 – 1898

Analytic

Gottlob Frege 1848 – 1925
Giuseppe Peano 1858 – 1932

American

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 – 1882
Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862
Frederick Douglass 1818 – 1895
C. S. Peirce 1839 – 1914
Anna Julia Cooper 1858 – 1964
Franz Boas 1858 – 1942
Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860 – 1935

Latin American

Simón Bolívar 1783 – 1830
José Martí 1853 – 1895

20th century 366 thinkers

Jewish

Franz Rosenzweig 1886 – 1929
Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907 – 1972

Islamic

Muhammad Iqbal 1877 – 1938
Fazlur Rahman 1919 – 1988
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas 1931 – 2026
Ali Shariati 1933 – 1977
Seyyed Hossein Nasr b. 1933
Fatima Mernissi 1940 – 2015

Indian

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
Vivekananda 1863 – 1902
Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
Aurobindo 1872 – 1950
Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya 1875 – 1949
Radhakrishnan 1888 – 1975
B. R. Ambedkar 1891 – 1956
Jiddu Krishnamurti 1895 – 1986
Daya Krishna 1924 – 2007
Mohanty 1928 – 2023
Matilal 1935 – 1991

Buddhist

Alan Watts 1915 – 1973
Thich Nhat Hanh 1926 – 2022
14th Dalai Lama b. 1935
Jay L. Garfield b. 1955

Chinese

Xiong Shili 1885 – 1968
Feng Youlan 1895 – 1990
Mou Zongsan 1909 – 1995
Li Zehou 1930 – 2021
Benjamin Hoff b. 1946

Japanese & Korean

Nitobe Inazō 1862 – 1933
Okakura Kakuzō 1863 – 1913
D. T. Suzuki 1870 – 1966
Tanabe Hajime 1885 – 1962
Kuki Shūzō 1888 – 1941
Watsuji Tetsurō 1889 – 1960
Nishitani Keiji 1900 – 1990
Ichiro Kishimi b. 1956

African & Africana

Placide Tempels 1906 – 1977
Kwame Nkrumah 1909 – 1972
Aimé Césaire 1913 – 2008
Julius Nyerere 1922 – 1999
Amílcar Cabral 1924 – 1973
Frantz Fanon 1925 – 1961
Desmond Tutu 1931 – 2021
John Mbiti 1931 – 2019
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1938 – 2025
Kwame Gyekye 1939 – 2019
Ifeanyi Menkiti 1940 – 2019
V. Y. Mudimbe 1941 – 2025
Paulin Hountondji 1942 – 2024
H. Odera Oruka 1944 – 1995
Lucius Outlaw b. 1944
Steve Biko 1946 – 1977
Achille Mbembe b. 1957
Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí b. 1957

Modern European

A. N. Whitehead 1861 – 1947
Pierre Duhem 1861 – 1916
David Hilbert 1862 – 1943
Max Weber 1864 – 1920
J. M. E. McTaggart 1866 – 1925
Emma Goldman 1869 – 1940
Rudolf Otto 1869 – 1937
Johan Huizinga 1872 – 1945
Hermann Hesse 1877 – 1962
Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
Edward Bullough 1880 – 1934
Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
Frederick Copleston 1907 – 1994
Jostein Gaarder b. 1952

Continental

Miguel de Unamuno 1864 – 1936
José Ortega y Gasset 1883 – 1955
Karl Jaspers 1883 – 1969
György Lukács 1885 – 1971
Paul Tillich 1886 – 1965
Carl Schmitt 1888 – 1985
Martin Heidegger 1889 – 1976
Antonio Gramsci 1891 – 1937
Edith Stein 1891 – 1942
Walter Benjamin 1892 – 1940
Max Horkheimer 1895 – 1973
Herbert Marcuse 1898 – 1979
Sergei Eisenstein 1898 – 1948
Leo Strauss 1899 – 1973
Erich Fromm 1900 – 1980
Hans-Georg Gadamer 1900 – 2002
Hans Jonas 1903 – 1993
Theodor W. Adorno 1903 – 1969
Georges Canguilhem 1904 – 1995
Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
Viktor Frankl 1905 – 1997
Hannah Arendt 1906 – 1975
Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1908 – 1961
Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
Simone Weil 1909 – 1943
Chaim Perelman 1912 – 1984
Jacques Ellul 1912 – 1994
Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
Paul Ricoeur 1913 – 2005
Roger Caillois 1913 – 1978
Roland Barthes 1915 – 1980
André Bazin 1918 – 1958
Jean-François Lyotard 1924 – 1998
Gilles Deleuze 1925 – 1995
Michel Foucault 1926 – 1984
Hubert Dreyfus 1929 – 2017
Jean Baudrillard 1929 – 2007
Jürgen Habermas 1929 – 2026
Milan Kundera 1929 – 2023
Jacques Derrida 1930 – 2004
Luce Irigaray b. 1930
Pierre Bourdieu 1930 – 2002
Charles Taylor b. 1931
Umberto Eco 1932 – 2016
Anthony Giddens b. 1938
Giorgio Agamben b. 1942
Robert C. Solomon 1942 – 2007
Nancy Fraser b. 1947
Slavoj Žižek b. 1949
Kathleen Higgins b. 1954
Judith Butler b. 1956
Byung-Chul Han b. 1959
Simon Critchley b. 1960

Analytic

Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
G. E. Moore 1873 – 1958
W. D. Ross 1877 – 1971
Jan Łukasiewicz 1878 – 1956
Ernst Mally 1879 – 1944
Clive Bell 1881 – 1964
L. E. J. Brouwer 1881 – 1966
Otto Neurath 1882 – 1945
C. I. Lewis 1883 – 1964
Stanisław Leśniewski 1886 – 1939
Walter Stace 1886 – 1967
C. D. Broad 1887 – 1971
Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
Rudolf Carnap 1891 – 1970
Friedrich Hayek 1899 – 1992
Gilbert Ryle 1900 – 1976
Alfred Tarski 1901 – 1983
Michael Oakeshott 1901 – 1990
Karl Popper 1902 – 1994
Lon Fuller 1902 – 1978
Frank Ramsey 1903 – 1930
Ernst Mayr 1904 – 2005
Carl Hempel 1905 – 1997
Bruno de Finetti 1906 – 1985
Kurt Gödel 1906 – 1978
Nelson Goodman 1906 – 1998
H. L. A. Hart 1907 – 1992
W. K. Wimsatt 1907 – 1975
W. V. O. Quine 1908 – 2000
Gerhard Gentzen 1909 – 1945
Isaiah Berlin 1909 – 1997
Stephen Kleene 1909 – 1994
A. J. Ayer 1910 – 1989
J. L. Austin 1911 – 1960
Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
Arne Naess 1912 – 2009
Wilfrid Sellars 1912 – 1989
Paul Grice 1913 – 1988
Arthur Prior 1914 – 1969
Monroe Beardsley 1915 – 1985
G. H. von Wright 1916 – 2003
Herbert Simon 1916 – 2001
Morris Weitz 1916 – 1981
Peter Geach 1916 – 2013
Roderick Chisholm 1916 – 1999
Donald Davidson 1917 – 2003
J. L. Mackie 1917 – 1981
Elizabeth Anscombe 1919 – 2001
Iris Murdoch 1919 – 1999
Mary Midgley 1919 – 2018
Peter Strawson 1919 – 2006
R. M. Hare 1919 – 2002
R. S. Peters 1919 – 2011
J. J. C. Smart 1920 – 2012
Philippa Foot 1920 – 2010
John Rawls 1921 – 2002
Lotfi Zadeh 1921 – 2017
William Alston 1921 – 2009
C. L. Hamblin 1922 – 1985
Imre Lakatos 1922 – 1974
John Hick 1922 – 2012
Stephen Toulmin 1922 – 2009
Frank Sibley 1923 – 1996
Philip Anderson 1923 – 2020
Richard Wollheim 1923 – 2003
Arthur Danto 1924 – 2013
Paul Feyerabend 1924 – 1994
U. T. Place 1924 – 2000
Bernard Suits 1925 – 2007
Wesley Salmon 1925 – 2001
David Armstrong 1926 – 2014
George Dickie 1926 – 2020
Hilary Putnam 1926 – 2016
Peter Winch 1926 – 1997
Richard Jeffrey 1926 – 2002
Edmund Gettier 1927 – 2021
Endel Tulving 1927 – 2023
E. D. Hirsch b. 1928
John Bell 1928 – 1990
Alasdair MacIntyre 1929 – 2025
Bernard Williams 1929 – 2003
Harry Frankfurt 1929 – 2023
Jaakko Hintikka 1929 – 2015
Judith Jarvis Thomson 1929 – 2020
Nel Noddings 1929 – 2022
Newton da Costa 1929 – 2024
Virginia Held 1929 – 2026
Robert Aumann b. 1930
Paul Benacerraf 1931 – 2025
Ronald Dworkin 1931 – 2013
William Rowe 1931 – 2015
Alvin Plantinga b. 1932
Arnold Berleant b. 1932
David Gauthier 1932 – 2023
Fred Dretske 1932 – 2013
Holmes Rolston III 1932 – 2025
John Searle 1932 – 2025
Amartya Sen b. 1933
Ruth Millikan b. 1933
Jaegwon Kim 1934 – 2019
Peter Kivy 1934 – 2017
Richard Swinburne b. 1934
Jerry Fodor 1935 – 2017
Michael Walzer b. 1935
C. A. J. Coady b. 1936
Ian Hacking 1936 – 2023
Cora Diamond b. 1937
Robert Adams 1937 – 2024
Thomas Nagel b. 1937
Alvin Goldman 1938 – 2024
Robert Kane b. 1938
Robert Nozick 1938 – 2002
Tom Regan 1938 – 2017
Joseph Raz 1939 – 2022
Tom L. Beauchamp 1939 – 2025
Carole Pateman b. 1940
Ernest Sosa b. 1940
James F. Childress b. 1940
Peter Klein b. 1940
Robert Stalnaker b. 1940
Saul Kripke 1940 – 2022
T. M. Scanlon b. 1940
Bas van Fraassen b. 1941
David Lewis 1941 – 2001
G. A. Cohen 1941 – 2009
James Rachels 1941 – 2003
Larry Laudan 1941 – 2022
Marilyn Frye b. 1941
Brandon Carter b. 1942
Daniel Dennett 1942 – 2024
Derek Parfit 1942 – 2017
Douglas Walton 1942 – 2020
Paul Churchland b. 1942
Peter van Inwagen b. 1942
Allen Carlson 1943 – 2025
Frank Jackson b. 1943
Laurence BonJour b. 1943
Rosalind Hursthouse b. 1943
Helen Longino b. 1944
Nancy Cartwright b. 1944
Roger Scruton 1944 – 2020
Roy Bhaskar 1944 – 2014
Simon Blackburn b. 1944
Steven Katz b. 1944
Michael Oliver 1945 – 2019
Philip Pettit b. 1945
Susan Haack 1945 – 2026
Eva Kittay b. 1946
Frans van Eemeren b. 1946
Hartry Field b. 1946
Jerome Wakefield b. 1946
Kit Fine b. 1946
Peter Singer b. 1946
Susan Moller Okin 1946 – 2004
Gerd Gigerenzer b. 1947
Martha Nussbaum b. 1947
Noël Carroll b. 1947
Graham Priest b. 1948
Jerrold Levinson b. 1948
Iris Marion Young 1949 – 2006
William Lane Craig b. 1949
Carolyn Korsmeyer b. 1950
Charles W. Mills 1951 – 2021
Christine Korsgaard b. 1952
Susan Wolf b. 1952
Michael Sandel b. 1953
Yuriko Saito b. 1953
Kwame Anthony Appiah b. 1954
Michael Smith b. 1954
Sally Haslanger b. 1955
Timothy Williamson b. 1955
Derk Pereboom b. 1957
Berys Gaut b. 1958
Elizabeth Anderson b. 1959
Alex Byrne b. 1960
Christopher Boorse active 1970s – present

American

Black Elk 1863 – 1950
George Herbert Mead 1863 – 1931
George Santayana 1863 – 1952
W. E. B. Du Bois 1868 – 1963
Kahlil Gibran 1883 – 1931
Will Durant 1885 – 1981
Aldo Leopold 1887 – 1948
Norbert Wiener 1894 – 1964
B. F. Skinner 1904 – 1990
Ayn Rand 1905 – 1982
John Wheeler 1911 – 2008
Marshall McLuhan 1911 – 1980
Milton Friedman 1912 – 2006
Claude Shannon 1916 – 2001
David Bohm 1917 – 1992
Betty Friedan 1921 – 2006
Thomas Kuhn 1922 – 1996
James Baldwin 1924 – 1987
Malcolm X 1925 – 1965
Clifford Geertz 1926 – 2006
Stanley Cavell 1926 – 2018
Hayden White 1928 – 2018
Robert M. Pirsig 1928 – 2017
Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
Hugh Everett III 1930 – 1982
Richard Rorty 1931 – 2007
Vine Deloria Jr. 1933 – 2005
Audre Lorde 1934 – 1992
Don Ihde 1934 – 2024
Carol Gilligan b. 1936
V. F. Cordova 1937 – 2002
Daniel Klein b. 1939
Stephen Jay Gould 1941 – 2002
Angela Davis b. 1944
Donna Haraway b. 1944
Elizabeth Loftus b. 1944
Langdon Winner b. 1944
Douglas Hofstadter b. 1945
Shulamith Firestone 1945 – 2012
Catharine MacKinnon b. 1946
Philip Kitcher b. 1947
Patricia Hill Collins b. 1948
Richard Tarnas b. 1950
R. Edward Freeman b. 1951
Francis Fukuyama b. 1952
bell hooks 1952 – 2021
Cornel West b. 1953
Robin Wall Kimmerer b. 1953
Helen Nissenbaum b. 1954

Latin American

José Enrique Rodó 1871 – 1917
José Vasconcelos 1882 – 1959
Samuel Ramos 1897 – 1959
Leopoldo Zea 1912 – 2004
Octavio Paz 1914 – 1998
Paulo Freire 1921 – 1997
Rodolfo Kusch 1922 – 1979
Augusto Salazar Bondy 1925 – 1974
Miguel León-Portilla 1926 – 2019
Gustavo Gutiérrez 1928 – 2024
Walter Mignolo b. 1941
Gloria Anzaldúa 1942 – 2004
María Lugones 1944 – 2020
Ailton Krenak b. 1953
Davi Kopenawa b. c. 1956

Indigenous

Vine Deloria Jr. 1933 – 2005
V. F. Cordova 1937 – 2002
Ailton Krenak b. 1953
Robin Wall Kimmerer b. 1953

21st century 42 thinkers

Greek & Roman

Chinese

Bryan W. Van Norden b. 1962

African & Africana

Lewis R. Gordon b. 1962
Mogobe Ramose fl. 1980s – 2020s
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò b. 1990

Modern European

Sarah Bakewell b. 1963
Alain de Botton b. 1969

Continental

Martin Hägglund b. 1976

Analytic

Rae Langton b. 1961
Nigel Warburton b. 1962
Stuart Russell b. 1962
Will Kymlicka b. 1962
Jonathan Haidt b. 1963
David Edmonds b. 1964
Luciano Floridi b. 1964
Peter Godfrey-Smith b. 1965
David Benatar b. 1966
David Chalmers b. 1966
J. C. Beall b. 1966
Miranda Fricker b. 1966
Talia Mae Bettcher b. 1966
Theodore Sider b. 1967
Julian Baggini b. 1968
Greg Restall b. 1969
Peter Adamson b. 1972
Nick Bostrom b. 1973
Agnes Callard b. 1976
Philip Goff b. 1978
Jason Brennan b. 1979
Toby Ord b. 1979
Frances Kamm active 1980s – present
Kate Manne b. 1983
Amia Srinivasan b. 1984
William MacAskill b. 1987
Trenton Merricks active 1990s – present
Adam Elga active 2000s – present
Elizabeth Barnes active 2000s – present
Shannon Vallor active 2000s – present
Thomas Kelly active 2000s – present

American

Matthew Crawford b. 1965

How people are placed: in the century when they were active, which is about age 40, or the middle of their known dates, or the century given for them. Living thinkers run to today. Regions come from the Atlas places and, where a tradition belongs to one region, from the tradition. 3 thinkers are left out because their dates are not known well enough to place.