SOME PHILOSOPHERS (AND OTHER THINKERS) YOU SHOULD GET TO KNOW
(For My Students and Other Interested Parties)
Dr. R.G. Peffer
(Read down columns)
* = from a somewhat earlier period ** = from a somewhat later period (name) = somewhat out of place (i.e. category)
(Theo.) = Theology (Pol.) = Political Theory (Sc.) = primarily a scientist (Soc.) = sociologist (Lit.) = Literature, etc.
Pre-Socratic
Philosophy
Thales
Heraclitus
Pythagoras
Parmenides/Zeno of Elea
Early European
Medieval Philosophy
Anselm
Abelard
Maimonides
St. Bonaventure**
Classical Greek
Late European
Philosophy
Medieval Philosophy
(Protagoras) (Sophism)
Roger Bacon
SOCRATES
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
PLATO
Duns Scotus
ARISTOTLE
WILLIAM of OCKHAM
Ancient Atomism,
Renaissance
Materialism, &Naturalism
Humanism
Leucippus/Democritus
Pico Della Mirandola*
Epicurus
Erasmus
Strato
Sir Thomas More
Lucretius*
Montaigne
[Greco-Roman]
Cynicism & Skepticism
Diogenes of Sinope
Pyrrho of Elis (Skep.)
Carneades (Skep.)
(Jesus of Nazereth)**
[Greco-Roman]
Stoicism
Zeno of Citium*
Seneca
Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius
Renaissance Natural
& Social Science
Machiavelli (Pol.)
GALILEO (Sc.)
Giordano Bruno
Francis Bacon
Revolutionary Liberals
Late 19 th C. British
th
th
in 18 -19 C. America
Liberalism & Utilitarianism
Benjamin Franklin
Herbert Spencer (Soc.)
THOMAS JEFFERSON
L.T. Hobhouse
THOMAS PAINE (G.B.)
Henry Sidgwick
(Alexis de Toqueville)(Soc.)(Fr.)
John Austin (Law)
British Enlightenment
Philosophers
Francis Hutcheson
ADAM SMITH (Econ.)
Thomas Reid
Mary Wollstonecraft**
French Philosophes/
[Seminal]
Encyclopedists
Structuralism
Monstesquieu
FERDINAND de SAUSSURE (Ling.)
Voltaire
(SIGMUND FREUD) (Psych.)
Diderot
Emile Durkheim (Soc.)
ROUSSEAU
Carl Jung** (Psych.)
Transcendental Idealism
(& Neo-Kantianism)
KANT
Wilhelm Wundt**
Wilhelm Windelband**
Ernst Cassirer**
[Seminal] Modern
Subjective, Objective,
Philosophy
& Absolute Idealism
DESCARTES
Fichte
Pierre Gassendi
Schelling
Antoine Arnauld/Pierre Nicole
HEGEL
Blaise Pascal/Pierre Fermat (Math)
Schlegel
Early (“Pagan”)
Neoplatonism
(Philo Judaeus)
Origen (Theo.)
Plotinus
Porphyry
[Seminal] Social
Contract Theorists
Hugo Grotius
HOBBES
LOCKE #1
Samuel Pufendorf
Intention, Meaning,
& Mathematical Logic
Franz Brentano (Psych.)
Alexius Meinong (Psych.)
FREGE
Giuseppe Peano (Math)
Existentialistic Reactions
to Absolute Idealism
Schleiermacher (Theo.)
Schopenhauer
KIERKEGAARD
NIETZSCHE**
Later (Christian)
Neoplatonism
ST. AUGUSTINE
Boethius
Proclus
John Scotus Erigina**
British
Empiricism
(Shaftsbury) (Platonism)
LOCKE #2
BERKELEY
HUME
Revolutionary Humanistic
Reactions to Abs. Idealism
(Claude Henri Saint-Simon)*
(Auguste Comte)* (Soc.)
Ludwig Feuerbach
MARX & Engels (Soc.)
Islamic Medieval
Philosophy
Al-Kindi
Al-Farabi
Avicenna
Averroes
Continental Rationalism
(& the Calculus)
SPINOZA
Malebranche
LEIBNIZ (+ Math)
NEWTON* (Sc./Math)
Classical Utilitarianism/
Philosophical Radicals
(William Godwin)*
BENTHAM
James Mill
JOHN STUART MILL
[Seminal] Hermenuetics/
Theories of Verstehen
Georg Simmel (Soc.)
Heinrich Rickert
Wilhelm Dilthey
Max Weber** (Soc.)
Late 19th C. British &
American Hegelianism
T.H. Green
F.A. Bradley
J.E. McTaggart
Josiah Royce (U.S.)
American (& British)
Pragmatism
C.S. PEIRCE
William James (Psych.)
F.S.C. Schiller (G.B.)
C.I. Lewis**
American Naturalism &
Critical Realism
JOHN DEWEY
George Santayana
A.O. Lovejoy**
Roy Wood Sellars**
Early 20th C. Hegelianism/ Aestheticians
Bernard Bosanquet
Georg Lukacs (Marxist)
Benedetto Croce
R.G. Collingwood**
Early-Mid 20th C. Analytical
Philosophy & Science
Relativity Theory &
Process Philosophy
ALBERT EINSTEIN (Sc.)
HENRI BERGSON
A.N. WHITEHEAD
Charles Hartshorne**
Mid-Late 20th C. AnalyticLinguistic Philosophy
Orthodox Ordinary
Language Philosophy
[Later] WITTGENSTEIN
Elizabeth Anscombe
Peter Geach
Norman Malcolm**
Mid-Late 20th C.
Continental Philosophy
Late 20th C. Anglo-American
Moral, Social, & Political Philosophy
2nd Generation
Intuitionism, PrescripStructuralism*
tivism, & Descriptivism
Jacques Lacan (Psych.)
W.D. ROSS*
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS (Anthro.)
R.M. HARE
Jean Piaget (Psych.)
PHILIPPA FOOT
Louis Althusser** (Marxism)
G.J. Warnock
[Seminal] Analytical
Philosophy
BERTRAND RUSSELL
G.E. MOORE
(J. M. Keynes) (econ.)
C.D. Broad
Heterodox Ordinary
Language Philosophy
GILBERT RYLE
J.L. Austin
John Wisdom
Structuralism
& Semiotics
Gaston Bachelard
ROLAND BARTHES
Umberto Eco (Lit.)
Mikhail Bakhtin
[Seminal] Logical
Atomism & Positivism
Ernst Mach*
[Early] WITTGENSTEIN
Moritz Schlick
RUDLOPH CARNAP
Later Logical Positivism
& Philosophy of Science
A.J. AYER
Carl Hempel
Ernest Nagel
Adolf Gruenbaum**
Friedrich Waismann
Philosophy of Law/
Theories of Liberty
H.L.A. HART
JOEL FEINBERG
Bruce Ackerman
Jeremy Waldren
French Post-Modernist
Post-Structuralism I
MICHEL FOUCAULT
JACQUES DERRIDA
GILES DELEUZE
Felix Guattari (Psych.)
Liberal Egalitarian
Theories of Justice I
JOHN RAWLS
Norman Daniels
THOMAS SCANLON
Amy Gutman
Quantum Physics &
Late 20th C. Analytical
French Post-Modernist
Liberal Egalitarian
Logical Positivism
Metaphysics/Epistemology I
Post-Structuralism II
Theories of Justice II
Niels Bohr (Sc.)
W.V.O. QUINE
Pierre Bourdieu (Soc.)
BRIAN BARRY
Werner Heisenberg (Sc.)
Nelson Goodman
JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOTARD RONALD DWORKIN
Hans Reichenbach
Stuart Hampshire
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
Thomas Nagel
John von Neumann
Max Black
Guy Debord
Joseph Raz
Phenomenology/Existentialism
Phenomenology/
Late 20th C. Analytical
Post-Modernist
Liberal-Communitarian
Hermenuetics
Metaphysics/Epistemology II
French Feminism
Theories of Justice
HUSSERL
P.F. STRAWSON
JULIA KRISTEVA
MICHAEL WALZER
Max Scheler
WILFRID SELLARS
Helene Cixous
AMARTYA SEN (Econ.)
HEIDEGGER
Roderick Chisolm
Luce Irigaray
MARTHA NUSSBAUM
Hans-Georg Gadamer**
Keith Lehrer**
Monique Wittig
Will Kymlicka
Philosophical
Mysticism
Teilhard de Chardin (Hegelian)
Nicolas Berdyaev
Martin Buber (Theo.)
Simone Weil
Religious
Existentialism
Karl Jaspers
Gabriel Marcel
PAUL TILLICH (Theo.)
Rudolf Bultmann (Theo.)
Humanistic-“Literary”
Existentialism
(Dostoyevsky)* (Lit.)
Miguel de Unamuno*
Jose Ortega y Gasset
(Samuel Beckett) (Lit.)
Revisionist Philosophies of Science
KARL POPPER*
Thomas Kuhn
Paul Feyerbend
Laurence Bonjour**
Scientific Materialism/
M-B Identity Theory
Herbert Feigl*
James Cornman
J.J.C. SMART
David Armstrong
Modal Logic
& Metaphysics
Richard Montague*
SAUL KRIPKE
David Lewis
Jaako Hintikka
Frankfurt School
Critical Theory I *
Max Horkhimer
Theodore Adorno
Ernst Bloch
HERBERT MARCUSE
Marxist Humanism/
Self-Managing Socialism
ERICH FROMM (Psych.)
Adam Schaff
Mihailo Markovic
Svetozar Stojanovic
Frankfurt School
Critical Theory II
JURGEN HABERMAS
KARL-OTTO APEL
Alfred Schutz (Soc.)
Axel Honneth
Analytical Marxism/
Theories of Justice
G.A. COHEN
Jon Elster (Pol. Sc.)
JOHN ROEMER (Econ.)
(Phillipe von Parijs)
Radical Egalitarian
Theories of Justice
ALLEN E. BUCHANAN
Richard Arneson
Joshua Cohen
Thomas Pogge
Egalitarian Socialist
Theories of Justice
KAI NIELSEN
DAVID MILLER
DAVID SCHWEICKART
Rodney G. Peffer
PhenomenologicalMaterialistic Metaphysics/ Philosophy of Language/ Anglo-American Post-ModAetheistic Existentialism
Philosophies of Mind
Theories of Mind
ernism & Critical Theory
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
DONALD DAVIDSON
NOAM CHOMSKY (Ling.)
FREDERIC JAMESON
SIMONE de BEAUVOIR
HILARY PUTMAN
JERRY FODOR
RICHARD RORTY
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
Daniel Dennett
Michael Dummett
Richard Bernstein
Albert Camus (Lit.)
Paul & Patricia Churchland
John Searle
Thomas McCarthy
Misc. Moral, Social, &
Political Philosophers:
Late 20th C. Natural and Social Scientists (& Theorists of Religion)
(Disciplines Listed Only if More Informative than Category):
Environmental Ethics &
Development Theory:
Socialist
Political Theory
V.I. Lenin
LEON TROTSKY
Rosa Luxemburg
Antonio Gramsci
Naturalistic-Holistic
Environmental Ethics
ALDO LEOPOLD* (Bio.)
J. Baird Collicott
Holmes Rolston III
David Foreman
Contemporary
Cosmology (Physics)
John Wheeler
Carl Sagan
Richard Feynman
STEPHEN HAWKING
Theorists of
Religion & Mythology
Robert Graves* (Lit.)
Joseph Campbell
(Robert Bly) (Lit.)
Robert W. Funk
Conservative
Social-Holistic Env.
Evolutionary Biology
Philosophy of Religion/
Political Philosophy
Ethics: Deep Ecology
& Sociobiology
Critiques of Religion
EDMUND BURKE* (18th C.)
ARNE NAESS
CHARLES DARWIN* (19th C.)
Alvin Plantinga
Michael Oakshott
George Sessions
Edward O. Wilson
Richard Swinburne
Allan Bloom
Bill Devall
Stephen Jay Gould
J.L. Mackie (Cr.)
(Alasdair MacIntyre)
Gary Snyder (Lit.)
Richard Dawkins
Michael Martin (Cr.)
Communitarian
Political Philosophy
C.B. Macpherson
Charles Taylor
William Galston
Michael Sandel
Biocentric
Enviromental Ethics
(Albert Schweitzer)*
John Rodman
Kenneth Goodpastor
PAUL TAYLOR
Primatology/Ethology/
Human Psychology
Konrad Lorenz
Desmond Morris
Jane Godall
Frans de Waal
Libertarian
Political Philosophy
F.A. von Hayek (Econ.)
Milton Friedman (Econ.)
John Hospers
ROBERT NOZICK
Animal Welfare
Theorists
PETER SINGER
TOM REGAN
Donald Van De Veer
Mary Midgley
Contemporary Psychology & Cognitive Science
Donald Griffin (Animal)
R.W. Sperry
Oliver Sacks
V.S. Ramachandran
Radical (Gender
System) Feminism
Mary Daly
Andrea Dworkin
Catherine MacKinnon
(Marilyn Friedman)
Miscellaneous
Environmental Ethics
Bernard Rollin
Bryan G. Norton
Christopher Stone (Law)
Dale Jamison
Egalitarian Feminist
Theories of Justice
Virginia Held
Susan Moller Okin
Iris Marion Young
Sharon Lloyd
Social Ecology/
Eco-Socialism
MURRAY BOOKCHIN
Barry Commoner (Bio.)
James & Martin O’Connor
David Pepper
Socialist Feminism/
Critical Theory Feminism
Barbara Ehrenreich
Ann Ferguson
Alison Jaggar
Nancy Fraser
Theories of Human
Needs & Human Rights
Abraham Maslow* (Psych.)
Henry Shue
James Nickels
Frederic Bender
Contemporary
Radical Theology
Fa. Jon Sobrino
Fa. Gustavo Guitierez
Fa. Joseph Curran
William Drees (Physics)
Racism & AfricanAmerican Thought
C.L. James
Malcolm X
CORNELL WEST
Charles Mill
Symbolic Interactionism/
Progressive Historians
Social Psychology (Soc.)
& Political Theorists
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD*
E.P. Thompson
Erving Goffman
Roy Medvedev
Peter Berger
Perry Anderson
(James Coleman)
Ralph Miliband (Pol.)
EcoFeminism
(& Some Critics)
Karen Warren
Val Plumwood
Victoria Davion (Cr.)
Mary Ann Warren (Cr.)
Development Theory &
Environmental Ethics
VANDANA SHIVA
Avijit Gupta
Partha Dasgupta
Ramachandra Guha
Anthropological
Theory
Margaret Mead*
Ruth Benedikt*
Leslie White*
Marvin Harris
(Progressive)
Economic Theory
J.K. Galbreath*
Robert Heilbroner
Thomas Weiskopf
Mark Sagoff (Env. Econ.)
Mainstream MacroSociological Theory
Daniel Bell*
TALCOTT PARSONS*
Rolf Dahrendorf
Anthony Giddens
Marxist Economic
Theory /Imperialism
Paul Sweezey
Paul Baron
Harry Magdoff
Ernest Mandel
Progressive MacroSociological Theory
C. WRIGHT MILLS*
T.B. Bottomore
Nicos Poulantzas
Eric Olin Wright
Development & World
Systems Theory (Soc.)
Immanuel Wallerstein
Andre Gunder Frank
Samir Amin
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
World Hunger &
Latin American Marxism/
Liberation Theology
Third World
International Justice
Development Ethics
& Philosophy
Political Philosophy
Jean Dreze (Soc.)
Francisco Miro Quesada
Fa.PAULO FREIRE (Theo.) Franz Fanon/Amilcar Cabral
Frances Moore Lappe
Adolpho Vasquez Sanchez Fa.LEANARDO BOFF (Theo.) Julius Nyerere/Walter Rodney
Onora O’Neill
Arturo Andres Roig
ENRIQUE DUSSEL
CHE GUEVARRA
H. LaFollette/W. Aiken
David Crocker (U.S.)
Horacio Cerruti-Goldburg
FIDEL CASTRO