Timeline of Western philosophers

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Timeline of Eastern | Western philosophers

This is a list of philosophers from the Western tradition of philosophy.

Contents

Western philosophers

Ancient Greece

600–500 BC

  • Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.
  • Pherecydes of Syros (c. 620 – c. 550 BC). Cosmologist.
  • Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".
  • Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585 – 525 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.
  • Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580 – c. 500 BC). Of the Ionian School. Believed the deepest reality to be composed of numbers, and that souls are immortal.
  • Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – 480 BC). Advocated monotheism. Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school.
  • Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the universe.
  • Epicharmus of Kos (c. 530 – 450 BC). Comic playwright and moralist.
  • Parmenides of Elea (c. 515 – 450 BC). Of the Eleatics. Reflected on the concept of Being.
  • Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500 – 428 BC). Of the Ionians. Pluralist.

400 BC

Hellenistic era

300–200 BC

Classical Rome

100 BC–100 AD

100–400

Middle Ages

500–900

1000–1100

1200–1300

1400

Early modern period

1500

1600

1700

Modern philosophers

1800–1850

1850–1900

1900–1950

1950–2000

See also

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