CHRISTIAN EVERT M.

LIMON BSBA-MM I-A UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

BIOGRAPHY OF PHILOSOPHERS
SOCRATES (c. 470 BCE–399 BCE)
Born circa 470 B.C. in Athens, Greece, Socrates's life is chronicled through only a few sources:
the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon and the plays of Aristophanes. Socrates was a scholar, teacher
and philosopher born in ancient Greece. His Socratic method laid the groundwork for Western
systems of logic and philosophy. Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, an Athenian stonemason
and sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. Because he wasn't from a noble family, he probably
received a basic Greek education and learned his father's craft at a young age. It's believed Socrates
worked as mason for many years before he devoted his life to philosophy. Before Socrates'
execution, friends offered to bribe the guards and rescue him so he could flee into exile. He declined,
stating he wasn't afraid of death, felt he would be no better off if in exile and said he was still a loyal
citizen of Athens, willing to abide by its laws, even the ones that condemned him to death. Plato
described Socrates' execution in his Phaedo dialogue: Socrates drank the hemlock mixture without
hesitation. Numbness slowly crept into his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his final
breath, Socrates described his death as a release of the soul from the body.

PLATO (c. 428 BCE–c. 348 BCE)

Born circa 428 B.C.E., ancient Greek philosopher Plato was a student of Socrates and a
teacher of Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained discussions
in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the philosophy of
language. Plato founded the Academy in Athens, one of the first institutions of higher learning in the
Western world. He died in Athens circa 348 B.C.E. Due to a lack of primary sources from the time
period, much of Plato's life has been constructed by scholars through his writings and the writings of
contemporaries and classical historians. Traditional history estimates Plato's birth was around 428
B.C.E., but more modern scholars, tracing later events in his life, believe he was born between 424
and 423 B.C.E. Both of his parents came from the Greek aristocracy. Plato's father, Ariston,
descended from the kings of Athens and Messenia. His mother, Perictione, is said to be related to the
6th century B.C.E. Greek statesman Solon. Some scholars believe that Plato was named for his
grandfather, Aristocles, following the tradition of the naming the eldest son after the grandfather. But
there is no conclusive evidence of this, or that Plato was the eldest son in his family. Other historians
claim that "Plato" was a nickname, referring to his broad physical build. This too is possible, although
there is record that the name Plato was given to boys before Aristocles was born. As with many
young boys of his social class, Plato was probably taught by some of Athens' finest educators. The
curriculum would have featured the doctrines of Cratylus and Pythagoras as well as Parmenides.
These probably helped develop the foundation for Plato's study of metaphysics (the study of nature)
and epistemology (the study of knowledge). Plato's father died when he was young, and his mother
remarried her uncle, Pyrilampes, a Greek politician and ambassador to Persia. Plato is believed to
have had two full brothers, one sister and a half brother, though it is not certain where he falls in the
birth order. Often, members of Plato's family appeared in his dialogues. Historians believe this is an
indication of Plato's pride in his family lineage.
IMMANUEL KANT (1724–1804)

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher during the Enlightenment era of the late 18th
century. His best known work is the Critique of Pure Reason. Immanuel Kant was born on April 22,
1724, in Konigsberg, Prussia, or what is now Kaliningrad, Russia. While tutoring, he published
science papers, including "General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens" in 1755. He spent the
next 15 years as a metaphysics lecturer. In 1781, he published the first part of Critique of Pure
Reason. He published more critiques in the years preceding his death on February 12, 1804, in the
city of his birth. Immanuel Kant was the fourth of nine children born to Johann Georg Cant, a harness
maker, and Anna Regina Cant. Later in his life, Immanuel changed the spelling of his name to Kantto
to adhere to German spelling practices. Both parents were devout followers of Pietism, an 18th-
century branch of the Lutheran Church. Seeing the potential in the young man, a local pastor
arranged for the young Kant's education. While at school, Kant gained a deep appreciation for the
Latin classics. In 1740, Kant enrolled at the University of Konigsberg as a theology student, but was
soon attracted to mathematics and physics. In 1746, his father died and he was forced to leave the
university to help his family. For a decade, he worked as a private tutor for the wealthy. During this
time he published several papers dealing with scientific questions exploring the middle ground
between rationalism and empiricism.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Bishop and Doctor of the Church is best known for his Confessions (401), his autobiographical
account of his conversion. The term augustinianism evolved from his writings that had a profound
influence on the church. Augustine was born at Tagaste (now Algeria) in North Africa on 13
November, 354. His father, Patricius, while holding an official position in the city remained a pagan
until converting on his deathbed. His mother, Saint Monica, was a devout Christian. She had had
Augustine signed with the cross and enrolled among the catechumens but unable to secure his
baptism. Her grief was great when young Augustine fell gravely ill and agreed to be baptised only to
withdraw his consent upon recovery, denouncing the Christian faith. At the encouragement of Monica,
his extensive religious education started in the schools of Tagaste (an important part of the Roman
Empire) and Madaura until he was sixteen. He was off to Carthage next in 370, but soon fell to the
pleasures and excesses of the half pagan city’s theatres, licentiousness and decadent socialising with
fellow students. After a time he confessed to Monica that he had been living in sin with a woman with
whom he had a son in 372, Adeodatus, (which means Gift of God).

JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704)

English philosopher John Locke's works lie at the foundation of modern philosophical
empiricism and political liberalism. John Locke, born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset,
England, went to Westminster school and then Christ Church, University of Oxford. At Oxford he
studied medicine, which would play a central role in his life. He became a highly influential
philosopher, writing about such topics as political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Locke's
writings helped found modern Western philosophy. Influential philosopher and physician John Locke,
whose writings had a significant impact on Western philosophy, was born on August 29, 1632, in
Wrington, a village in the English county of Somerset. His father was a country lawyer and military
man who had served as a captain during the English civil war. Both his parents were Puritans and as
such, Locke was raised that way. Because of his father's connections and allegiance to the English
government, Locke received an outstanding education. In 1647 he enrolled at Westminster School in
London, where Locke earned the distinct honor of being named a King's Scholar, a privilege that went
to only select number of boys and paved the way for Locke to attend Christ Church, Oxford in 1652.
At Christ Church, perhaps Oxford's most prestigious school, Locke immersed himself in logic and
metaphysics, as well as the classical languages. After graduating in 1656, he returned to Christ
Church two years later for a Master of Arts, which led in just a few short years to Locke taking on
tutorial work at the college. In 1668 Locke was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He graduated
with a bachelor's of medicine in 1674. Early in his medical studies, Locke met Lord Ashley, who was
to become Earl of Shaftsbury. The two grew close and Shaftsbury eventually persuaded Locke to
move to London and become his personal physician. As Shaftsbury's stature grew, so did Locke's
responsibilities. He assisted in his business and political matters, and after Shaftsbury was made
chancellor, Locke became his secretary of presentations.

RENE DESCARTES (1596–1650)

Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes is regarded as the father of modern

philosophy for defining a starting point for existence, “I think; therefore I am.” René Descartes was
born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye en Touraine, France. He was extensively educated, first at a
Jesuit college at age 8, then earning a law degree at 22, but an influential teacher set him on a
course to apply mathematics and logic to understanding the natural world. This approach
incorporated the contemplation of the nature of existence and of knowledge itself, hence his most
famous observation, “I think; therefore I am.” Philosopher René Descartes was born on March 31,
1596, in La Haye en Touraine, a small town in central France, which has since been renamed after
him to honor its most famous son. He was the youngest of three children, and his mother, Jeanne
Brochard, died within his first year of life. His father, Joachim, a council member in the provincial
parliament, sent the children to live with their maternal grandmother, where they remained even after
he remarried a few years later. But he was very concerned with good education and sent René, at
age 8, to boarding school at the Jesuit college of Henri IV in La Flèche, several miles to the north, for
seven years. Descartes was a good student, although it is thought that he might have been sickly,
since he didn’t have to abide by the school’s rigorous schedule and was instead allowed to rest in bed
until midmorning. The subjects he studied, such as rhetoric and logic and the “mathematical arts,”
which included music and astronomy, as well as metaphysics, natural philosophy and ethics,
equipped him well for his future as a philosopher. So did spending the next four years earning a
baccalaureate in law at the University of Poitiers. Some scholars speculate that he may have had a
nervous breakdown during this time. Descartes never married, but he did have a daughter, Francine,
born in the Netherlands in 1635. He had moved to that country in 1628 because life in France was too
bustling for him to concentrate on his work, and Francine’s mother was a maid in the home where he
was staying. He had planned to have the little girl educated in France, having arranged for her to live
with relatives, but she died of a fever at age 5. Descartes’ approach of combining mathematics and
logic with philosophy to explain the physical world turned metaphysical when confronted with
questions of theology; it led him to a contemplation of the nature of existence and the mind-body
duality, identifying the point of contact for the body with the soul at the pineal gland. It also led him to
define the idea of dualism: matter meeting non-matter. Because his previous philosophical system
had given man the tools to define knowledge of what is true, this concept led to controversy.
Fortunately, Descartes himself had also invented methodological skepticism, or Cartesian doubt, thus
making philosophers of us all.
DAVID HUME (7 May 1711 – 25 August 1776)

David Hume (7 May 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist,
and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and scepticism. He is regarded as
one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish
Enlightenment. Hume is often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as
a British Empiricist. Hume was the younger son of Joseph Hume, the modestly circumstanced laird,
or lord, of Ninewells, a small estate adjoining the village of Chirnside, about nine miles distant from
Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish side of the border. David’s mother, Catherine, a daughter of Sir
David Falconer, president of the Scottish court of session, was in Edinburgh when he was born. In his
third year his father died. He entered Edinburgh University when he was about 12 years old and left it
at 14 or 15, as was then usual. Pressed a little later to study law (in the family tradition on both sides),
he found it distasteful and instead read voraciously in the wider sphere of letters. Because of the
intensity and excitement of his intellectual discovery, he had a nervous breakdown in 1729, from
which it took him a few years to recover. Hume conceived of philosophy as the
inductive science of human nature, and he concluded that humans are creatures more of sensitive
and practical sentiment than of reason. For many philosophers and historians his importance lies in
the fact that Immanuel Kant conceived his critical philosophy in direct reaction to Hume (Kant said
that Hume had awakened him from his “dogmatic slumber”). Hume was one of the influences that
led Auguste Comte, the 19th-century French mathematician and sociologist, to develop positivism. In
Britain Hume’s positive influence is seen in Jeremy Bentham, the early 19th-century jurist and
philosopher, who was moved to utilitarianism (the moral theory that right conduct should be
determined by the usefulness of its consequences) by Book III of the Treatise, and more extensively
in John Stuart Mill, the philosopher and economist who lived later in the 19th century.

GILBERT RYLE (1900-1976)

Gilbert Ryle was born on Aug. 19, 1900, in Brighton, the son of a prosperous doctor. He was
educated at Brighton College and then entered Queen's College, Oxford, where he took first honors in two
subjects: classical honor moderations and the school of philosophy, politics, and economics. He was also
captain of the Queen's College Boating Club. As a result of his brilliant academic work, Ryle was
appointed lecturer in 1924 and a year later tutor in philosophy, both appointments at Christ Church,
Oxford. In 1940 he was commissioned in the Welsh Guards, serving for the duration of World War II and
ending his military career as a major. Early in his philosophical career, Ryle decided that the task of
philosophy was "the detection of the sources in linguistic idioms of recurrent misconceptions and absurd
theories." In his Tanner Lectures, published as Dilemmas (1954), he showed how certain philosophical
impasses could be dissolved by a clearer understanding of the concepts employed by the apparently
contradictory views.

PAUL CHURCHLAND (1942)

Paul Churchland (born October 21, 1942) is a philosopher noted for his studies in
neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California,
San Diego, where he held the Valtz Chair of Philosophy and a joint appointment with the Cognitive
Science Faculty and the Institute for Neural Computation. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of
Pittsburgh in 1969 under the direction of Wilfrid Sellars. Churchland is the husband of philosopher
Patricia Churchland. He is also the father of two children, Mark and Anne Churchland, both of whom
are neuroscientists. Churchland began his professional career as an instructor at the University of
Pittsburgh in 1969; he also lectured at the University of Toronto from 1967-69. In 1969, Churchland
took a position at the University of Manitoba, where he would teach for fifteen years: as an assistant
professor (1969-74) and associate professor (1974-79), and then as a full professor from 1979-1984.
Professor Churchland joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1982, staying as a
member until 1983. He joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego in 1983, serving as
Department Chair from 1986-1990. Churchland has supervised a number of PhD students, including
Matthew J. Brown (now at UT Dallas), P.D. Magnus (now at the University at Albany), Philip Brey
(now at the University of Twente).

MAURICE-MERLEAU-PONTY (1908-1961)

Philosopher and man of letters, the leading exponent of Phenomenology in France. Merleau-
Ponty studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and took his agrégation in philosophy in
1931. He taught in a number of lycées before World War II, during which he served as an army
officer. In 1945 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Lyon and in 1949 was
called to the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1952 he received a chair of philosophy at the Collège de France.
From 1945 to 1952 he served as unofficial co-editor (with Jean-Paul Sartre) of the journal Les Temps
Modernes. Merleau-Ponty’s most important works of technical philosophy were La Structure du
comportement (1942; The Structure of Behavior, 1965) and Phénoménologie de la
perception(1945; Phenomenology of Perception, 1962). Though greatly influenced by the work
of Edmund Husserl, Merleau-Ponty rejected his theory of the knowledge of other persons, grounding
his own theory in bodily behaviour and in perception. He held that it is necessary to consider the
organism as a whole to discover what will follow from a given set of stimuli. For him, perception was
the source of knowledge and had to be studied before the conventional sciences.

SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, who created an entirely
new approach to the understanding of the human personality. He is regarded as one of the most
influential - and controversial - minds of the 20th century. Sigismund (later changed to Sigmund)
Freud was born on 6 May 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia (now Pribor in the Czech Republic). His father
was a merchant. The family moved to Leipzig and then settled in Vienna, where Freud was educated.
Freud's family were Jewish but he was himself non-practising. In 1873, Freud began to study
medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He
collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis.
In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the
following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same
year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children. In 1873, Freud began to study
medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He
collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis.
In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the
following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same
year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children. In 1873, Freud began to study
medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He
collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis.
In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the
following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same
year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children. Freud had been diagnosed with
cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23
September 1939.
ERIK ERIKSON (1902-1994)

Erik Erikson was born June 15, 1902, in Frankfurt, Germany. His young Jewish mother, Karla
Abrahamsen, raised Erik by herself for a time before marrying a physician, Dr. Theodor Homberger.
The fact that Homberger was not, in fact, his biological father was concealed from Erikson for many
years. When he finally did learn the truth, Erikson was left with a feeling of confusion about who he
really was. Erikson met a Canadian dance instructor named Joan Serson who was also teaching at
the school where he worked. The couple married in 1930 and went on to have three children. His son,
Kai T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist. Erikson moved to the United States in 1933 and,
despite having no formal degree, was offered a teaching position at Harvard Medical School. He also
changed his name from Erik Homberger to Erik H. Erikson, perhaps as a way to forge his own
identity. In addition to his position at Harvard, he also had a private practice in child psychoanalysis.
Erik Erikson spent time studying the cultural life of the Sioux of South Dakota and the Yurok of
northern California. He utilized the knowledge he gained about cultural, environmental, and social
influences to further develop his psychoanalytic theory. While Freud’s theory had focused on the
psychosexual aspects of development, Erikson’s addition of other influences helped to broaden and
expand psychoanalytic theory. He also contributed to our understanding of personality as it is
developed and shaped over the course of the lifespan .
 Jeanelin C. Borres BSBA-MM I-A Understanding the Self

THE BIOGRAPHY OF DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHERS

SOCRATES

The Greek philosopher and logician (one who studies logic or reason) Socrates was an important
influence on Plato (427–347 B.C.E.) and had a major effect on ancient philosophy. Socrates was the son of
Sophroniscus, an Athenian stone mason and sculptor. He learned his father's craft and apparently
practiced it for many years. He participated in the Peloponnesian War (431–04 B.C.E. ) when Athens was
crushed by the Spartans, and he distinguished himself for his courage. Details of his early life are scarce,
although he appears to have had no more than an ordinary Greek education before devoting his time
almost completely to intellectual interests. He did, however, take a keen interest in the works of the
natural philosophers, and Plato records the fact that Socrates met Zeno of Elea (c. 495–430 B.C.E. )
and Parmenides (born c. 515 B.C.E. ) on their trip to Athens, which probably took place about 450 B.C.E.
Socrates himself wrote nothing, therefore evidence of his life and activities must come from the writings of
Plato and Xenophon (c. 431–352 B.C.E. ). It is likely that neither of these presents a completely accurate
picture of him, but Plato's Apology, Crito, Phaedo, and Symposium contain details which must be close to
fact. From the Apology we learn that Socrates was well known around Athens; uncritical thinkers linked
him with the rest of the Sophists (a philosophical school); he fought in at least three military campaigns
for the city; and he attracted to his circle large numbers of young men who delighted in seeing their elders
proved false by Socrates. His courage in military campaigns is described by Alcibiades (c. 450–404 B.C.E. )
in the Symposium. In addition to stories about Socrates's strange character, the Symposium provides
details regarding his physical appearance. He was short, quite the opposite of what was considered
graceful and beautiful in the Athens of his time. He was also poor and had only the barest necessities of
life. Socrates's physical ugliness did not stop his appeal.

PLATO
Ancient Greek philosopher Plato founded the Academy and is the author of philosophical works of
unparalleled influence in Western thought. Ancient Greek philosopher Plato founded the Academy and is
the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence in Western thought. Plato's father died when he
was young, and his mother remarried her uncle, Pyrilampes, a Greek politician and ambassador to Persia.
Plato is believed to have had two full brothers, one sister and a half brother, though it is not certain where
he falls in the birth order. Often, members of Plato's family appeared in his dialogues. Historians believe
this is an indication of Plato's pride in his family lineage. As a young man, Plato experienced two major
events that set his course in life. One was meeting the great Greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates's
methods of dialogue and debate impressed Plato so much that he soon he became a close associate and
dedicated his life to the question of virtue and the formation of a noble character. The other significant
event was the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, in which Plato served for a brief time
between 409 and 404 B.C.E. The defeat of Athens ended its democracy, which the Spartans replaced with
an oligarchy. Two of Plato's relatives, Charmides and Critias, were prominent figures in the new
government, part of the notorious Thirty Tyrants whose brief rule severely reduced the rights of Athenian
citizens. After the oligarchy was overthrown and democracy was restored, Plato briefly considered a career
in politics, but the execution of Socrates in 399 B.C.E. soured him on this idea and he turned to a life of
study and philosophy. After Socrates's death, Plato traveled for 12 years throughout the Mediterranean
region, studying mathematics with the Pythagoreans in Italy, and geometry, geology, astronomy and
religion in Egypt. During this time, or soon after, he began his extensive writing. There is some debate
among scholars on the order of these writings, but most believe they fall into three distinct periods. Plato's
final years were spent at the Academy and with his writing. The circumstances surrounding his death are
clouded, though it is fairly certain that he died in Athens around 348 B.C.E., when he was in his early 80s.
Some scholars suggest that he died while attending a wedding, while others believe he died peacefully in
his sleep.
St. AUGUSTINE
St. Augustine, also called Saint Augustine of Hippo, original Latin name Aurelius Augustinus,
(born November 13, 354, Tagaste, Numidia [now Souk Ahras, Algeria]—died August 28, 430, Hippo
Regius [now Annaba, Algeria]; feast day August 28), bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430, one of the Latin
Fathers of the Church and perhaps the most significant Christian thinker after St. Paul.
Augustine’s adaptation of classical thought to Christian teaching created a theological system of great
power and lasting influence. His numerous written works, the most important of which
are confession(c. 400) and The City of God (c. 413–426), shaped the practice of biblical exegesis and
helped lay the foundation for much of medieval and modern Christian thought. In Roman Catholicism he is
formally recognized as a doctor of the church. Augustine was born in Tagaste, a modest Roman
community in a river valley 40 miles (64 km) from the Mediterranean coast in Africa, near the point where
the veneer of Roman civilization thinned out in the highlands of Numidia. Augustine’s parents were of the
respectable class of Roman society, free to live on the work of others, but their means were sometimes
straitened. They managed, sometimes on borrowed money, to acquire a first-class education for
Augustine, and, although he had at least one brother and one sister, he seems to have been the only child
sent off to be educated. He studied first in Tagaste, then in the nearby university town of Madauros, and
finally at Carthage, the great city of Roman Africa. After a brief stint teaching in Tagaste, he returned to
Carthage to teach rhetoric, the premier science for the Roman gentleman, and he was evidently very good
at it. In 384, he was given a more prestigious position as a rhetoric professor at the Imperial Court of
Milan. In Milan, he began to become more sceptical of his Manichean faith. He also became friendly with
Ambrose the bishop of Milan. Augustine listened to the more sophisticated lectures of Bishop Ambrose,
and he gained a new insight into Christianity. This friendship and the genuine spirituality of Ambrose was
influential in re-awakening Augustine’s interest in Christianity – the religion of his childhood. His mother
had also followed Augustine to Milan and persuaded him to give up his lover and marry a young 11-year
old girl who was in the same social class as Augustine. Although Augustine agreed, he felt a great
emotional torment in cutting off ties with his former lover. Eventually, he annulled his marriage as he
made plans to become a celibate priest. Augustine was baptized with his son by Bishop Ambrose in April
388. His mother died shortly after his event. Afterwards, they returned home to Africa, where his son
Adeodatus died shortly after. Augustine gave away his wealth to the poor and converted his house into a
monastic foundation for himself and a group of like-minded Christians.

JOHN LOCKE
English philosopher John Locke's works lie at the foundation of modern philosophical empiricism
and political liberalism. John Locke, born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset, England, went to
Westminster school and then Christ Church, University of Oxford. At Oxford he studied medicine, which
would play a central role in his life. He became a highly influential philosopher, writing about such topics
as political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Locke's writings helped found modern Western
philosophy. Influential philosopher and physician John Locke, whose writings had a significant impact on
Western philosophy, was born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, a village in the English county of
Somerset. His father was a country lawyer and military man who had served as a captain during the
English civil war. Both his parents were Puritans and as such, Locke was raised that way. Because of his
father's connections and allegiance to the English government, Locke received an outstanding education.
In 1647 he enrolled at Westminster School in London, where Locke earned the distinct honor of being
named a King's Scholar, a privilege that went to only select number of boys and paved the way for Locke
to attend Christ Church, Oxford in 1652. At Christ Church, perhaps Oxford's most prestigious school,
Locke immersed himself in logic and metaphysics, as well as the classical languages. After graduating in
1656, he returned to Christ Church two years later for a Master of Arts, which led in just a few short years
to Locke taking on tutorial work at the college. In 1668 Locke was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
He graduated with a bachelor's of medicine in 1674. Early in his medical studies, Locke met Lord Ashley,
who was to become Earl of Shaftsbury. The two grew close and Shaftsbury eventually persuaded Locke to
move to London and become his personal physician. As Shaftsbury's stature grew, so did Locke's
responsibilities. He assisted in his business and political matters, and after Shaftsbury was made
chancellor, Locke became his secretary of presentations.
RENE DESCARTES
René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye en Touraine, France. He was extensively
educated, first at a Jesuit college at age 8, then earning a law degree at 22, but an influential teacher set
him on a course to apply mathematics and logic to understanding the natural world. This approach
incorporated the contemplation of the nature of existence and of knowledge itself, hence his most famous
observation, “I think; therefore I am.” Philosopher René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in La
Haye en Touraine, a small town in central France, which has since been renamed after him to honor its
most famous son. He was the youngest of three children, and his mother, Jeanne Brochard, died within his
first year of life. His father, Joachim, a council member in the provincial parliament, sent the children to
live with their maternal grandmother, where they remained even after he remarried a few years later. But
he was very concerned with good education and sent René, at age 8, to boarding school at the Jesuit
college of Henri IV in La Flèche, several miles to the north, for seven years. Descartes was a good student,
although it is thought that he might have been sickly, since he didn’t have to abide by the school’s
rigorous schedule and was instead allowed to rest in bed until midmorning. The subjects he studied, such
as rhetoric and logic and the “mathematical arts,” which included music and astronomy, as well as
metaphysics, natural philosophy and ethics, equipped him well for his future as a philosopher. So did
spending the next four years earning a baccalaureate in law at the University of Poitiers. Some scholars
speculate that he may have had a nervous breakdown during this time. Descartes later added theology
and medicine to his studies. But he eschewed all this, “resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of
which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world,” he wrote much later in Discourse
on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences, published in 1637. So
he traveled, joined the army for a brief time, saw some battles and was introduced to Dutch scientist and
philosopher Isaac Beeckman, who would become for Descartes a very influential teacher. A year after
graduating from Poitiers, Descartes credited a series of three very powerful dreams or visions with
determining the course of his study for the rest of his life. Descartes is considered by many to be the
father of modern philosophy, because his ideas departed widely from current understanding in the early
17th century, which was more feeling-based. While elements of his philosophy weren’t completely new,
his approach to them was. Descartes believed in basically clearing everything off the table, all
preconceived and inherited notions, and starting fresh, putting back one by one the things that were
certain, which for him began with the statement “I exist.” From this sprang his most famous quote: “I
think; therefore I am.” Since Descartes believed that all truths were ultimately linked, he sought to
uncover the meaning of the natural world with a rational approach, through science and mathematics—in
some ways an extension of the approach Sir Francis Bacon had asserted in England a few decades prior.
In addition to Discourse on the Method, Descartes also published Meditations on First
Philosophy and Principles of Philosophy, among other treatises. Descartes never married, but he did have
a daughter, Francine, born in the Netherlands in 1635. He had moved to that country in 1628 because life
in France was too bustling for him to concentrate on his work, and Francine’s mother was a maid in the
home where he was staying. He had planned to have the little girl educated in France, having arranged for
her to live with relatives, but she died of a fever at age 5. Descartes lived in the Netherlands for more
than 20 years but died in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 11, 1650. He had moved there less than a
year before, at the request of Queen Christina, to be her philosophy tutor. The fragile health indicated in
his early life persisted. He habitually spent mornings in bed, where he continued to honor his dream life,
incorporating it into his waking methodologies in conscious meditation, but the queen’s insistence on 5 am
lessons led to a bout of pneumonia from which he could not recover. He was 53. Descartes’ approach of
combining mathematics and logic with philosophy to explain the physical world turned metaphysical when
confronted with questions of theology; it led him to a contemplation of the nature of existence and the
mind-body duality, identifying the point of contact for the body with the soul at the pineal gland. It also
led him to define the idea of dualism: matter meeting non-matter. Because his previous philosophical
system had given man the tools to define knowledge of what is true, this concept led to controversy.
Fortunately, Descartes himself had also invented methodological skepticism, or Cartesian doubt, thus
making philosophers of us all.
DAVID HUME
In his autobiography written near the end of his life, David Hume describes himself as a “man of
mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment,
but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.” Those who knew him agreed
for the most part with his assessment. Hume was born on February 24, 1711, in Edinburgh. His father
died when he was an infant, leaving him and his two older siblings in the care of his mother. Hume went
with his older brother to the University of Edinburgh in 1723. He “passed through the ordinary course of
education with success” and left the university without taking a degree. Hume writes that from an early
age, he “found an insurmountable Aversion to anything but the pursuits of Philosophy and General
Learning,” and that his passion for literature (comprising philosophy and history) “has been the great
ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyments.” At age eighteen, a “new scene of
thought” opened up to him, and he applied himself to developing these ideas with such intensity that it
eventually led to a kind of nervous breakdown. As a reprieve from his studies, he worked for a few months
as a clerk in a firm of sugar merchants before relocating to France to compose his Treatise of Human
Nature. Hume returned to London in 1737 to see the book through the final stages of (anonymous)
publication and was sorely disappointed with the result. According to him, the book “fell dead-born from
the press.” Believing that the failure of the Treatise “proceeded more from the manner than the matter,”
Hume reworked his ideas into the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) and the Enquiry
Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). He called these two works “incomparably the best” of all his
writings. Between 1740 and his death in 1776 Hume worked on and published (in various forms) essays
on moral, political, and literary matters. In 1752, as Librarian for the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh,
Hume began research on his History of England, which he published between 1754 and 1761.
His Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion were published posthumously and anonymously. In 1763,
Hume accompanied the Earl of Hertford to Paris to work in the embassy. Hume writes in his autobiography
that his readers “will never imagine the reception [he] met with in Paris, from men and women of all ranks
and stations.” Hume soon became close to the leading French philosophes, and began a lasting friendship
with the Comtesse de Boufflers. When Hume returned to England in 1766, he was accompanied by Jean-
Jacques Rousseau, who was attempting to escape potential persecution. Their friendship did not last,
however, as Rousseau soon wrote to friends that Hume was involved in a conspiracy against him,
compelling Hume to defend himself. In 1775, Hume was struck ill with a disorder that would prove fatal.
In an obituary of the great philosopher, his close friend Adam Smith wrote: “Upon the whole, I have
always considered him, both in his life-time, and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a
perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will admit.”

IMMANUEL KANT
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher during the Enlightenment era of the late 18th century.
His best known work is the Critique of Pure Reason. Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724, in
Konigsberg, Prussia, or what is now Kaliningrad, Russia. While tutoring, he published science papers,
including "General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens" in 1755. He spent the next 15 years as a
metaphysics lecturer. In 1781, he published the first part of Critique of Pure Reason. He published more
critiques in the years preceding his death on February 12, 1804, in the city of his birth. Immanuel Kant
was the fourth of nine children born to Johann Georg Cant, a harness maker, and Anna Regina Cant. Later
in his life, Immanuel changed the spelling of his name to Kantto to adhere to German spelling practices.
Both parents were devout followers of Pietism, an 18th-century branch of the Lutheran Church. Seeing the
potential in the young man, a local pastor arranged for the young Kant's education. While at school, Kant
gained a deep appreciation for the Latin classics. In 1740, Kant enrolled at the University of Konigsberg as
a theology student, but was soon attracted to mathematics and physics. In 1746, his father died and he
was forced to leave the university to help his family. For a decade, he worked as a private tutor for the
wealthy. During this time he published several papers dealing with scientific questions exploring the
middle ground between rationalism and empiricism. Though the Critique of Pure Reason received little
attention at the time, Kant continued to refine his theories in a series of essays that comprised
the Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgement. Kant continued to write on philosophy until
shortly before his death. In his last years, he became embittered due to his loss of memory. He died in
1804 at age 80.

GILBERT RYLE
Gilbert Ryle, (born August 19, 1900, Brighton, Sussex, England—died October 6, 1976, Whitby,
North Yorkshire), British philosopher, leading figure in the “Oxford philosophy,” or “ordinary
language,” movement. Ryle gained first-class honours at Queen’s College, Oxford, and became a lecturer
at Christ Church College in 1924. Throughout his career, which remained centred at Oxford, he
attempted—as Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy (1945–68), in his writings, and as editor
(1948–71) of the journal Mind—to dissipate confusion arising from the misapplication of language. Ryle’s
first book, The Concept of Mind (1949), is considered a modern classic. In it he challenges the traditional
distinction between body and mind as delineated by René Descartes. Traditional Cartesian dualism, Ryle
says, perpetrates a serious confusion when, looking beyond the human body (which exists in space and is
subject to mechanical laws), it views the mind as an additional mysterious thing not subject to
observation or to mechanical laws, rather than as the form or organizing principle of the body. What Ryle
deems to be logically incoherent dogma of Cartesianism he labels as the doctrine of the ghost-in-the-
machine.

PAUL CHURCHLAND
Paul Montgomery Churchland (born October 21, 1942) is a Canadian philosopher known for his
studies in neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of
Pittsburgh under Wilfrid Sellars (1969), Churchland rose to the rank of full professor at the University of
Manitoba before accepting the Valtz Family Endowed Chair in Philosophy at the University of California,
San Diego (UCSD) and a joint appointments in that institution's Institute for Neural Computation and on
its Cognitive Science Faculty. As of February 2017, Churchland is recognised as Professor Emeritus at
the UCSD, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Moscow Center for Consciousness
Studies of Moscow State University. Churchland is the husband of philosopher Patricia Churchland, with
whom he collaborates, and The New Yorker has reported the similarity of their views, e.g., on the mind-
body problem, are such that the two are often discussed as if they are one person. Paul Montgomery
Churchland was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on October 21, 1942. He graduated from
the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1964. He earned his Ph.D. from the University
of Pittsburgh in 1969, his dissertation entitled "Persons and P-Predicates" written with Wilfrid Sellars as his
advisor. Churchland is the husband of philosopher Patricia Churchland, and it has been noted that, "Their
work is so similar that they are sometimes discussed, in journals and books, as one person." The
Churchlands are the parents of two children, Mark Churchland and Anne Churchland, both of whom are
neuroscientists.

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was born in Rochefortsur-Mer (Charente-Maritime) on March 14, 1908. His
father died when Maurice was still a child, and he and his sister were raised by their mother in Paris. The
childhood was an unusually happy one, and Merleau-Ponty retained over the years a close and
affectionate tie with his mother. In later life he ceased to practice the Catholicism which he had earlier
shared with his devout mother. But apparently before his death a reconciliation had occurred, since he
was buried with the solemn rites of the Church. Merleau-Ponty was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand
and entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1926, graduating 4 years later. In the ensuing decade he
taught at lycées in Beauvais and Chartres and, after 1935, as a junior member of the faculty at the École
Normale. After the Nazi invasion of Poland he entered the army and served as a lieutenant in the infantry.
With the collapse of France he was demobilized, and he returned to his teaching. During the Nazi
occupation he was active in the Resistance. When the Liberation came, he joined the faculty of the
University of Lyons and became coeditor with Jean Paul Sartre, an old friend from school days, of the new
journal Les Temps modernes. In 1950 he was invited to the Sorbonne as professor of psychology and
pedagogy. And 2 years later he was elected to the Collège de France to the chair formerly occupied by
Henri Bergson. He was the youngest philosopher ever to hold this position, and he retained it until his
death. Merleau-Ponty's first book, The Structure of Behavior, was completed in his thirtieth year but,
owing to the war, was first published in 1942. It is a sustained and powerful attack on behaviorism in
psychology, but it also features the introduction of novel philosophical interpretations of the experimental
work of the Gestalt psychologists. This study was continued in his major work, The Phenomenology of
Perception (1945). Drawing heavily upon the phenomenological techniques of Edmund Husserl (to which,
however, he added new modifications) and upon the existential strands in the thought of Gabriel Marcel
and Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty began to fashion a personal synthesis, an original philosophical
interpretation of human experience. He is thus one of the originators of contemporary existential
philosophy and, in the generous tribute of a colleague, Paul Ricoeur, "was the greatest of the French
phenomenologists." All of Merleau-Ponty's work shows a familiarity with current scientific research and
with the history of philosophy. This gives his work a more balanced and solid character than that of the
other existentialists. Another major concern of his was with political and social philosophy and even with
the ephemeral problems of day-to-day politics. He wrote a great many newspaper articles on
contemporary events and problems. More sustained essays on Marxist theory and leftist politics were
gathered in two collections: Humanism and Terror (1947) and The Adventures of the Dialectic (1955). The
latter work contains a powerful critique of the French Communist party, with which he had earlier
sympathized. This led to an open break with Sartre and to his resignation from the editorship of Les
Temps modernes. Nevertheless his own political views remained decisive for Sartre, as the latter freely
admits in a memoir published after Merleau-Ponty's death. Merleau-Ponty was happily married to a
physician and psychiatrist in Paris, and they had one child, a daughter.

SIGMUND FREUD
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques
of psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 to September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist who
developed psychoanalysis, a method through which an analyst unpacks unconscious conflicts based on the
free associations, dreams and fantasies of the patient. His theories on child sexuality, libido and the ego,
among other topics, were some of the most influential academic concepts of the 20th century. Sigmund
Freud was born in the Austrian town of Freiberg, now known as the Czech Republic, on May 6, 1856.
When he was four years old, Freud’s family moved to Vienna, the town where he would live and work for
most of the remainder of his life. He received his medical degree in 1881. As a medical student and young
researcher, Freud’s research focused on neurobiology, exploring the biology of brains and nervous tissue
of humans and animals. After graduation, Freud promptly set up a private practice and began treating
various psychological disorders. Considering himself first and foremost a scientist, rather than a doctor, he
endeavored to understand the journey of human knowledge and experience. In 1882, Freud became
engaged to marry Martha Bernays. The couple had six children—the youngest of whom, Anna Freud, went
on to become a distinguished psychoanalyst herself. Freud fled Austria to escape the Nazis in 1938 and
died in England on September 23, 1939 at age 83 by suicide. He had requested a lethal dose of morphine
from his doctor, following a long and painful battle with oral cancer.

ERIK ERIKSON
Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1902. Erikson never knew his own father; he was
raised by his mother and stepfather, who married in 1905. He struggled with his identity throughout his
youth as he felt his stepfather never fully accepted him as he did his own daughters. Erikson grew up
using his stepfather’s surname; he eventually adopted the name Erikson in 1939. After meeting Anna
Freud while working in Vienna, Erikson decided to pursue the field of psychoanalysis. He studied child
development at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute through the Montessori method, which focused on
psychosexual and developmental stages. Erikson received a diploma from the institute, but he never
received a formal degree. Instead, his knowledge was based upon his experiences and extensive reading.
Erikson married Joan Serson, a dancer and artist, in 1930, who helped him to develop his psychosocial
development theory. Erikson, his wife, and young son fled the Nazi uprising for the Unites States in 1933.
The couple raised three children. The Erikson’s first settled in Boston, where he became the first male to
practice child psychoanalysis in the Boston area and also served at the Harvard Medical School, Judge
Baker Guidance Center, and Harvard’s Psychological Clinic, where he came into contact with
psychologist Kurt Lewin and anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Between 1936 and
1939, Erikson worked at Yale’s Institute of Human Relations and as a professor at the Yale School of
Medicine. While there, he conducted a year-long study of Sioux children at a South Dakota Indian
reservation. When the Eriksons relocated to California in 1939, he worked with the Institute of Child
Welfare in California and served on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley and San
Francisco. He continued studying Native American children, and he worked closely with the Yurok tribe.
Erikson remained on faculty at the University of California until 1951, when he was required to sign a
loyalty oath claiming he was not a Communist. Erikson refused to sign the oath based on First
Amendment grounds, even though he was not a Communist, and he was subsequently forced to resign
from the university. Erikson returned to Massachusetts, where he continued to focus his attention on
emotionally challenged youth at the Austin Riggs Center. Erikson finished his professional career with a
final stint as a professor of human development at Harvard, while he continued to conduct behavioral
research and publish essays. Erikson passed away in Massachusetts in 1994.