10 Famous Philosophers

Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 - 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist
and revolutionary of the 19th Century. Both a scholar and a political activist, Marx
is often called the father of Communism, and certainly his Marxist theory provided
the intellectual base for various subsequent forms of Communism.

Socrates (c. 469 - 399 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher from
the Classical period (often known as the Socratic period in his honor). Unlike most
of the Pre-Socratic philosophers who came before him, who were much more
interested in establishing how the world works, Socrates was more concerned
with how people should behave, and so was perhaps the first major philosopher
of Ethics.

Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher and
mathematician from the Socratic (or Classical) period.

He is perhaps the best known, most widely studied and

most influential philosopher of all time. Together with his mentor, Socrates, and
his student, Aristotle, he provided the main opposition to the Materialist view of
the world represented by Democritus and Epicurus, and he helped to lay
the foundations of the whole of Western Philosophy.

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) was an important Greek philosopher from

the Socratic (or Classical) period, mainly based in Athens. He is one of the most
important founding figures in Western Philosophy, and the first to create
a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics,
Metaphysics, Logic and science.

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) was a German philosopher of the Age of

Enlightenment. He is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of modern
Europe, and his influence on Western thought is immeasurable. He was
the starting point and inspiration for the German Idealism movement in the late
18th and early 19th Centuries, and more specifically for the Kantianism which
grew up around him in his own lifetime.