Philosophers

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist, widely regarded as one of the most significant figures of the British Enlightenment. His work spanned epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, religion, aesthetics, …

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is widely regarded as one of the most extraordinary polymaths in Western intellectual history. Philosopher, mathematician, logician, scientist, inventor, statesman, and music theorist, Leibniz contributed critically to …

Thomas Hobbes was one of the most influential political philosophers of the early modern period. Best known for his masterpiece Leviathan (1651), Hobbes laid the groundwork for social contract theory …

Baruch Spinoza, also known by his Latinized name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a Dutch philosopher whose radical ideas laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. His system—outlined …

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) stands as one of the towering figures in Western philosophy. A German philosopher of the early 19th century, Hegel is best known for his work …

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, and social critic, widely regarded as the father of existentialism. Although largely unrecognized in his own time, Kierkegaard’s writings addressed …

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was one of the most important British philosophers and political thinkers of the 19th century. He is widely regarded as a towering figure in the development …

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) stands out in the history of philosophy for his deeply original, often bleak, yet powerfully insightful system of thought. Often labeled the “philosopher of pessimism,” Schopenhauer constructed …