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Prominent Historians and Philosophers

Prominent Historians and Philosophers who have made major contributions to our understanding of our world and the human condition.

Selected profiles list by activity period:

Photo: The School of Athens by Raphael

BCE

• Pythagoras - Ὁ Πυθαγόρας (c. 570 BCE – c. 495 BCE) Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement of Pythagoreanism.
• Herodotus - Ἡρόδοτος (c. 484 BCE – c. 425 BCE) Greek historian, "Father of History"
• Socrates - Σωκράτης (c. 469 BCE – 399 BCE) Greek philosopher. A founder of Western philosophy
• Thucydides, Θουκυδίδης (c. 460 BCE – c. 395 BCE) A Greek historian, father of "scientific history"
• Plato - Πλάτων (428/7 BCE – 348/7 BCE) Greek philosopher. A founder of Western philosophy
• Diogenes of Sinope (Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς) (c. 412/404 BCE – 323 BCE) Greek cynic philosopher
• Speusippus of Athens (c. 408 BCE – 339/8 BCE) Greek philosopher (Plato's nephew)
• Aristotel - Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs (384 BCE – 322 BCE) Greek philosopher
• Zeno of Citium, Ζήνων ὁ Κιτιεύς (334 BCE – 262 BCE) Greek philosopher
• Sima Qian, 司马迁 (c. 145/135 BCE – 86 BCE) Chinese historian, father of Chinese historiography

0 – 1000 CE

• Philon of Alexandria, Φίλων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, פילון האלכסנדרוני (c. 20 BCE – 50 AC) Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher in Alexandria, Egypt.
• Seneca (c. 1 BCE – 65 CE) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
• Flavius, Josephus Titus; יוסף בן מתתיהו - Yosef ben Matityahu (37 – c. 100 CE) Jewish historian in Ancient Rome
• Plutarch, Plutarchus, Πλούταρχος (c. 46 – 120 CE) Greek historian, biographer and essayist
• Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 117 CE) Senator and historian of the Roman Empire.
• Hypatia - Ὑπατία of Alexandria (370 – 415 CE) Greek scholar from Alexandria, Egypt, considered the first notable woman in mathematics, philosophy and astronomy.
• Agathias Scholasticus, Αγαθίας σχολαστικός (c. 530 – 582/594), of Myrina (Mysia), Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558. His famous works: Cyclus, (The Circle) - compilation of "modern" (in Justinian's day) poems and epigrams which Agathias edited, and in which he included about 100 of his own productions. Historiæ - a sequel to Procopius' (public) history of Justinian's reign.
• Bēda (672/673 – 735) Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede. English monk, author and scholar. "The Father of English History", by his work "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People).
• Einhard (c. 775 – March 14, 840 ACE) Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the Vita Karoli Magni, "one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."

1000 – 1500

• Avicenna, ابن سینا, Aβιτζιανός, Ibn Sīnā (c. 980 – 1037) Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time.
• عمر خیام Omar Khayyám (1048 – 1131) Persian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology. He is believed to have written about a thousand four-line verses or rubaiyat (quatrains).
• Geoffrey of Monmouth (Latin: Galfridus Monemutensis) (c. 1100 – c. 1155) Cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. Best known for his chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain").
• Saxo "Longus" Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220) Danish Historian.
• Wincenty Kadłubek (1161 – 1223) Polish historian
• Maimonides - הרמב"ם موسى-ابن-ميمون (c. 1138 – 1204) Jewish philosopher of Spanish origin.
• Desiderius Erasmus (28/10/1466 – 12/7/1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic philosopher priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.
• Machiavelli, Niccolo (5/3/1469 – 21/6/1527) Italian philosopher
• Martín de Azpilcueta or Doctor Navarrus, was an important Spanish canonist and theologian in his time, and an early economist, the first to develop monetarist theory.

XVI century

• Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). Italian painter, architect, art historian known for Lives of The Artists (1550).
• דוד גאנז David Gans (1561 – 1626) Jewish mathematician, historian, astronomer and astrologer, of Prague.
• Sir Francis Bacon (22/1/1561 – 9/4/1626) English philosopher

XVII century

• Uriel da Costa אוריאל ד'אקוסטה (c. 1585/91 – 1640) Dutch Jewish philosopher and skeptic from Portugal
• Thomas Hobbes (5/4/1588 – 14/12/1679) English philosopher
• René Descartes (31/3/1596 – 11/2/1650) French philosopher
• Baruch de Spinoza - ברוך שפינוזה, Benedictus de Spinoza (11/24/1632 – 21/2/1677) Jewish philosopher of Dutch origin
• John Locke (29/8/1632 – 28/10/1704) English philosopher
• Capt. Edward Johnson (1598 - 1672), seminal author of the first history of New England

XVIII century

• Voltaire (21/11/1694 – 30/5/1778) French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (28/6/1712 – 2/7/1778) Genevan philosopher & writer. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.
• Imanuel Kant (22/4/1724 – 12/2/1804) German philosopher
• Moses Mendelssohn - משה מנדלסון; (c 6/9/1729 – 4/1/1786) German Jewish philosopher

XIX century

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (28/7/1770 – 14/11/1831) German philosopher, of the German Idealism movement
• Carlo Cattaneo (1801 - 1869) Italian philosopher and Revolutionary
• Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855) Danish philosopher and theologian
• Christiam Mommsen (30/11/1817 – 1/11/1903) German historian and writer; his masterpiece - "The History of Rome". Nobel Prize in Literature 1902.
• Karl Marx (5/5/1818 – 14/3/1883) German Jewish philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist and writer
• John Venn (4/8/1834 – 4/4/1923) British logician and philosopher, famous for introducing the Venn diagram.
• Friedrich Nietzsche (15/10/1844 – 25/8/1900) German philologist, philosopher, cultural critic, poet and composer.

XX century

• Henri Bergson (1859 – 1941) French philosopher. Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927.
• John Dewey (1859 – 1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer
• Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG OM CH TD PCc DL FRS RA (1874 – 1965) British statesman, army officer and writer (see: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1940 - 1945 & 1951 - 1955. Nobel Prize in Literature, 1953.
• Martin Buber, מרטין בובר‎; (1878 – 1965) Austrian-born Jewish philosopher
• Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) German-language Jewish novelist who revolutionized thinking and literature of the XX century
• Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) Jewish German philosopher, historian and educator
• Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) Austrian-British philosopher
• Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894 – 1963) English-American writer and philosopher
• Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, FRS, FBA (1902 – 1994) Austro-British philosopher
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980) French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic
• Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986) French novelist and philosopher
• Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM, CBE, FBA (1909 – 1997) Russian-British philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation.
• A.J. Ayers (1910 – 1989) British philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, and a Special Operations MI6 agent.
• Bernard Lewis (1916 – 2018) British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies
• Prof. Georg Henrik von Wright (1916 – 2003) Finnish philosopher, succeeded Wittgenstein as a professor in Cambridge. He focused on analytic philosophy and philosophical logic. He was also interested in moralism and pessimism.

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