Classical Philosophers

Thales of Miletus = 7^th c. Greek. 1st philosopher, Milesian School. “Know thyself” water is the base of life

Lao Tzu- 6^th century China, astrology and founder of Taoism. Wrote Tao te Ching. Balance.

Confucius- 6^th century China, Respect one’s elders. Ancestor worship.

Anaximander-6^th c. BC. Milesian school, Thales’ student, believed that infinite apeiron is the essence of life

Anaximenes- 6^th century BC Milesian School, student of Anaximander, believed everything was made of air.

Heraclites- 6^th-5^th century BC. Milesian school, all is made of fire, all is in flux, cannot step in the same river twice.

Xenophanes- 6^th– 5^th c. Greek. Eleatic school. Sophist, poet & satirist, monotheistic- one, invisible god.

Parmenides- 6^th-5^th c. Greek. Eleatic school, Believed all is of the same substance with no true change.

Democritus- - Laughing philosopher, Developed atomic theory, everything made of invisible atoms.

Pythagoras- 6^th-5^th century, Greek. Transmigration of the soul. Cult of the triangle commune. Mob murdered his family and friends. Committed suicide.

Protagoras- 5^th century, student of Parmenides & Democritus. God is unknowable. Man is the measure of all things. Books burned, sentenced to death but died in a shipwreck.

Siddhartha – 6^th century India, born wealthy, but abandoned everything for enlightenment. Found Nirvana after meditating under a tree for 49 days. Developed Buddhism.

Socrates – 5^th century Greece, Believed in questioning, convicted of corrupting youth. the gadfly of Athens, wisdom comes from knowing oneself. Compelled to drink poison hemlock.

Plato – 5^th-4^th century Greek Student of Socrates, wrote The Republic with the allegory of the cave, felt democracy flawed. Founded the Academy.

Diogenes = 5^th -4^th century Greek, cynic, lived in a barrel in the street, lived basically, wandered the streets with a lamp seeking an honest man.

Aristotle= 4^th century Greek, Student of Plato, developed zoological categorization, wrote about poetics and

physics, elementalist, teacher of Alexander the Great, founded the Lyceum school of philosophy.

Xenocrates = 4^th century Student of Plato, Leader of the Academy. Mathematician Proponent of atomic theory, 3 stages of being- mind, body, and soul.

Cicero = 2^nd- 1st century BC Roman stoic, lawyer and politician. Death ordered by Marc Antony.

Seneca = 1^st century AD Roman, playwright, lawyer and politician, stoic, banished, forced by Nero to commit suicide.

Marcus Aurelius = 2nd century AD Roman Emperor, stoic, focus on self-improvement, don’t attribute malice to bad deeds done through ignorance.

Hypatia = Egyptian, astronomer and mathematician, library of Alexandria, killed by an Christian mob.