Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) On Happiness Happiness as a rational, virtous activity Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) was one of the most important philosophers in the history of Western philosophy. He was born in Macedonia, was a pupil of Plato, and later was a tutor of Alexander the Great. His writings are systematic, covering most aspects of reality and life. They exerted a tremendous influence on the history of philosophy. The following passages are adapted from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, an...
LIST OF PHILOSOPHERS
Plato (about 428-348 BC) On Love Plato (about 428-348 BC) was one of the main philosophers of Western thought. He grew up in Athens, and was a student of Socrates. He founded the Greek academy, which continued to operate until the 6th century AD (when the Roman emperor closed it). Among his students was Aristotle. Later in his life, Plato attempted to apply his philosophical ideas to the kingdom of Syracuse, with little success. Most of Plato’s books survived to this...
DEMOCRITUS PLEASURE, HAPPINESS AND CHEERFULNESS Democritus of Abdera (second half of the 4th century BC) is known today primarily for his theory of atoms, which resembles to some extent modern scientific theories. In fact, he wrote many books about a variety of topics, including ethics, natural science, mathematics, music, and technical works. Only fragments of these works have survived, many of them quotations by Aristotle (who lived about two generations later). The following are Democritus’s main fragments on the topic of...
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) On Love I love the world through you Erich Fromm (1900-1980) was a German-born Jewish psychologist, psychiatrist, and philosopher. He did his doctorate in sociology, and then studied psychiatry and practiced it. After the rise of the Nazis he left Germany, and practiced and taught in New York, Vermont, Mexico City, Michigan, and Switzerland. For several years he was associated with Neo-Freudian psychologists, but he later developed a humanistic approach to psychology and philosophy. He published many books...
Simone Weil (1909-1943) On Love Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a Jewish-born French spiritual philosopher, and was also a political activist with communist and anarchist leanings. She studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and taught philosophy at a secondary school. She took a year off to work as a manual worker at a factory in order to connect with the working class. She later participated in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists, until she was burnt in...
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) On Love Love comes from compasion Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) was a Spanish philosopher, novelist and poet. After studying at the University of Madrid, he became a professor at the University of Salamanca, and then rector of the university. In 1924 Unamuno published articles criticizing the Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera, and as a resulthe was dismissed from the university and escaped to France. After the fall of Rivera, in 1930, Unamuno returned to Salamanca to become...
ON BEING AUTHENTIC What does it mean to be true to myself? An issue for reflectionWHAT DOES IT MEANTO BE TRUE TO MYSELF? “This man is so authentic!” “That girl is fake, a phony!” “I will not listen to them – I must be true to myself!” What does it mean to be authentic, or true to myself? Who should I be true to? Who do I betray when I am inauthentic, or fake? Who is my true “I”? When...
SOPHIE DE CONDORCET (1764-1822) THEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. CAUSES OF SYMPATHY 2. FRIENDSHIP 3. THE PLEASURES OF MORALITY Sophie de Condorcet (1764-1822), born Marie-Louise-Sophie de Grouchy, was a French writer, translator, and hostess of an intellectual salon in Paris, where she was well-connected with important thinkers of the day. Her husband was the Marquis Nicolas de Condorcet, a mathematician and philosopher, and the couple shared many political and intellectual interests. During the “Reign of Terror” he was arrested and was found dead...
Henri Bergson (1859-1941) THEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. CONSCIOUSNESS IN CONSTANT CHANGE 2. TIME AND THE SELF 3. INTUITION AND INTELLECT 4. AUTHENTICITY Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was an important French philosopher, extremely influential at the beginning of the 20th century, and a Nobel Prize winner in literature. He was born near Paris to a Jewish family, but as a teenager he lost his faith. He did his PhD in philosophy at the University of Paris, and his doctoral thesis was “Time and Free Will,”...
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was born in Germany to a Jewish family and studied philosophy at several universities. She was a student of Heidegger at Marburg University and of Husserl at Freiburg University, and wrote her doctoral dissertation at Heidelberg University under the guidance of Jaspers. Since she was Jewish, she escaped Germany in 1933, and then escaped occupied France in 1940, and ended up in the USA, where she taught at several universities until her death. She wrote on a variety...
>GEORGES BATAILLE Sexuality as death Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was a French intellectual who wrote many essays in philosophy and other fields. He studied at École Nationale des Chartes in Paris, and then worked occasionally as a librarian. He published extensively, founded several journals and literary groups, and at different stages was interested in different approaches to philosophy and art. He often wrote essays, novels, and poems on socially “inappropriate” topics such as torture, pornography, and bodily fluids. He died at the...
G.E.M. Anscombe – How Wittgenstein cured me Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001) (usually called G.E.M. Anscombe), was an important British philosopher in the analytic tradition. She was born in England, and at the age of 14 converted to Catholicism, to which she remained devout all her life. She married a fellow philosopher, Peter Geach, while studying classics and philosophy at Oxford. She then studied at Cambridge University and took classes with Wittgenstein, who influenced deeply her way of philosophizing. She later became a...
HERACLITUS Heraclitus lived around the year 500 BC, in the Greek city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. Little is known about his life, but later ancient historians wrote that he was from an influential family; that he was a snob and wrote in a difficult language so that only few would understand him (hence the name “Heraclitus the obscure”); and that he was a pessimist (hence the name “the weeping philosopher”). He died of some illness at the age of 60....
RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650) I am a thing which thinks René Descartes (1596-1650), an important French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, is considered the father of modern philosophy. Under his influence, philosophy became centered on epistemology (the study of knowledge) for three centuries. The question “What do I really know?” became a starting point for many philosophies after him. Especially influential were his idea that knowledge of the self is the foundation of all other knowledge, the search for the foundation of knowledge...
John DeweyTHEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. EXPERIENCE 2. PLAYFULNESS VERSUS WORK 3. MORAL WISDOM 4. VIRTUES John Dewey was an American thinker known for his “pragmatist” approach to philosophy in general, and especially to philosophy of education. He grew up in Vermont, USA, and later received his doctorate at John Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland). He taught philosophy at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and elsewhere. He published hundreds of articles and dozens of books on a variety...
JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT Music and unity John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893) was an American thinker, an influential music critic, and a member of the American Transcendentalist movement of the 19th century (which also included Emerson and Thoreau). As a young man he studied at Harvard and was ordained a Unitarian minister, but quickly decided to leave the ministry. He joined the Transcendentalist community at Brook Farm, and later became a music critic. In 1950 Dwight started his own journal of music, which...
JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) was a major German philosopher, considered to be the founder of German idealism, a philosophical movement of the 18th-19th centuries that revised ideas from Kant’s philosophy. Fichte wrote about a variety of topics, including knowledge, the self, consciousness, religion and morality. For several years he was very influential among German philosophers, but later in his life his popularity declined, eclipsed by Hegel’s influence. Fichte was born to a simple family,...
MARSILIO FICINO Beauty is the harmony which love desires Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) was a major Italian Neo-Platonist philosopher of the Renaissance. He was born near Florence, spent most of his career under the patronage of the Medici family, and was also the tutor of Lorenzo the Magnificent. For Ficino, the task of the philosopher is to interpret and develop historical treasures of wisdom, since wisdom gradually manifests itself through history. He saw himself as a Platonist, although he went far beyond...
MARTIN FOSS Death as a sacrifice for a higher life Martin Foss (1889-1968) was a German-born philosopher who is now often neglected. He was born in Berlin, and studied philosophy and law in Europe. Being Jewish, he left Germany after the rise of Hitler to power, and for four years traveled secretly between Paris and Berlin, working against the Nazis. He then moved with his family to the USA, with the help of the Quaker community, and taught philosophy at Harvard...
MARTIN BUBER (1878-1965) THEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. I-IT AND I-YOU2. THE SPHERE OF THE “BETWEEN”3. INCLUSION AND DIALOGUE4. WITH ANIMALS AND PLANTS5. WITH IDEAS4. WITH GOD Martin Buber (1878-1965) was a Jewish Austrian-born Israeli philosopher, writer, and an activist of cultural Zionism. He was born in Austria, became a professor in Frankfurt, but after the rise of Nazism left for Israel (then Palestine, under British mandate). He wrote on Hassidism and mysticism, but is best known for his dialogical philosophy,...