Paul Tillich (1886-1965) THEMES ON THIS PAGE:  1. THE COURAGE TO BE 2. SYMBOLS AND THE BEYOND  3. FAITH Paul Tillich (1886-1965) was an important German-American philosopher, Christian existentialist, and Lutheran theologian. He grew up in Germany, became a Lutheran minister, and taught theology at the Universities of Berlin, Marburg, Leipzig and Frankfurt. In 1933 he was dismissed from university by the Nazi party, and he moved to New York at the age of 47. He taught at several academic universities, among...

Simone Weil 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...
On Love

ROMANTIC LOVESEX   TOPIC: ROMANTIC LOVE SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Woman’s way of loving Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, and political activist, and was one of the first women to study at the Sorbonne. During her studies she met Jean-Paul Sartre, and the two became life-long friends, intellectual companions, as well as lovers who maintained an open erotic relationship, sometimes in trio with a third woman. She wrote many novels and essays, and was also involved in...

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)  THEMES ON THIS PAGE:  1. REVERENCE FOR LIFE 2. THE WILL TO LIVE  3.THE SOCIAL MISSION OF PHILOSOPHY Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a French-German thinker, theologian, musician, and medical doctor, who became famous for his humanitarian activities in West Africa. He was born in Alsace, which at that time belonged to Germany (but returned to France after World War I). He wrote his PhD thesis at the Sorbonne University, Paris, on the religious philosophy of Kant. At the same...

Jean-Paul Sartre My true self is my freedom to define myself Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was an important French existentialist philosopher, politica...

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...

Plato 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)...
On Love

José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) THEMES ON THIS PAGE:  1. MY LIFE 2. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?  3. THE INNER SELF 4. ROMANTIC LOVE5. THE OTHER PERSON José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) was a Spanish philosopher whose works influenced greatly 20th century Spanish thought. His philosophy, which unites existentialist, phenomenological, and pragmatist themes, attempts to relate to life as it is lived, instead of remote abstract ideas. Ortega was born in Madrid to an educated, liberal family that was actively involved in the...

Miguel de Unamuno 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 result
On Love

JULIÁN MARÍAS (1914-2005)  THEMES ON THIS PAGE:  1. PHILOSOPHIZING INCLUDES ITS HISTORY 2. THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE 3. TRUTH 4. AUTHENTICITY Julián Marías (1914-2005) was a Spanish philosopher, a student of Ortega y Gasset, and a major thinker of the so-called Madrid School. The Spanish Civil War interrupted his philosophy studies at Complutence University of Madrid, and after the war his PhD thesis was rejected because of his criticism of the dictator Franco. He was imprisoned for several months, and was released thanks to...

Susanne Langer (1895-1985)  THEMES ON THIS PAGE:  1. THE NEED TO SYMBOLIZE2. ART SHAPES FEELINGS  3. ART AS AN ILLUSION Susanne Langer (1895-1985) was an American Philosopher, one of the first female academic philosophers in the USA, popular in the past but nowadays often neglected or forgotten. She was born in New York to German-born parents and grew up speaking German. She first attended Radcliffe (a women’s college which was parallel to Harvard all-male college), where she studied under the British...

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...

ISAIAH BERLIN Freedom from and freedom to Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) grew up in Latvia and Russia, but because of anti-Semitism his Jewish family moved to Britain in 1921. He became a philosophy professor at Oxford University, and is popularly known for his essay “Two concepts of liberty.”  The following passages are adapted from a famous essay by Isiah Berlin, "Two Concepts of Liberty," delivered at Oxford University in England in 1958, and published later. The essay has been influential in...

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....

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...