Timeline of Western philosophers

This is a list of philosophers from the Western tradition of philosophy.

600–500 BC

 * Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.
 * Pherecydes of Syros (c. 620 – c. 550 BC). Cosmologist.
 * Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".
 * Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585 – 525 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.
 * Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580 – c. 500 BC). Of the Ionian School. Believed the deepest reality to be composed of numbers, and that souls are immortal.
 * Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – 480 BC). Advocated monotheism. Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school.
 * Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the universe.
 * Epicharmus of Kos (c. 530 – 450 BC). Comic playwright and moralist.
 * Parmenides of Elea (c. 515 – 450 BC). Of the Eleatics. Reflected on the concept of Being.
 * Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500 – 428 BC). Of the Ionians. Pluralist.

400 BC

 * Empedocles (492 – 432 BC). Eclectic cosmogonist. Pluralist.
 * Zeno of Elea (c. 490 – 430 BC). Of the Eleatics. Known for his paradoxes.
 * Gorgias. (c. 483 – 375 BC). Sophist. Early advocate of solipsism.
 * Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481 – 420 BC). Sophist. Early advocate of relativism.
 * Leucippus of Miletus (First half of the 5th century BC). Founding Atomist, Determinist.
 * Socrates of Athens (c. 470 – 399 BC). Emphasized virtue ethics. In epistemology, understood dialectic to be central to the pursuit of truth.
 * Prodicus of Ceos (c. 465 – c. 395 BC). Sophist.
 * Critias of Athens (c. 460 – 413 BC). Atheist writer and politician.
 * Hippias (Middle of the 5th century BC). Sophist.
 * Democritus of Abdera (c. 450 – 370 BC). Founding Atomist.
 * Melissus of Samos. (c. 470 - 430 BC). Eleatic.
 * Cratylus. Follower of Heraclitus.
 * Antisthenes (c. 444 – 365 BC). Founder of Cynicism. Pupil of Socrates.
 * Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 440 – 366 BC). A Cyrenaic. Advocate of ethical hedonism.
 * Xenophon (c. 427 – 355 BC). Historian.
 * Plato (c. 427 – 347 BC). Famed for view of the transcendental forms. Advocated polity governed by philosophers.
 * Diogenes of Apollonia (c. 425 – c 350 BC). Cosmologist.
 * Speusippus (c. 408 – 339 BC). Nephew of Plato.
 * Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 408 – 355 BC). Pupil of Plato.
 * Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404 – 323 BC). Cynic.

300–200 BC

 * Xenocrates (c. 396 – 314 BC). Disciple of Plato.
 * Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BC). A polymath whose works ranged across all philosophical fields.
 * Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC). Peripatetic.
 * Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360 – 270 BC). Skeptic.
 * Epicurus (c. 341 – 270 BC). Materialist Atomist, hedonist. Founder of Epicureanism
 * Strato of Lampsacus (c. 340 – c. 268 BC). Atheist, Materialist.
 * Zeno of Citium (c. 333 – 264 BC). Founder of Stoicism.
 * Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 – c. 230 BC). Astronomer.
 * Euclid (fl. 300 BC). Mathematician, founder of geometry.
 * Archimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC). Mathematician and inventor.
 * Chrysippus of Soli (c. 280 – 207 BC). Major figure in Stoicism.
 * Eratosthenes (c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BC). Geographer and mathematician.
 * Carneades (c. 214 – 129 BC). Academic skeptic. Understood probability as the purveyor of truth.
 * Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190 – c. 120 BC). Astronomer and mathematician, founder of trigonometry.

100 BC–100 AD

 * Cicero (c. 106 BC – 43 BC) Skeptic. Political theorist.
 * Lucretius (c. 99 BC – 55 BC). Epicurean.
 * Quintilian (c. 35 AD – c. 100 AD). Rhetorician and teacher.
 * Philo (c. 20 BC – 50 AD). Believed in the allegorical method of reading texts.
 * Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – 65 AD). Stoic.
 * Jesus of Nazareth (c. 1 – 30 or 33 AD) the founder of Christianity.
 * Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 – c. 70). Engineer.
 * Plutarch (c. 46 – 119).
 * Epictetus (c. 55 – 135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self–determination.

100–400

 * Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180). Stoic.
 * Sextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries AD). Skeptic, Pyrrhonist.
 * Plotinus (c. 205 – 270). Neoplatonist. Had a holistic metaphysics.
 * Porphyry (c. 232 – 304). Student of Plotinus.
 * Iamblichus of Syria (c. 245 – 325). Late neoplatonist. Espoused theurgy.
 * Augustine of Hippo (c. 354 – 430). Neoplatonist. Original Sin. Church father.
 * Proclus (c. 412 – 485). Neoplatonist.
 * Boethius (c. 480–524).
 * John Philoponus (c. 490–570).

500–900

 * Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 500).
 * John of Damascus (c. 680-750).
 * Al-Kindi (c. 801 – 873). Major figure in Islamic philosophy. Influenced by Neoplatonism.
 * Abbas ibn Firnas (809–887). Polymath.
 * John the Scot (c. 815 – 877). neoplatonist, pantheist.
 * al–Faràbi (c. 870 – 950). Major Islamic philosopher. Neoplatonist.
 * al-Razi (c. 865 – 925). Rationalist. Major Islamic philosopher. Held that God creates universe by rearranging pre–existing laws.
 * Saadia Gaon (c. 882 – 942). Jewish Philosopher
 * Al-Biruni (c. 973 – 1050). Islamic polymath.
 * Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980–1037). Islamic philosopher.
 * Ibn Hazm (7 November 994 – 15 August 1064)

1000–1100

 * Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) (c. 1021–1058). Jewish philosopher.
 * Anselm (c. 1034–1109). Christian philosopher. Produced ontological argument for the existence of God.
 * Omar Khayyam (c. 1048–1131). Islamic philosopher. Agnostic. Mathematician. Philosophical poet, one of the 5 greatest Iranian Poets.
 * Al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111). Islamic philosopher. Mystic.
 * Yehudah HaLevi (c. 1075- 1141). Jewish poet, physician and philosopher.
 * Peter Abelard (c. 1079–1142). Scholastic philosopher. Dealt with the problem of universals.
 * Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160). Scholastic.
 * Ibn Tufail (c. 1105 – 1185)
 * Averroes (Ibn Rushd, "The Commentator") (c. 1126–December 10, 1198). Islamic philosopher.
 * Maimonides (c. 1135–1204). Jewish philosopher.
 * Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 or 1150 – 1209)
 * Suhrawardi (c. 1154–1191). Major Islamic philosopher.
 * Ibn Arabi (1165–1240). Andalusian Muslim philosopher, mystic, poet, and scholar. Founder of Akbarism, one of the major current of later Islamic philosophy.
 * Fibonacci (c. 1170–c. 1250), mathematician.
 * Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253).
 * Francis of Assisi (c. 1182–1226). Ascetic.
 * Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) (c. 1193–1280). Early Empiricist.

1200–1300

 * Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294). Empiricist, mathematician.
 * Thomas Aquinas (c. 1221–1274). Aristotelian.
 * Bonaventure (c. 1225–1274). Franciscan.
 * Ramon Llull (c. 1232–1315) Spanish philosopher
 * Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328). mystic.
 * Ibn Taymiyya (c. 1263-1328) Islamic scholar, jurist and philosopher
 * Dante Alighieri (c. 1265 – 1321).
 * Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Franciscan, Scholastic, Original Sin.
 * Marsilius of Padua (c. 1270–1342). Understood chief function of state as mediator.
 * William of Ockham (c. 1288–1348). Franciscan. Scholastic. Nominalist, creator of Ockham's razor.
 * Jean Buridan (c. 1300–1358). Nominalist.
 * John Wycliffe (c. 1320–1384).
 * Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–5 – 1382). Made contributions to economics, science, mathematics, theology and philosophy.
 * Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406).
 * Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340 – c. 1411). Jewish philosopher.
 * Gemistus Pletho (c. 1355 – 1452/1454). Late Byzantine scholar of neoplatonic philosophy.

1400

 * Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). Christian philosopher.
 * Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457). Humanist, critic of scholastic logic.
 * Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). Christian Neoplatonist, head of Florentine Academy and major Renaissance Humanist figure. First translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin.
 * Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494). Renaissance humanist.
 * Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). Humanist, advocate of free will.
 * Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527). Political realism.
 * Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.
 * Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). Humanist, created term "utopia".
 * Martin Luther (1483–1546). Major Western Christian theologian.

1500

 * John Calvin (1509–1564). Major Western Christian theologian.
 * Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). Humanist, skeptic.
 * Giordano Bruno (1548–1600). Advocate of heliocentrism.
 * Francisco Suarez (1548–1617). Politically proto–liberal.
 * Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Empiricist.
 * Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Heliocentrist.
 * Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.
 * Molla-Sadra (1572–1640). Major Islamic philosopher.
 * Hugo Grotius (1583–1645). Natural law theorist.
 * Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). Cartesian.
 * Robert Filmer (1588–1653). Absolutist, monarchist, patrimonialist. Divine right of kings.
 * Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). Advocate of extensive government power, social contract theorist, materialist.
 * Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655). Mechanicism. Empiricist.
 * René Descartes (1596–1650). Heliocentrism, mind-body dualism, rationalism.

1600

 * Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658). Spanish Catholic philosopher
 * François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).
 * Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Physicist, scientist. Noted for Pascal's wager.
 * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673). Materialist, feminist.
 * Robert Boyle (1627–1691).
 * Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627 – 1704).
 * Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). Rationalism.
 * Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694). Social contract theorist.
 * John Locke (1632–1704). Major Empiricist. Political philosopher.
 * Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). Cartesian.
 * Isaac Newton (1643–1727).
 * John Flamsteed (1646 – 1719). Astronomer.
 * Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716). Co-inventor of calculus.
 * Pierre Bayle (1647–1706). Pyrrhonist.
 * Jean Meslier (1664–1729). Atheist Priest.
 * Giambattista Vico (1668–1744).
 * John Toland (1670–1722).
 * Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1671–1713).
 * Dimitrie Cantemir (1674-1723)
 * Christian Wolff (1679–1754). Determinist, rationalist.
 * George Berkeley (1685–1753). Idealist, empiricist.
 * Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755). Skeptic, humanist.
 * Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746). Proto–utilitarian.
 * Voltaire (1694–1778). Advocate for freedoms of religion and expression.

1700

 * Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). American philosophical theologian.
 * David Hartley (1705–1757).
 * Julien La Mettrie (1709–1751). Materialist, genetic determinist.
 * Thomas Reid (1710–1796). Member of Scottish Enlightenment, founder of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.
 * David Hume (1711–1776). Empiricist, skeptic.
 * Jean–Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Social contract political philosopher.
 * Denis Diderot (1713–1784).
 * Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762).
 * Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771). Utilitarian.
 * Etienne de Condillac (1715–1780).
 * Jean d'Alembert (1717–1783).
 * Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789). Materialist, atheist.
 * Adam Smith (1723–1790). Economic theorist, member of Scottish Enlightenment.
 * Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). Major contributions in nearly every field of philosophy, especially metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.
 * Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). Member of the Jewish Enlightenment.
 * Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781).
 * Edmund Burke (1729–1797). Conservative political philosopher.
 * Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788).
 * Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794). Italian criminologist, jurist, and philosopher from the Age of Enlightenment.
 * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). Liberal political philosopher.
 * Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819).
 * Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803).
 * Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829). Early evolutionary theorist.
 * Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). Utilitarian, hedonist.
 * Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827). Determinist.
 * Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) Conservative
 * Louis de Bonald (1754 – 1840).
 * William Godwin (1756–1836). Anarchist, utilitarian.
 * Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). Feminist.
 * Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805).
 * Comte de Saint-Simon (1760–1825). Socialist.
 * Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).
 * Madame de Staël (1766–1817).
 * Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). Hermeneutician.
 * Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843). Poet and philosopher.
 * G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831). German idealist.
 * Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834).
 * James Mill (1773–1836). Utilitarian.
 * F. W. J. von Schelling (1775–1854). German idealist.
 * Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848).
 * Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). Pessimism, Critic, Absurdist.
 * Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881).
 * Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883). Egalitarian, abolitionist.
 * Auguste Comte (1798–1857). Social philosopher, positivist.

1800–1850

 * Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Transcendentalist, abolitionist, egalitarian, humanist.
 * Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872).
 * Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859).
 * Max Stirner (1806–1856). Anarchist.
 * Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871). Logician.
 * John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Utilitarian.
 * Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865). Anarchist.
 * Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858). Egalitarian, utilitarian.
 * Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.
 * Margaret Fuller (1810–1850). Egalitarian.
 * Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). Existentialist.
 * Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). Revolutionary anarchist.
 * Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902). Egalitarian.
 * Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Transcendentalist, pacifist, abolitionist.
 * Karl Marx (1818–1883). Socialist, formulated historical materialism.
 * Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Egalitarian, dialectical materialist.
 * Herbert Spencer (1820–1903). Nativism, libertarianism, social Darwinism.
 * Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906). Feminist.
 * Ernest Renan (1823 – 1892).
 * Hippolyte Taine (1828 – 1893).
 * Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911).
 * T.H. Green (1836–1882). British idealist.
 * Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). Rationalism, utilitarianism.
 * Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Philosopher of science, influence on logical positivism.
 * Franz Brentano (1838–1917). Phenomenologist.
 * Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). Pragmatist.
 * Philipp Mainländer (1841 — 1876). Pessimist.
 * William James (1842–1910). Pragmatism, Radical empiricism.
 * Hermann Cohen (1842-1918). Neo-Kantianism, Jewish philosophy.
 * Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921). Anarchist communism.
 * Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). Naturalistic philosopher, influence on Existentialism.
 * W. K. Clifford (1845–1879). Evidentialist.
 * F. H. Bradley (1846–1924). Idealist.
 * Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). Social philosopher.
 * Gottlob Frege (1848–1925). Influential analytic philosopher.

1850–1900

 * Henri Poincaré (1854–1912).
 * Josiah Royce (1855–1916). Idealist.
 * Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). Neurologist, founded psychoanalysis, posited structural model of mind.
 * Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). Linguist, Semiotics, Structuralism.
 * Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Social philosopher.
 * Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).
 * Edmund Husserl (1859–1938). Founder of phenomenology.
 * Henri Bergson (1859–1941). Vitalism.
 * John Dewey (1859–1952). Pragmatism.
 * Jane Addams (1860–1935). Pragmatist.
 * Pierre Duhem (1861–1916).
 * Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). Anthroposophy
 * Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). Process Philosophy, Mathematician, Logician, Philosophy of Physics, Panpsychism.
 * George Herbert Mead (1863–1931). Pragmatism, symbolic interactionist.
 * George Santayana (1863–1952). Pragmatism, naturalism; known for many aphorisms.
 * Max Weber (1864–1920). Social philosopher.
 * Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936). Existentialist.
 * Benedetto Croce (1866–1952).
 * Emma Goldman (1869–1940). Anarchist.
 * Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919). Marxist political philosopher.
 * Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). Analytic philosopher, nontheist, influential.
 * G. E. Moore (1873–1958). Common sense theorist, ethical non–naturalist.
 * Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948). Existentialist.
 * Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945). Neo-Kantianism.
 * Max Scheler (1874–1928). German phenomenologist.
 * Carl Jung (1875–1961). Psychoanalyst, metaphysicist.
 * Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944). Idealist and fascist philosopher.
 * Martin Buber (1878–1965). Jewish philosopher, existentialist.
 * Jan Łukasiewicz (1878-1956). Logician.
 * Oswald Spengler (1880 – 1936).
 * Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973).
 * Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Christian evolutionist.
 * Hans Kelsen (1881–1973). Legal positivist.
 * Moritz Schlick (1882–1936). Founder of Vienna Circle, logical positivism.
 * Otto Neurath (1882–1945). Member of Vienna Circle.
 * Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950).
 * Jacques Maritain (1882–1973). Human rights theorist.
 * José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955). Philosopher of History.
 * Karl Jaspers (1883–1969). Existentialist.
 * Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962).
 * Georg Lukács (1885–1971). Marxist philosopher.
 * Karl Barth (1886–1968).
 * René Guénon (1886 – 1951).
 * Carl Schmitt (1888 – 1985).
 * Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). Analytic philosopher, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, influential.
 * Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973). Christian existentialist.
 * Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). Phenomenologist.
 * Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). Marxist philosopher.
 * Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.
 * Walter Benjamin (1892–1940). Marxist. Philosophy of language.
 * Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977). Philosophy of the Law Idea.
 * Max Horkheimer (1895-1973). Frankfurt School.
 * Ernst Jünger (1895 – 1998).
 * Susanne Langer (1895–1985).
 * Georges Bataille (1897–1962).
 * Julius Evola (1898 – 1974).
 * Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979). Frankfurt School.
 * C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963).
 * Friedrich Hayek (1899 – 1992).
 * Leo Strauss (1899–1973). Political Philosopher.

1900–1950

 * Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976).
 * Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002). Hermeneutics.
 * Jacques Lacan (1901–1981). Structuralism.
 * Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991). Marxist philosopher
 * Alfred Tarski (1901–1983). Created T–Convention in semantics.
 * Michael Oakeshott (1901 – 1990).
 * Karl Popper (1902–1994). Philosopher of Science.
 * Mortimer Adler (1902–2001).
 * Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)
 * Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930). Proposed redundancy theory of truth.
 * Theodor Adorno (1903–1969). Frankfurt School.
 * Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) comparative mythology and comparative religion
 * Raymond Aron (1905 – 1983).
 * Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980). Humanism, existentialism.
 * Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivist, Individualist.
 * Kurt Gödel (1906–1978). Vienna Circle.
 * Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995).
 * Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Political Philosophy.
 * H.L.A. Hart (1907–1992). Legal positivism.
 * Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). Influential French phenomenologist.
 * Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). Existentialist, feminist.
 * Willard van Orman Quine (1908–2000).
 * Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), historian of ideas.
 * Simone Weil (1909–1943).
 * A. J. Ayer (1910–1989). Logical positivist, emotivist.
 * J. L. Austin (1911–1960).
 * Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980). Media theory.
 * Alan Turing (1912–1954). Functionalist in philosophy of mind.
 * Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989). Influential American philosopher
 * Albert Camus (1913–1960). Absurdist.
 * Paul Ricœur (1913–2005). French philosopher and theologian.
 * Roland Barthes (1915–1980). French semiotician and literary theorist.
 * Donald Davidson (1917–2003). Coherentist philosophy of mind.
 * Louis Althusser (1918–1990). Structural Marxist.
 * Russell Kirk (1918 – 1994).
 * Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008).
 * M. Bunge (1919–2020).
 * P. F. Strawson (1919–2006). Ordinary language philosophy.
 * John Rawls (1921–2002). Liberal.
 * Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996). Author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
 * Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017). Polish sociologist and philosopher, who introduced the idea of liquid modernity.
 * Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). Postcolonialism
 * Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995). Post-structuralism
 * Michel Foucault (1926–1984). Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Postmodernism, and the concept of biopolitics.
 * Hilary Putnam (1926–2016). Neopragmatism.
 * Noam Chomsky (born 1928). Linguist.
 * Robert M. Pirsig (1928–2017). Introduced the Methaphysics of Quality. MOQ incorporates facets of East Asian philosophy, pragmatism and the work of F. S. C. Northrop.
 * Bernard Williams (1929–2003). Moral philosopher.
 * Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007). Postmodernism, Post-structuralism.
 * Jürgen Habermas (born 1929). Discourse ethics.
 * Jaakko Hintikka (1929–2015).
 * Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929). Aristotelian.
 * Hubert Lederer Dreyfus (1929-2017)
 * Allan Bloom (1930–1992). Political Philosopher.
 * Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002). French psychoanalytic sociologist and philosopher.
 * Jacques Derrida (1930–2004). Deconstruction.
 * Thomas Sowell (born 1930). Political Philosopher, capitalist.
 * Guy Debord (1931–1994). French Marxist philosopher.
 * Richard Rorty (1931–2007). Pragmatism, Postanalytic philosophy.
 * Charles Taylor (born 1931). Political philosophy, Philosophy of Social Science, and Intellectual History.
 * John Searle (born 1932). Direct realism.
 * Alvin Plantinga (born 1932). Reformed epistemology, Philosophy of Religion.
 * Jerry Fodor (1935–2017).
 * Alain Badiou (born 1937).
 * Thomas Nagel (born 1937). Qualia theory.
 * Robert Nozick (1938–2002). Libertarian.
 * Tom Regan (1938–2017). Animal rights philosopher.
 * Saul Kripke (1940-2022). Modal semantics.
 * Jean-Luc Nancy (1940-2021) French philosopher.
 * David K. Lewis (1941–2001). Modal realism.
 * Derek Parfit (1942–2017).
 * Giorgio Agamben (born 1942). State of exception, form–of–life, and Homo sacer.
 * Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942). Postcolonialism, Feminism, Literary theory.
 * Roger Scruton (1944-2020). Traditionalist conservatism.
 * Peter Singer (born 1946) Moral philosopher on animal liberation, effective altruism.
 * Bruno Latour (1947-2022) French Philosopher, Anhropologist, Sociologist.
 * Camille Paglia (born 1947).
 * Martha Nussbaum (born 1947). Political philosopher.
 * Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born 1949).
 * Slavoj Žižek (born 1949). German Idealism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
 * Ken Wilber (born 1949). Integral Theory.

1950–2000

 * Cornel West (born 1953).
 * Judith Butler (born 1956). Poststructuralist, feminist, queer theory.
 * Alexander Wendt (born 1958). Social constructivism.
 * Michel Onfray (born 1959).
 * Byung-Chul Han (born 1959).
 * Nick Land (born 1962). Accelerationist.
 * Ray Brassier (born 1965). Nihilist.
 * David Benatar (born 1966). Antinatalist.
 * Alenka Zupančič (born 1966). German Idealism, Nietzsche, Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
 * Alain de Botton (born 1969).
 * Nick Bostrom (born 1973).