| Since the dawn of time, mankind has sought to | | | | morality and warfare. The most famous school of |
| understand both the meaning and the significance of its | | | | Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, was led by its |
| own existence. Although millennia of philosophers have | | | | namesake Confucius, not just the most influential of |
| all shared the same core mission and drive to answer | | | | Chinese thinkers but perhaps the most influential of any |
| these most fundamental questions about certain | | | | philosopher. Confucius argued very strongly against |
| factors such as time and culture ultimately shaped their | | | | artificial social structures based on might and wealth, |
| worldview—and their suppositions about humanity | | | | and believed instead in a human meritocracy in which |
| itself. | | | | a person’s abilities and knowledge determined their |
| The most significant of the early philosophers came | | | | standing in the world. Although his teachings were |
| from three ancient empires: Greece, Rome, and China. | | | | embraced widely, Chinese culture and government has |
| These philosophers lived and studied between the | | | | repeatedly reinterpreted these teachings to reflect the |
| years of 624 B.C. and 450 A.D., although most lived | | | | mores and needs of the times. |
| between 550 B.C. and 150 B.C. and all are generally | | | | Through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, philosophy |
| grouped together asB.C Philosophers. The earliest | | | | was relegated to a second-class academic pursuit as |
| thinkers, who collectively formed the Milesian School in | | | | more secular schools of thought took precedence. |
| the ancient city of Miletius in Ionia along the Aegean | | | | However, 17th century philosophers such as Francis |
| Sea (now mostly contained within the modern nation | | | | Bacon, John Locke, Isaac Netwon, and Galileo Galilei |
| of Turkey), devoted most of their study to | | | | combined long-standing questions of human existence |
| contemplating the foundations of nature and | | | | with more practical pursuits like politics and science. |
| cosmology. Because science had not advanced too | | | | The 18th century philosophers however, ushered in the |
| far at the time, their hypotheses were quite literal, and | | | | famously dubbed “Age of Enlightenment,” in |
| the studies of Anaximenes, Thales, and Anaximander | | | | which philosophical thought was applied on a full social |
| became less noted for their ideas and for more | | | | scale, thanks to a preponderance of wealth throughout |
| directly inspiring the later work of the Greeks. | | | | Europe, the discovery of the New World and, most |
| Before the more classically grounded Greeks, | | | | importantly, the advent of the printing press. Great |
| however, Diogenes of Apollonia and Pherecydes of | | | | thinkers of the day could now spread their findings and |
| Syros published significant tomes questioning not just | | | | ideas to a wider audience, although literacy rates were |
| the findings of their peers, but postulating a subjective | | | | still low among general populations. The most famous |
| nature of existence; Diogenes in particular was reviled | | | | thinkers of this period, in turn, were not strictly thinkers |
| by his peers, although his work would tremendously | | | | at all: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine became |
| influence that of Socrates, perhaps the most famous | | | | famous as colonial liberators, Joseph Haydn made his |
| of the early philosophers—or of any era of | | | | name as a composer, and Adam Smith developed the |
| philosophy. | | | | foundations of the modern free market economy. |
| Socrates deviated from his predecessors in that he | | | | When the 19th century philosophers had their turn at |
| never committed his ideas to paper, but instead let his | | | | prominence, their findings became more divisive and |
| students’ conclusions act as his legacy. As such, his | | | | less unifying than their predecessors’. Immanuel |
| specific views remain in doubt, although his list of | | | | Kant disrupted the entire idea of learning with his bridge |
| students reads like a history book: Plato, Aristotle, and | | | | between empiricism and rationalism, and Friederich |
| Critias, to name a few. But most significantly, | | | | Nietzche’s rejection of moral codes in general (and |
| Socrates’ manner of investigating theoretical, | | | | religious codes in particular) split higher thinking in two. |
| hypothetical, and moral inquires was so widely | | | | Karl Marx’ postulations on a socialist society would |
| embraced it became his greatest legacy as the | | | | lead to the second-greatest divide in the coming |
| Socratic Method formed most of Western | | | | century between classes and competing |
| civilization’s manner of inquiry, be it for abstract | | | | governmental structures; the greatest divide, of course, |
| discussion or for more concrete scientific pursuits. | | | | belonged to Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, |
| The Romans of this era pursued similar lines of | | | | which presented ideas on life which ran counter to the |
| thought and existential exploration, although were more | | | | thousands of years’ worth of philosophy (and |
| likely to answer questions through the prism of the | | | | religion) that came before. |
| empire, rather than of the world; as much of their work | | | | Although the centuries before them suggested great |
| was funded by wealthy patrons in commerce and | | | | promise, the 20th century philosophers found |
| government, it became important for the great | | | | themselves too splintered to put forth and great |
| philosophers of the day to act not just as products of | | | | advancements in deeper thinking. What those |
| Rome, but also as extensions of it. Their contributions | | | | philosophers managed to achieve, however, were |
| were not as great as those of the Greeks, but | | | | tremendous specific advances in theoretical and |
| Augustine of Hippo (later sanctified as Saint Augustine) | | | | applied sciences based on new ways of critical |
| and Damascius became symbolc of the split between | | | | analysis stemming from the teachings of their |
| Eastern and Western civilization, as the former’s | | | | predecessors. As existentialism grew in usefulness, it in |
| embrace of Christianity and the latter’s rejection of | | | | turn drove much of the analysis of the history |
| it led to their respective executions, illustrating the | | | | happening around it; great thinkers of the day, such as |
| theological divide within the crumbling Roman Empire. | | | | Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, increasingly |
| Ancient Chinese philosophy was generally of a much | | | | found their work stemming not as standalone ideas but |
| more practical and grounded nature; rather than looking | | | | as results of larger inquiries. Once, philosophers were |
| to answer questions of mysticism and cosmology, it | | | | simply thinkers; with time, those philsophers had |
| looked at more human concepts such as politics, class, | | | | become doers, as well. |