John Duns Scotus

John Duns Scotus (c. 1265 - c. 1308) was an Franciscan monk, an important figure of medieval scholasticism. Short Biography: On many points he turned against the orthodoxy of...

Diogenes

Diogenes (c. 412-323 BC) was a Ascetic Greek philosopher of the Cynic school. Short Biography: He believed in freedom and self-sufficiency for the individual, and did not believe...

Wilhelm Dilthey

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) was a German philosopher, a major figure in the interpretive tradition of her-meneutics. Short Biography: He argued that the "human sciences" (Geisteswissenschaften)...

Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was a French philosopher. Short Biography: He is closely associated with the Enlightenment, the European intellectual movement for social and scientific...

John Dewey

John Dewey (1859-1952) was an American philosopher, who believed that the exigencies of a modern democratic and industrial society demanded new educational techniques. He expounded...

Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French mathematician and philosopher. He believed that commonly accepted knowledge was doubtful because of the subjective nature of the senses, and...

Confucius

Confucius Latinized form of Kong Zi, "Kong the master" (551-479 BC) was a Chinese philosopher whose name is given to Confucianism. Short Biography: He devoted his life to relieving...

Marquis de Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat Condorcet, Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) was a French philosopher and politician, associated with the Encyclopedistes. Short Biography: One...

Etienne Bonnot de Condiliac

Etienne Bonnot de Condiliac (1715-1780) was a French philosopher. Short Biography: He mainly followed Locke, but his Traiti de sensations in 1754 claims that all mental activity...

Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) was a French philosopher, regarded as the founder of sociology, a term he coined 1830. Short Biography: He sought to establish sociology as an intellectual...

R. G. Collingwood

Robin George Collingwood (1889-1943) was a English philosopher. Short Biography: He believed that any philosophical theory or position could only be properly understood within...

Rudolf Carnap

Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) was a German philosopher, and exponent of logical empiricism (the belief that knowledge is derived from experience). Short Biography: He was a member...

Robert Burton

Robert Burton (1577-1640) was a English philosopher, who wrote an analysis of depression, "Anatomy of Melancholy" in 1621, a compendium of information on the medical and religious opinions...

Martin Buber

Martin Buber (1878-1965) was a Israeli philosopher, a Zionist and advocate of the reappraisal of ancient Jewish thought in modern terms. Short Biography: Born in Vienna, he was...

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was a Italian philosopher. Short Biography: He became a Dominican friar in 1563, but his sceptical attitude to Catholic doctrines forced him to flee...

Charles Dunbar Broad

Charles Dunbar Broad (1887-1971) was a British philosopher. Short Biography: His books include Perception, Physics and Reality in 1914, and Lectures on Psychic Research in 1962...

Richard Bevan Braithwalte

Richard Bevan Braithwalte (1900-1990) was a British philosopher, who experimented in the provision of a rational basis for religion and moral choice. Originally a physicist and...

Saint Bonaventura

Saint Bonaventura (1221-1274) was an Italian Roman Catholic theologian. Short Biography: He entered the Franciscan order in 1243, became professor of theology at Paris, France...

Boethius

Anicius Manilus Severinus Boethius (480-524) was a Roman philosopher. Short Biography: While imprisoned on suspicion of treason by Theodoric, he wrote treatises on music and...

George Berkeley

George Berkeley (1685-1753) was a Irish philosopher, who believed that nothing exists apart from perception, that a thing which is not perceived cannot be known, and therefore cannot...

Henri Bergson

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was a French philosopher, who believed that time, change, and development were the essence of reality. Short Biography: He thought that time was not...

Nikolai Berdyaev

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) was a Russian philosopher, who often challenged official viewpoints. Short Biography: Although appointed professor of philosophy in...

Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was an English philosopher, legal and social reformer, and founder of utilitarianism. Biography: The essence of his moral philosophy is found in the...

Julien Benda

Julien Benda (1867-1956) was a French writer and philosopher. Short Biography: He was an outspoken opponent of the philosophy of Bergson, and in 1927 published a manifesto on...