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...

Cesare Beccaria

Cesare Beccaria, Marese di Beccaria (1738-1794) was an Italian philanthropist, born in Milan. Short Biography: He opposed capital punishment and torture; advocated education...

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French socialist, feminist, and writer, who taught philosophy at the Sorbonne university in Paris 1931-1943. Short Biography: Her book "Le...

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a French critic. Short Biography: He was an influential theorist of semiology, the science of signs and symbols. One of the French "new critics"...

Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon (1214-1292) was an English philosopher and scientist. Short Biography: In 1266, at the invitation of his friend Pope Cement IV, he began his Opus Majus, a compendium...

Alfred Jules Ayer

Alfred Jules Ayer (1910-1989) was an English philosopher. Short Biography: He wrote Language, "Truth and Logic" in 1936, an exposition of the theory of "logical positivism",...

Averroes

Ibn Rushd (1126-1198) was an Arabian philosopher, who argued for the eternity of matter, and denied the immortality of the individual soul. Short Biography: His philosophical...

John Langshaw Austin

John Langshaw Austin (1911-1960) was a British philosopher. Short Biography: Influential in later work on the philosophy of language, Austin was a pioneer in the investigation...

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1226-1274) was a Neapolitan philosopher and theologian. Short Biography: His Summa contra gentiles (Against the Errors of the Infidels 1259-1264) argues...

Anaximander

Anaximander (610 - C. 547 BC) was a Greek astronomer and philosopher. Short Biography: He is thought to have been the first to determine the solstices and equinoxes, to have...

Henri Frederic Amiel

Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881) was a Swiss philosopher and writer, who wrote Journal tntime 1882-1884. Born at Geneva, he became professor of philosophy at the university there. Why...

Louis Althusser

Louis Althusser (1918-1990) was an French philosopher and Marxist, born in Algeria. Short Biography: From 1968 argued that the idea that economic systems determine family and...

Samuel Alexander

Samuel Alexander (1859-1938) was an Australian philosopher, who originated the theory of emergent evolution: that the space-time matrix evolved matter, matter evolved life; life evolved...

Ivar Andreas Aasen

Ivar Andreas Aasen was born on August 5, 1813 in Ørsta, Norway and died on September 23, 1896 in Oslo at age 83. Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, poet and playwright....

Alexander Von Humboldt

Alexander Von Humboldt (full name Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt) was born on September 14, 1769 in Berlin, Germany. He was a Prussian naturalist and explorer...

Dimitrie Cantemir

Dimitrie Cantemir was born in October 26, 1673 in Siliesti (today named Dimitrie Cantemir). He was the ruler of Moldavia in 1693 and between 1710 and 1711. He was also a writer, encyclopedic...

Socrates

Socrates was born on June 4, 470 BC in Athens, Greece. He was a famous ancient Greek philosopher. Biography and Career : His mother, Phainarete was a midwife and his father, Sophroniscos...

Titu Maiorescu

Titu Maiorescu was born on February 15, 1840 in Craiova Romania. He was a great Romanian writer, academic teacher, lawyer, literature critic, philosopher, politician, teacher, Romania's...

Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu was born on May 23, 1942 in Ramnicu-Valcea, Romania. He is a Romanian philosopher. Biography and Career : He was a young search worker at the Institute of Philosophy...