Philosophy is complicated stuff. It’s the search for meaning, for greater understanding, for answers to the questions surrounding our existence, our purpose, and the universe itself. So obviously, attempting to sum it up in a few pithy blurbs is a fool’s errand. Well, consider us your sport, because that’s exactly what we’ve set out to do.
1. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
Thomas Aquinas was a 13th-century Dominican friar, theologian, and Doctor of the Church, born in what is known today as the Lazio region of Italy. His most significant contribution to Western thought is the concept of natural theology (sometimes referred to as Thomism in tribute to his influence). This belief system holds that the existence of God is verified through reason and rational explanation, as opposed to through scripture or religious experience. This ontological approach is among the central premises underpinning modern Catholic philosophy and liturgy. His writings, and Aquinas himself, are still considered among the preeminent models for the Catholic priesthood. His ideas also remain central to theological debate, discourse, and modes of worship.
2. Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
Aristotle is among the most important and influential thinkers and teachers in human history, often considered — alongside his mentor, Plato — to be a father of Western Philosophy.” Born in the northern part of ancient Greece, his writings and ideas on metaphysics, ethics, knowledge, and methodological inquiry are at the root of human thought. Most philosophers who followed — both those who echoed and opposed his ideas — owed a direct debt to his wide-ranging influence. Aristotle’s enormous impact was a consequence of the breadth of his writing and his reach during his lifetime.
In addition to being a philosopher, Aristotle was also a scientist, which led him to consider an enormous array of topics, mainly through the view that all concepts and knowledge are ultimately based on perception. A small sampling of the issues covered in Aristotle’s writing includes physics, biology, psychology, linguistics, logic, ethics, rhetoric, politics, government, music, theatre, poetry, and metaphysics. He was also in a unique position to prevail directly over thinking throughout the known world, tutoring a young Alexander the Great at the request of the future conqueror’s father, Phillip II of Macedon. This position of influence gave Aristotle the means to establish the library at Lyceum, where he produced hundreds of writings on papyrus scrolls. And, of course, it also gave him direct sway over the mind of a man who would one day command an empire stretching from Greece to northwestern India. The result was an enormous sphere of influence for Aristotle’s ideas, one that only began to be challenged by Renaissance thinkers nearly 2,000 years later.
3. Plato (428/427?–348/347? BCE)
Greek philosopher and teacher Plato did nothing less than found the first institution of higher learning in the Western World, establishing the Academy of Athens and cementing his own status as the most crucial figure in the development of western philosophical tradition. As the pupil of Socrates and the mentor to Aristotle, Plato is the connecting figure in what might be termed the great triumvirate of Greek thought in both philosophy and science. A quote by British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead sums up the enormity of his influence, noting “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Indeed, it
could be argued that Plato founded political philosophy, introducing both the debate and dialogic forms of writing to explore various areas of thought. (Often, in his dialogues, he employed his mentor Socrates as the vessel for his thoughts and ideas.) While he was not the first individual to partake of the activity of philosophy, he was perhaps the first to truly define what it meant, articulate its purpose, and reveal how it could be applied with scientific rigor. This orientation provided a newly concreted framework for considering ethics, politics, knowledge, and theology questions. Such is to say that it is nearly impossible to sum up the impact of Plato’s ideas on science, ethics, mathematics, or the evolution of thought itself other than to say it has been total, permeating, and relentless from the tradition of rigorous thinking itself.
4. Karl Marx (1818–83)
A German-born economist, political theorist, and philosopher, Karl Marx wrote some of the most revolutionary philosophical content ever produced. Indeed, so pertinent was his writing to the human condition during his lifetime, he was exiled from his native country. However, this event would also make it possible for his most important ideas to find a popular audience. Upon arriving in London, Marx took up work with fellow German Friedrich Engels. Together, they devised an assessment of class, society, and power dynamics that revealed deep inequalities and exposed the economic prerogatives for state-sponsored violence, oppression, and war. Marx predicted that the imbalances and violence inherent in capitalism would ultimately lead to its collapse. From its ashes would rise a new socialist system,
a classless society where all participants (as opposed to just wealthy private owners) have access to the means for production. What made the Marxist system of thought so impactful, though, was its innate call to action, couched in Marx’s advocacy for a working-class revolution aimed at overthrowing an unequal system. The philosophy underlying Marxism, and his revolutionary fervor, would ripple throughout the world, ultimately transforming entire spheres of thought in places like Soviet Russia, Eastern Europe, and Red China. In many ways, Karl Marx presided over a philosophical revolution that continues in the present day in myriad forms of communism, socialism, socialized democracy, and grassroots political organization.
5. Socrates (470–399 BCE)
A necessary inclusion under his role as, essentially, the founder of Western Philosophy, Socrates is unique among entrants on this list for having produced no written works reflecting his key ideas or principles. Thus, the body of his thoughts and ideas is left to be deciphered through the results of his two most prominent students, Plato and Xenophon, as well as to the legions of historians and critics who have written on him since. The classical Greek thinker is best known through Plato’s dialogues, which reveal a pivotal contributor to ethics and education. And because Socrates is best known as a teacher of thought and insight, it is perhaps appropriate that his most widely recognized contribution is a way of approaching education that remains fundamentally relevant even today.
The so-called Socratic Method, which involves questioning and discourse to promote open dialogue on complex topics and to lead pupils to their insights, is on particular display in the Platonic dialogues. His inquisitive approach also positioned him as a central social and moral critic of the Athenian leadership, which ultimately led to his trial and execution for corrupting the minds of young Athenians.
You must be logged in to post a comment.