Philosophers

The thinkers whose work we follow. Click a name to see that philosopher’s record — period, school, areas of work, major works and key concepts — alongside the related stories and books, all on one page.

Acharya PrashantVedanta teacher and author — India0 stories · India Achille MbembePostcolonial theorist — University of the Witwatersrand0 stories · Cameroon / South Africa Alain BadiouPhilosopher of ontology and politics — École Normale Supérieure (emeritus)3 stories · France Alasdair MacIntyreThe philosopher who rebuilt virtue ethics — Notre Dame (1929-2025)4 stories · Scotland / United States Alenka ZupančičLacanian philosopher — Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts2 stories · Slovenia Allan BloomAmerican political philosopher and classicist (1930–1992)1 story · United States Andy ClarkPhilosopher of cognition and mind — University of Sussex3 stories · United Kingdom Anthony KennyHistorian of philosophy and philosopher of mind — University of Oxford2 stories · United Kingdom Arthur DantoAmerican philosopher of art — the artworld and the end of art1 story · United States Arthur O. LovejoyAmerican philosopher — founder of the history of ideas and author of The Great Chain of Being1 story · United States Arthur SchopenhauerGerman philosopher of the will — pessimism, compassion and the first Western reader of the Upanishads1 story · Germany Axel HonnethThird generation of critical theory — Columbia University2 stories · Germany Bernard WilliamsEnglish moral philosopher — moral luck, integrity and the limits of ethical theory1 story · United Kingdom Byung-Chul HanCultural theorist — Berlin University of the Arts3 stories · Germany Carissa VélizPhilosopher of privacy and AI ethics — University of Oxford1 story · United Kingdom Catherine MalabouTheorist of plasticity — Kingston University3 stories · France Charles TaylorPhilosopher of modernity and identity — McGill University (emeritus)3 stories · Canada Christine KorsgaardKantian moral philosopher — Harvard University (emerita)1 story · United States ConfuciusChinese teacher of virtue and ritual — ren, li and the junzi4 stories · China (State of Lu)Cornel WestPragmatist philosopher and public intellectual — Union Theological Seminary2 stories · United States Cornelius CastoriadisGreek-French philosopher — the social imaginary and autonomy1 story · France Daniel DennettAmerican philosopher of mind and cognitive scientist (1942–2024)3 stories · United States David ChalmersPhilosopher of consciousness — New York University21 stories · Australia David HarveyMarxist geographer and social theorist — CUNY Graduate Center3 stories · United Kingdom Denis DiderotFrench Enlightenment philosopher — editor of the Encyclopédie, materialist, author of Rameau's Nephew1 story · France Duncan PritchardEpistemologist — University of California, Irvine1 story · United Kingdom / United States Elena EspositoSociologist of algorithms — Bielefeld and Bologna3 stories · Italy Elisabeth CampPhilosopher of language and mind — Rutgers University1 story · United States Elizabeth AndersonPhilosopher of democracy and equality — University of Michigan5 stories · United States Emma GoldmanAnarchist writer and agitator — Anarchism and Other Essays and Living My Life0 stories · United States (born Russian Empire)Eric SchwitzgebelPhilosopher of mind — University of California, Riverside9 stories · United States F. H. BradleyBritish absolute idealist — Appearance and Reality and the regress on relations2 stories · United Kingdom Friedrich NietzscheGenealogist of values — University of Basel (1844-1900)7 stories · Germany Friedrich SchleiermacherTheologian and philosopher of hermeneutics — University of Berlin2 stories · Germany Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph SchellingOne of the three great figures of German idealism1 story · Germany Gabriel MarcelFrench philosopher and playwright — problem against mystery, being against having1 story · France Gayatri Chakravorty SpivakA founder of postcolonial theory — Columbia University0 stories · India / United States Georges BatailleWriter and philosopher — eroticism, expenditure and the sacred2 stories · France Gianni VattimoItalian hermeneutic philosopher — weak thought and the end of modernity1 story · Italy Gilbert SimondonFrench philosopher of technology and individuation1 story · France Gilles DeleuzePhilosopher — University of Paris VIII (1925–1995)3 stories · France Giorgio AgambenPhilosopher of biopolitics and law — Italy2 stories · Italy Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizRationalist philosopher and mathematician — early modern Europe5 stories · Germany Graham HarmanFounder of object-oriented ontology — SCI-Arc, Los Angeles0 stories · United States Guy DebordFrench theorist and film-maker — the society of the spectacle1 story · France Hannah ArendtGerman-American political theorist — totalitarianism, action and statelessness4 stories · United States Hans-Georg GadamerGerman philosopher of hermeneutics — 1900–20022 stories · Germany Hitoshi NagaiJapanese philosopher — the problem of why 'I' am this particular self1 story · Japan Humberto MaturanaChilean biologist and philosopher of cognition (1928–2021)1 story · Chile Immanuel KantGerman philosopher — the critical turn and the categorical imperative4 stories · Germany Immanuel WallersteinHistorical sociologist — world-systems analysis3 stories · United States Ioanna KuçuradiTurkish philosopher — value theory, human rights and the ethics of Kant and Scheler1 story · Turkey J. J. C. SmartAustralian philosopher of mind and ethics — 1920–20121 story · Australia Jacques DerridaAlgerian-born French philosopher — deconstruction, différance and the critique of the metaphysics of presence1 story · France Jacques RancièreFrench philosopher of politics and aesthetics — Université de Paris VIII3 stories · France Jalal al-Din RumiPersian Sufi poet of divine love — the Masnavi and the whirling dervishes1 story · Sultanate of Rum (present-day Turkey)James HarringtonEnglish republican theorist — The Commonwealth of Oceana and the balance of property0 stories · United Kingdom Jean-Jacques RousseauGenevan philosopher — the general will and the corruption of society1 story · Switzerland Jean-Luc MarionPhenomenologist and philosopher of religion — Sorbonne (emeritus)0 stories · France Jeremy PoberResearcher in philosophy of mind — University of Lisbon2 stories · Portugal John DeweyAmerican pragmatist — experience, education and democracy1 story · United States John SearleAmerican philosopher of language and mind — 1932–20254 stories · United States John WisdomCambridge philosopher of ordinary language — other minds, the invisible gardener and the point of paradox0 stories · United Kingdom Judith ButlerPhilosopher of politics and language — University of California, Berkeley6 stories · United States Julia KristevaLinguist, psychoanalyst and theorist — Université Paris Cité (emerita)2 stories · Bulgaria / France Jürgen HabermasSecond generation of the Frankfurt School — Goethe University (1929-2026)9 stories · Germany Karl MarxGerman political economist and revolutionary — capital, class and critique2 stories · Germany Karl PopperAustrian-British philosopher of science — falsifiability and the open society3 stories · Austria / United Kingdom Ken WilberFounder of integral theory — United States0 stories · United States Kwame Anthony AppiahPhilosopher of ethics and identity — New York University1 story · Ghana / United States Leo StraussGerman-American political philosopher — esoteric writing and the quarrel between ancients and moderns1 story · United States Linda Martín AlcoffTheorist of identity and epistemology — CUNY Hunter College0 stories · United States Louis AlthusserFrench Marxist philosopher — 1918–19902 stories · France Luciano FloridiPhilosophy of information and digital ethics — Yale University4 stories · Italy / United States Ludwig FeuerbachGerman philosopher of religion and materialist (1804–1872)1 story · Germany Ludwig WittgensteinPhilosopher of language and logic — University of Cambridge9 stories · Austria Mahatma GandhiTheorist of nonviolent resistance — satyagraha, ahimsa and Indian self-rule1 story · India Margaret BodenBritish cognitive scientist — the mechanisms of creativity1 story · United Kingdom Martha NussbaumPhilosopher of law and ethics — University of Chicago4 stories · United States Martin HeideggerGerman philosopher of being and technology (1889–1976)8 stories · Germany Mary MidgleyMoral philosopher (1919–2018)1 story · United Kingdom Mary WollstonecraftPhilosopher and writer — the rights of women1 story · Great Britain Matteo RicciItalian Jesuit in Ming China — The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Euclid in Chinese, the accommodation strategy1 story · Italy Maurice Merleau-PontyFrench phenomenologist of the body — 1908–19611 story · France Michael SandelPolitical philosopher — Harvard University2 stories · United States Michel FoucaultFrench historian of systems of thought — power, discipline and the subject2 stories · France Michel de MontaigneFrench Renaissance thinker — inventor of the essay and sceptic of the self0 stories · France Miranda FrickerTheorist of epistemic justice — New York University5 stories · United Kingdom Monroe BeardsleyAmerican aesthetician — the intentional fallacy and aesthetic experience1 story · United States Nelson GoodmanAmerican philosopher — grue, worldmaking and the languages of art1 story · United States Nick BostromSwedish philosopher of existential risk and artificial intelligence2 stories · Sweden Nick LandFounding figure of accelerationism — Shanghai2 stories · United Kingdom Nicolai HartmannBaltic German philosopher — the new ontology of strata and a realist theory of knowledge1 story · Germany Noam ChomskyLinguist and political thinker — MIT and the University of Arizona2 stories · United States Norbert WienerAmerican mathematician — founder of cybernetics and its ethics2 stories · United States Otto WeiningerAustrian philosopher — Sex and Character and a notorious theory of gender and race1 story · Austria Patricia ChurchlandFounder of neurophilosophy — University of California, San Diego (emerita)0 stories · Canada / United States Paul VirilioTheorist of speed and technology — dromology1 story · France Paulo FreireBrazilian educationalist — critical pedagogy and conscientização1 story · Brazil Peter Godfrey-SmithPhilosopher of science — University of Sydney5 stories · Australia Peter SingerMoral philosopher — Princeton University (emeritus)4 stories · Australia / United States Peter SloterdijkCultural theorist — Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (emeritus)2 stories · Germany Philippa FootEnglish moral philosopher — the revival of virtue ethics and the trolley problem1 story · United Kingdom Philippe Van ParijsTheorist of basic income — UCLouvain (emeritus)2 stories · Belgium Pietro PomponazziItalian Renaissance Aristotelian — 1462–15251 story · Italy PlatoFounder of the Academy — the theory of Forms5 stories · Ancient Greece Quentin MeillassouxSpeculative realist — Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne1 story · France R. G. CollingwoodBritish philosopher and archaeologist — art as expression, history as re-enactment0 stories · United Kingdom Ray BrassierTheorist of nihilism — American University of Beirut0 stories · United Kingdom Rebecca GoldsteinPhilosopher and novelist — United States1 story · United States Richard RortyAmerican pragmatist — against the mirror of nature, for the liberal ironist and the priority of democracy to philosophy1 story · United States Robert AlexyLegal philosopher — University of Kiel (1945–2026)2 stories · Germany Robert BrandomPhilosopher of language — University of Pittsburgh0 stories · United States Robert StalnakerAmerican philosopher of language — possible worlds, the Stalnaker conditional and common ground1 story · United States Roland BarthesFrench semiologist and critic — the death of the author0 stories · France Rudolf CarnapGerman-American logician and philosopher of science (1891–1970)2 stories · Germany (later United States)Sally HaslangerFeminist metaphysician — MIT0 stories · United States Samuel AlexanderAustralian-born British metaphysician — Space, Time and Deity and the doctrine of emergence0 stories · United Kingdom Saul KripkeAmerican logician and philosopher of language — 1940–20223 stories · United States Scott J. ShapiroPhilosopher of law — Yale Law School4 stories · United States Seyla BenhabibPolitical philosopher — Columbia Law School2 stories · United States Shoshana ZuboffAmerican social psychologist — the theorist of surveillance capitalism2 stories · United States Sigmund FreudFounder of psychoanalysis — the unconscious, dreams and the divided self1 story · Austria Simon BlackburnMetaethicist — University of Cambridge (emeritus)0 stories · United Kingdom Simon Conway MorrisPalaeontologist and writer on evolution — University of Cambridge1 story · United Kingdom Simon CritchleyContinental philosophy and ethics — The New School0 stories · United Kingdom Slavoj ŽižekCultural theorist and Lacanian philosopher — University of Ljubljana4 stories · Slovenia Stanisław LemWriter and philosopher of science and technology (1921–2006)1 story · Poland Susan HurleyAmerican philosopher of mind and politics — 1954–20071 story · United States Susan NeimanAmerican moral philosopher — Einstein Forum, Potsdam1 story · United States Theodor AdornoGerman critical theorist — the culture industry and negative dialectics0 stories · Germany Thomas HobbesEnglish political philosopher — sovereignty and the state of nature1 story · England Thomas NagelPhilosopher of mind and ethics — New York University (emeritus)3 stories · United States Thomas PoggeTheorist of global justice — Yale University1 story · Germany / United States Timothy WilliamsonLogician and epistemologist — University of Oxford4 stories · United Kingdom Tu WeimingChinese-American philosopher — New Confucianism, 'cultural China' and spiritual humanism2 stories · China Václav HavelCzech playwright, dissident and president — 'The Power of the Powerless' and living within the truth1 story · Czech Republic Walter BenjaminGerman critic and philosopher — aura, reproducibility and the angel of history2 stories · Germany Wilhelm DiltheyGerman philosopher of the human sciences — understanding against explanation1 story · Germany Will KymlickaTheorist of multiculturalism and animal rights — Queen's University1 story · Canada Yuk HuiPhilosopher of technology — Erasmus University Rotterdam5 stories · Hong Kong / Netherlands Yuval Noah HarariHistorian and public thinker — Hebrew University of Jerusalem1 story · Israel Émile DurkheimFrench sociologist — social facts, solidarity and the sacred1 story · France Étienne Bonnot de CondillacFrench Enlightenment sensationist — the statue that becomes a mind1 story · France