Schools and philosophers of the world

A Structured Chronology of World Philosophy

I. ANCIENT FOUNDATIONS (Before 500 BCE)

• Persia: Zarathustra (Zoroaster) (c. 1500–1000 BCE)

• India: Vedic Sages (c. 1500–600 BCE)

• China:

  • Laozi (c. 6th cent. BCE) – Daoism

  • Confucius (Kongzi) (551–479 BCE) – Confucianism

  • Mozi (c. 470–391 BCE) – Mohism

• Greece: Thales of Miletus (c. 624–546 BCE), Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BCE), Pythagoras (c. 570–495 BCE)

II. AXIAL AGE & CLASSICAL SYSTEMS (500 BCE – 500 CE)

• India:

  • Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha) (c. 483–563 BCE)

  • Mahavira (c. 540–468 BCE) – Jainism

  • Patanjali (c. 2nd cent. BCE) – Yoga Sutras

  • Nagarjuna (c. 150–250 CE) – Madhyamaka Buddhism

• China:

  • Mencius (Mengzi) (372–289 BCE)

  • Zhuangzi (c. 369–286 BCE) – Daoism

  • Xunzi (c. 310–235 BCE) – Confucianism

  • Han Fei (c. 280–233 BCE) – Legalism

  • Wang Bi (226–249 CE) – Neo-Daoism

• Greece & Rome:

  • Socrates (470–399 BCE)

  • Plato (428/7–348/7 BCE)

  • Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

  • Epicurus (341–270 BCE)

  • Zeno of Citium (334–262 BCE) – Stoicism

  • Plotinus (204–270 CE) – Neoplatonism

III. POST-CLASSICAL SYNTHESIS (500 – 1500 CE)

• Indian Philosophy:

  • Adi Shankara (788–820 CE) – Advaita Vedanta

  • Ramanuja (1017–1137 CE) – Vishishtadvaita Vedanta

• Chinese & East Asian Philosophy:

  • Zhiyi (538–597 CE) – Tiantai Buddhism

  • Huineng (638–713 CE) – Chan (Zen) Buddhism

  • Zhu Xi (1130–1200 CE) – Neo-Confucianism

• Islamic World:

  • Al-Kindi (801–873 CE)

  • Al-Farabi (c. 872–950 CE)

  • Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980–1037 CE)

  • Al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE)

  • Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (1126–1198 CE)

  • Mulla Sadra (1571–1636 CE)

• Europe (Medieval):

  • Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE)

  • Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 CE)

  • William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347 CE)

IV. EARLY MODERN & ENLIGHTENMENT (1500 – 1800 CE)

• Europe:

  • Francis Bacon (1561–1626)

  • René Descartes (1596–1650)

  • Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)

  • John Locke (1632–1704)

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716)

  • David Hume (1711–1776)

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)

  • Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

• India: Guru Nanak (1469–1539) – Sikh Philosophy

V. 19TH CENTURY: REVOLUTIONS & GLOBAL ENCOUNTERS

• Europe:

  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

  • Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)

  • John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)

  • Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)

  • Karl Marx (1818–1883)

  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

• USA: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

• Islamic World: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838–1897), Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905)

• Japan: Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901)

• Africa: Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912)

VI. 20TH & 21ST CENTURIES: GLOBAL PHILOSOPHY

• Analytic Tradition: Gottlob Frege (1848–1925), Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), W.V.O. Quine (1908–2000)

• Continental Tradition: Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)

• Critical Theory: Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969), Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929)

• Poststructuralism/Postmodernism: Michel Foucault (1926–1984), Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), Judith Butler (b. 1956)

• African Philosophy: Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001), Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), Frantz Fanon (1925–1961), Kwasi Wiredu (1931–2022)

• Latin American Philosophy: José Carlos Mariátegui (1894–1930), Enrique Dussel (1934–2023)

• Islamic Philosophy: Allama Iqbal (1877–1938), Mohammed Arkoun (1928–2010), Abdolkarim Soroush (b. 1945)

• Indian Philosophy: Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975), B.R. Ambedkar (1891–1956)

• Chinese Philosophy: Mou Zongsan (1909–1995), Feng Youlan (1895–1990)