1. Thales
about 624 B.C.E B.C.E.
Known as the first western philosopher.
Thales said Water is the Primary Principle
Thought the Earth was spherical.

2. Socrates 469 - 399 B.C.E. Was known as the gadfly of Athens.
Initiated the “Socratic Method”
Was sentenced to death for corrupting the minds of the youth

4. Plato 427 - 347 B.C.E. A student of Socrates.
Founded the Academy, the first university.
The Allegory of the Cave

5. The Allegory of the Cave

6. Aristotle
384 – 347 B.C.E.
Student of Plato, Alexander the Great’s prof.
wrote about everything: poetics, rhetoric, ethics, politics, meteorology, physics, mathematics, metaphysics, anatomy, physiology, and logic
Doctrine of the Mean

7. St. Augustine C.E.
Tried to synthesize Christianity and Greek philosophy.
Argued against skeptics and for human freedom.

8. Thomas Aquinas
Developed rational arguments for God’s existence
Thought that reason can lead the mind to God

9. Thomas Hobbes
Wrote “Leviathan” express his moral and political views
Social Contract Theory
Ethical Egoism

10. René Descartes 1596-1650 The first modern philosopher
The method of doubt
“I think, therefore I am”

11. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
( )
Philosopher, logician, diplomat.
Developed calculus

12. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Enlightenment philosopher
Developed deontological ethics
Divided the reality into the noumenal and phenomenal realms

13. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) Father of utilitarianism
Developed the hedonic calculus
Had himself stuffed

14. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Refined utilitarianism
Champion of individual liberty
Argued for the political empowerment of women
His wife, Harriet, had a strong influence on his work.

15. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) Influential analytic philosopher
Mentor to Wittgenstein
Tried to reduce mathematics to logic

16. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889- 1951)
Author of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
“The world is all that is the case. 
What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”

17. Robert Nozick
Judith Jarvis Thomson
b. 1929

18. A General Map of the Terrain

19. Epistemology (the theory of knowledge)
What is truth?
What is knowledge?
What are the limits of reason?
How reliable is sensory experience as a source of knowledge?

20. Metaphysics (the theory of reality)
What is ultimately real?
Are there other kinds of reality besides the physical world?
What is the mind?
Are we free or determined?

21. Philosophy of Religion
Is there a God?
Can the existence of God be proven? How?
What is the relationship between faith and reason?
Is there life after death?

22. Ethics
What makes an action right or wrong?
Are there any absolute or objective moral principles?
Are moral judgments based on knowledge, feelings, or intuition?
Does morality depend on religion?

23. Applied Ethics:
Biomedical Ethics
Business Ethics
Environmental Ethics

24. Social and Political Philosophy
What is the ideal political state?
What is the purpose of the state?
What are the proper limits of a government’s power?
What makes a government legitimate?

25. Aesthetics (philosophy of art)
What is art?
What is beauty?
Should art have a moral, political, or spiritual function?

26. Miscellaneous Fields
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Law
Philosophy of Mathematics
History of Philosophy
Philosophy of Language
Logic