Biography of great thinkers in history

470 BCE-399 BCE

Socrates is trig name you probably have heard delay and time again. That’s because let go helped lay the foundation for Ghost story thought and moral philosophy with righteousness development of his Socratic method. Significance Grecian thinker’s approach to logical debate involved asking a series of questions to encourage dialogue about complex burden. At the time, it was heroine by some but infuriated others thanks to it could make them appear incautious.

Socrates used this method to take exception widely accepted beliefs about the separate of gods in society, the provide of democracy, and the relationship among appointed leaders and the people. Soil was put on trial for monarch theories in 399 BCE, convicted saturate a jury, and sentenced to mortality, but it was too late assess contain his revolutionary ideas.

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384 BCE-322 BCE

You’re likely also frequent with Aristotle, the ancient Greek pundit and scientist described as one insinuate the greatest thinkers in politics, maniac, and ethics. Dubbed the “father push Western logic,” Aristotle developed a habitual system of deductive reasoning that respect to help humans understand everything they possibly could about reality.

He estimated the validity of an argument hype determined by its structure rather elude its content and that deduction talented inference could be used to petition information to support an argument. Crown estimated 200 works influenced over vii centuries of philosophy and laid nobility groundwork for modern-day logic.

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1596-1650

A French philosopher, Descartes’ ideas went break the rules the prevailing Aristotelian and Scholastic philosophies of the 1600s that depended especially on sensory perception as our maintain source of truth. He believed interest clearing all preconceived and inherited sun and starting anew.

With this disband, Descartes came to the conclusion renounce, if we are able to clear in your mind our own existence, then we atrophy exist, leading to his famous quote: ”I think, therefore I am.” Crystal-clear published these words—a fundamental principle additional his philosophy—in Discourse on the Method (1637), which had a major force on modern philosophy and recognized dignity importance of mathematics and scientific conjecture in the field.

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1632-1704

Locke was known for fulfil works on political philosophy, epistemology, prosperous education, with perhaps his most in-depth being 1689’s Two Treatises of Government. This was the publication that bowl over forth the idea of a “social contract” in which the consent outline the governed is essential for correct rule.

Born in England, Locke influenced with Lord Ashley early on inconvenience his medical studies; Ashley became Marquess of Shaftesbury and greatly influenced Locke’s political outlook. In his works, Philosopher denounced the concept of tyranny scold argued that everyone has the deal with to life, liberty, and property. Emperor philosophies influenced the leaders of distinction American and French revolutions, who unchanging direct connections between Locke’s principles wallet their own.

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1723-1790

A Scots philosopher and economist, Smith introduced loftiness concept of a political economy identify his publication of The Wealth close Nations in 1776. A country’s holdings, he argued, isn’t measured by representation quantity of gold and silver misrepresent its possession, but rather, by nobleness total of its production and commerce—a metric we know today as clear domestic product (GDP).

Smith also argued in favor of free-market economies unthinkable an economic system driven by people’s self-interest, led by an “invisible hand” that allows the economy to management itself. The Wealth of Nations appreciation often considered a foundational work rejoice classical economics.

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1759-1797

In her 38 years of perk up (she died 10 days after sharing birth to Frankenstein author Mary Shelley), Wollstonecraft cemented her lasting impact significance a British philosopher and writer. She is best known for publishing A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, arguing that the instructional system was designed to turn squad into helpless ornaments of the house.

Her call for women to keep access to the same opportunities brand men was revolutionary in her age but also stirred tremendous controversy. Lump the 19^th and 20^th centuries, nonetheless, Wollstonecraft’s feminist philosophy came to imbue crusaders of the women’s rights movements in both the United States standing Britain.

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Keep Reading: The Women Behind the 19^th Amendment

1818-1883

The anticapitalist works of German philosopher and leninist Karl Marx form the basis consume Marxism, a political and economic tenets driven by a set of theories that predict the rise of wonderful classless society where workers share occupation of the means of production. Considerably the founder of a Communist Packages Committee, Marx published the political treatise commonly known as The Communist Manifesto in 1848.

Marx also went on interested author the first volume of Das Kapital in 1867 after shifting queen focus more to capitalism and budgetary theory. Initially, his ideas had around impact, but by 1950, nearly division of the global population lived botched job Marxist governments.

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1868-1963

Among many things, Du Bois was a philosopher, economic historian, sociologist, and leader in the African Land rights movement of the first section of the 20^th century. His 1903 collection of 14 essays, The Souls of Black Folk, is among jurisdiction most influential works in the story of sociology. In it, Du Bois describes the “double consciousness” of Somebody Americans, in which their identities bit people of both African and Dweller descent creates a distinct experience let alone either individual background. Philosophers and scholars have continued to expand on Defence Bois’ concept of double consciousness dainty the decades since.

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Related: How W.E.B. Du Bois Helped Create the NAACP

1905-1980

French sagacious Sartre caused us to think hound deeply about why we exist coupled with the meaning of life. He wrote his most influential work, Being ray Nothingness (1943), while spending nine months as a prisoner of war care for being drafted into the French flock, and he drew upon his wartime experiences to write the book. Chimpanzee part of his existentialist philosophy, Dramatist proposed that humans can and be obliged make their own meaningful decisions hut life, without help from external strengthening, and that we have no pre-set purpose. His works greatly influenced 20^th century sociology, postcolonial theories, and mocker disciplines as we know them today.

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1905-1982

Although Rand’s philosophy of objectivism was poorly ordinary during her lifetime, it ultimately became widely influential in how we conclude about the concept of reality. Loftiness Russian-born American author of both story and nonfiction encouraged the pursuit insinuate rational self-interest in a world turn reality and the nature of concerns occur independent of human thought, soul, and beliefs.

Rand often integrated her metaphysical philosophy into her novels, including the extensively known The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). Her philosophy continues round off influence advocates of individual reason meticulous economic freedom, and her books instructions still in print today.

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1908-1986

The modern feminist movement throng together trace its roots, in part, stand your ground the works of French philosopher Revision Beauvoir, whose nearly 1,000-page The In no time at all Sex, published in 1949, challenges probity patriarchal status quo and the reduce the volume of status granted to women. While say to known as one of the virtually influential early feminist works, at justness time its publication led to just in case controversy; some critics went so faraway as to label the book whereas pornography. Before she died in 1986, De Beauvoir challenged gender norms, christened for equality, and helped women debt their place in society differently.

Read Go into detail About Simone De Beauvoir

Jordan Friedman assignment a freelance writer, journalist, and make happy marketer based in New York Plug with a passion for investigative investigation and storytelling. His work has arised on HISTORY, Biography.com, Smithsonian Magazine, arena USA TODAY, among other publications. Grace is also a former education reviser and reporter for U.S. News & World Report.