philosopher

1. A specialist in philosophy (synset 110443334)
   referred to in: philosophy - the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics
   is a type of: bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student - a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines
   subtypes:

   • nativist - a philosopher who subscribes to nativism
   • cynic - a member of a group of ancient Greek philosophers who advocated the doctrine that virtue is the only good and that the essence of virtue is self-control
   • eclectic, eclecticist - someone who selects according to the eclectic method
   • empiricist - a philosopher who subscribes to empiricism
   • epistemologist - a specialist in epistemology
   • aesthetician, esthetician - a philosopher who specializes in the nature of beauty
   • ethician, ethicist - a philosopher who specializes in ethics
   • existential philosopher, existentialist, existentialist philosopher - a philosopher who emphasizes freedom of choice and personal responsibility but who regards human existence in a hostile universe as unexplainable
   • gymnosophist - member of a Hindu sect practicing gymnosophy (especially nudism)
   • libertarian - someone who believes the doctrine of free will
   • mechanist - a philosopher who subscribes to the doctrine of mechanism
   • moralist - a philosopher who specializes in morals and moral problems
   • naturalist - an advocate of the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms
   • necessitarian - someone who does not believe the doctrine of free will
   • nominalist - a philosopher who has adopted the doctrine of nominalism
   • pluralist - a philosopher who believes that no single explanation can account for all the phenomena of nature
   • pre-socratic - any philosopher who lived before Socrates
   • realist - a philosopher who believes that universals are real and exist independently of anyone thinking of them
   • scholastic - a Scholastic philosopher or theologian
   • sophist - any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects
   • stoic - a member of the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno
   • transcendentalist - advocate of transcendentalism
   • yogi - one who practices yoga and has achieved a high level of spiritual insight
   • karl popper, popper, sir karl raimund popper - British philosopher (born in Austria) who argued that scientific theories can never be proved to be true, but are tested by attempts to falsify them (1902-1994)
   specific instances:

   • abelard, peter abelard, pierre abelard - French philosopher and theologian; lover of Heloise (1079-1142)
   • anaxagoras - a presocratic Athenian philosopher who maintained that everything is composed of very small particles that were arranged by some eternal intelligence (500-428 BC)
   • anaximander - a presocratic Greek philosopher and student of Thales who believed the universal substance to be infinity rather than something resembling ordinary objects (611-547 BC)
   • anaximenes - a presocratic Greek philosopher and associate of Anaximander who believed that all things are made of air in different degrees of density (6th century BC)
   • arendt, hannah arendt - United States historian and political philosopher (born in Germany) (1906-1975)
   • aristotle - one of the greatest of the ancient Athenian philosophers; pupil of Plato; teacher of Alexander the Great (384-322 BC)
   • abul-walid mohammed ibn-ahmad ibn-mohammed ibn-roshd, averroes, ibn-roshd - Arabian philosopher born in Spain; wrote detailed commentaries on Aristotle that were admired by the Schoolmen (1126-1198)
   • abu ali al-husain ibn abdallah ibn sina, avicenna, ibn-sina - Persian physician and influential philosopher; his interpretation of Aristotle influenced St. Thomas Aquinas; writings on medicine were important for almost 500 years (980-1037)
   • 1st baron verulam, bacon, baron verulam, francis bacon, sir francis bacon, viscount st. albans - English statesman and philosopher; precursor of British empiricism; advocated inductive reasoning (1561-1626)
   • bentham, jeremy bentham - English philosopher and jurist; founder of utilitarianism (1748-1831)
   • bergson, henri bergson, henri louis bergson - French philosopher who proposed elan vital as the cause of evolution and development (1859-1941)
   • berkeley, bishop berkeley, george berkeley - Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop who opposed the materialism of Thomas Hobbes (1685-1753)
   • anicius manlius severinus boethius, boethius - a Roman who was an early Christian philosopher and statesman who was executed for treason; Boethius had a decisive influence on medieval logic (circa 480-524)
   • bruno, giordano bruno - Italian philosopher who used Copernican principles to develop a pantheistic monistic philosophy; condemned for heresy by the Inquisition and burned at the stake (1548-1600)
   • buber, martin buber - Israeli religious philosopher (born in Austria); as a Zionist he promoted understanding between Jews and Arabs; his writings affected Christian thinkers as well as Jews (1878-1965)
   • cassirer, ernst cassirer - German philosopher concerned with concept formation in the human mind and with symbolic forms in human culture generally (1874-1945)
   • cleanthes - ancient Greek philosopher who succeeded Zeno of Citium as the leader of the Stoic school (300-232 BC)
   • auguste comte, comte, isidore auguste marie francois comte - French philosopher remembered as the founder of positivism; he also established sociology as a systematic field of study
   • condorcet, marie jean antoine nicolas caritat, marquis de condorcet - French mathematician and philosopher (1743-1794)
   • confucius, k'ung futzu, kong the master, kongfuze - Chinese philosopher whose ideas and sayings were collected after his death and became the basis of a philosophical doctrine known a Confucianism (circa 551-478 BC)
   • democritus - Greek philosopher who developed an atomistic theory of matter (460-370 BC)
   • derrida, jacques derrida - French philosopher and critic (born in Algeria); exponent of deconstructionism (1930-2004)
   • descartes, rene descartes - French philosopher and mathematician; developed dualistic theory of mind and matter; introduced the use of coordinates to locate a point in two or three dimensions (1596-1650)
   • dewey, john dewey - United States pragmatic philosopher who advocated progressive education (1859-1952)
   • denis diderot, diderot - French philosopher who was a leading figure of the Enlightenment in France; principal editor of an encyclopedia that disseminated the scientific and philosophical knowledge of the time (1713-1784)
   • baron d'holbach, d'holbach, dietrich, paul heinrich dietrich, paul-henri thiry, thiry - French philosopher (born in Germany) famous as being one of the first self-described atheists in Europe
   • diogenes - an ancient Greek philosopher and Cynic who rejected social conventions (circa 400-325 BC)
   • empedocles - Greek philosopher who taught that all matter is composed of particles of fire and water and air and earth (fifth century BC)
   • epictetus - Greek philosopher who was a Stoic (circa 50-130)
   • epicurus - Greek philosopher who believed that the world is a random combination of atoms and that pleasure is the highest good (341-270 BC)
   • ernst heinrich haeckel, haeckel - German biologist and philosopher; advocated Darwinism and formulated the theory of recapitulation; was an exponent of materialistic monism (1834-1919)
   • david hartley, hartley - English philosopher who introduced the theory of the association of ideas (1705-1757)
   • georg wilhelm friedrich hegel, hegel - German philosopher whose three stage process of dialectical reasoning was adopted by Karl Marx (1770-1831)
   • heraclitus - a presocratic Greek philosopher who said that fire is the origin of all things and that permanence is an illusion as all things are in perpetual flux (circa 500 BC)
   • herbart, johann friedrich herbart - German philosopher (1776-1841)
   • herder, johann gottfried von herder - German philosopher who advocated intuition over reason (1744-1803)
   • hobbes, thomas hobbes - English materialist and political philosopher who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of human beings (1588-1679)
   • david hume, hume - Scottish philosopher skeptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses (1711-1776)
   • edmund husserl, husserl - German philosopher who developed phenomenology (1859-1938)
   • hypatia - Greek philosopher and astronomer; she invented the astrolabe (370-415)
   • james, william james - United States pragmatic philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910)
   • immanuel kant, kant - influential German idealist philosopher (1724-1804)
   • kierkegaard, soren aabye kierkegaard, soren kierkegaard - Danish philosopher who is generally considered. along with Nietzsche, to be a founder of existentialism (1813-1855)
   • lao-tse, lao-tzu, lao-zi - Chinese philosopher regarded as the founder of Taoism (6th century BC)
   • gottfried wilhelm leibnitz, gottfried wilhelm leibniz, leibnitz, leibniz - German philosopher and mathematician who thought of the universe as consisting of independent monads and who devised a system of the calculus independent of Newton (1646-1716)
   • john locke, locke - English empiricist philosopher who believed that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience (1632-1704)
   • lucretius, titus lucretius carus - Roman philosopher and poet; in a long didactic poem he tried to provide a scientific explanation of the universe (96-55 BC)
   • lully, ramon lully, raymond lully - Spanish philosopher (1235-1315)
   • ernst mach, mach - Austrian physicist and philosopher who introduced the Mach number and who founded logical positivism (1838-1916)
   • machiavelli, niccolo machiavelli - a statesman of Florence who advocated a strong central government (1469-1527)
   • maimonides, moses maimonides, rabbi moses ben maimon - Spanish philosopher considered the greatest Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages who codified Jewish law in the Talmud (1135-1204)
   • malebranche, nicolas de malebranche - French philosopher (1638-1715)
   • herbert marcuse, marcuse - United States political philosopher (born in Germany) concerned about the dehumanizing effects of capitalism and modern technology (1898-1979)
   • karl marx, marx - founder of modern communism; wrote the Communist Manifesto with Engels in 1848; wrote Das Kapital in 1867 (1818-1883)
   • george herbert mead, mead - United States philosopher of pragmatism (1863-1931)
   • john mill, john stuart mill, mill - English philosopher and economist remembered for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism (1806-1873)
   • james mill, mill - Scottish philosopher who expounded Bentham's utilitarianism; father of John Stuart Mill (1773-1836)
   • baron de la brede et de montesquieu, charles louis de secondat, montesquieu - French political philosopher who advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers (1689-1755)
   • g. e. moore, george edward moore, moore - English philosopher (1873-1958)
   • friedrich wilhelm nietzsche, nietzsche - influential German philosopher remembered for his concept of the superman and for his rejection of Christian values; considered, along with Kierkegaard, to be a founder of existentialism (1844-1900)
   • occam, ockham, william of occam, william of ockham - English scholastic philosopher and assumed author of Occam's Razor (1285-1349)
   • origen - Greek philosopher and theologian who reinterpreted Christian doctrine through the philosophy of Neoplatonism; his work was later condemned as unorthodox (185-254)
   • jose ortega y gasset, ortega y gasset - Spanish philosopher who advocated leadership by an intellectual elite (1883-1955)
   • parmenides - a presocratic Greek philosopher born in Italy; held the metaphysical view that being is the basic substance and ultimate reality of which all things are composed; said that motion and change are sensory illusions (5th century BC)
   • blaise pascal, pascal - French mathematician and philosopher and Jansenist; invented an adding machine; contributed (with Fermat) to the theory of probability (1623-1662)
   • charles peirce, charles sanders peirce, peirce - United States philosopher and logician; pioneer of pragmatism (1839-1914)
   • perry, ralph barton perry - United States philosopher (1876-1957)
   • plato - ancient Athenian philosopher; pupil of Socrates; teacher of Aristotle (428-347 BC)
   • plotinus - Roman philosopher (born in Egypt) who was the leading representative of Neoplatonism (205-270)
   • pythagoras - Greek philosopher and mathematician who proved the Pythagorean theorem; considered to be the first true mathematician (circa 580-500 BC)
   • quine, w. v. quine, willard van orman quine - United States philosopher and logician who championed an empirical view of knowledge that depended on language (1908-2001)
   • radhakrishnan, sarvepalli radhakrishnan, sir sarvepalli radhakrishnan - Indian philosopher and statesman who introduced Indian philosophy to the West (1888-1975)
   • reid, thomas reid - Scottish philosopher of common sense who opposed the ideas of David Hume (1710-1796)
   • jean-jacques rousseau, rousseau - French philosopher and writer born in Switzerland; believed that the natural goodness of man was warped by society; ideas influenced the French Revolution (1712-1778)
   • bertrand arthur william russell, bertrand russell, earl russell, russell - English philosopher and mathematician who collaborated with Whitehead (1872-1970)
   • arthur schopenhauer, schopenhauer - German pessimist philosopher (1788-1860)
   • albert schweitzer, schweitzer - French philosopher and physician and organist who spent most of his life as a medical missionary in Gabon (1875-1965)
   • lucius annaeus seneca, seneca - Roman statesman and philosopher who was an advisor to Nero; his nine extant tragedies are modeled on Greek tragedies (circa 4 BC - 65 AD)
   • socrates - ancient Athenian philosopher; teacher of Plato and Xenophon (470-399 BC)
   • herbert spencer, spencer - English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903)
   • oswald spengler, spengler - German philosopher who argued that cultures grow and decay in cycles (1880-1936)
   • baruch de spinoza, benedict de spinoza, de spinoza, spinoza - Dutch philosopher who espoused a pantheistic system (1632-1677)
   • rudolf steiner, steiner - Austrian philosopher who founded anthroposophy (1861-1925)
   • dugald stewart, stewart - Scottish philosopher and follower of Thomas Reid (1753-1828)
   • rabindranath tagore, sir rabindranath tagore, tagore - Indian writer and philosopher whose poetry (based on traditional Hindu themes) pioneered the use of colloquial Bengali (1861-1941)
   • pierre teilhard de chardin, teilhard de chardin - French paleontologist and philosopher (1881-1955)
   • thales, thales of miletus - a presocratic Greek philosopher and astronomer (who predicted an eclipse in 585 BC) who was said by Aristotle to be the founder of physical science; he held that all things originated in water (624-546 BC)
   • theophrastus - Greek philosopher who was a student of Aristotle and who succeeded Aristotle as the leader of the Peripatetics (371-287 BC)
   • simone weil, weil - French philosopher (1909-1943)
   • alfred north whitehead, whitehead - English philosopher and mathematician who collaborated with Bertrand Russell (1861-1947)
   • bernard arthur owen williams, sir bernard williams, williams - English philosopher credited with reviving the field of moral philosophy (1929-2003)
   • ludwig josef johan wittgenstein, ludwig wittgenstein, wittgenstein - British philosopher born in Austria; a major influence on logic and logical positivism (1889-1951)
   • xenophanes - Greek philosopher (560-478 BC)
   • zeno, zeno of citium - ancient Greek philosopher who founded the Stoic school (circa 335-263 BC)
   • zeno, zeno of elea - ancient Greek philosopher who formulated paradoxes that defended the belief that motion and change are illusory (circa 495-430 BC)
2. A wise person who is calm and rational;
   Someone who lives a life of reason with equanimity (synset 110445710)
   is a type of: individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being

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