From Aristotle’s ethics to Nietzsche’s Superman, learn about some of history’s most influential thinkers and the ideas they preached.
10. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
ORIGIN rocken, germany
LIFE 1844-1900
MAIN WORK Thus Spoke Zarathustra
A scathing critic of the idea of God’s existence, Nietzsche was a nihilist – a person who, in principle, sees no sense in human existence. He created the term “superman” to designate a superior man, who is capable of transforming established values and elevating humanity. He was heavily opposed in his time, but ended up inspiring several movements, including Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism.
9. SAINT AUGUSTINE
ORIGIN Tagaste, Algeria
LIFE 354-430
MAIN WORKS The Confessions It is the city of god
A central figure in the early years of Christianity, the theologian Saint Augustine reflected on human freedom, time and eternity. He defended the concepts of «predestination» (everyone’s life would be previously designed by God) and «divine grace» (salvation would not depend on humans themselves, but on God’s intervention).
8. DAVID HUME
ORIGIN edinburgh, scotland
LIFE 1711-1776
MAIN WORK Research on the Principles of Morals
He theorized about epistemological questions – those dealing with the nature of knowledge. Any hypothesis that could not be proven, according to him, would be invalid. Skeptical, he did not believe in miracles and said it was impossible to prove the existence of God. He was one of the greatest exponents of the Enlightenment, a movement that emerged in Europe at the end of the 18th century and defended reason as the foundation of society.
7. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
ORIGIN Vienna, Austria
LIFE 1889-1951
MAIN WORKS Philosophical Investigations It is Logical-Philosophical Treatise
Interested from an early age in mathematics and logic, he focused his studies on the function of language. For him, philosophical problems were the result of confusion in the ways of communicating. “The limits of my language mean the limits of the world,” he wrote. To understand the world, therefore, one must analyze language, said
6. SÃO TOMÁS DE AQUINO
ORIGIN Roccasecca, Italy
LIFE 1225-1274
MAIN WORK Summa Theologica
Considered the greatest theologian of the Catholic Church, he was deeply influenced by Aristotle, who, ironically, was accused of atheism. In his work, he investigates a series of issues that are not limited to the medieval period, the time in which he lived. He reflected on ethics and metaphysics and contributed to give new meaning to the notions of cause and being, above all to justify how reality is constituted
5. GEORG HEGEL
ORIGIN Stuttgart, Germany
LIFE 1770-1831
MAIN WORK The Phenomenology of Spirit
One of the exponents of German idealism, he established a system that resulted in another meaning for the notions of freedom and history. He used the dialectical method (focused on opposing ideas) to explain what constitutes the real world. He influenced another German philosopher, Karl Marx (1818-1883), creator of historical materialism
4. RENÉ DESCARTES
ORIGIN La Haye (now Descartes), France
LIFE 1596-1650
MAIN WORK Method Discourse
Author of the maxim “I think, therefore I am”, he defended that the best way to acquire knowledge was mathematical reasoning. According to him, in order to discover something “firm and constant in the sciences”, it was necessary to establish principles about which there was no doubt. Therefore, the philosopher needed, first of all, to be a skeptic. A brilliant mathematician, he is considered the founder of modern philosophy.
3. PLATO
ORIGIN Athens, Greece
LIFE 427-347 BC
MAIN WORKS Apology It is Republic
He had a great influence on Christian theology and Western philosophy. For him, man lived trapped in a world of shadows, unable to see reality. He was the first philosopher to produce substantial work that has survived the ages. The Academy founded by him – and considered the first institution of higher learning in the West – has survived for over 800 years
2. IMMANUEL KANT
ORIGIN Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia)
LIFE 1724-1804
MAIN WORK Critique of Pure Reason
One of the most influential European philosophers since the ancient Greeks, Kant was noted for investigating the conditions of possibility of knowledge and for analyzing how we can act in view of a universal principle that does not cause harm to other people. His philosophy came to be known as “critical philosophy”, as he was concerned with examining the limits of man
1. ARISTOTLE
ORIGIN stagira, greece
LIFE 384-322 BC
MAIN WORK Nicomachean ethics
Considered by many to be the founder of ethics, Aristotle argued that the senses should be the starting point of philosophy. The search for knowledge, according to him, is more effective when we resort to observation and can experiment. He created a school (the Liceu) and influenced with his ideas several fields of knowledge (physics, politics, meteorology, logic, etc.). At the end of his life, accused of being an atheist, he fled from Athens to avoid the same fate as Socrates (469-399 BC), forced to kill himself by taking poison.
- Aristotle believed that everything was formed by earth, air, fire and water and that there would be a fifth essence, a kind of hidden force present in everything – one of the central ideas of alchemy
CONSULTANCY Agnaldo Portugal, head of the Department of Philosophy at UnB, Auri Cunha, professor of Philosophy at the Vera Cruz School in São Paulo, Edgar Lyra Netto, coordinator of the undergraduate course in philosophy at PUC-RJ, Márcio Custódio, associate coordinator of the degree in philosophy at Unicamp, Marcos Zingano, professor at the Department of Philosophy at USP, Matheus Pazos, professor at the Department of Philosophy at Unicamp, Sofia Stein, coordinator of the philosophy course at Unisinos, and Virgínia de Araújo Figueiredo, member of the course’s collegiate degree in philosophy at UFMG