Philosophers through history
The atlas holds 85 people and 2,215 moments here, from 620 BC to 2025. The most recorded lives are Albert Einstein, Aristotle and Confucius. Across the Ancient World and the Age of Exploration.
Notable people
Rumi
from 1207 to 1273
9 moments here
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was a Persian-language poet, jurist, teacher, and Sufi mystic. Born at Wakhsh in the Khwarazmian Empire, he moved with his…
Seneca the Younger
from 5 to 65
9 moments here
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, commonly called Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, writer, and statesman.…
Sima Qian
from 145 BC to 110 BC
9 moments here
Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty and author of the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian).…
Socrates
from 469 BC to 399 BC
8 moments here
Classical Athenian philosopher known chiefly through Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, and later ancient testimony.…
Sophocles
from 480 BC to 406 BC
5 moments here
Ancient Athenian tragic playwright, probably born at Colonus in Attica and active chiefly in Athens.…
Sun Tzu
from 544 BC to 496 BC
2 moments here
Sun Tzu (traditionally Sun Wu) was a Chinese military strategist traditionally placed in the late Spring and Autumn period.…
Thales of Miletus
in 547 BC
1 moment here
Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, and engineer from Miletus. The surviving biographical record is sparse and much later than his lifetime;…
The Buddha
from 563 BC to 483 BC
18 moments here
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and teacher who founded Buddhism in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain.…
Thomas Aquinas
from 1225 to 1274
21 moments here
Italian Dominican friar, priest, theologian, and philosopher. His documented movements connected family residences in southern Italy, Dominican and…
Thomas Hobbes
from 1588 to 1679
11 moments here
English philosopher and political theorist, best known for Leviathan (1651). Hobbes’s documented movements include study at Oxford, European travel…
Thomas Jefferson
from 1743 to 1826
29 moments here
Thomas Jefferson was an American lawyer, Virginia political leader, diplomat, secretary of state, vice president, and third president of the United…
Thomas More
from 1478 to 1535
22 moments here
English lawyer, humanist author, royal councillor, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Lord Chancellor under…
Voltaire
from 1694 to 1778
51 moments here
François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, dramatist, and philosopher.…