Geography, History and Philosophy

Western Civilization Timelines

Ancient and Medieval     Modern

Other Timelines   Historic Periods   People     Arts    Wars

Philosophical Movements and Philosophers

The following timeline is modified from that designed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty to help students get a comprehensive picture of the history of philosophy.
 

Western Philosophers Timeline

624-546 B.C. Thales
611-547 B.C. Anaximander
599-524 B.C. Anaximenes
540-460 B.C. Heraclitus of Ephesus
570-? B.C. Pythagoras
B.C. Xenophanes of Colophon
540-? B.C. Parmenides of Elea
B.C. Zeno of Elea
490-430 B.C. Empedocles
500-428 B.C. Anaxagoras
460-370 B.C. Democritus
B.C. Leucippus
B.C. Protagoras
B.C. Gorgias
470-399 B.C. Socrates
427?–347 B.C.

Plato
384–322 B.C. Aristotle 
336-264 B.C. Zeno 336-264
342-270 B.C. Epicurus
c. 300 B.C. Euclid
287-212 B.C. Archimedes
260-200 B.C. Apollonius
Ptolemy
121–180 A. D. Marcus Aurelius
354–430 Saint Augustine
815-877 John Scotus Erigena
1079–1142 Peter Abelard
1225–1274 Saint Thomas Aquinas
1463–1494 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 
1469–1527 Niccolo Machiavelli 
1588–1679 Thomas Hobbes 
1596–1650 Rene Descartes 
1632–1677 Benedict Spinoza
1632–1704 John Locke
1711–1776 David Hume
1712–1778 Jean Jacques Rousseau 
1724–1804 Immanuel Kant
1737–1809 Thomas Paine 
1744–1803 Johann Gottfried von Herder
1748–1832 Jeremy Bentham 
1759–1797 Mary Wollstonecraft
1762–1814 Johann Gottlieb Fichte
1766-1834 Robert Malthus
1770–1831 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1788–1860 Arthur Schopenhauer 
1806–1873 John Stuart Mill
1807–1858 Harriet Hardy Taylor - Mill
1813–1855 Soren Kierkegaard 
1817–1862 Henry David Thoreau
1844–1900 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
1856–1939 Freud, Sigmund
1859–1941 Henri Bergson
1859–1952 John Dewey
1842–1910 William James 
1864–1920 Max Weber
1871–1947 H. A. Prichard
1873–1958 G. E. Moore 
1877–1971 William David Ross
1883–1955 Josι Ortega y Gasset
1886–1968 Karl Barth 
1900–2002

Hans-Georg Gadamer 
1905–1982 Ayn Rand 
1906–1980 Jean Paul Sartre
1909–1943 Simone Weil
1909–1997 Isaiah Berlin
1910–1989 A. J. Ayer
1913–1960 Albert Camus
1913– Paul Ricoeur
1919– Mary Midgley
1919–1999 Iris Murdoch
1921–  John Rawls
1929–  Jurgen Habermas
1929– Judith Jarvis Thomson
1929–  E. O. Wilson 
1929– Alisdair MacIntyre
1929–  Nel Noddings
1931– Phillipa Foot
1937–   Charles Taylor 
1937- Carol Gilligan
1938– Thomas Nagel
1938– Tom Regan
1940– Roderick Nash
1946– Peter Singer
1947– Martha Craven Nussbaum
1953– Karen Warren

The following timeline is adapted from that designed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty to help students get a comprehensive picture of the history of philosophy and, in the case of ancient and medieval philosophy, its relationship to other major events occurring during the same time period.

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY in the West
650 B.C.E. THE IONIANS

Thales (624-546)
Anaximander (611-547)
Anaximenes (599-524)

 The Period of Naturalism The Beginning of Western Philosophy in Ancient Greece

occurs mostly in Greek colonies of Anatolia and Sicily
600 B.C.E. Heraclitus of Ephesus (540-460)

Pythagoras (570-?)
550 B.C.E. THE ELEATIC SCHOOL

Xenophanes of Colophon
Parmenides of Elea (540-?)
Zeno of Elea

 The Golden Age of Greece (480-399)

The Persian Wars

The Peloponnesian War

Crisis over Oligarchy vs Democracy

Greeks dominate their neighbors militarily and economically
500 B.C.E. THE PLURALISTS

Empedocles (490-430)
Anaxagoras (500-428)
450 B.C.E. THE ATOMISTS

Democritus (460-370)
Leucippus
400 B.C.E. THE SOPHISTS

Protagoras
Gorgias

 The Metaphysical Period
350 B.C.E. Socrates (470-399)

Plato (428-347)

Aristotle (384-322)

 The Decline and Fall of Greek "Freedom" (399-322)

The Hellenistic Dispersion (322-146)
STOICISM
Zeno (336-264)

EPICUREANISM
Epicurus (342-270)

SKEPTICISM
Pyrrho of Elis (365-275)

ECLECTICISM
Antiochus

 The Ethical Period

 
250 B.C.E. GREEK SCIENCE

Euclid (c. 300)
Archimedes (287-212)
Apollonius (260-200)
Ptolemy
50 B.C.E. THE JUDAIC-
ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL

Philo of Alexandria (30 BCE - 50 CE)

 The Religious Period Greece and Macedonia Become a Province of Rome (146)

The Roman Empire
(146 BCE - 192 CE)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (193-305)

Christianity asserts itself (306-325)

anti intellectualism and the West turns in on itself
THE NEO-
PYTHAGOREAN SCHOOL

Apollonius of Tiana
50 C.E.

to

900 C.E.

 THE NEO-PLATONIC
SCHOOL

Ammonius Saccas of Alexandria (176-242)
Plotinus (205-270)
St. Augustine (354-430)
John Scotus Erigena (815-877) The Period of Scholastic Philosophy Charlemagne and Carolingian Renaissance (566-1095)

The Rise of Islam
1000 C.E.

to

1399 C.E.

 THE MYSTICS

St. Peter Damian (1007-1072)

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)
THE DIALECTICIANS

St. Anselm (1033-1109)

Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

John of Salisbury (1110-1182)

 The Middle Ages

Crusades

Peasant Revolts

Wars

Pestilence

 
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280)

Roger Bacon (1214-1294)

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274)

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

John Duns Scotus (1265-1308)

William of Ockham (?-1349)
1400 C.E.

to

1600 C.E.

 Master Eckhart (1260-1327) Beginning of Modern Humanism The Renaissance (1300-1576)

The Reformation (1517-1564)

Wars

Prelude to Colonial Conquest
HUMANISM

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464)

Pico della Mirandola (1463-94)

Bernardio Telesio (1509-1588)

Giorano Bruno (1548-1600)

Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
 

 

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY Thought in the West
1400 C.E.

to

1600 C.E.

 

 Master Eckhart (1260-1327)

Beginning of Modern Humanism

  
HUMANISM

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464)

Pico della Mirandola (1463-94)

Bernardio Telesio (1509-1588)

Giorano Bruno (1548-1600)

Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639)

 The Renaissance (1300-1576)

The Reformation (1517-1564)

Wars

Prelude to Colonial Conquest

 
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
 ENLIGHTENMENT  EMPIRICISM

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
John Locke (1632-1704)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
David Hume (1711-1776)

 RATIONALISM

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677)
Nicholas de Malebranche (1538-1715)
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Gottfried W. von Leibnitz (1646-1716)
Moses Mendelssohn 1729–86
G. E. Lessing 1729–81

Encyclopedists

Denis Diderot 1713–84
D'Alembert
baron d’ Holbach 1723–89
Claude Helvιtius 1715–71
Franηois Quesnay 1694–1774

Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1775)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Voltaire (1694-1778)
comte de Buffon 1707–88
Julien de La Mettrie 1709–51

COUNTER ENLIGHTENMENT

Johann Herder 1744–1803
Giambattista Vico 1668–1744
Johann Georg Hamann 1730–88

 KANTIAN CRITICISM

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

  

IDEALISM

Johann Fichte (1762-1814)
Friedrich W. von Schelling (1775-1854)
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
Georg Hegel (1779-1831)
Johann Herbart (1776-1841)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Rudolph Herman Lotze (1817-1881)
Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887)
POSITIVISM

FRENCH
August Comte (1798-1857)

GERMAN
Ludwig Fauerbach (1804-1872)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

 UTILITARIANISM

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
James Mill (1773-1836)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

 

 
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) CRITICAL IDEALISM

Wilhelm Windelband (1848-1915)
Henrich Richert (1863-1936)
Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1912)
Rudolph Eucken (1846-1926)

 GERMAN PSYCHOLOGISM

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
AMERICAN IDEALISM

Josiah Royce (1855-1916)
Bordon Parker Bowne (1847-1910)

 THE NEW IDEALISM

Thomas Hill Green (1836-1882)
Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924)
Bernard Bosanquet (1848-1923)
Benedetto Croce (1866-1952)
Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944)
PRAGMATICISM

Charles Sander Peirce (1839-1914)

 EVOLUTIONISM

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919)
PRAGMATISM

William James (1842-1910)
John Dewey (1859-1952)

 PSYCHOANALYSIS

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

 NEO-POSITIVISM

Moritz Schlick (1882-1936)
Ernst Mach (1838-1016)
Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
John Wisdom (1904-1993)
Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000)
Max Black (1909-1988)
Alfred J. Ayer (1910-1989)
EXISTENTIALISM

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Karl Barth (1886-1968)
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973)
Jean Paul Sartre (1906-1980)
Albert Camus (1913-1960)

 INTUITIONISM

Henri Berson (1859-1941)

PHENOMENOLOGY

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)
NEO-REALISM

Franz Bretano (1838-1917)
Alexius Meinong (1853-1920)
S. Alexander (1859-1938)
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
George Santayana (1863-1952)
G.E. Moore (1873-1958)

 THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL

Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979)
Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
Erich Fromm (1900-1980)
Jurgen Habermas (1929- )

CRITICAL RATIONALISM

Karl Popper (1902-1994)
PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002 )
Paul Ricoeur (1913-)

Neo Aristotelianism

G. E. M. Anscombe
Alisdair MacIntyre
Phillipa Foot, Rosalind Hursthouse, John McDowell, Martha Nussbaum, Amιlie Rorty, Michael Stocker, and Michael Slote

 

Pluralism

Isaiah Berlin 1909-1997
Charles Taylor 1931-

 OBJECTIVISM

Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Nathaniel Branden (1930- )
CULTURAL THEORY, STRUCTURALISM, POSTMODERNISM, & DECONSTRUCTIONISM

NEO-PRAGMATISM

Richard Rorty (1931- )
Gyorgy Lukacs (1885-1971)
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)		 Claude Levi-Strauss (1908- )
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
Jacques Derrida (1930- )

Contractarianism

John Rawls (1921- )

Feminist Ethics

Nel Noddings (1929-)
Carol Gillian (1937-)
Karen Warren (1953-)