Ancient philosophers — everything you need to know about this

People used to think they lived in a dome when they looked up at the sky because they didn’t understand the laws of nature.Early philosophers were prescientific scientists who pondered the cosmos.Thus, its basic constituents, origin, and humanity’s place within it.

Philosophers are people who think.So, we know them as thinkers.Again, we can call them logicians.In brief, philosophers are those who contribute to society. Generally, they are intellectuals. Moreover, they can contribute in terms of politics, religion, and aesthetics. Also, science and logic.

Ancient philosophers of india

1.  Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher from India. He made significant contributions to literature, art, and philosophy.

We also know Tagore as the Bard of Bengal.We credit him for transforming Bengali literature and music.Also, we credit Tagore with writing the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.He was the first person from outside of Europe to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

2.  Chanakya

Chanakya was a philosopher, teacher, jurist, economist, and royal advisor in ancient India.He is widely regarded as India’s economic and political science pioneer.Also, we think that he has played a key role in the establishment of the Maurya Empire.

Moreover, he wrote the Arthashastra.It is an ancient Indian political treatise.We consider it to be one of the most influential texts on statecraft.

3.  Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen is an Indian economist.He got the Nobel Prize in Economics. It was in 1998.It was for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory.

Again, Sen is very famous for his work on the causes and prevention of famines. Also, he is also famous for his development of more sophisticated poverty measures. He has strong views on the nature and importance of liberty.

So, he is regarded as an important modern liberal thinker.

4.  Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian reformer. A mostly religious and social one.The Brahmo Sabha is said to have been co-founded by him.It is a religious and social reform movement.

We know Ram Mohan Roy as the “Father of the Bengal Renaissance”.He has influenced fields as diverse as politics, education, and religion.BBC has voted him the 10th greatest Bengali of all time in 2004.

5.   Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha was the founder of Buddhism.We think that he lived between the 5th and 4th centuries BC.Historians think that he has taught for nearly 45 years. He has great insights into suffering, nirvana, and the birth and rebirth cycle.

He had and has a large fan base.In India’s Bodh Gaya, he attained ‘enlightenment.’

6.   Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk, logician, and spiritual leader who lived in India.There is the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramkrishna Mission in West Bengal. Swami Vivekananda established it.

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So, we credit him with introducing Yoga and Vedanta.Thus, these are two Indian philosophies to the Western world.Again, we credit him with raising interfaith awareness.Also, elevating Hinduism’s status as a major religion in the modern world.

7.   M. N. Roy

M. N. Roy founded the Mexican Communist Party.Additionally, he was also a co-founder of the Communist Party of India.Also, he wrote the nine-volume Prison Manuscripts while he was jailed for his political activities.Later, he joined the Indian National Congress but soon left.

8.   Abul A’la Maududi

Abul A’la Maududi was an Islamic scholar and philosopher.He was born into a wealthy Aurangabad family.He grew up to be a fundamentalist who believed that Islam should be free of Western influences.

Also, he founded the Jamaat-i Islami as a result.He was imprisoned for a time for opposing the government.He was also a prominent figure in Pakistani politics.

Ancient philosophers quotes

Aristotle

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Seneca

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Confucius

He who will not economize will have to agonize.

Agesilaus

It isn’t positions which lend distinction, but men who enhance positions.

Plotinus

Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.

Marcus Porcius Cato

After I’m dead, I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.

Herodotus

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

Patanjali

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds.

Demosthenes

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

Sun Tzu

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.

Thucydides

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.

Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Plutarch

Know how to listen and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

Epictetus

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

Plato

A good decision is based on knowledge and not numbers.

Lao Tzu

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Ancient philosophers on mental illness

Psychology is very interesting.

So, ancient philosophers studied them.

Also, people have studied psychology for many years.

Thus, the 2 main psychological periods are:

Ancient Egypt

3 works on ancient Greek psychology are:

  • Stolen Legacy
  • From Ancient Africa to Ancient Greece
  • Black Athena
  • The Egyptians were great writers. Again, The Kybalion is a great text of Egyptian philosophy.

Additionally, Hermes was the god of wisdom. This was due to his contributions in psychology.

Ancient Greece

Many scientists contributed to psychology. So, their names are:

  • Heraclitus
  • Thales
  • Pythagoras
  • Democritus
  • Alcmaeon
  • Socrates
  • Plato
  • Aristotle
  • Galen
  • Homer
  • Sophocles

Ancient philosophers names

  1. Socrates
  2. Plato
  3. Aristotle
  4. Thales of Miletus
  5. Pythagoras
  6. Democritus
  7. Empedokles
  8. Anaxagoras
  9. Anaximander
  10. Epicurus
  11. Heraclitus
  12. Laozi
  13. Marcus Aurelius

Ancient philosophers and their contributions

1.   Democritus

Democritus was a Greek philosopher.He was one of history’s earliest atheists.He explained the world in a materialistic manner. Democritus did not mention gods or spirits.

The development of the atomic theory is credited to Democritus and his teacher Leucippus.Moreover, they had no scientific basis for their belief.They proposed, however, that all matter is made up of invisible particles called atoms.

2.   Heraclitus

We dubbed Heraclitus as the “weeping philosopher”.This was because of his gloomy outlook on life.He had a reputation for being enigmatic and misanthropic.

Also, he is famous for aphoristic sayings like ‘You can never step into the same river twice’.This is because he believed that the cosmos was constantly in flux.It is the idea that everything in the world flows and compares the universe to a river.

3.   Laozi

We know very little about Laozi. We know a lot of impressive tales about him.Also, we know him from the list of China’s rulers and officials.Even his name has an ambiguous meaning. The most likely translation is ‘old master.’

Laozi is very famous in the West as an ancient Chinese philosopher and the founder of Taoism.Taoism is one of the three major schools of Chinese philosophy and belief.It is as important as Confucianism and Buddhism.

4.   Thales

Thales was a Miletean natural philosopher, geometer, and astronomer.He lived before Socrates.Then, Thales argued against the mythological explanation of life.He believed that human beings can discover the true workings of nature using their minds and senses.

Again, according to philosopher Edmund Husserl, philosophy began with individuals who lived philosophical lives, such as him.It inspired others to follow suit.Additionally, it resulted in new forms of communication.Therefore, this crossed national boundaries.

5.   Kong Qiu

Kong Qiu was a very famous ancient philosopher.His other name is Kongzi (Master Kong.).So, Confucius is the Latini name.We regard him as the founder of the Eastern philosophical school.

Also, during the Han Dynasty, he developed the philosophy of morality, proper social relationships, justice, and honesty.Thus, it became an official teaching.So, this study is called Confucianism.Confucius said, “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”

He said this when people asked him to summarise his teachings in a single phrase.

Ancient philosophers and their philosophy

1.   Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus is another name of Marcus Aurelius.He was an emperor of the country Rome.Also, he was a Stoic philosopher.

Epictetus’ writings influenced him.And he held to the belief that all events in the universe would repeat themselves in future world cycles.His book is named Meditations.

It is a collection of personal writings written with no intention of publication.Again, it is now regarded as a literary monument to Stoic philosophy.

2.   Epicurus

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher.Also, he was the founder of Epicureanism.It is a school of thought based on the pursuit of happiness and wisdom.He was a follower of Democritus.

Epicurus was possibly the first radical believer in human equality in the Western world.Because he saw no difference between women and slaves.Again, he allowed both to attend his school.

3.   Aristotle

Aristotle is one of history’s most well known and influential philosophers and naturalists.He was Plato’s student.And later Alexander the Great’s tutor.Also, Aristotle was a philosopher.

He focused on the different kinds of routes to knowledge.Also, how we learn by looking at and understanding the world around us.Again, Aristotle famously calculated that an eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun.

Additionally, he told us when the Earth passes in front of the Sun, casting a shadow across our field of vision.As a result, the Earth has to be spherical.

4.   Plato

Plato was Socrates’ primary student.Again, some scientists say that the things Socrates wrote belonged to Plato.He was an interesting rational philosopher.This means he tried to work out knowledge logically rather than through his senses.

Plato established the Platonic Academy.It is Greece’s oldest institutional philosophy school.From it, Platonism spread throughout the ancient world.

5.   Socrates

Socrates could not read and write.We know all about him from his students.They are Plato and Xenophon.A jury sentenced him to death. His students always talked about him.

So, through this, he became history’s one of the most famous philosophers.Socrates’ importance is shown not only by his lasting impact on philosophy.But also by the fact that Greek thinkers before him are still referred to as pre-Socratic.

Ancient roman philosophers

So, there are many famous Roman ancient philosophers.

Firstly, Publius Rutillius Rufus.

Secondly, Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus.

Thirdly, Diodotus the Stoic.

Fourthly, Marcus Vigellius.

Then , Quintus Lucilius Balbus.

Next, Antipater of Tyre.

Then, Cato the Younger.

Next,  Porcia Catonis.

Then,  Apollonides.

Next, Quintus Sextius the Elder.

Again, Seneca the Younger.

And, Attalus.

Then, Papirius Fabianus.

Next, Musonius Rufus.

Again, Epictetus.

And finally, Marcus Aurelius.

Ancient philosophers timeline

Hesiod – 7th century  BC

Then, Thales – early 6th century BC

Anaximander – 6th century BC

Anaximenes – 6th century BC

Xenophanes  – 6th-5th century BC

Pythagoras – 6th-5th century BC

Heraclitus – 6th-5th century BC

Then, Parmenides – born circa 510 BC

Zeno of Elea – took birth in circa 490 BC

Melissus of Samos – flourished circa 440 BC

Anaxagoras – flourished mid-5th century BC

Leucippus – 5th century BC

Then, Empedocles – late 5th century BC

Democritus – born circa 460 BC

Philolaus of Croton – late 5th century BC

Then, Diogenes of Apollonia – late 5th century BC

Protagoras – died circa 420

Archytas – 5th-4th century BC

Socrates – 469–399 BC

Then, Hippocrates – died circa 380 BC

Gorgias – 483-375 BC

Antisthenes – circa 446-366 BC

Aristippus – circa 435-356 BC

Xenophon – circa 430-c.350 BC

Then, Plato – 429-347 BC

Speusippus – circa 410-338 BC

Diogenes of Sinope – circa 404-323 BC

Aristotle – 384-322 BC

Xenocrates – 395–313 BC

Theophrastus – 372–288 BC

Ancient philosophers books

There are many famous books by ancient philosophers. Reading them is very helpful. Some important books of such philosophers are given below.

Firstly, Discourses of Epictetus

Secondly, A Guide to the Good Life

Thirdly, Meditations

Then, Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius

After that, A New Stoicism

Then, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

Then, On the Nature of the Universe

Next, Epicureanism

Then, The Morality of Happiness

At last, The Library of the Villa Dei Papiri at Herculaneum

Ancient philosophers continue to influence humanity

In several fields, there are many evidence of parallels.So, it is between ancient Greek philosophy and modern thought.The Greeks developed a systematic overview. So, they combined several things.Thus, for example, science, religion, philosophy and art.

Thus, ancient philosophers continue to have a huge influence on modern thought.But, this overview is no longer valid.

Aristotle’s work has influenced modern thinking in a variety of ways.Also, Aristotle developed the concept of acquiring true knowledge.Again, Pythagoras created the Pythagorean Theorem.

It is the most basic concept of maths. So, we still widely use it in mathematics today.However, We also give thanks to Socrates.He has made philosophy famous. He debated and defined ethics in society.

Additionally, Plato has influenced modern politics.His three dialogues are used to clear doubts about some political concepts. Thus, they are The Republic, The Laws, and The Statesman.Also, in religion, historians documented the influence of Greek philosophy.

It was based on modern thought.Again, historians argue that Greek philosophy did not directly influence the development of Christian spiritual beliefs.

Ancient philosophers FAQs

Who is the greatest ancient philosopher?

Socrates is the most famous philosopher. Also, he is Greek.

Who were the 3 main philosophers?

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were the 3 main philosophers. So, they were very famous.

Who is the father of philosophy?

Generally, we consider Socrates of Athens as the father of philosophy.

Who was Plato’s teacher?

Plato lived in the 5th century BCE. Also, he was a student of Socrates. Again, later, Aristotle taught him.

Who was the first philosopher?

We generally consider Thales as the first philosopher.

Is Albert Einstein a philosopher or a scientist?

Einstein was a philosopher, to be sure. Also, he had a PhD in Philosophy.

What is the name of the first Greek philosopher?

There were many Greek thinkers. But, the first one was Thales

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