Schools of philosophy
48 schools of thought from every tradition — Greece and Rome, China, India, the Islamic world, Europe, Russia, the Americas and Africa. Each with its core idea in one line, key ideas, founder and followers, what it grew out of and what grew out of it.
Antiquity · Middle Ages · Early modern · 19th century · 20th century
Antiquity
Milesian schoolc. 585 BC – 494 BC · Middle EastThe first philosophers look for a single natural origin of the world instead of mythsPythagoreanismc. 530 BC – 300 BC · EuropeThe world is ordered by number and harmony, and the soul is immortal and rebornEleaticsc. 500 BC – 400 BC · EuropeBeing is one and unchanging; motion and plurality are illusions of the sensesConfucianismc. since 500 BC · AsiaOrder in the state begins with cultivating the noble person and respect for eldersBuddhist philosophyc. since 500 BC · AsiaLife is full of suffering, it has a cause, and liberation from it is possibleSophistsc. 450 BC – 380 BC · EuropePaid teachers of wisdom and rhetoric: truth and law depend on peopleAncient atomismc. 440 BC – 370 BC · EuropeThe world is made of indivisible particles, atoms, moving in the voidMohismc. 430 BC – 221 BC · AsiaImpartial care for all and common benefit instead of lavish ritualsCynicismc. 400 BC – 500 · EuropeHappiness lies in virtue and living by nature, free of wealth and conventionTaoismc. since 400 BC · AsiaFollow the Dao, the natural way of things, and act through non-actionLegalismc. 400 BC – 206 BC · AsiaThe state rests on strict laws, rewards and punishments, not on virtuePlatonic Academyc. 387 BC – 86 BC · EuropeTrue reality lies in eternal Forms; the visible world is only their shadowPeripatetic schoolc. 335 BC – 200 · EuropeAristotle's school: knowledge starts from experience and is ordered by logicPyrrhonismc. 320 BC – 250 · EuropeNothing can be known for certain: suspend judgement and find peaceEpicureanismc. 307 BC – 300 · EuropeThe goal of life is pleasure understood as peace of mind and freedom from painStoicismc. 300 BC – 250 · EuropeLive by nature and reason: only your own judgements are in your powerNyayac. since 200 BC · AsiaThe Indian school of logic: true knowledge comes from valid means of knowingPatristicsc. 100 – 750 · AfricaThe Church Fathers bring Christian faith together with Greek philosophyMadhyamakac. since 150 · AsiaThe Buddhist "middle way": things have no essence of their own — all is emptyNeoplatonismc. 245 – 529 · EuropeEverything flows from the ineffable One, and the soul can return to itYogacharac. since 300 · AsiaThe Buddhist "consciousness-only" school: the world we perceive is made by the mind
Middle Ages
Chan and Zenc. since 500 · AsiaAwakening comes not from books but from directly seeing one's own nature in meditationAdvaita Vedantac. since 700 · AsiaThe self and the ultimate reality, Brahman, are one and the sameKalamc. since 720 · Middle EastIslamic theology that defends doctrine with rational argumentFalsafac. 830 – 1200 · Middle EastArabic-language philosophers develop Aristotle and the Neoplatonists and pass them on to EuropeNeo-Confucianismc. 1000 – 1900 · AsiaConfucianism renewed in answer to Buddhism and Taoism: the world is principle and energyNominalismc. 1090 – 1500 · EuropeOnly individual things exist; general concepts are just namesScholasticismc. 1100 – 1700 · EuropeThe philosophy of medieval schools: reason uses logic to clarify faithRenaissance humanismc. 1350 – 1600 · EuropeReviving classical learning, with a focus on human dignity and earthly life
Early modern
British empiricismc. 1620 – 1780 · EuropeAll knowledge comes from experience: at birth the mind is a blank slateContinental rationalismc. 1637 – 1750 · EuropeCertain knowledge comes from reason, not the senses: "I think, therefore I am"The Enlightenmentc. 1685 – 1815 · Europe"Dare to use your own reason": reason, liberty and progressGerman idealismc. 1781 – 1850 · EuropeThe world as we know it is shaped by the activity of mind and spiritUtilitarianismc. since 1789 · EuropeThe right action brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number
19th century
Positivismc. 1830 – 1900 · EuropeOnly scientific knowledge based on experience is reliable; metaphysics is a stage to outgrowAmerican transcendentalismc. 1836 – 1860 · AmericasTruth is grasped by intuition, in unity with nature, without intermediariesRussian religious philosophyc. 1840 – 1950 · Eastern Europe & RussiaA search for integral knowledge in which faith, reason and life are inseparableExistentialismc. since 1843 · EuropeExistence precedes essence: each person chooses what to becomeMarxismc. since 1848 · EuropeHistory is driven by class struggle, and society is shaped by how people producePragmatismc. since 1870 · AmericasThe meaning and truth of an idea are tested by its practical consequencesRussian cosmismc. 1880 – 1950 · Eastern Europe & RussiaHumanity should unite, overcome death and go out into space
20th century
Phenomenologyc. since 1900 · Europe"Back to the things themselves": describing experience as it is given to consciousnessAnalytic philosophyc. since 1900 · EuropePhilosophical problems are solved by clear analysis of language and logicKyoto Schoolc. 1911 – 1990 · AsiaJapanese philosophers join Western thought with the Buddhist idea of "nothingness"Structuralismc. 1916 – 1980 · EuropeMeaning arises not in things themselves but in the system of relations between themLogical positivismc. 1924 – 1960 · EuropeOnly what can be verified by experience or logic is meaningfulNégritudec. 1935 – 1970 · AfricaBlack intellectuals assert the worth of African culture against colonialismPostmodern philosophyc. since 1967 · EuropeIncredulity towards grand narratives: truth, reason and the self are historically shaped