Short answers, pulled from the story.
Western philosophy began in the year 624 BCE when Thales of Miletus declared that water was the fundamental substance of the universe. This event marked the birth of Western philosophy by shifting explanations from mythological fables to observation and reason. Thales, his student Anaximander, and Anaximenes formed the first school of thought to reject stories in favor of natural causes.
The life of Socrates ended in 399 BCE with the drinking of poison hemlock after being convicted by the Athenian democracy. His death became the catalyst for the most influential period in Western philosophy and cemented his legacy as a martyr for philosophical integrity. Socrates developed the Socratic method to examine concepts like justice and truth through relentless questioning without writing anything himself.
Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, taught that the ideal of living in accordance with nature meant freedom from fears and desires. Epicureanism argued that the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain were the ultimate goals but emphasized the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the mind over sensual excess. Both schools aimed for ataraxia, a state of calmness and tranquility, but used conflicting methods to attain happiness.
Analytic philosophy became the dominant school for much of the 20th century with figures like Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Karl Popper. Russell and Wittgenstein focused on the philosophy of language and logic, while Popper promoted falsificationism as the basis for science. The logical positivists of the Vienna Circle argued that metaphysics and ethics were meaningless if not logically or empirically verifiable.
Continental philosophy includes traditions like German idealism, phenomenology, and existentialism that developed from the 19th and 20th centuries in mainland Europe. The influence of Eastern philosophy on Western thought is evident in Pyrrho of Elis who traveled to India with Alexander the Great and was influenced by Buddhist teachings. Pyrrhonism with its goal of ataraxia is similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana and influenced later thinkers like Hegesias of Cyrene.