Curated category
Social philosophers
- AristotleAristotle was born in 384 BC in the city of Stagira, located about 55 kilometers east of modern-day Thessaloniki. His father Nicomachus served as the…
- Han FeiHan Fei was born into the ruling family of Han during the Warring States period. His aristocratic birth set him apart from other philosophers who rose from…
- Jean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau was born on the 28th of June 1712 in the Republic of Geneva. His mother Suzanne Bernard died nine days after his birth from puerperal…
- Leo TolstoyCount Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy entered the world at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate located southwest of Tula and south of Moscow.
- Karl MarxKarl Marx entered the world on the 5th of May 1818 at Brückengasse 664 in Trier, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. His father Heinrich Marx worked as a…
- Ezra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was born on the 30th of October 1885 in a two-story clapboard house in Hailey, Idaho Territory.
- John MiltonJohn Milton was born on the 9th of December 1608 in Bread Street, London. His father, also named John Milton, had moved to London around 1583 after being…
- Baruch SpinozaOn the 24th of November 1632, a boy named Baruch Espinoza was born into a house on the Houtgracht canal. This street sat on an artificial island called the…
- Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius was born in Rome on the 26th of April 121. His birth name is sometimes given as Marcus Annius Verus, but sources assign this name to him upon…
- Adam SmithAdam Smith was born in the port town of Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. His father died two months before his birth, leaving his mother Margaret Douglas a widow.
- The BuddhaSiddhartha Gautama lived in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains during the 6th or 5th century BCE. Scholars remain divided on his exact birth and death dates…
- MenciusMeng Ke arrived in the state of Zou during a time when China was fracturing into warring factions. His father Meng Ji died while the boy was still very…
- XenophonXenophon of Athens was born in the deme of Erchia during the Peloponnesian War. His father Gryllus belonged to an Athenian aristocratic family that valued…
- Ludwig von MisesLudwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was born on the 29th of September 1881 in Lemberg. This city now bears the name Lviv and sits within Ukraine today.
- AverroesMuhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd entered the world on the 14th of April 1126 in the city of Córdoba. His family held a position of immense public…
- Mikhail BakuninMikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was born on the 30th of August 1814 into Russian nobility. His family owned the Priamukhino estate in the Tver region, which…
- ConfuciusConfucius was born on the 28th of September 551 BCE in the town of Zou. This location sits within modern Qufu, Shandong province.
- Peter KropotkinPeter Kropotkin was born in Moscow on the 9th of December 1842. He entered the Page Corps, an elite school for imperial attendants, at age eight after Tsar…
- LaoziModern scholars in the mid-twentieth century reached a consensus that the historicity of Laozi is doubtful. They view the Dào Dé Jīng as a compilation of…
- Alexander HerzenMoscow, 1812. The city burned as Napoleon's army advanced, and a child named Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born into chaos.
- José Ortega y GassetJosé Ortega y Gasset was born on the 9th of May 1883 in Madrid. His father directed the newspaper El Imparcial, which belonged to his mother Dolores Gasset's…
- Michel WeberMichel Weber was born in 1963. He began his academic journey studying applied economics at the Saint-Louis University in Brussels.