List of famous philosophers

Founder of Astronism, philosopher and astrotheologian, lecturer, human rights scholar and specialist in freedom of religion or belief, Cometan was born Brandon Reece Taylor (later changed to Taylorian) in Preston in the county of Lancashire in England to hair salon owner Janet Louise Richardson (née Warbrick; later Counsell) and business owner Seán Frederick Taylor. Both his mother and father are of English ancestry. Cometan's ascent to fame began when, at age fifteen, he began to found a new religion that would come to be called Astronism. Before beginning to write seriously the first great Astronist treatise called the Omnidoxy, Cometan wrote mystery stories centring on a London teenager named Jesse Millette, an ideal young male hero figure during a futuristic age in which the human exploration of outer space has greatly advanced. Cometan's Jesse Millette books have since come to compliment and act as an auxiliary vehicle for his fundamental Astronist messages. During the period beginning when he was fifteen, Cometan began to experience an alarming amount ideations about the nature, function and destiny of humanity in the astronomical world. These ideations snowballed into writings strange and stupefying, climaxing with Cometan's experience of several astral ecstasies during his young adult years. Based on these deeply personal and thematically astral experience, Cometan began writing the Omnidoxy when he was seventeen years old. Upon the book's completion, which is now referred to as the "founding treatise of Astronism", it had grown to over 1.7 million words. The Omnidoxy gives an exposition of the Astronist view of existence and humanity's place within The Cosmos as Astronists should see it. Omnidoxical literature is both poetic and religious, sometimes difficult to follow and grasp, with a multitude of layered meanings ornamented with rich text throughout. The Omnidoxical treatise is a grand introduction to the Astronist belief system and its upcoming successor the Astrodoxy, which has already been dubbed the "central text of Astronism", continues on this tradition of writing over grand vistas of cosmic metaphor and transcensional instruction.

Cometan is blessed with a large family, the influence of whom over Cometan's founding of Astronism isn't to be understated, however, only small snippets are verifiably attributed to Cometan's family members and are only ever described as inspirational in order to preserve the sole development of Astronism to Cometan's original ideas and revelations. Cometan had two sets of grandparents whom he was more close to in different periods of his life. His paternal grandparents, Derrick and Irene Mary Taylor, were closer to Cometan during his childhood years especially his grandmother, Irene, a mother to ten children and a devout Roman Catholic whom instilled a strict religiosity into her grandchildren; it was this large presence of religion in his childhood that Cometan later attributed to his deep interests in exploring theology and philosophy. In his later years, after his paternal grandparents both passed away and his father's side of the family became bitterly divided over inheritance issues, Cometan became closer to his maternal grandparents, Hilda and William "Bill" Warbrick. After his parents' separation when he was four, Cometan's father remarried 7 years later and had five other children (Kieran Taylorian, Kent Taylorian, Zara Taylorian, Jay Taylorian, and Edie Taylorian), and his mother also remarried ten years later and had her second daughter after Lucia Natalie Richardson named Charlotte Sophia Louise Counsell.

One of the greatest Greek philosophers (considered the greatest Greek writer of prose by some), Plato, was born into an aristocratic Athenian family. He met Socrates around 407 BC and became his disciple in philosophy. Socrates was executed in 399 BC. Plato and fellow disciples took refuge under Euclid in Megara. Following that for a period of 12 years Plato traveled extensively to Egypt, Sicily and Italy. He met Dionysius I of Syracuse in 390 BC. And the Pythagorean mathematician Archytas of Taras (Tarentum) while in Italy, who was a follower of the semi-legendary Pythagoras of Samos (6th Cent. B.C.). He began teaching pupils near the grove of Academus outside Athens in 388 BC. His school was named Academy after the place. Plato was summoned to the court of Dionysuis II of Syracuse by Dion, the ruler's uncle, in 366 BC, and by Dionysius II himself in 362 BC. Plato's philosophical and literary activities extend over a period of 50 years. His main works falls into 2 categories viz. letters and dialogs. The 13 letters are mainly addressed to Dionysus the Tyrant of Syracuse and deal with political advice. The 26 dialogs fall into 3 broad categories - early, middle and late based on his travels. The more well known include the Protagoras, Gorgias, Ion, the Republic (where he attacks the power and pretension of literature), Cratylus, Phaedrus, Sophist and Laws. His death is reported by some authorities as having occurred at a wedding feast or while he was writing. He was buried at the Academy.

Aristotle is known for The Beachcombers (1972).

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born on 26 April 1889 in Vienna, Austria. He was a writer, known for The Year of Living Locked Up (2020), M.A. Numminen Sings Wittgenstein (1994) and As from Afar (2013). He died on 29 April 1951 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.

Immanuel Kant was born the fourth of ten children in a family of craftsmen in Königsberg.

Between 1732 and 1740 Kant attended the Friedrichskollegium in Königsberg. In 1737 his mother died. After leaving school, he studied natural sciences, mathematics, philosophy, theology and classical Latin literature at the Albertina University in Königsberg from 1740 to 1745. His father died in 1745, shortly before completing his studies. While he was still studying and doing his doctorate, Immanuel Kant worked as a tutor and tutor in the area around Königsberg to secure his family's livelihood. During this time he also published his first natural-philosophical texts such as "Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces" (1749). After this time, Kant never left Konigsberg for the rest of his life.

Nevertheless, he later led a sociable life. In the scientific, anonymously published work "General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens" (1755), Kant deals with the formation of the planetary system according to Newton's principles. In 1755 he completed his doctorate with a thesis on fire entitled "De igne". In the same year he completed his habilitation thesis "Nova Dilucidatio", a treatise on metaphysical principles, and began teaching as a private lecturer at the Albertina. His lecture subjects were varied: logic, ethics, metaphysics, mathematics, natural law, philosophical encyclopedia, pedagogy, mechanics, theology and anthropology. Kant's lectures were well attended. Again and again he tried to get a full professorship at the university, but this was rejected for a long time despite his high qualifications.

In the years from 1758 to 1762 Königsberg was occupied by the Russians. This period brought with it a relaxed social atmosphere in which Kant took part. He turned down a professorship for poetry at the Albertina. In 1766, in addition to his income from hearing aids and private tuition, he found another source of income when he accepted the position of assistant librarian at the royal palace library. He also declined an appointment at the University of Erlangen as a professor for logic and metaphysics, as well as that at the University of Jena. It was not until 1770 that Kant received a full professorship in logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg. In his inaugural lecture, he spoke about the topic "Sensual and Intelligible World". Here Kant separates sensual and intelligent knowledge, space and time are recognized as subjective forms of perception.

The topic of his inaugural speech became the basis for his main work "Critique of Pure Reason" (1781), on which he had worked for ten years. This was followed at shorter intervals by further critical writings such as "Critique of Practical Reason" (1788) or "Critique of Judgment" (1790). These works were intended as the cornerstone for an overall system of his philosophy, which, however, was only partially implemented. His article "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment", which appeared in the Berlin Monthly Magazine in 1784, became famous, as did Kant's catchy answer, which he summed up: "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-inflicted immaturity". "The Critique of Pure Reason" surprised the reading public. The edition, of which another edition with changes appeared in 1787, was difficult to understand.

Kant remedied this by writing a more accessible edition in 1783 entitled "Prolegomena to any future metaphysics". In 1790 his writing "About a discovery according to which all new criticism of pure reason should be made superfluous by an older one" came out as a defense against school-philosophical attacks from the Leipniz-Wolffian corner. In 1786 Kant became a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1795 his writing "Perpetual Peace" was published. In it Kant presents a utopian draft of a League of Nations. The work became a success. Two periods were recognizable in Kant's work: the pre-critical and, after the publication of his main work "Critique of Pure Reason" in 1781, the critical creative phase. The following stages of development became noticeable:

In his scientific phase from 1747 to 1755 he laid the foundation for his later theory of development. In his metaphysical phase he turned away from traditional Wolffian teaching and advocated a critical metaphysics. His critical philosophy began with his main work, followed by the stage of the post-critical creative period, including the work "Opus postumum", which was only published in 1938 and which combines Kant's criticism and the metaphysics of idealism. In his practical philosophy, Kant sees the "categorical imperative" as the supreme justification principle for morality and norms of action: "Only act according to that maxim through which you can also want it to become general law." In 1796 Kant gave his last lecture.

Immanuel Kant died in Koenigsberg on February 12, 1804.

Friedrich Nietzsche was raised having five women around him - his mother, grandmother, two aunts and a sister, all living together. His father, a Lutheran pastor, died when Nietzsche was 5 years old. After a Catholic school he studied music and Greco-Roman culture at the famous Schulpfora from 1858-1864, continued at the universities of Bonn, Leipzig and Basel, where he was a professor of classic philology for 12 years. His influences were: classic history, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, writer Fyodor Dostoevsky and Jesus Christ, whom he called "Superman".

His main books are "The Gay Science", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", "Beyond Good and Evil", "Twilight of the Idols" and the radical "Antichrist". Nietzsche analyzed foundations of values and morality through transformations of human nature and society. His contention that traditional values, religion and God, are not working in the modernized world, led to his conceptual statement: "God is dead." In replacement of God comes his concept of a superman - a rational, secure and highly independent individual. He lists Jesus, Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Goethe and Napoleon as models or prototypes of a superman. His idealistic superman was often misinterpreted as a role for a dictator in a totalitarian society. Nitzsche's goal for this concept was mainly individualistic because of his despise of any crowd and attention to him. He considered any crowd as a main source of lies and manipulations. According to Nietzsche it is the independence that allows a superman to be truly original and creative.

His sarcastic humor and contradictory ideas, often misunderstood in metaphysical context, caused misinterpretations of his personality and his works. His nihilism resulted from frustrations in search of meaning. For self-liberation Nietzsche terminated his German citizenship and remained a stateless person for the rest of his life. He distanced himself from Richard Wagner being repelled by the banality of the Bayreuth shows and the baseness of the crowd. He suffered from migraine headaches and from shortsightedness to the degree of blindness that caused his retirement from University of Basel. After he saw a brutal beating of a horse on a street, Nitzsche had a mental breakdown at age 44, and he retreated into solitude as a self-defense from crowds and manipulations. He lived with his mother and sister until his death of pneumonia in 1900. Most researchers regard his breakdown as irrelevant to his works. He received postmortem recognition by existentialists and by 20th century postmodern philosophers.

Nietzsche's idea of a day in a life repeating itself again, and again, and again was written at the end of the Book IV of "The Gay Science" (1887). It is used in the film 'Groundhog Day (1993)'.

Nietzsche listed laughter and humor as vital qualities of being a superman. He only failed to add a superwoman on his list of models to make it really serious.

Socrates (470-399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic dialogue literary genre. Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem. Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society. In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape.

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, then Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation. His father, Hershel Mordechai, was the son of a rabbi. Karl converted to Lutheran Christianity because Jews were not allowed to practice law. He graduated from the Trier Gymnasium, then studied law at the University of Bonn, where he was briefly a president of the Trier Tavern Club. He transfered to the Fridrich-Wilhelms-Universitat in Berlin, from which he graduated in 1841 with a doctorate in philosophy. He abandoned a university career and became an editor of a liberal newspaper, "Rheinische Zeitung", in Cologne. A year later the paper was shut down by the Prussian government. Marx moved to France, where he wrote "Zur Judenfrage" ("On the Jewish Question", 1843), a critique of civil rights in his time.

In Paris Marx met Friedrich Engels. Engels was the son of a wealthy capitalist and supported Marx throughout his life. Together they developed the communist ideology. Police forced him to leave Paris and he moved with Engels to Brussels. There he developed the materialist conception of history and wrote "The German Ideology" and "The Poverty of Philosophy", which was a critique of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's socialist thought. On February 21, 1848, Marx and Engels published "The Communist Manifesto", which called for revolution instead of reforms. It described all human history as a class struggle. It was commissioned by the Communist League of German emigrants in London. Marx himself was active in London.

Police arrested Marx and expelled him from Belgium. He returned to Paris. There he managed to get the French government money to subsidize four hundred German immigrants' return tickets. In 1849 the French government collapsed and Marx returned to Cologne. There he was on two trials for his calls for armed rebellion of the poor. He was acquitted twice, but his newspaper was closed. He returned to Paris again, but was forced out. With the money from Engels he moved to London. There Marx lived for the rest of his life on financial contributions from Engels.

In London he became the central figure in a new organization called "The International Working Men's Association", which surfaced in 1864. Marx authored its first public statement in 1864, and many declarations and manifestos that followed. "Das Kapital"--his main work on economics--was drafted in three volumes. Only the first volume was completed and published in 1867. The second and third volumes remained unfinished and were published posthumously.

Marx and his wife Jenny von Westphalen had six children, three of whom died at young age. His daughter Eleanor was a socialist and assisted Marx in editing his works. She committed suicide in 1898. His other daughter, Laura, committed suicide in 1911. Karl Marx died on March 14, 1883, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.

Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 in Ravenscroft, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK. He was a writer, known for Reductio: Adventures in Ideas (2019), Filosofix (2018) and Aman (1967). He was married to Edith Finch, Patricia Spence, Dora Russell and Alys Pearsall. He died on 2 February 1970 in Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales, UK.

Chinese philosopher who was born Kong Qiu, with the formal name Kong Zhongni, in the state of Lu in what is now Shandong province. The second son of a minor aristocratic family that had fallen from power, Confucius was orphaned as a child and grew up in relative poverty. A voracious reader, he educated himself, eventually becoming a private tutor for the sons of wealthy gentlemen. Distressed by the division of China into fiercely competitive and often warring states, Confucius, like many other thinkers of his era, devoted much time to pondering ways to restore order to the chaotic world in which he lived. For a decade beginning when he was about 55, Confucius wandered through neighboring states, attempting to convince various rulers of his worthiness for political positions through which he could introduce his planned reforms. Though by most accounts his travels never resulted in an offer for political office (some sources say he became a minister of state), Confucius was able to gather a substantial number of students who devoted themselves to his school of thought. Though it has been described as a religion, Confucianism is more of a political and social philosophy based on humanism, rationality, education, and virtuous example. During imperial times, Confucius was lauded as the "First Teacher" and the "Uncrowned King".

Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. From 1951-55, he was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows. While a Junior Fellow he completed his doctoral dissertation, entitled, "Transformational Analysis." The major theoretical viewpoints of the dissertation appeared in the monograph "Syntactic Structure", published in 1957. This formed part of a more extensive work, "The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory", circulated in mimeograph in 1955 and published in 1975.

Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.) From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics. In 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. From 1958-59 he was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ. In the spring of 1969 he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford; in January 1970 he delivered the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at Cambridge University; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi; and in 1977 the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, among many others. Prof. Chomsky has received honorary degrees from the University of London, the University of Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, Swarthmore College, Delhi University, Bard College, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Amherst College, Cambridge University, the University of Buenos Aires, McGill University, the Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, Columbia University, the University of Connecticut, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, Harvard University, the University of Calcutta and Universidad Nacional De Colombia. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. He is also a member of other professional and learned societies in the United States and abroad, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others. Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. His works include "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax"; "Cartesian Linguistics"; "Sound Pattern of English" (with Morris Halle); "Language and Mind"; "American Power and the New Mandarins"; "At War with Asia"; "For Reasons of State"; "Peace in the Middle East?"; "Reflections on Language"; "The Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. I and II" (with E.S. Herman); "Rules and Representations"; "Lectures on Government and Binding"; "Towards a New Cold War"; "Radical Priorities"; "Fateful Triangle"; "Knowledge of Language"; "Turning the Tide"; "Pirates and Emperors"; "On Power and Ideology"; "Language and Problems of Knowledge"; "The Culture of Terrorism"; "Manufacturing Consent" (with E.S. Herman); "Necessary Illusions"; "Deterring Democracy"; "Year 501"; "Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War and US Political Culture"; "Letters from Lexington"; "World Orders, Old and New"; "The Minimalist Program"; "Powers and Prospects"; "The Common Good"; Profit Over People"; "The New Military Humanism"; "New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind"; "Rogue States"; "A New Generation Draws the Line"; "9-11"; and "Understanding Power".

Future proponent for victims of injustice and tyranny during the years prior to the French Revolution, Voltaire (born François Marie Arouet on November 21, 1694 in Paris) was educated in Paris by the Jesuits. For a time he studied law, then decided to become a writer. Witty, thought-provoking and socially critical, his unique writings inspired France's common people but angered the royalty. In 1717 he was imprisoned in the Bastille for 11 months for ridiculing Duc d'Orléans. While in prison he rewrote his tragedy "Oedipe", which upon its publication brought the young author and philosopher enormous fame and ominous notoriety; in 1726 he was forced to go into exile in England. There he became fascinated with the plays of William Shakespeare, and while shocked by their "barbaric" nature (calling Shakespeare "a drunken savage"), he was deeply affected by their genius, energy and human drama. He felt that France had much to learn from England's literature. Three years later he returned to France, writing plays and poetry as well as historical and scientific treatises, his brilliant 1734 "Lettres philosophiques" was published. Scandal followed this work, which harshly criticized the religious and political institutions. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 1734, and he fled, taking refuge at Cirey in Champagne in the home of Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Marquise du Châtelet, the 28-year-old wife of the Marquis Florent du Châtelet. Here he began his professional liaison with the young, intelligent woman. Gabrielle worked with him on many philosophical and scientific topics. Her one major work was a translation of Isaac Newton's "Principia." Voltaire lived with her in the château he had renovated at his own expense. After 15 years as his guide and supporter, tragedy struck when Gabrielle died in childbirth on September 10, 1749. The baby was the presumed child of her lover, poet Jean-François de Saint-Lambert. Her husband, Voltaire, and Saint-Lambert were present at her death bed. Voltaire was overwhelmed with grief, often waking in the middle of the night calling her name. He eventually regained favor at the French court and was appointed its royal historiographer.

In 1755 he was living near Geneva, Switzerland, and wrote his most famous work, the satirical "Candide," in 1759. He later produced many anti-religious writings and his 1764 "Dictionnaire philosophique." His fame became worldwide. He was called "Innkeeper of Europe," and he entertained chic philosophers of the day and such literary figures as James Boswell, Giovanni Casanova and Edward Gibbon. Always impassioned about injustice, he took a keen interest in the case of Jean Calas, whose innocence he helped to establish. In 1761 Calas was accused, on trivial evidence, of murdering his eldest son to prevent him becoming a Roman Catholic. Calas was found guilty and executed by being broken on the wheel. Voltaire, in his late 60s by this time, spearheaded a fervent campaign, resulting in a revision of the trial. It was determined that the son had committed suicide, and the Parisian parliament declared Calas innocent in 1765. Voltaire finally returned to Paris in 1778, 28 years after leaving. He had become a beloved national celebrity, and it's believed that the frenzied excitement of such adoration from the French people aggravated his precarious health, reportedly, more than 300 people called on him the day after his arrival. He died a painful death on May 30 of uremia, only a few months after his celebrated arrival, at age 83. His nephew, the Abbé Mignot, had his body, clothed as it was the day he died, quickly transported to the Abbey of Scellières, where Voltaire was given a Christian burial; the prohibition of such a burial came after the ceremony. Because of his lifelong criticism of the church, Voltaire was denied burial in church ground. He was finally buried at an abbey in Champagne. His heart was removed from his body, and now lays in the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris. His brain was also removed, but after a series of moves during the next hundred years, it disappeared following an auction. Voltaire's remains were moved to the Panthéon in Paris during the Revolution in July 1791. In 1814, a group of right-wing religious "ultras" stole Voltaire's remains from his enormous sarcophagus and dumped them in a garbage heap. The theft went undetected for about 50 years.

Born into a time of extreme political upheaveal, Niccolò Machiavelli was a member of the old Florentine nobility. He received a proper humanistic Renaissance education, and as a young man began the climb up the perilous political ladder of Italy. In 1502 he was sent to Romagna as an envoy to Cesare Borgia, the infamous papal prince and despot who would later influence Machiavelli's political philosophy. The return of the Medici dynasty in 1512 resulted in Machiavelli's downfall. He lost his office and was imprisoned and tortured before finally being banished from Florence. It was during his exile that Machiavelli wrote his most famous work, "Il Principe (The Prince)", a handbook of sorts for autocratic rulers. Though his sympathies lay with republicanism, he was first and foremost intensely pragmatic, a quality which did not endear him to later, more idealistic, generations.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on 28 June 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a writer, known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), 4 Days in France (2016) and Le Devin du Village (1962). He was married to Thérése Levasseur. He died on 2 July 1778 in Ermenonville, France.