Socrates

(470/469 399 BC)

Socrates contributed to philosophy by creating what is known as the fundamentals of Western

philosophy. He invented the teaching practice of pedagogy, the Socratic method and contributed to the
fields of ethics, epistemology and logic.
Famous quotes:
The unexamined life is not worth living.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Know thyself
A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a
thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Francis Bacon (15611626)

Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. He served
both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely
influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific
method during the scientific revolution.

Famous Quotes

JOHN DEWEY (18591952)

John Dewey was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as pragmatism, a view
that rejected the dualistic epistemology and metaphysics of modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic
approach that viewed knowledge as arising from an active adaptation of the human organism to its
environment.
Famous Quotes
Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice
of action.
Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD 1813 1855
Sren Kierkegaard/Quotes

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Once you label me you negate me.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
Be that self which one truly is.
The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more
wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.
Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

His contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics have had a profound impact on
almost every philosophical movement that followed him.
A phrase quoted by Kant, which is used to summarize the counter-utilitarian nature of his moral
philosophy, is Fiat justitia, pereat mundus, ("Let justice be done, though the world perish"), which he
translates loosely as "Let justice reign even if all the rascals in the world should perish from it".
Famous Quotes
In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of
doing so.
Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a
man by his treatment of animals.
John Locke (16321704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern

period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and
equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch

Famous Quotes
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health,
liberty or possessions.
The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for
its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.

Jeremy Bentham (15 February 1748-1832) was a British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer. He is
regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.
Bentham defined as the "fundamental axiom" of his philosophy the principle that "it is the greatest
happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong".
Jeremy Bentham asserted, like Epicurus, that human behavior is governed by a need to increase
pleasure and decrease pain.
RENE DESCARTES
Academic, Philosopher, Scientist, Mathematician (15961650)

Descartes is considered by many to be the father of modern philosophy, because his ideas departed
widely from current understanding in the early 17th century, which was more feeling-based. While
elements of his philosophy werent completely new, his approach to them was. Descartes believed in
basically clearing everything off the table, all preconceived and inherited notions, and starting fresh,
putting back one by one the things that were certain, which for him began with the statement I exist.
From this sprang his most famous quote: I think; therefore I am.
Famous Quotes
It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so wellendowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit
of desiring more of it than they already have.

Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527)

He was a philosopher, statesman, and political theorist and is often referred to as the father of modern
political theory.

Famous Quotes
A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would
lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is
possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices.
A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however
much he may be compelled by necessity.
Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even
though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a
prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been
outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it.
He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know
the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so

high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.
Niccolo Machiavelli.

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre, ( 1905-1980)

Normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre, was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer,
dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. He was a leading figure in 20th century French
philosophy.
Famous Quotes
If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything
he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.
Life begins on the other side of despair.