Robert F. Williams (1932 1980) - Ferris State University: Fill & Download for Free

First, the premise of the question seems to imply that there was a single greatest decade where we reached a peak, from which we have declined. I’m not sure I agree with that.As far as a single decade where we accomplished the most good, I would vote for the 1940s. Here are results for individual decades, as I understand them:1780–1790: We ratified the Constitution and elected Washington President. But it was also the decade of Shay’s Rebellion and opportunists buying up Revolutionary War debts at pennies on the dollar, to wreak financial havoc later. These two developments indicated the constant struggle between financial elites and the common man that would persist through our history.1790–1800: We saw a democratic transition of power, as Washington declined to run for a third term. But it was also the decade of the Whiskey Rebellion and the Alien and Sedition Acts.1800–1810: One of our most intelligent Chief Executives, Thomas Jefferson, was President, completing the Louisiana Purchase and dispatching the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Three of the most important Supreme Court decisions were handed down: Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Dartmouth v. Woodward. But Jefferson also imposed a disastrous embargo and put his own former Vice President on trial for “constructive treason,” a dubious legal doctrine that John Marshall decisively quashed in Richmond.1810–1820: This decade included Victory in the War of 1812, the opening of the Erie Canal, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Era of Good Feeling, but the British marched into Washington DC itself and burned the Capitol and the White House.1820–1830: This decade saw the election of the first true President of the “common man.” But that same figure, Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, brutally mistreated Native Americans.1830–1840: New states were established west of the Mississippi, Jackson faced down Calhoun in the Nullification Crisis, and Webster decisively affirmed the doctrine of “Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,” in his debate with Hayne. This was the only time in our history that the budget was completely in balance. William Lloyd Garrison established The Liberator to advocate for abolition. Still, Jackson petulantly refused to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, leading to the Panic of 1837, and ill-advised incursions into Mexican territory led to the massacre at the Alamo. An anti-slavery editor, Elijah Lovejoy, was killed by a pro-slavery mob.1840–1850: Gold was discovered in California, but we also fought the Mexican War, a blatant move to extend slave territory. Nativist political parties arose, the Know-Nothings and the Anti-Masonic party. Persecution of Mormons resulted in the murder of their founder, Joseph Smith, at the hands of a mob.1850–1860: We sought better relations with Canada and entered on relations with Japan, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, the party of Lincoln was founded in Ripon, and Lincoln and Douglas held their memorable debates, but our last President to hold slaves in office, Zachary Taylor, was followed by two decidedly mediocre Presidents, Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce, followed by one of the worst Presidents in history, James Buchanan, whose dithering led to the Civil War. Pro- and anti-slavery settlers took bloody revenge on each other in Kansas, and John Brown was hanged after his raid on Harper’s Ferry.1860–1870: I would vote for this decade second after the 1940s. This was the decade of the Gettsyburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; Union victory in the Civil War established once and for all that the United States was not a mere conditional federation from which a state could withdraw, and the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. We purchased Alaska from Russia. But one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, was struck down, and Lincoln was followed by one of the most inept Presidents in history, Andrew Johnson. We lost 529,000 men in the Civil War.1870–1880: The Freedmen’s Bureau worked to educate freed slaves, and freedmen such as Hiram Rhodes Revels served in state government for the first time. An American invented the telephone, and we celebrated our centennial. But the Administration of Grant was one of the most corrupt in history, involving Grant’s own Vice President, Schuyler Colfax, in the Credit Mobilier scandal, despite Grant’s personal honesty. Irresponsible underwriting of railroad bonds led to the Panic of 1873, and Republican President Rutherford Hayes used federal troops to suppress labor strikes. The Republican victory of 1876 was blatantly stolen from the real winner, Democratic lawyer Samuel Tilden, and the Republicans secured their victory through a corrupt bargain with Southern die-hards, agreeing to withdraw Union troops and cancel Reconstruction in return for Southern Support. The Ku Klux Klan was founded, and we pursued brutal wars against Native Americans.1880–1890: President Chester Arthur began to modernize the Navy to steel-hulled ships and began to reform the Civil Service. Secretary of State James J. Blaine sought to establish good relations with Latin America and helped found the Organization of American States. But Blaine himself was disgraced by corruption, and an unbalanced disappointed office seeker struck down President James A. Garfield in a Washington train station. In Chicago, a political rally that ended with a bomb being thrown resulted in the trial and hanging of seven political agitators who probably had nothing to do with the bomb.1890–1900: We celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyages with the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, featuring the largest peacetime gathering in American history, the Sherman Antitrust Act was signed into law, a populist movement led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey mounted a march on Washington, William Jennings Bryan began a populist movement at the Chicago Democratic convention of 1896, and Herman Hollerith invented a tabulating machine, an ancestor of the computer, to count the national census. But the decade also saw another financial panic, an unnecessary war with Spain, and the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, establishing legal segregation. A wave of unspeakably barbaric race-based lynching swept the United States, prompting a bitter Mark Twain to compose his essay “The United States of Lyncherdom.” Americans overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii and deposed its last queen.1900–1910: We built the Panama Canal, the Wright brothers began manned flight, and President Teddy Roosevelt became the first President to win a Nobel Peace Prize, for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. But another President was assassinated in 1901, we suppressed an indigenous independence movement in the Philippines, waterboarding insurgents, and when Teddy Roosevelt had Booker T. Washington as his dinner guest at the White House, Southern newspapers said Roosevelt had turned the White House into a “coon café,” and one South Carolina editor said whites would have to “shoot ten thousand of those n___s to teach them their place.” A panic in 1907 was resolved only because J.P. Morgan corralled bankers and forced them to underwrite loans to support the nation’s faltering finances.1910–1920: The Federal Reserve was founded and the 19th Amendment gave women the vote; Woodrow, Wilson, the only President in history to hold a Ph.D., was elected; the United States joined European Allies to win World War I, and Wilson proposed a League of Nations to promote world peace. Wilson also appointed Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court as the first Jewish justice. But Wilson, a Southern racist, endorsed D.W. Griffith’s cartoonishly racist film The Birth of a Nation, ordered civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter out of the Oval Office, and let cabinet members hound blacks out of the Civil Service. A Georgia minister started the Klan once more, which had died out decades before. European crowds shouted their adoration of President Wilson when he went to the Peace Conference of Versailles, but his peace proposals were dead on arrival in the Republican Congress, led by bitter opposition from Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. A 29-year-old Southeast Asian patriot, Ho Chi Minh, came to Paris to hand Wilson a letter asking for liberation of Vietnam from the French, but Wilson probably never saw it. Wilson himself, incapacitated by a stroke, did not even meet with his own Cabinet for 6 months, while his wife and his private secretary ran the government of the United States. Wilson still hoped for a third term and was bitterly disappointed when the Democratic convention of 1920 did not nominate him by acclamation, even though he could no longer even compose a thousand-word article for a law journal. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, concerned about “Red agitators,” directed the FBI to carry out intrusive raids of suspected dissidents, violating civil rights. An influenza epidemic in 1919, with contagion exacerbated by gatherings to celebrate the end of World War I, killed scores of thousands in the United States.1920–1930: An American author, Sinclair Lewis, was the first American to receive a Nobel Prize for literature, and Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. The stock market and general prosperity reached unprecedented heights, and the President addressed the nation by radio for the first time. A young Democratic politician, Franklin D. Roosevelt, came to national attention for the first time. On the other hand, Warren Harding was one of the worst Presidents in history, with his administration plagued by the Teapot Dome scandal concerning oil leases; 53-year-old Harding fathered an illegitimate child by his 23-year-old lover, Nan Britton, and after Harding’s death, photos were discovered of him posing with nude 16-year-old farm girls. The sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited, leading to the rise of criminal syndicates, and the Democratic party in 1924 split over its inability to take a definite position on the role of the Klan in politics. A high school science teacher, John Scopes, was put on trial in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching evolution to his students. The stock market crashed in 1929 and led to the Great Depression, while our President, Herbert Hoover, insisted that business conditions were just fine and that people simply needed to have confidence.1930–1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for the first two of four Presidential terms and began ambitious federal programs under the heading of “The New Deal” attempt to bring America out of the Great Depression. Prohibition was repealed, and the Tennessee Valley Authority was established, with a chain of hydroelectric dams to relieve flooding and provide power to rural areas. President Roosevelt named the first African-American Army General, Benjamin O. Davis. But the Depression persisted, and at its height, national unemployment probably reached around 25%. The United States turned away a ship full of Jewish refugees from the Third Reich and would not approve visas for the family of Anne Frank. In 1932, an encampment of embittered World War I soldiers in Washington, DC, insisting on being paid bonuses promised by Congress 14 years before, was violently dispersed by troops under Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, acting reluctantly under the orders of General Douglas MacArthur. As the soldiers and their families fled bullets and tear gas, MacArthur commented, “Thank God this country still knows how to handle a mob.”1940–1950: Thomas Dewey of New York successfully prosecuted mobsters, leading to the execution of Louis Lepke Buchalter and the deportation of Lucky Luciano. Entering World War II on the side of the Allies, the United States helped defeat Hitler. The war with Japan was brought to a successful conclusion, and the United Nations was founded. Despite President Roosevelt’s sudden death just before the end of the war, his Vice-President, Harry Truman, the last President who never attended college, took over and retained most of Roosevelt’s capable advisors. General George C. Marshall formulated the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe, saved starving thousands, and probably kept some countries from being drawn into the Communist orbit. Truman integrated the U.S. military. Television became commercially viable, and the Ed Sullivan show began. The government passed the GI bill, financing college educations for veterans. On the other hand, nuclear weapons were used in war for the first time in history, causing unspeakable suffering. Distrust between the U.S. and its former Soviet allies led to the “Iron Curtain” separating Warsaw Pact nations from the West, while Truman felt compelled to enunciate the Truman Doctrine, outlining a plan to contain the Soviets. In formulating the American response to the new state of Israel, Truman declined to push for a two-state solution, even though this approach was favored by George Marshall. A severe housing shortage left returned veterans and their families living in cardboard boxes.1950–1960: Harry Truman relieved Douglas MacArthur of command in Korea, reaffirming the principle of civilian control of the military. A United States delegation met with a Soviet delegation in Geneva. The Supreme Court reversed its earlier Plessy v. Ferguson decision with its 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, striking down the principle of “separate but equal” facilities for the races. President Eisenhower ordered the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas public schools and sent federal troops to enforce it. Congress passed a bill to construct the interstate highway system. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee convened a commission to investigate organized crime. The polio vaccine was introduced. William Faulkner became the third American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Popular TV shows such as Ozzie and Harriet and Father Knows Best portrayed the United States as a land of attractive suburbs, full of polite, well-dressed middle class people. On the other hand, the Korean War entered a stalemate that persists today. The CIA deposed a democratically elected head of state in Iran. Russia detonated a hydrogen bomb and went into space before we did. The death of Emmett Till in Mississippi highlighted continuing mistreatment of blacks by whites. A popular TV show was Amos and Andy, featuring blacks acting like buffoons. The House Un-American Activities Committee forced Hollywood actors, directors, and writers to name associates who might be “communist sympathizers” on pain of being hounded out of the industry if they refused. In the Senate, a red-baiting demagogue, Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, held televised hearings purporting to prove that the State Department was “filled with Communist agents.”1960–1970: John F. Kennedy was elected President, inaugurating the “Camelot” era in which the White House seemed to be the headquarters of a new era of hope, energy, optimism, and cultural sophistication. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, marshaled Congressional forces to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; following the example of his idol, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Johnson advocated for a “Great Society” in which poverty would be eliminated. James Meredith integrated the University of Mississippi. President Kennedy declared that we would go to the Moon, and that happened, in 1969. A youth-oriented movement stressing greater personal freedom culminated in such events as the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The Supreme Court ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright established the principle of a right to legal counsel even if a defendant could not afford it; Griswold v. Connecticut strengthened personal privacy rights; Miranda v. Arizona stipulated that arrestees must be read their rights, and Loving v. Virginia helped to legalize interracial marriage. On television, Bill Cosby, as a United States government agent, and Diahann Carroll, as a nurse, presented blacks as worthy of respect, as opposed to the clownish stereotype of Amos and Andy, which went off the air. The first black Supreme Court justice was appointed.On the other hand, we imposed an embargo on Cuba, nearly went to war with the Soviets over their plan to put missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States, and became involved in the quagmire of Vietnam. Civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi and Alabama, and civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers were assassinated. President John F. Kennedy and later, his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, were assassinated. President Kennedy had endless sexual liaisons in the White House on which the press remained silent and pursued an affair with a woman, Judith Campbell Exner, who was simultaneously the mistress of a Chicago mobster, Sam Giancana. Race riots broke out in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Newark. Chicago was rocked by riots in 1968 as students and other protested the Vietnam War during the Democratic convention. The nation was shocked by violent crimes, including a mass shooting from atop a tower on a Texas college campus by Charles Whitman, the slaughter of a group of student nurses in Chicago, by Richard Speck, and the slaughter of a pregnant actress and her friends in a Beverly Hills house by cult leader Charles Manson and his followers.1970–1980: Richard Nixon became the first President to visit China and opened diplomatic relations with a Communist nation we had previously shunned. The United States sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers, exposing the misconduct of the Vietnam War and later broke the story of Watergate, becoming a national paper in the process. The Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade established the principle of a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. The first reality documentary, An American Family, was broadcast in 1973. The last execution for some years was carried out in Utah in 1976. The Concorde, a supersonic passenger jet, began operation. Limited cable TV programming began, and ATMs were invented, as were the first home game consoles, precursors of the personal computer. President Gerald Ford, a man of great personal decency, pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, in the hope of avoiding years of political and legal wrangling and national bitterness. His wife, Betty, openly acknowledged her previous rehab treatment and, later, her breast cancer. The United States withdrew from Vietnam. The election of Jimmy Carter, former Governor of Georgia, seemed to promise an era of hope and personal decency.On the other hand, Nixon mined Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam in an attempt to win the war. Our retreat from Vietnam, in 1975, was seen by many as ignominious and led to years of acrimony among Americans. The 1979 films Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter symbolized the deep American ambivalence about the war. National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio fired on student demonstrators, killing one. Nixon obstructed justice by covering up the Watergate break-in and then fired the special prosecutor assigned to investigate him. He finally resigned to avoid impeachment. His successor, Ford, let himself be advised by such men as Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon and Henry Kissinger in the State Department. The Carter administration could not work well with the Democratic Congress, and the national economy suffered high inflation. The country suffered from what Carter called “the national malaise,” and Carter dismissed most of his Cabinet. Carter served just one term, in part because he was seen as weak in the wake of the storming of the American embassy in Tehran and the 444-day captivity of Americans by Iranian radicals. Rev. Jerry Falwell of Lynchburg, VA began the “Moral Majority Movement,” the foundation of the religious right.1980–1990: The IBM PC was marketed in 1981, and the first cell phone call was made in 1983. The Apple Macintosh, with its icon-based graphical user interface, also dates from the early 1980s. President Ronald Reagan met with Soviet Premier Gorbachev, urged him to tear down the Berlin Wall, and advocated for peace between the two countries (although Gorbachev appears to have been inclined toward peace in part because he thought the Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” was real and operational, which it wasn’t). Reagan bombed Libya, which seems to have made Qadafi decide to give up his own attempt to develop nukes, though he took revenge for the bombing two years later with the Lockerbie bombing. The U.S. economy improved from the doldrums of the 1970s. The Soviet Union basically collapsed around 1989, which some commentators heralded as “the end of history” (since events were no longer determined by a seemingly endless conflict between two lethally armed super powers).On the other hand, violent crime continued to shock us. Reagan was shot in March, 1981, and the Pope two months later, though both recovered. John Lennon had been shot to death in 1980. AIDS entered the national consciousness for the first time, and no one knew what it was or what to do about it. Reagan was seen by many as mismanaging the economy, getting Congress to enact large tax cuts without corresponding reductions in spending. He was criticized for his handling of an air traffic controller’s strike. His administration was nearly brought down when it was discovered that a Marine Lieutenant Colonel, Oliver North, was running an operation out of the White House itself, apparently without Reagan’s knowledge, to illegally sell arms to Iran, our enemies, to raise money to finance Central American paramilitary death squads, called “Contras.” We invaded the Caribbean Island of Grenada. Democratic attempts to win the White House, with Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Michael Dukakis in 1988, were seen as ignominious failures. In the 1988 GOP primary in New Hampshire, the eventual nominee, George H.W. Bush, was defeated by a TV preacher, Pat Robertson. When Bush eventually got the nomination, he chose for his running mate a shallow young lawyer, Dan Quayle, given to saying things like “A mind is a terrible thing to lose” and “I was not born in this century” (he was about 35). Quayle also “corrected” a student in a spelling bee to the wrong spelling of “potato.” Meanwhile, there were notable scandals of supposed child sex abuse rings in day care centers, which were shown to be non-existent. A New York real estate tycoon, Donald Trump, published The Art of the Deal. The attempts of the American government to aid Afghan muhajideen fighters against the Soviet occupation contributed to the eventual formation of Al Qaeda.1990–2000: Bill Clinton, only the second President born after 1911, who had met President Nixon as a teenager, was elected and sought to move Democratic politics in a more centrist direction. His wife, Hillary, herself a lawyer, sought to enhance the role of First Lady to be more of an integral player on the President’s team, sponsoring healthcare reform.On the other hand, Bill was seen by many on the left as a sort of cynical sellout for political gain, and his welfare reform program as uncaring. He approved the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a mentally retarded man who may not have been capable of understanding the charges against him, as proof of his commitment to law and order. He supported the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 to erase what many saw as necessary boundaries between consumer banking and investment banking. He supported the “Defense of Marriage” Act, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, for which he later apologized, and also supported “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” a measure to allow gays to serve in the military in secret. The image of the military was tarnished by the Tailhook scandal, an incident of unrestrained groping of female service members at a gathering of officers. Hillary’s attempt at healthcare reform went down to ignominious defeat, and the GOP recaptured Congress in 1994, leading to Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” and, later, a government shutdown. Bill, a notorious womanizer, was later found to have had an affair with a White House intern, and articles of impeachment were filed in the House accusing him of obstruction of justice. He and Hillary were continually hounded by allegations of shady dealings in the Whitewater real estate deal, as well as the supposed murder of a political operative, Vince Foster. Clinton was impeached in the House, though not removed from office by the Senate.2000–2010: George W. Bush, a former Governor of Texas and son of the 41st President, was elected on a program of “compassionate conservatism,” promising to be “a uniter, not a divider.” After the United States was attacked by Muslim fanatics on 9/11, Bush appeared in a Washington, DC mosque and said “The face of terrorism is not the true face of Islam. Islam is peace.” The United States captured Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator, tried him and hanged him in 2004. Bush was succeeded by our first African-American President, Barack Obama, a Harvard Law graduate who, as an unknown Illinois State Senator, had given the opening address at the 2004 Democratic convention, electrifying the nation with his assertion that we need not be divided as a nation but could simply be “Americans.” Veteran civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who had sought the Democratic nomination in 1984, wept for joy the night Obama was elected. Obama got Congress to pass a bailout program for a disastrously weakened economy, leading to one of the longest peacetime expansions of the economy in history. Later, he got Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, providing health insurance to millions who had previously been without coverage. Obama also persuaded Congress to bail out the distressed American automobile industry, which would have cost the country thousands of jobs had it collapsed altogether. In 2011, Obama authorized a special Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama Bin Laden.On the other hand, Bush’s 2000 election was seen as stolen, since it was clear that his opponent, Al Gore, had won the popular vote. The outcome came down to a recount in Florida, which the Supreme Court stopped. Bush dismissed a Presidential intelligence briefing that warned that Al Quaeda would attack the United States with airplanes and then became obsessed with the idea that Saddam Hussein had conspired with Osama Bin Laden, which was not true, any more than the questionable intelligence asserting that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction (it is possible that Saddam may have had programs at one time to develop WMD and that his own scientists were afraid to tell him that the programs had been discontinued, but in any case, the so-called intelligence that there were currently WMD was very questionable). A botched hunt for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan allowed him to escape. Bush’s Administration persuaded itself, groundlessly, that the Iraqis would welcome us and that their oil would pay for the invasion. Later, American soldiers were found to have tortured and abused prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib facility, while others were sent to Guantanamo. Domestically, Bush tried to partially privatize Social Security under the aegis of the “Ownership Society,” while cooperating with credit card companies to limit consumer bankruptcy relief from credit card debt and with drug companies to pass the absurdly expensive Medicare Part D, a misconceived prescription drug benefit for seniors. In foreign policy, Bush persuaded the former Soviet Republic of Georgia that they might be offered NATO membership and then sat on his hands when an aggressive Russia started a war with Georgia over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. In his personal style, Bush was a dolt, given to malapropisms such as “The terrorists want to hurt our country, and so do we” and “It’s time for mankind to enter the Solar System.” Bush made a fool of himself by walking onto the deck of an aircraft carrier in a flight suit in front of a banner that read “Mission Accomplished,” as occupied Iraq was actually descending into chaos. While New Orleans was being flooded by Katrina, Bush endorsed the comically inept head of FEMA, Michael Brown, saying “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”Obama’s election was seen as a startling sign of racial progress in our country, but Congressional Republican leadership under Mitch McConnell announced at once that they would oppose everything he stood for and pursue the goal of making him a one-term President, after which Obama was blamed by whites for failing to meet Congress halfway. Donald Trump, a failed businessman and reality TV star, became even more prominent by promoting the idea that Obama had not actually been born in the United States and was ineligible for the Presidency. Obama himself is a very intelligent man who seemed to confuse promise with performance and left office faintly puzzled that the world did not share his warm self-regard. Having accepted the Presidency of the Harvard Law Review without authoring a single article, having published two memoirs and accepted a Nobel Peace Prize without ever having actually accomplished anything to that point, Obama outsourced his “signature achievement,” healthcare reform, to Nancy Pelosi and let Congress draft it in a way that when it was later defended before the Supreme Court, the Administration’s argument that it was a tax contradicted the very language of the statute itself; he promised the public that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” and, when the web site to sign up for healthcare turned out to be non-operational, professed himself as surprised as anyone, which turned out to be a customary approach; Paul Krugman eventually dubbed him “President Bystander.” Perpetually keeping his finger up to the breeze of public opinion (a tendency that Harper’s warned about in an article before he was elected), Obama declared that he was “evolving” on the issue of gay marriage and gays in the military. Despite a reputation as a public speaker, Obama clumsily borrowed a trope from Elizabeth Warren (if you built a business enterprise, you still benefited from public infrastructure and other benefits provided by society) and clumsily shortened it to the bald reduction “You didn’t build that.” Though the Republican Congress was outrageously perverse, Obama was not seen as a strong or effective negotiator with them. He discontinued Bush’s reliance on “enhanced interrogation” but carried on an illegal drone war that killed hundreds of civilians, executed a United States citizen without trial, and even killed his son. He consented to TSA officers placing their hands inside traveler’s clothing and touching their private areas over their underclothes, forcing women to remove breast prostheses and underwire bras, and forcing the elderly to remove diapers, and blandly assured the public, in a State of the Union Address, that they could take the train instead. When he appeared at a memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings, he began his address by calling out “Helloooo, Boston!” as though he were at a picnic or pep rally. Exiting Marine 1, he returned a soldier’s salute by casually lifting his coffee cup to his temple. Recently, he has agreed to an official portrait that seems to suggest that he might have felt more at home taking a Hepplewhite chair from the Oval Office and squatting in the bushes, a tendency of which no one would have suspected him to this point. Guantanamo remains open, despite Obama’s promise to close it (another point on which Congress fought him tooth and nail).2010–2020: There’s really nothing to say about our present decade except to name Trump, whose election is the worst thing that the United States ever did and an indication that our 400-year experiment in democracy is a failure. No one, including, apparently, Trump himself, expected him to win, so the Democratic leadership blandly sidelined a candidate who actually stood for something and ran one of the most unlikable candidates in history, a monster of vanity and deceit, who published a book after her defeat asking “What Happened” that reminded one commentator on the left of Hillary asking us to walk with her through the five stages of grief. SNL eulogized the failed campaign by having Kate McKinnon perform Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which implied that this word would be Hillary’s answer at the Last Judgment, when a much more characteristic response from her will be “It was someone else’s fault.”As Andrew Sullivan warned before Trump was elected, a Trump Presidency, for our Constitutional republic, would be an extinction-level event. He was right. Trump is mounting a slow-motion coup to destroy the very government that he was elected to preside over, though he is too stupid to understand that he is doing this, and Republicans in Congress are too craven to stop him. Meanwhile, he is itching to use his “nuclear button” and General McMaster talks complacently about a “bloody nose” strike at Kim.A year from now, the question in the OP may be a moot point.

Metaphysics embodies all that is—seen and unseen as the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. Nothing is without the influence of metaphysics—i.e. cause and effect.Through the ages, many philosophers have contributed to an in-depth understanding of the juxtaposition of all things and all matter. 25 Greatest Philosophers Who Ever LivedAristotle Born: June 19, 384 BC, Stagira, Greece Died: March 7, 322 BC, Chalcis, GreeceGreek philosophers600–500 BCThales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.Pherecydes of Syros (c. 620 – c. 550 BC). Cosmologist.Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 – 546 BC). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585 – 525 BC). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580 – c. 500 BC). Of the Ionian School. Believed the deepest reality to be composed of numbers, and that souls are immortal.Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – 480 BC). Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school.Epicharmus of Kos (c. 530 – 450 BC). Comic playwright and moralist.500–400 BCHeraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the universe.Parmenides of Elea (c. 515 – 450 BC). Of the Eleatics. Reflected on the concept of Being.Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500 – 428 BC). Of the Ionians. Pluralist.Empedocles (492 – 432 BC). Eclectic cosmogonist. Pluralist.Zeno of Elea (c. 490 – 430 BC). Of the Eleatics. Known for his paradoxes.Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481 – 420 BC). Sophist. Early advocate of relativism.Antiphon (480 – 411 BC). Sophist.Hippias (Middle of the 5th century BC). Sophist.Gorgias. (c. 483 – 375 BC). Sophist. An early advocate of solipsism.Socrates of Athens (c. 470 – 399 BC). Emphasized virtue ethics. In epistemology, understood dialectic to be central to the pursuit of truth.Critias of Athens (c. 460 – 413 BC). Atheist writer and politician.Prodicus of Ceos (c. 465 – c. 395 BC). Sophist.Leucippus of Miletus (First half of the 5th century BC). Founding Atomist, Determinist.Thrasymachus of Miletus (c. 459 – c. 400 BC). Sophist.Democritus of Abdera (c. 450 – 370 BC). Founding Atomist.Diagoras of Melos (c. 450 – 415 BC). Atheist.Archelaus. A pupil of Anaxagoras.Melissus of Samos. Eleatic.Cratylus. Follower of Heraclitus.Ion of Chios. Pythagorean cosmologist.Echecrates. Pythagorean.Timaeus of Locri. Pythagorean.400–300 BCAntisthenes (c. 444 – 365 BC). Founder of Cynicism. Pupil of Socrates.Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 440 – 366 BC). A Cyrenaic. An advocate of ethical hedonism.Alcidamas c. 435 – c. 350 BC). Sophist.Lycophron (Sophist) c. 430 – c. 350 BC). Sophist.Diogenes of Apollonia (c. 425 BC – c 350 BC). Cosmologist.Hippo (c. 425 – c 350 BC). Atheist cosmologist.Xenophon (c. 427 – 355 BC). Historian.Plato (c. 427 – 347 BC). Famed for a view of the transcendental forms. Advocated polity governed by philosophers.Speusippus (c. 408 – 339 BC). Nephew of Plato.Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 408 – 355 BC). Pupil of Plato.Diogenes of Sinope (c. 399 – 323 BC). Cynic.Xenocrates (c. 396 – 314 BC). A disciple of Plato.Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BC). A polymath whose works ranged across all philosophical fields.Hellenistic era philosophers300–200 BCTheophrastus (c. 371 BC–c. 287 BC). Peripatetic.Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360 – 270 BC). Skeptic.Strato of Lampsacus (c. 340 BC–c. 268 BC). Atheist, Materialist.Epicurus (c. 341 – 270 BC). Materialist Atomist, hedonist. Founder of EpicureanismZeno of Citium (c. 333 – 264 BC). Founder of Stoicism.Timon (c. 320 – 230 BC). Pyrrhonist, skeptic.Chrysippus of Soli (c. 280 – 207 BC). A major figure in Stoicism.200–100 BCCarneades (c. 214 – 129 BC). Academic skeptic. Understood probability as the purveyor of truth.Roman era philosophers100 BC – 1 ADLucretius (c. 99 – 55 BC). Epicurean.1–100 ADCicero (c. 106 BC – 43 BC) Skeptic. Political theorist.Philo (c. 20 BC – 40 AD). Believed in the allegorical method of reading texts.Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – 65 AD). Stoic.Quintilian (c. 35 – c. 100 AD). Rhetorician and teacher100–200 ADEpictetus (c. 55 – 135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self–determination.Marcus Aurelius (121–180). Stoic.200–400 ADSextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries AD). Skeptic, Pyrrhonist.Plotinus (c. 205 – 270). Neoplatonist. Had a holistic metaphysics.Porphyry (c. 232 – 304). Student of Plotinus.Iamblichus of Syria (c. 245 – 325). Late neoplatonist. Espoused theurgy.Augustine of Hippo (c. 354 – 430). Original Sin. Church father.Proclus (c. 412 – 485). Neoplatonist.Medieval philosophers500–800 ADBoethius (c. 480–524).John Philoponus (c. 490–570).John of Damascus (c. 680-750).800–900 ADAl-Kindi (c. 801 – 873). Major figure in Islamic philosophy. Influenced by Neoplatonism.John the Scot (c. 815 – 877). neoplatonist, pantheist.900–1000 ADal–Faràbi (c. 870 – 950). Major Islamic philosopher. Neoplatonist.Saadia Gaon (c. 882 – 942).al-Razi (c. 865 – 925). Rationalist. Major Islamic philosopher. Held that God creates universe by rearranging pre–existing laws.1000–1100 ADIbn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980 – 1037). Major Islamic philosopher.Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) (c. 1021–1058). Jewish philosopher.Anselm (c. 1034–1109). Christian philosopher. Produced ontological argument for the existence of God.Al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111). Islamic philosopher. Mystic.1100–1200 ADPeter Abelard (c. 1079–1142). Scholastic philosopher. Dealt with problem of universals.Abraham ibn Daud (c. 1110–1180). Jewish philosophy.Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160). Scholastic.Averroes (Ibn Rushd, "The Commentator") (c. 1126–December 10, 1198). Islamic philosopher.Maimonides (c. 1135–1204). Jewish philosophy.St Francis of Assisi (c. 1182–1226). Ascetic.1200–1300 ADRobert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253).Albert the Great (c. 1193–1280). Early Empiricist.Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294). Empiricist, mathematician.Thomas Aquinas (c. 1221–1274). Christian philosopher.Bonaventure (c. 1225–1274). Franciscan.Siger (c. 1240 – c. 1280). Averroist.Boetius of Dacia. Averroist, Aristotelian.1300–1400 ADRamon Llull (c. 1232–1315) Catalan philosopherMeister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328). mystic.Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Franciscan, Scholastic, Original Sin.Marsilius of Padua (c. 1270–1342). Understood chief function of state as mediator.William of Ockham (c. 1288–1348). Franciscan. Scholastic. Nominalist, creator of Ockham's razor.Gersonides (c. 1288–1344). Jewish philosopher.Jean Buridan (c. 1300–1358). Nominalist.John Wycliffe (c. 1320–1384).Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–5 – 1382). Made contributions to economics, science, mathematics, theology and philosophy.Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340 – c. 1411). Jewish philosopher.Gemistus Pletho (c. 1355 – 1452/1454). Late Byzantine scholar of neoplatonic philosophy.1400–1500 ADNicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). Christian philosopher.Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457). Humanist, critic of scholastic logic.Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). Christian Neoplatonist, head of Florentine Academy and major Renaissance Humanist figure. First translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin.Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494). Renaissance humanist.Early modern philosophers1500–1550 ADDesiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). Humanist, advocate of free will.Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527). Political realism.Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). Humanist, created term "utopia".Martin Luther (1483–1546). Major Western Christian theologian.Petrus Ramus (1515–1572).1550–1600 ADJohn Calvin (1509–1564). Major Western Christian theologian.Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). Humanist, skeptic.Pierre Charron (1541–1603).Giordano Bruno (1548–1600). Advocate of heliocentrism.Francisco Suarez (1548–1617). Politically proto–liberal.1600–1650 ADHerbert of Cherbury (1583–1648). Nativist.Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Empiricist.Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Heliocentrist.Hugo Grotius (1583–1645). Natural law theorist.François de La Mothe Le Vayer (1588–1672)Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). Cartesian.Robert Filmer (1588–1653).Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655). Mechanicism. Empiricist.René Descartes (1596–1650). Heliocentrism, mind-body dualism, rationalism.Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658). Spanish catholic philosopher1650–1700 ADThomas Hobbes (1588–1679). Political realist.Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694).François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).Henry More (1614–1687).Jacques Rohault (1617–1672), Cartesian.Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688). Cambridge Platonist.Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Physicist, scientist. Noted for Pascal's wager.Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673). Materialist, feminist.Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669). Important occasionalist theorist.Pierre Nicole (1625–1695).Geraud Cordemoy (1626–1684). Dualist.Robert Boyle (1627–1691).Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway (1631–1679).Richard Cumberland (1631–1718). Early proponent of utilitarianism.Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677).Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694). Social contract theorist.John Locke (1632–1704). Major Empiricist. Political philosopher.Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680).Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). Cartesian.Isaac Newton (1643–1727).Simon Foucher (1644–1696). Skeptic.Pierre Bayle (1647–1706). Pyrrhonist.Damaris Masham (1659–1708).John Toland (1670–1722).1700–1750 ADGottfried Leibniz (1646–1716). Co-inventor of calculus.John Norris (1657–1711).Jean Meslier (1664–1729). Atheist Priest.Giambattista Vico (1668–1744).Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733).Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1671–1713).Samuel Clarke (1675–1729).Catherine Cockburn (1679–1749).Christian Wolff (1679–1754). Determinist, rationalist.George Berkeley (1685–1753). Idealist, empiricist.Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755). Skeptic, humanist.Joseph Butler (1692–1752).Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746). Proto–utilitarian.John Gay (1699–1745).David Hartley (1705–1757).Julien La Mettrie (1709–1751). Materialist, genetic determinist.1750–1800 AD[edit]Voltaire (1694–1778). Advocate for freedoms of religion and expression.Thomas Reid (1710–1796). Member of Scottish Enlightenment, founder of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.David Hume (1711–1776). Empiricist, skeptic.Jean–Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Social contract political philosopher.Denis Diderot (1713–1784).Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762).Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771). Utilitarian.Etienne de Condillac (1715–1780).Jean d'Alembert (1717–1783).Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789). Materialist, atheist.Adam Smith (1723–1790). Economic theorist, member of Scottish Enlightenment.Richard Price (1723–1791). Political liberal.Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). Deontologist, a proponent of synthetic a priori truths.Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). Member of the Jewish Enlightenment.Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781).Edmund Burke (1729–1797). Conservative political philosopher.William Paley (1743–1805).Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). Liberal political philosopher.Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). The utilitarian, hedonist.Sylvain Maréchal (1750–1803) Anarcho-Communist, DeistDugald Stewart (1753–1828).William Godwin (1756–1836). Anarchist, utilitarian.Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). Feminist.Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805).Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).Modern philosophers1800–1850 ADJean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829). Early evolutionary theorist.Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827). Determinist.Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) ConservativeComte de Saint-Simon (1760–1825). Socialist.Madame de Staël (1766–1817).Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). Hermeneutician.G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831). German idealist.James Mill (1773–1836). Utilitarian.F. W. J. von Schelling (1775–1854). German idealist.Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848).Richard Whately (1787–1863).Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). Pessimism, Critic, Absurdist.John Austin (1790–1859). Legal positivist, utilitarian.William Whewell (1794–1866).Auguste Comte (1798–1857). Social philosopher, positivist.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Transcendentalist, abolitionist, egalitarian, humanist.Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872).Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859).Max Stirner (1806–1856). Anarchist.Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871). Logician.John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Utilitarian.Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865). Anarchist.Charles Darwin (1809–1882).Jaime Balmes (1810–1848)Margaret Fuller (1810–1850). Egalitarian.Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). Existentialist.Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Transcendentalist, pacifist, abolitionist.1850–1900 ADSir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856).Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883). Egalitarian, abolitionist.Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858). Egalitarian, utilitarian.Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). Revolutionary anarchist.Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902). Egalitarian.Hermann Lotze (1817–1881).Karl Marx (1818–1883). Socialist, formulated historical materialism.Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Egalitarian, dialectical materialist.Herbert Spencer (1820–1903). Nativism, libertarianism, social Darwinism.Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906). Feminist.Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911).Edward Caird (1835–1908). Idealist.T.H. Green (1836–1882). British idealist.Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). Rationalism, utilitarianism.Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Philosopher of science, influence on logical positivism.Franz Brentano (1838–1917). Phenomenologist.Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). Pragmatist.William James (1842–1910). Pragmatism, Radical empiricism.Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921). Anarchist communism.Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). Naturalistic philosopher, influence on Existentialism.W. K. Clifford (1845–1879). Evidentialist.F. H. Bradley (1846–1924). Idealist.Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). Social philosopher.Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923). Idealist.Gottlob Frege (1848–1925). Influential analytic philosopher.Cook Wilson (1849–1915).Hans Vaihinger (1852–1933). Specialist in counterfactuals.David George Ritchie (1853–1903). Idealist.Alexius Meinong (1853–1920). Logical realist.Henri Poincaré (1854–1912).Josiah Royce (1855–1916). Idealist.Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (1856–1931).Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). Linguist, Semiotics, Structuralism.Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Social philosopher.Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).Edmund Husserl (1859–1938). Founder of phenomenology.Samuel Alexander (1859–1938). Perceptual realist.Henri Bergson (1859–1941).John Dewey (1859–1952). Pragmatism.Jane Addams (1860–1935). Pragmatist.Pierre Duhem (1861–1916).Karl Groos (1861–1946). Evolutionary instrumentalist theory of play.Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). Process Philosophy, Mathematician, Logician, Philosophy of Physics, Panpsychism.George Herbert Mead (1863–1931). Pragmatism, symbolic interactionist.Max Weber (1864–1920). Social philosopher.Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936).J. M. E. McTaggart (1866–1925). Idealist.Benedetto Croce (1866–1952).Emma Goldman (1869–1940). Anarchist.Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919). Marxist political philosopher.G. E. Moore (1873–1958). Common sense theorist, ethical non–naturalist.Martin Buber (1878–1965). Jewish philosopher, existentialist.1900–2000 ADGeorge Santayana (1863–1952). Pragmatism, naturalism; known for many aphorisms.H.A. Prichard (1871–1947). Moral intuitionist.Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). Analytic philosopher, nontheist, influential.A.O. Lovejoy (1873–1962).Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948). Existentialist.Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945).Max Scheler (1874–1928). German phenomenologist.Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944). Idealist and fascist philosopher.Ralph Barton Perry (1876–1957).W.D. Ross (1877–1971). Deontologist.Albert Einstein (1879 -1955) philosophy of science.Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973).Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Christian evolutionist.Hans Kelsen (1881–1973). Legal positivist.Moritz Schlick (1882–1936). Founder of Vienna Circle, logical positivism.Otto Neurath (1882–1945). Member of Vienna Circle.Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950).Jacques Maritain (1882–1973). Human rights theorist.José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955). Philosopher of History.C.I. Lewis (1883–1964). Conceptual pragmatist.Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962).Georg Lukács (1885–1971). Marxist philosopher.Walter Terence Stace (1886–1967)Karl Barth (1886–1968).C. D. Broad (1887–1971).Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). Analytic philosopher, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, influential.Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973). Christian existentialist.Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). Phenomenologist.Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). Marxist philosopher.Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.Walter Benjamin (1892–1940). Marxist. Philosophy of language.Brand Blanshard (1892–1987).F. S. C. Northrop (1893–1992). Epistemologist.Roman Ingarden (1893–1970). Perceptual realist, phenomenalist.Susanne Langer (1895–1985).Friedrich Waismann (1896–1959). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.Georges Bataille (1897–1962).Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979). Frankfurt School.Xavier Zubiri (1898–1983). Materialist open realism.Leo Strauss (1899–1973). Political Philosopher.H.H. Price (1899–1984).Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976).Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002). Hermeneutics.Jacques Lacan (1901–1981). Structuralism.Alfred Tarski (1901–1983). Created T–Convention in semantics.E. Nagel (1901–1985). Logical positivist.Karl Popper (1902–1994). Falsificationist.Mortimer Adler (1902–2001).Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930). Proposed redundancy theory of truth.Theodor Adorno (1903–1969). Frankfurt School.Ernest Addison Moody (1903–1975).Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980). Humanism, existentialism.Karl Jaspers (1905–1982). Existentialist.Eugen Fink (1905–1975). Phenomenologist.Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivist, Individualist.Kurt Gödel (1906–1978). Vienna Circle.Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995).Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Political Philosophy.H.L.A. Hart (1907–1992). Legal positivism.C.L. Stevenson (1908–1979).Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). Influential French phenomenologist.Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). Existentialist, feminist.Willard van Orman Quine (1908–2000).Simone Weil (1909–1943).A.J. Ayer (1910–1989). Logical positivist, emotivist.J.L. Austin (1911–1960).Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980). Media theory.Alan Turing (1912–1954). Functionalist in the philosophy of mind.Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989). Influential American philosopherAlbert Camus (1913–1960). Absurdist.Paul Ricœur (1913–2005). French philosopher and theologian.Roland Barthes (1915–1980). French semiotician and literary theorist.J. L. Mackie (1917–1981). Moral skeptic.Donald Davidson (1917–2003).Louis Althusser (1918–1990).R. M. Hare (1919–2002).P. F. Strawson (1919–2006).John Rawls (1921–2002). Liberal.Stephen Toulmin (1922–2009).Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017). Polish sociologist and philosopher, who introduced the idea of liquid modernity.Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). PostcolonialismGilles Deleuze (1925–1995). Post-structuralismMichel Foucault (1926–1984). Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Postmodernism, and the concept of biopolitics.Hilary Putnam (1926–2016).David Malet Armstrong (1926–2014).John Howard Yoder (1927–1997). Pacifist.Noam Chomsky (born 1928). Linguist.Robert M. Pirsig (1928–2017). Introduced the Methaphysics of Quality. MOQ incorporates facets of East Asian philosophy, pragmatism and the work of F. S. C. Northrop.Bernard Williams (1929–2003). Moral philosopher.Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007). Postmodernism, Post-structuralism.Jürgen Habermas (born 1929).Jaakko Hintikka (1929–2015).Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929). Aristotelian.Allan Bloom (1930–1992). Political Philosopher.Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002). French psychoanalytic sociologist and philosopher.Jacques Derrida (1930–2004). Deconstruction.Guy Debord (1931–1994). French Marxist philosopher.Richard Rorty (1931–2007). Pragmatism, Postanalytic philosophy.Charles Taylor (born 1931). Political philosophy, Philosophy of Social Science, and Intellectual HistoryJohn Searle (born 1932).Alvin Plantinga (born 1932). Reformed epistemology, Philosophy of Religion.Jerry Fodor (1935–2017).Thomas Nagel (born 1937).Alain Badiou (born 1937).Robert Nozick (1938–2002). Libertarian.Tom Regan (1938–2017). Animal rights philosopher.Saul Kripke (born 1940).Jean-Luc Nancy (born 1940) French philosopher.David K. Lewis (1941–2001). Modal realism.Joxe Azurmendi (born 1941). Basque Philosopher, Political philosophy, Social philosophy, Philosophy of language.Derek Parfit (1942–2017).Giorgio Agamben (born 1942). state of exception, form–of–life, and homo sacer.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942). Postcolonialism, Feminism, Literary theory.Peter Singer (born 1946) Moral philosopher on animal liberation, effective altruism.John Ralston Saul (born 1947).Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born 1949).Slavoj Žižek (born 1949). Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis.Ken Wilber (born 1949). Integral Theory.Luc Ferry (born 1951).André Comte-Sponville (born 1952).Cornel West (born 1953).Judith Butler (born 1956). Poststructuralist, feminist, queer theory.Alexander Wendt (born 1958). Social constructivism.Michel Onfray (born 1959).Alain de Botton (born 1969).Gwenaëlle Aubry (born 1971).Hiroki Azuma (born 1971).Peter Adamson (born 1972)Mantas Adomėnas (born 1972)Floris van den Berg (born 1973)Armen Avanessian (born 1973)Lene Auestad (born 1973)Nick Bostrom (born 1973)Mantas Adomėnas (born 1972)25 Greatest Philosophers Who Ever LivedSource:The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition). Cambridge University Press; 1999. ISBN 0-521-63722-8The Oxford Companion to Philosophy Oxford University Press; 1995. ISBN 0-19-866132-0The Oxford Companion to Philosophy Oxford University Press; 2005. ISBN 0-19-926479-1Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge; 2000. ISBN 0-415-22364-4Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 1095-5054Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 2161-0002

As you can see, there are quite a few names here, with most differing from each other! And this is only a partial list!In the West, or the civilization bordering the Mediterranean, the light of Philosophy seems to have begun in Greece. Here the first such thinkers about reality were:“Western philosophers, Greek philosophers [THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS OFTEN WROTE THEIR IDEAS IN POETIC FASHION, PONDERING UPON THE MEANING OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS—EARTH, AIR, FIRE, & WATER,600–500 BCThales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BCE). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of water.Pherecydes of Syros (c. 620 – c. 550 BCE). Cosmologist.Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 – 546 BCE). Of the Milesian school. Famous for the concept of Apeiron, or "the boundless".Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585 – 525 BCE). Of the Milesian school. Believed that all was made of air.Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580 – c. 500 BCE). Of the Ionian School. Believed the deepest reality to be composed of numbers, and that souls are immortal.Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – 480 BCE). Advocated monotheism. Sometimes associated with the Eleatic school.Epicharmus of Kos (c. 530 – 450 BCE). Comic playwright and moralist.500–400 BCHeraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE). Of the Ionians. Emphasized the mutability of the universe.Parmenides of Elea (c. 515 – 450 BCE). Of the Eleatics. Reflected on the concept of Being.Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500 – 428 BCE). Of the Ionians. Pluralist.Empedocles (492 – 432 BCE). Eclectic cosmogonist. Pluralist.Zeno of Elea (c. 490 – 430 BCE). Of the Eleatics. Known for his paradoxes.Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481 – 420 BCE). Sophist. Early advocate of relativism.Antiphon (480 – 411 BCE). Sophist.Hippias (Middle of the 5th century BCE). Sophist.Gorgias. (c. 483 – 375 BCE). Sophist. Early advocate of solipsism.Socrates of Athens (c. 470 – 399 BCE). Emphasized virtue ethics. In epistemology, understood dialectic to be central to the pursuit of truth.Critias of Athens (c. 460 – 413 BCE). Atheist writer and politician.Prodicus of Ceos (c. 465 – c. 395 BCE). Sophist.Leucippus of Miletus (First half of the 5th century BCE). Founding Atomist, Determinist.Thrasymachus of Miletus (c. 459 – c. 400 BCE). Sophist.Democritus of Abdera (c. 450 – 370 BCE). Founding Atomist.Diagoras of Melos (c. 450 – 415 BCE). Atheist.Archelaus. A pupil of Anaxagoras.Melissus of Samos. Eleatic.Cratylus. Follower of Heraclitus.Ion of Chios. Pythagorean cosmologist.Echecrates. Pythagorean.Timaeus of Locri. Pythagorean.400–300 BCAntisthenes (c. 444 – 365 BCE). Founder of Cynicism. Pupil of Socrates.Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 440 – 366 BCE). A Cyrenaic. Advocate of ethical hedonism.Alcidamas c. 435 – c. 350 BCE). Sophist.Lycophron (Sophist) c. 430 – c. 350 BCE). Sophist.Diogenes of Apollonia (c. 425 – c 350 BCE). Cosmologist.Hippo (c. 425 – c 350 BCE). Atheist cosmologist.Xenophon (c. 427 – 355 BCE). Historian.Plato (c. 427 – 347 BCE). Famed for view of the transcendental forms. Advocated polity governed by philosophers.Speusippus (c. 408 – 339 BCE). Nephew of Plato.Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 408 – 355 BCE). Pupil of Plato.Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404 – 323 BCE). Cynic.Xenocrates (c. 396 – 314 BCE). Disciple of Plato.Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BC). A polymath whose works ranged across all philosophical fields. [ARISTOTLE IS THE GREATEST OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, OFTEN REFERRING TO THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS BEFORE HIM IN ORDER TO REACH A TRUE CONCLUSION]Hellenistic era philosophers300–200 BCTheophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BCE). Peripatetic.Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360 – 270 BCE). Skeptic.Strato of Lampsacus (c. 340 – c. 268 BCE). Atheist, Materialist.Theodorus the Atheist (c. 340 – c. 250 BCE). Cyrenaic.Epicurus (c. 341 – 270 BCE). Materialist Atomist, hedonist. Founder of EpicureanismZeno of Citium (c. 333 – 264 BCE). Founder of Stoicism.Timon (c. 320 – 230 BCE). Pyrrhonist, skeptic.Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 – c. 230 BCE). Astronomer.Euclid (fl. 300 BCE). Mathematician, founder of geometry.Archimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BCE). Mathematician and inventor.Chrysippus of Soli (c. 280 – 207 BCE). Major figure in Stoicism.Eratosthenes (c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BCE). Geographer and mathematician.200–100 BCCarneades (c. 214 – 129 BCE). Academic skeptic. Understood probability as the purveyor of truth.Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190 – c. 120 BCE). Astronomer and mathematician, founder of trigonometry.Roman era philosophers100 BC – 1 ADCicero (c. 106 BCE – 43 BCE) Skeptic. Political theorist.Lucretius (c. 99 – 55 BCE). Epicurean.1–100 ADPhilo (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE). Believed in the allegorical method of reading texts.Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BCE – 65 CE). Stoic.Quintilian (c. 35 CE – c. 100 CE). Rhetorician and teacher.Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 CE – c. 70 CE). Engineer.100–200 ADEpictetus (c. 55 – 135). Stoic. Emphasized ethics of self–determination.Marcus Aurelius (121–180). Stoic.200–400 ADSextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries AD). Skeptic, Pyrrhonist.Plotinus (c. 205 – 270). Neoplatonist. Had a holistic metaphysics.Porphyry (c. 232 – 304). Student of Plotinus.Iamblichus of Syria (c. 245 – 325). Late neoplatonist. Espoused theurgy.Augustine of Hippo (c. 354 – 430). Original Sin. Church father. [HE WROTE EXTENSIVELY SEEKING TO ANSWER WHATEVER QUESTIONS WERE BEING DEBATED]Proclus (c. 412 – 485). Neoplatonist.[THE MEDIEVALS TENDED TO EMPHASIZE FINAL CAUSES SUCH THAT HUMAN PURPOSE IS CONSIDERED THE MOST IMPORTANT]Medieval philosophers500–800 ADBoethius (c. 480–524).John Philoponus (c. 490–570).John of Damascus (c. 680-750).800–900 ADAl-Kindi (c. 801 – 873). Major figure in Islamic philosophy. Influenced by Neoplatonism.Abbas ibn Firnas (809–887). Polymath.John the Scot (c. 815 – 877). neoplatonist, pantheist.900–1000 ADal–Faràbi (c. 870 – 950). Major Islamic philosopher. Neoplatonist.Saadia Gaon (c. 882 – 942). Jewish Philosopheral-Razi (c. 865 – 925). Rationalist. Major Islamic philosopher. Held that God creates universe by rearranging pre–existing laws.1000–1100 ADAl-Biruni (973– after 1050) Islamic polymath.Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (c. 980–1037). Major Islamic philosopher.Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) (c. 1021–1058). Jewish philosopher.Anselm (c. 1034–1109). Christian philosopher. Produced ontological argument for the existence of God.Khayyam (c. 1048–1131). Major Islamic philosopher. Agnostic. Mathematician. Philosophical poet, one of the 5 greatest Iranian Poets.Al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111). Islamic philosopher. Mystic.1100–1200 ADPeter Abelard (c. 1079–1142). Scholastic philosopher. Dealt with problem of universals.Abraham ibn Daud (c. 1110–1180). Jewish philosophy.Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160). Scholastic.Averroes (Ibn Rushd, "The Commentator") (c. 1126–December 10, 1198). Islamic philosopher.Maimonides (c. 1135–1204). Jewish philosophy.Sohrevardi (c. 1154–1191). Major Islamic philosopher.St Francis of Assisi (c. 1182–1226). Ascetic.1200–1300 ADFibonacci (c. 1170–c. 1250), mathematician.Michael Scot (1175–c. 1232), mathematician.Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253).Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) (c. 1193–1280). Early Empiricist.Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294). Empiricist, mathematician.Ibn Sab'in (1217–1271 CE).Thomas Aquinas (c. 1221–1274). [THE GREATEST CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER & THEOLOGIAN].Bonaventure (c. 1225–1274). Franciscan.Siger (c. 1240–c. 1280). Averroist.Boetius of Dacia. Averroist, Aristotelian.1300–1400 ADRamon Llull (c. 1232–1315) Catalan philosopherMeister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328). mystic.Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Franciscan, Scholastic, Original Sin.Marsilius of Padua (c. 1270–1342). Understood chief function of state as mediator.William of Ockham (c. 1288–1348). Franciscan. Scholastic. Nominalist, creator of Ockham's razor.Gersonides (c. 1288–1344). Jewish philosopher.Jean Buridan (c. 1300–1358). Nominalist.John Wycliffe (c. 1320–1384).Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–5 – 1382). Made contributions to economics, science, mathematics, theology and philosophy.Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406).Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340 – c. 1411). Jewish philosopher.Gemistus Pletho (c. 1355 – 1452/1454). Late Byzantine scholar of neoplatonic philosophy.1400–1500 ADNicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). Christian philosopher.Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457). Humanist, critic of scholastic logic.Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). Christian Neoplatonist, head of Florentine Academy and major Renaissance Humanist figure. First translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin.Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494). Renaissance humanist.[MODERN PHILOSOPHERS TEND TO IGNORE OR DENY WHAT WENT BEFORE, EMPHASIZING METHODS THOUGHT UNNECESSARY BY THE ANCIENTS, AND BY THE MEDEIVALS, WHO ESPECIALLY EMPHASIZED FINAL CAUSE]Early modern philosophers1500–1550 ADDesiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). Humanist, advocate of free will.Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527). Political realism.Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). Humanist, created term "utopia".Martin Luther (1483–1546). Major Western Christian theologian.Petrus Ramus (1515–1572).1550–1600 ADJohn Calvin (1509–1564). Major Western Christian theologian.Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). Humanist, skeptic.Pierre Charron (1541–1603).Giordano Bruno (1548–1600). Advocate of heliocentrism.Francisco Suarez (1548–1617). Politically proto–liberal.Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.Molla-Sadra (1572–1640). Major Islamic philosopher.1600–1650 ADHerbert of Cherbury (1583–1648). Nativist.Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Empiricist.Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Heliocentrist.Hugo Grotius (1583–1645). Natural law theorist.François de La Mothe Le Vayer (1588–1672)Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). Cartesian.Robert Filmer (1588–1653).Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655). Mechanicism. Empiricist.René Descartes (1596–1650). Heliocentrism, mind-body dualism, rationalism.Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658). Spanish catholic philosopher1650–1700 ADThomas Hobbes (1588–1679). Political realist.Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694).François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).Henry More (1614–1687).Jacques Rohault (1617–1672), Cartesian.Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688). Cambridge Platonist.Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Physicist, scientist. Noted for Pascal's wager.Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673). Materialist, feminist.Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669). Important occasionalist theorist.Pierre Nicole (1625–1695).Geraud Cordemoy (1626–1684). Dualist.Robert Boyle (1627–1691).Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway (1631–1679).Richard Cumberland (1631–1718). Early proponent of utilitarianism.Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). Rationalism.Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694). Social contract theorist.John Locke (1632–1704). Major Empiricist. Political philosopher.Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680).Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). Cartesian.Isaac Newton (1643–1727).Simon Foucher (1644–1696). Skeptic.John Flamsteed (1646 – 1719). Astronomer.Pierre Bayle (1647–1706). Pyrrhonist.Damaris Masham (1659–1708).John Toland (1670–1722).1700–1750 ADGottfried Leibniz (1646–1716). Co-inventor of calculus.John Norris (1657–1711).Jean Meslier (1664–1729). Atheist Priest.Giambattista Vico (1668–1744).Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733).Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1671–1713).Samuel Clarke (1675–1729).Catherine Cockburn (1679–1749).Christian Wolff (1679–1754). Determinist, rationalist.George Berkeley (1685–1753). Idealist, empiricist.Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755). Skeptic, humanist.Joseph Butler (1692–1752).Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746). Proto–utilitarian.John Gay (1699–1745).David Hartley (1705–1757).Julien La Mettrie (1709–1751).1750–1800 ADVoltaire (1694–1778). Advocate for freedoms of religion and expression.Thomas Reid (1710–1796). Member of Scottish Enlightenment, founder of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.David Hume (1711–1776). Empiricist, skeptic.Jean–Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Social contract political philosopher.Denis Diderot (1713–1784).Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762).Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771). Utilitarian.Etienne de Condillac (1715–1780).Jean d'Alembert (1717–1783).Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789). Materialist, atheist.Adam Smith (1723–1790). Economic theorist, member of Scottish Enlightenment.Richard Price (1723–1791). Political liberal.Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). Deontologist, proponent of synthetic a priori truths.Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). Member of the Jewish Enlightenment.Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781).Edmund Burke (1729–1797). Conservative political philosopher.William Paley (1743–1805).Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). Liberal political philosopher.Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). Utilitarian, hedonist.Sylvain Maréchal (1750–1803) Anarcho-Communist, DeistDugald Stewart (1753–1828).William Godwin (1756–1836). Anarchist, utilitarian.Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). Feminist.Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805).Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).Modern philosophers1800–1850 ADJean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829). Early evolutionary theorist.Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827). Determinist.Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) ConservativeComte de Saint-Simon (1760–1825). Socialist.Madame de Staël (1766–1817).Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). Hermeneutician.G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831). German idealist.James Mill (1773–1836). Utilitarian.F. W. J. von Schelling (1775–1854). German idealist.Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848).Richard Whately (1787–1863).Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). Pessimism, Critic, Absurdist.John Austin (1790–1859). Legal positivist, utilitarian.William Whewell (1794–1866).Auguste Comte (1798–1857). Social philosopher, positivist.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Transcendentalist, abolitionist, egalitarian, humanist.Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872).Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859).Max Stirner (1806–1856). Anarchist.Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871). Logician.John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Utilitarian.Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865). Anarchist.Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Scientist, whose works affected Philosophy of Science.Jaime Balmes (1810–1848)Margaret Fuller (1810–1850). Egalitarian.Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). Existentialist.Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Transcendentalist, pacifist, abolitionist.1850–1900 ADSir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856).Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883). Egalitarian, abolitionist.Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858). Egalitarian, utilitarian.Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). Revolutionary anarchist.Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902). Egalitarian.Hermann Lotze (1817–1881).Karl Marx (1818–1883). Socialist, formulated historical materialism.Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Egalitarian, dialectical materialist.Herbert Spencer (1820–1903). Nativism, libertarianism, social Darwinism.Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906). Feminist.Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911).Edward Caird (1835–1908). Idealist.T.H. Green (1836–1882). British idealist.Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). Rationalism, utilitarianism.Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Philosopher of science, influence on logical positivism.Franz Brentano (1838–1917). Phenomenologist.Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). Pragmatist.William James (1842–1910). Pragmatism, Radical empiricism.Hermann Cohen (1842-1918). Neo-Kantianism, Jewish philosophy.Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921). Anarchist communism.Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). Naturalistic philosopher, influence on Existentialism.W. K. Clifford (1845–1879). Evidentialist.F. H. Bradley (1846–1924). Idealist.Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). Social philosopher.Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923). Idealist.Gottlob Frege (1848–1925). Influential analytic philosopher.Cook Wilson (1849–1915).Hans Vaihinger (1852–1933). Specialist in counterfactuals.David George Ritchie (1853–1903). Idealist.Alexius Meinong (1853–1920). Logical realist.Henri Poincaré (1854–1912).Josiah Royce (1855–1916). Idealist.Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (1856–1931).Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). Linguist, Semiotics, Structuralism.Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Social philosopher.Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).Edmund Husserl (1859–1938). Founder of phenomenology.Samuel Alexander (1859–1938). Perceptual realist.Henri Bergson (1859–1941).John Dewey (1859–1952). Pragmatism.Jane Addams (1860–1935). Pragmatist.Pierre Duhem (1861–1916).Karl Groos (1861–1946). Evolutionary instrumentalist theory of play.Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). Process Philosophy, Mathematician, Logician, Philosophy of Physics, Panpsychism.George Herbert Mead (1863–1931). Pragmatism, symbolic interactionist.Max Weber (1864–1920). Social philosopher.Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936).J. M. E. McTaggart (1866–1925). Idealist.Benedetto Croce (1866–1952).Emma Goldman (1869–1940). Anarchist.Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919). Marxist political philosopher.G. E. Moore (1873–1958). Common sense theorist, ethical non–naturalist.1900–2000 ADGeorge Santayana (1863–1952). Pragmatism, naturalism; known for many aphorisms.H.A. Prichard (1871–1947). Moral intuitionist.Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). Analytic philosopher, nontheist, influential.A.O. Lovejoy (1873–1962).Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948). Existentialist.Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945).Max Scheler (1874–1928). German phenomenologist.Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944). Idealist and fascist philosopher.Ralph Barton Perry (1876–1957).W.D. Ross (1877–1971). Deontologist.Martin Buber (1878–1965). Jewish philosopher, existentialist.Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973).Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Christian evolutionist.Hans Kelsen (1881–1973). Legal positivist.Moritz Schlick (1882–1936). Founder of Vienna Circle, logical positivism.Otto Neurath (1882–1945). Member of Vienna Circle.Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950).Jacques Maritain (1882–1973). Human rights theorist.José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955). Philosopher of History.C.I. Lewis (1883–1964). Conceptual pragmatist.Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962).Georg Lukács (1885–1971). Marxist philosopher.Walter Terence Stace (1886–1967)Karl Barth (1886–1968).C. D. Broad (1887–1971).Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). Analytic philosopher, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, influential.Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973). Christian existentialist.Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). Phenomenologist.Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). Marxist philosopher.Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.Walter Benjamin (1892–1940). Marxist. Philosophy of language.Brand Blanshard (1892–1987).F. S. C. Northrop (1893–1992). Epistemologist.Roman Ingarden (1893–1970). Perceptual realist, phenomenalist.Susanne Langer (1895–1985).Friedrich Waismann (1896–1959). Vienna Circle. Logical positivist.Georges Bataille (1897–1962).Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979). Frankfurt School.Xavier Zubiri (1898–1983). Materialist open realism.Leo Strauss (1899–1973). Political Philosopher.H.H. Price (1899–1984).Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976).Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002). Hermeneutics.Jacques Lacan (1901–1981). Structuralism.Alfred Tarski (1901–1983). Created T–Convention in semantics.E. Nagel (1901–1985). Logical positivist.Karl Popper (1902–1994). Falsificationist.Mortimer Adler (1902–2001).Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930). Proposed redundancy theory of truth.Theodor Adorno (1903–1969). Frankfurt School.Ernest Addison Moody (1903–1975).Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980). Humanism, existentialism.Karl Jaspers (1883–1969). Existentialist.Eugen Fink (1905–1975). Phenomenologist.Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivist, Individualist.Kurt Gödel (1906–1978). Vienna Circle.Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995).Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Political Philosophy.H.L.A. Hart (1907–1992). Legal positivism.C.L. Stevenson (1908–1979).Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). Influential French phenomenologist.Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). Existentialist, feminist.Willard van Orman Quine (1908–2000).Simone Weil (1909–1943).A.J. Ayer (1910–1989). Logical positivist, emotivist.J.L. Austin (1911–1960).Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980). Media theory.Alan Turing (1912–1954). Functionalist in philosophy of mind.Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989). Influential American philosopherAlbert Camus (1913–1960). Absurdist.Paul Ricœur (1913–2005). French philosopher and theologian.Roland Barthes (1915–1980). French semiotician and literary theorist.J. L. Mackie (1917–1981). Moral skeptic.Donald Davidson (1917–2003).Louis Althusser (1918–1990).M. Bunge (1919–2020).R. M. Hare (1919–2002).P. F. Strawson (1919–2006).John Rawls (1921–2002). Liberal.Stephen Toulmin (1922–2009).Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996). Author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017). Polish sociologist and philosopher, who introduced the idea of liquid modernity.Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). PostcolonialismGilles Deleuze (1925–1995). Post-structuralismMichel Foucault (1926–1984). Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Postmodernism, and the concept of biopolitics.Hilary Putnam (1926–2016).David Malet Armstrong (1926–2014).John Howard Yoder (1927–1997). Pacifist.Noam Chomsky (born 1928). Linguist.Robert M. Pirsig (1928–2017). Introduced the Methaphysics of Quality. MOQ incorporates facets of East Asian philosophy, pragmatism and the work of F. S. C. Northrop.Bernard Williams (1929–2003). Moral philosopher.Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007). Postmodernism, Post-structuralism.Jürgen Habermas (born 1929).Jaakko Hintikka (1929–2015).Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929). Aristotelian.Allan Bloom (1930–1992). Political Philosopher.Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002). French psychoanalytic sociologist and philosopher.Jacques Derrida (1930–2004). Deconstruction.Guy Debord (1931–1994). French Marxist philosopher.Richard Rorty (1931–2007). Pragmatism, Postanalytic philosophy.Charles Taylor (born 1931). Political philosophy, Philosophy of Social Science, and Intellectual HistoryJohn Searle (born 1932).Alvin Plantinga (born 1932). Reformed epistemology, Philosophy of Religion.Jerry Fodor (1935–2017).Thomas Nagel (born 1937).Alain Badiou (born 1937).Robert Nozick (1938–2002). Libertarian.Tom Regan (1938–2017). Animal rights philosopher.Saul Kripke (born 1940).Jean-Luc Nancy (born 1940) French philosopher.David K. Lewis (1941–2001). Modal realism.Joxe Azurmendi (born 1941). Basque Philosopher, Political philosophy, Social philosophy, Philosophy of language.Derek Parfit (1942–2017).Giorgio Agamben (born 1942). state of exception, form–of–life, and homo sacer.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942). Postcolonialism, Feminism, Literary theory.Roger Scruton (1944-2020). Traditionalist conservatism.Peter Singer (born 1946) Moral philosopher on animal liberation, effective altruism.John Ralston Saul (born 1947).Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born 1949).Slavoj Žižek (born 1949). Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis.Ken Wilber (born 1949). Integral Theory.Luc Ferry (born 1951).André Comte-Sponville (born 1952).Cornel West (born 1953).Judith Butler (born 1956). Poststructuralist, feminist, queer theory.Alexander Wendt (born 1958). Social constructivism.Michel Onfray (born 1959).Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Professor at the Angelicum, Rome, ThomistDavid Oderberg and Edward Feser, and others, follow the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition.