Philosophers through history
The atlas holds 85 people and 2,215 moments here, from 620 BC to 2025. The most recorded lives are Mao Zedong, Augustine of Hippo and Niccolò Machiavelli. Across the Ancient World and the Age of Exploration.
Notable people
Mao Zedong
from 1893 to 1976
38 moments here
Chinese communist revolutionary and political leader who led the Chinese Communist Party and founded the People’s Republic of China.…
Augustine of Hippo
from 354 to 430
26 moments here
Aurelius Augustinus, known as Augustine of Hippo, was a North African rhetorician, Christian theologian, philosopher, priest, and bishop.…
Niccolò Machiavelli
from 1469 to 1527
32 moments here
Florentine diplomat, civil servant, political theorist, playwright, and historian of the Italian Renaissance.…
Thomas Jefferson
from 1743 to 1826
29 moments here
Thomas Jefferson was an American lawyer, Virginia political leader, diplomat, secretary of state, vice president, and third president of the United…
Adam Smith
from 1723 to 1790
25 moments here
Scottish moral philosopher and political economist of the Scottish Enlightenment, author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the…
Nicolaus Copernicus
from 1473 to 1543
15 moments here
Renaissance astronomer, canon, physician, administrator, and economist whose heliocentric model placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the…
Sophocles
from 480 BC to 406 BC
5 moments here
Ancient Athenian tragic playwright, probably born at Colonus in Attica and active chiefly in Athens.…
Pythagoras
from 570 BC to 490 BC
5 moments here
Ancient Greek philosopher and founder of the Pythagorean way of life. The surviving evidence for his biography is sparse and often contradictory;…
Thomas Aquinas
from 1225 to 1274
21 moments here
Italian Dominican friar, priest, theologian, and philosopher. His documented movements connected family residences in southern Italy, Dominican and…
John Locke
from 1632 to 1704
28 moments here
English philosopher, physician, and political writer. Locke was born in Somerset, educated in London and Oxford, served Lord Shaftesbury in London,…
Pope John Paul II
from 1920 to 2005
31 moments here
Karol Józef Wojtyła (1920–2005), Pope John Paul II from 1978, was a Polish Catholic priest, bishop, cardinal, and pope.…
Albert Camus
from 1913 to 1960
29 moments here
French writer, philosopher, journalist, and political activist, born in French Algeria. Camus studied and worked in Algiers, moved between Algeria…
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
from 1646 to 1716
54 moments here
German polymath, philosopher, mathematician, jurist, diplomat, court councillor, historian, and librarian.…
Cicero
from 106 BC to 43 BC
83 moments here
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was a Roman lawyer, orator, philosopher, consul, provincial governor, and defender of the late Republic.…
Friedrich Engels
from 1820 to 1895
39 moments here
German philosopher, political theorist, revolutionary socialist, businessman, and Karl Marx’s lifelong collaborator.…
Jean-Paul Sartre
from 1905 to 1980
31 moments here
French philosopher, writer, and political activist associated with existentialism. His documented movements include education and teaching across…
Pope Benedict XVI
from 1927 to 2022
40 moments here
Joseph Alois Ratzinger (1927–2022), Pope Benedict XVI, was a German Catholic theologian, archbishop, cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the…
Li Bai
from 701 to 762
27 moments here
Li Bai (701–762), also known as Li Bo or Li Po, was a major Tang-dynasty Chinese poet. His surviving biography documents a childhood relocation to…
Blaise Pascal
from 1623 to 1662
11 moments here
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. Pascal spent his life principally between Clermont-Ferrand, Paris,…
Avicenna
from 980 to 1037
17 moments here
Ibn Sina (Avicenna; c. 980–22 June 1037) was a Persian philosopher, physician, and court official.…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
from 1770 to 1831
32 moments here
German philosopher and a central figure of German idealism. His documented movements include formative study in Stuttgart and Tübingen; tutoring…
Francis Bacon
from 1561 to 1626
13 moments here
English philosopher, lawyer, statesman, Attorney General, and Lord Chancellor under James I.…
Johannes Kepler
from 1571 to 1630
16 moments here
German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher, and music theorist. Kepler’s documented life moved from Württemberg schooling…
Friedrich Schiller
from 1759 to 1805
30 moments here
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German playwright, poet, philosopher, historian, and a central figure of Weimar Classicism.…