The Greatest Philosophers

1. Socrates

2. Plato

3. Aristotle

4. Confucius

4. Lao Tzu

4. Mencius

1. Socrates

Socrates was a Greek philosopher and teacher who lived in Athens, Greece, in the 400s BC. He profoundly altered Western philosophical thought through his influence on his most famous pupil, Plato. Socrates taught that every person has full knowledge of ultimate truth contained within the soul and needs only to be spurred to conscious reflection in order to become aware of it. His criticism of injustice in Athenian society led to his prosecution and a death sentence for allegedly corrupting the youth of Athens.

2. Plato

Plato, one of the most famous philosophers of ancient Greece, was the first to use the term philosophy, which means "love of knowledge."

Chief among his ideas was the theory of forms, which proposed that objects in the physical world merely resemble perfect forms in the ideal world, and that only these perfect forms can be the object of true knowledge. The goal of the philosopher, according to Plato, is to know the perfect forms and to instruct others in that knowledge.

3. Aristotle

A student of ancient Greek philosopher Plato, Aristotle shared his teacher's reverence for human knowledge but revised many of Plato's ideas by emphasizing methods rooted in observation and experience. Aristotle is possibly the greatest thinker in Western history, and historically, perhaps the single greatest influence on Western intellectual development.

3. Confucious

4. Lao Tzu

5. Mencius