11 questions · Philosophy
In 399 BC an old man stood trial in Athens who had never written a single book. Socrates had pressed his fellow citizens with questions until their supposed knowledge crumbled: 'I know that I know nothing' is still credited to him. Charged with impiety and corrupting the youth, Socrates drank the hemlock, although escape was open to him. We know the story because of his student Plato, who wrote his philosophy as dialogues, devised the allegory of the cave and founded the Academy in Athens. Its most famous student in turn was Aristotle, who laid foundations for logic, biology, ethics and politics and tutored Alexander the Great. That same Alexander is said to have offered Diogenes, the Cynic who lived without possessions in a barrel, any wish he liked and received only the reply: 'Stand out of my sunlight.' Far to the east, Confucius taught respect, education and social harmony; his sayings were gathered by his students in 'The Analects'. Some two thousand years later René Descartes searched for a starting point beyond all doubt and found it in his own thinking: 'I think, therefore I am.' Immanuel Kant hardly ever left Königsberg and there formulated the categorical imperative. Karl Marx co-wrote 'The Communist Manifesto' with Engels, Friedrich Nietzsche shook traditional values in 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', and Jean-Paul Sartre declared that people make themselves through their choices: he went on to decline the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Socrates
Socrates wrote nothing himself; we know him mainly through his student Plato. With persistent questioning (the 'Socratic method') he exposed false knowledge.
💡 Did you know? His questioning turned many citizens against him so much that they eventually put him on trial.
Aristotle
Aristotle laid foundations for logic, biology, ethics and politics and shaped thought for over 2000 years. He was the teacher of Alexander the Great.
💡 Did you know? Almost every science still uses terms that go back to him.
René Descartes
The French philosopher and mathematician sought an indubitable starting point for all knowledge and found it in his own thinking. He founded modern rationalism.
💡 Did you know? The 'Cartesian' coordinate system named after him is still taught in school.
Immanuel Kant
Kant asked what we can know and how we should act. His categorical imperative demands acting only on a maxim you could will to become a universal law.
💡 Did you know? He almost never left his home town of Königsberg and lived with extreme punctuality.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche radically questioned traditional values and coined ideas like the 'Übermensch'. His work was later often misused and distorted.
💡 Did you know? The famous phrase 'God is dead' comes from him.
Plato
Plato, a student of Socrates, wrote his philosophy in dialogue form. His theory of Forms and his 'allegory of the cave' still shape thought today.
💡 Did you know? His Academy in Athens is seen as one of history's first 'universities'.
Diogenes
Diogenes lived deliberately without possessions and mocked social conventions: a Cynic. To him, needing nothing meant freedom.
💡 Did you know? When Alexander the Great offered him a wish, he asked only: 'Stand out of my sunlight.'
Karl Marx
Marx analysed capitalism and predicted its collapse. His ideas became the basis of communist movements worldwide.
💡 Did you know? He never finished his main work 'Das Kapital': Engels edited the later volumes.
Confucius
Confucius taught values such as respect, education and social harmony in ancient China. His ethics still shape East Asia today.
💡 Did you know? His sayings were only collected by students: in the work 'The Analects'.
Jean-Paul Sartre
For Sartre there is no predetermined purpose: 'existence precedes essence': people make themselves through their choices. Freedom also means responsibility.
💡 Did you know? He declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature.
399 BC
In 399 BC an Athenian court sentenced Socrates to death for 'impiety' and 'corrupting the youth'. He drank the hemlock, though escape was open to him.
💡 Did you know? His trial and death are known mainly through Plato's writings.
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