Philosophical Schools and Movements Catalog
A chronological catalog of philosophical schools, traditions, and movements with founding figures, dates, principal doctrines, and canonical works. Where a tradition has identifiable sub-schools, they are listed as nested rows. Use this when situating a thinker — for example, in placing Foot within “neo-Aristotelianism” within “post-Anscombe analytic ethics.”
I. Ancient Greek and Hellenistic
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milesian | c.624 – c.526 BCE | Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes | Single material archē (water / apeiron / aēr); first naturalistic cosmology | (Fragments) |
| Pythagorean | c.570 BCE – | Pythagoras, Philolaus, Archytas | Number as the substance of all; transmigration of souls; harmony of the spheres | Philolaus On Nature (fragments) |
| Eleatic | c.515 – c.430 BCE | Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Melissus | Being is one, eternal, indivisible; motion is illusion | Parmenides On Nature |
| Pluralists | c.494 – c.428 BCE | Empedocles, Anaxagoras | Multiple roots/seeds compose all things | Empedocles On Nature; Anaxagoras fragments |
| Atomism | c.5th c BCE | Leucippus, Democritus, later Epicurus, Lucretius | Atoms and void; mechanistic universe; no purpose in nature | Democritus fragments; Lucretius De Rerum Natura |
| Sophists | c.5th c BCE | Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias | Rhetoric, relativism, “man is the measure”; teaching for fee | (Fragments) |
| Socratic | 469 – 399 BCE | Socrates (no writings); Xenophon, Plato | Elenchus; “virtue is knowledge”; ignorance of wisdom | Plato dialogues |
| Cyrenaic | c.435 – c.356 BCE | Aristippus of Cyrene; Hegesias | Hedonism; only the immediate present matters | (Fragments) |
| Megarian | c.420 – c.270 BCE | Euclid of Megara, Diodorus Cronus, Eubulides | Dialectic, paradoxes (Liar, Sorites, Heap); only what is necessary is possible | (Fragments) |
| Cynic | c.412 BCE – | Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Crates | Living “according to nature”; rejection of convention; cosmopolitan | Anecdotes in Diogenes Laërtius |
| Platonist (Old Academy) | 387 BCE – c.86 BCE | Plato; Speusippus; Xenocrates | Theory of Forms; immortality of soul; mathematical reality | Plato Republic, Timaeus, Theaetetus |
| Aristotelian / Peripatetic | 335 BCE – | Aristotle; Theophrastus; Strato; Andronicus of Rhodes | Substance/accident; four causes; eudaimonia; syllogistic | Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics, Organon |
| Stoicism (Early) | c.301 BCE – c.140 BCE | Zeno of Citium; Cleanthes; Chrysippus | Logic + physics + ethics unified; virtue alone is good; corporeal monism | Chrysippus fragments; SVF compilation |
| Stoicism (Middle) | c.155 – c.50 BCE | Panaetius; Posidonius | Adapted Stoicism for Roman elites | Cicero transmits |
| Stoicism (Roman) | c.4 BCE – c.180 CE | Seneca; Musonius Rufus; Epictetus; Marcus Aurelius | Practical ethics; dichotomy of control; cosmopolitan duty | Seneca Epistulae Morales; Epictetus Enchiridion; Marcus Meditations |
| Epicureanism | 307 BCE – c.4th c CE | Epicurus; Hermarchus; Philodemus; Lucretius | Atomism + ethics; pleasure as absence of pain (ataraxia); the Garden; tetrapharmakos | Epicurus Principal Doctrines; Lucretius De Rerum Natura |
| Skepticism (Pyrrhonist) | c.360 BCE – c.250 CE | Pyrrho; Aenesidemus; Sextus Empiricus | Suspension of judgment (epoché); ataraxia through unconcern | Sextus Outlines of Pyrrhonism |
| Skepticism (Academic) | c.270 – c.80 BCE | Arcesilaus; Carneades; Philo of Larissa | Probabilism; arguing on both sides | Cicero Academica |
| Neoplatonism | c.245 – c.529 CE | Plotinus; Porphyry; Iamblichus; Proclus | The One, Intellect, Soul; emanation; mystical ascent | Plotinus Enneads; Proclus Elements of Theology |
II. Medieval (Latin, Islamic, Jewish, Indian)
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patristics | c.100 – c.750 CE | Justin Martyr; Origen; Augustine; Pseudo-Dionysius | Synthesis of Christian theology with Platonism; original sin; trinity | Augustine City of God, Confessions |
| Scholasticism | c.1100 – c.1500 | Anselm; Abelard; Peter Lombard; Aquinas; Scotus; Ockham | Disputation method; reconciling reason and revelation; debate over universals | Lombard Sentences; Aquinas Summa Theologica |
| Thomism | 1265 – present | Aquinas; Cajetan; Báñez; later Maritain; Gilson; Finnis | Five Ways; natural law; analogia entis; Aristotelian-Christian synthesis | Aquinas Summa Theologica, Summa contra Gentiles |
| Scotism | c.1300 – | Duns Scotus; Mastri; Bonaventure | Univocity of being; haecceity; formal distinction; voluntarism | Scotus Ordinatio |
| Ockhamism / Nominalism | c.1320 – | William of Ockham; Buridan; Pierre d’Ailly | Razor (ontological parsimony); nominalism re: universals; voluntarism | Ockham Summa Logicae, Quodlibeta |
| Islamic falsafa | c.800 – c.1200 | al-Kindi; al-Farabi; Ibn Sina (Avicenna); Ibn Rushd (Averroes) | Aristotelian + Neoplatonic synthesis with Islam; necessary being | Avicenna Book of Healing; Averroes commentaries on Aristotle |
| Ash’arism | c.900 – | al-Ash’ari; al-Ghazali; al-Razi | Divine voluntarism; occasionalism; against the philosophers | al-Ghazali Incoherence of the Philosophers |
| Mu’tazilism | c.750 – c.950 | Wasil ibn Ata; al-Jubbai; Qadi Abd al-Jabbar | Created Qur’an; divine justice; free will; rationalism | Abd al-Jabbar Mughni |
| Jewish Aristotelianism | c.1050 – c.1300 | Saadia Gaon; Maimonides; Gersonides | Reconcile Torah and Aristotle; negative theology | Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed |
| Vedanta — Advaita | c.788 – | Shankara; Suresvara; Vidyaranya | Non-dualism; Brahman alone real; māyā | Shankara commentary on Brahma Sūtras |
| Vedanta — Vishishtadvaita | c.1017 – | Ramanuja; Vedanta Desika | Qualified non-dualism; bhakti; reality of world | Ramanuja Śrī Bhāṣya |
| Vedanta — Dvaita | c.1238 – | Madhva; Jayatirtha | Strict dualism: God, soul, world distinct | Madhva Anuvyākhyāna |
| Vedanta — Achintya Bheda Abheda | c.1486 – | Caitanya; Jiva Goswami; Rupa Goswami | Inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference | Jiva Bhagavat Sandarbha |
| Buddhist — Abhidharma | c.300 BCE – | Vasumitra; Buddhaghosa; Vasubandhu | Analysis of dharmas; no substantial self | Abhidhammapitaka; Vasubandhu Abhidharmakośa |
| Buddhist — Madhyamaka | c.150 – | Nagarjuna; Aryadeva; Bhāviveka; Candrakīrti | Emptiness (śūnyatā); two truths; tetralemma | Nagarjuna Mūlamadhyamakakārikā |
| Buddhist — Yogācāra | c.300 – | Asaṅga; Vasubandhu; Sthiramati; Dignāga; Dharmakīrti | Mind-only (cittamātra); store-consciousness | Vasubandhu Vimśatika, Trimśika |
| Buddhist — Huayan | c.600 – | Dushun; Fazang | Mutual interpenetration of all phenomena; Indra’s net | Fazang Treatise on the Five Teachings |
| Buddhist — Chan / Zen | c.500 – | Bodhidharma; Huineng; Linji; Dogen | Direct mind-to-mind transmission; kōan / shikantaza | Platform Sutra (Huineng); Dogen Shōbōgenzō |
| Buddhist — Tibetan Gelug | 1357 – | Tsongkhapa; Dalai Lamas | Prasangika Madhyamaka + monastic discipline | Tsongkhapa Lamrim Chenmo |
| Buddhist — Tibetan Nyingma / Sakya / Kagyu | c.10th c – | Padmasambhava (Nyingma); Sakya Pandita; Marpa-Milarepa-Gampopa (Kagyu) | Tantra + dzogchen / Lamdré / Mahamudra | Longchenpa Seven Treasuries |
| Confucianism (Classical) | 551 BCE – | Confucius; Mengzi; Xunzi | Ren, li, yi; cultivation; rectification of names | Analects; Mencius; Xunzi |
| Mohism | c.470 BCE – | Mozi; Mohist disciples | Impartial care (jian’ai); consequentialism; anti-fatalist | Mozi |
| Daoism (philosophical) | c.6th c BCE – | Laozi (legendary); Zhuangzi | Dao; wu wei; spontaneous naturalness (ziran) | Daodejing; Zhuangzi |
| Legalism | c.4th – 3rd c BCE | Shang Yang; Han Feizi; Li Si | Law (fa), method (shu), legitimacy (shi); statecraft | Han Feizi; Book of Lord Shang |
| Neo-Confucianism | 11th c – | Zhou Dunyi; Cheng Hao; Cheng Yi; Zhu Xi; Lu Jiuyuan; Wang Yangming | Principle (li) and vital force (qi); investigation of things; innate moral knowing | Zhu Xi Reflections on Things at Hand; Wang Yangming Instructions for Practical Living |
III. Renaissance and Early Modern
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renaissance humanism | c.1350 – c.1600 | Petrarch; Pico della Mirandola; Erasmus; More; Ficino | Return to classical sources; dignity of man; philological method | Pico Oration on the Dignity of Man; Erasmus In Praise of Folly |
| Cambridge Platonists | c.1633 – c.1688 | Benjamin Whichcote; Henry More; Ralph Cudworth | Reconcile Platonism with Christianity; innatism; latitudinarianism | Cudworth True Intellectual System of the Universe |
| Cartesianism | 1637 – | Descartes; Malebranche; Geulincx; Régis | Mind-body dualism; mechanistic physics; clear and distinct ideas | Descartes Meditations; Malebranche Search after Truth |
| Spinozism | 1670s – | Spinoza; Tschirnhaus; later revival 19th c | Substance monism; God = Nature; parallelism; conatus | Spinoza Ethics (1677) |
| Leibnizianism | 1690s – | Leibniz; Wolff; Baumgarten | Monads; pre-established harmony; best of all possible worlds | Leibniz Monadology, Theodicy |
| British Empiricism | 1690 – 1776 | Locke; Berkeley; Hume | Knowledge from experience; tabula rasa; bundle theory of self | Locke Essay; Hume Treatise, Enquiry |
| German Rationalism / Wolffianism | 1720s – 1780s | Christian Wolff; Baumgarten | Systematic deductive metaphysics; principle of sufficient reason | Wolff Vernünftige Gedanken |
| Scottish Enlightenment | 1740 – 1800 | Hutcheson; Hume; A. Smith; Reid; Ferguson | Moral sentimentalism; commercial society; sympathy; common-sense | Hume Treatise; Smith Theory of Moral Sentiments, Wealth of Nations; Reid Inquiry |
| French Enlightenment / philosophes | 1730 – 1789 | Voltaire; Diderot; d’Alembert; Rousseau; Condorcet; Helvétius; d’Holbach | Reason against superstition; encyclopaedic knowledge; reform | Diderot-d’Alembert Encyclopédie; Rousseau Social Contract |
| Common-Sense Philosophy (Scottish) | 1764 – | Thomas Reid; Beattie; Stewart; Hamilton | Direct realism against Hume; principles of common sense | Reid Inquiry into the Human Mind |
IV. Nineteenth Century
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kantianism | 1781 – | Kant; later Cohen, Cassirer (Marburg neo-K.); Windelband, Rickert (Baden) | Transcendental idealism; synthetic a priori; categorical imperative | Kant Critique of Pure Reason, Practical Reason, Judgment |
| German Idealism | 1794 – 1831 | Fichte; Schelling; Hegel | Absolute Spirit; dialectic; self-positing I | Fichte Wissenschaftslehre; Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit, Science of Logic |
| Romanticism (philosophical) | c.1798 – c.1840 | Schlegel brothers; Novalis; Schleiermacher; Coleridge | Imagination, organic wholeness, infinity, longing | Schlegel Athenaeum Fragments; Coleridge Biographia Literaria |
| Utilitarianism (classical) | 1789 – | Bentham; James Mill; J. S. Mill; Sidgwick | Greatest happiness principle; hedonic calculus; higher/lower pleasures | Bentham Principles of Morals and Legislation; Mill Utilitarianism; Sidgwick Methods of Ethics |
| Marxism | 1844 – | Marx; Engels; later Plekhanov, Kautsky, Lenin | Historical materialism; alienation; surplus value; class struggle | Marx Capital; Marx-Engels German Ideology, Communist Manifesto |
| Western Marxism | c.1920 – | Lukács; Korsch; Gramsci; later Frankfurt School | Reification; hegemony; cultural critique over economic determinism | Lukács History and Class Consciousness; Gramsci Prison Notebooks |
| Pragmatism (classical) | 1878 – | Peirce; James; Dewey; Mead | Truth as what works; meaning as practical effects; semiotics; instrumentalism | Peirce “Fixation of Belief”; James Pragmatism; Dewey Logic |
| Neo-pragmatism | c.1979 – | Rorty; Brandom; Putnam (later); Price | Anti-representationalism; inferentialism; ironist | Rorty Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature; Brandom Making It Explicit |
| Phenomenology (Brentanian preface) | 1874 – | Brentano; Stumpf; Twardowski | Intentionality of the mental | Brentano Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint |
V. Twentieth Century — Continental
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phenomenology | 1900 – | Husserl; Heidegger; Merleau-Ponty; Levinas; Stein | Phenomenological reduction; intentionality; lifeworld | Husserl Logical Investigations; Heidegger Being and Time; Merleau-Ponty Phenomenology of Perception |
| Existentialism | c.1840 – c.1970 | Kierkegaard (proto); Sartre; Beauvoir; Camus; Jaspers; Marcel | Existence precedes essence; radical freedom; bad faith; absurdity | Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling; Sartre Being and Nothingness; Beauvoir Second Sex; Camus Myth of Sisyphus |
| Hermeneutics | c.1810 – | Schleiermacher; Dilthey; Gadamer; Ricoeur | Hermeneutic circle; fusion of horizons; text as world | Gadamer Truth and Method; Ricoeur Time and Narrative |
| Frankfurt School (1st gen) | 1930 – | Horkheimer; Adorno; Marcuse; Benjamin; Fromm | Critical theory; culture industry; instrumental reason | Horkheimer-Adorno Dialectic of Enlightenment; Marcuse One-Dimensional Man |
| Frankfurt School (2nd gen) | 1960s – | Habermas; Apel | Communicative rationality; ideal speech situation; public sphere | Habermas Theory of Communicative Action |
| Frankfurt School (3rd gen) | 1990s – | Honneth; Forst; Jaeggi | Recognition theory; struggles for normative authority | Honneth Struggle for Recognition |
| Structuralism | 1916 – c.1968 | Saussure (linguistic); Lévi-Strauss (anthropology); Lacan (psychoanalysis); Althusser (Marxism); Barthes (semiology) | Sign systems; binary oppositions; deep structures | Saussure Cours de linguistique générale; Lévi-Strauss Structural Anthropology |
| Post-structuralism / Deconstruction | c.1966 – | Derrida; Foucault; Deleuze; Lyotard; Kristeva | Différance; genealogy; rhizome; incredulity toward metanarratives | Derrida Of Grammatology; Foucault Discipline and Punish; Deleuze-Guattari A Thousand Plateaus |
| Postmodernism | c.1979 – | Lyotard; Baudrillard; Jameson; Vattimo | End of grand narratives; hyperreal; weak thought | Lyotard Postmodern Condition; Jameson Postmodernism |
| Speculative realism | 2007 – | Meillassoux; Harman; Brassier; Grant | After correlationism; object-oriented ontology | Meillassoux After Finitude; Harman Tool-Being |
VI. Twentieth Century — Analytic
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frege-Russell logicism | 1879 – c.1930 | Frege; Russell; Whitehead | Mathematics reducible to logic; predicate calculus | Frege Begriffsschrift, Grundgesetze; Whitehead-Russell Principia Mathematica |
| Logical atomism | c.1918 – c.1925 | Russell; early Wittgenstein | World = facts; facts = atomic configurations; language pictures facts | Russell “Philosophy of Logical Atomism”; Wittgenstein Tractatus |
| Logical positivism / Vienna Circle | 1924 – c.1945 | Schlick; Carnap; Neurath; Hahn; Ayer (England); also Reichenbach in Berlin | Verification principle; unity of science; rejection of metaphysics | Carnap Aufbau; Ayer Language, Truth and Logic |
| Ordinary language philosophy | c.1945 – c.1970 | Later Wittgenstein; Ryle; Austin; Strawson; Grice (partly) | Meaning as use; therapeutic; speech acts; implicature | Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations; Ryle Concept of Mind; Austin How to Do Things with Words |
| Quinean naturalism | c.1951 – | Quine; Davidson | Holism; rejection of analytic-synthetic; naturalized epistemology | Quine “Two Dogmas,” Word and Object |
| Possible-worlds semantics | c.1959 – | Kripke; Lewis; Plantinga; Stalnaker | Modal logic semantics; rigid designators; modal realism | Kripke Naming and Necessity; Lewis On the Plurality of Worlds |
| Analytic ethics | c.1958 – | Anscombe; Foot; Williams; Nagel; Parfit; Scanlon | Revival of virtue ethics; critique of utilitarianism; reasons | Anscombe “Modern Moral Philosophy”; Williams Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy; Parfit Reasons and Persons |
| Analytic political philosophy | 1971 – | Rawls; Nozick; Dworkin; Sen; G. A. Cohen; Anderson | Justice as fairness; entitlement theory; equality of resources; capabilities | Rawls Theory of Justice; Nozick Anarchy, State, and Utopia |
| Experimental philosophy (X-phi) | c.2003 – | Knobe; Nichols; Stich; Weinberg | Empirical surveys of philosophical intuitions | Knobe-Nichols Experimental Philosophy vol. I (2008) |
VII. Non-Western Modern
| School | Dates | Founders + principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyoto School | c.1911 – | Nishida Kitarō; Tanabe Hajime; Nishitani Keiji; Watsuji Tetsurō | Place (basho); absolute nothingness; metanoetics | Nishida An Inquiry into the Good; Nishitani Religion and Nothingness |
| New Confucianism | 1920s – | Xiong Shili; Mou Zongsan; Tang Junyi; Du Weiming | Confucian self-cultivation within modernity; dialogue with Kant | Mou Zongsan Phenomenon and Thing-in-Itself |
| Latin American — Liberation philosophy | c.1971 – | Enrique Dussel; Augusto Salazar Bondy; Leopoldo Zea | Philosophy from the oppressed; coloniality | Dussel Philosophy of Liberation |
| Mariáteguismo | 1928 – | José Carlos Mariátegui | Indigenist Marxism for Peru | Mariátegui Seven Interpretive Essays |
| African — Sage philosophy | c.1973 – | Henry Odera Oruka; Sophie Oluwole | Recover indigenous philosophical sages | Oruka Sage Philosophy |
| African — Ethno-philosophy | 1945 – | Placide Tempels; Alexis Kagame; John Mbiti | Reconstruct African philosophical thought from culture | Tempels Bantu Philosophy |
| Africana philosophy | 1900s – | Du Bois; Fanon; Wiredu; Appiah; Mills | Race, colonialism, double-consciousness; conceptual decolonization | Du Bois Souls of Black Folk; Fanon Black Skin, White Masks |
| Philosophy of race | 1990s – | Mills; Outlaw; Taylor; Alcoff | Race as social construction; political ontology | Mills The Racial Contract; Taylor Race: A Philosophical Introduction |
| Postcolonial philosophy | 1960s – | Fanon; Said; Spivak; Bhabha; Mbembe | Critique of colonial epistemics; subaltern | Said Orientalism; Spivak “Can the Subaltern Speak?” |
VIII. Feminist Philosophy by Wave
| Wave | Dates | Principal figures | Core doctrines | Canonical works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-feminism | 17th–18th c | Astell; Wollstonecraft; Olympe de Gouges | Rational equality of women | Wollstonecraft Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) |
| First-wave | c.1848 – 1920 | Stanton; Mill; Anthony | Suffrage; legal personhood | Mill Subjection of Women (1869) |
| Second-wave | c.1949 – 1980 | Beauvoir; Friedan; Firestone; Millett; Rich; Lorde | Woman as Other; patriarchy; sexual politics | Beauvoir The Second Sex (1949); Firestone Dialectic of Sex |
| Third-wave / intersectional | c.1989 – c.2010 | Crenshaw; hooks; Anzaldúa; Spelman; Collins | Intersectionality; situated knowledges | Crenshaw “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” (1989) |
| Fourth-wave / digital + queer | c.2012 – | Butler (queer); McKinnon (trans); Manne (misogyny) | Performativity; trans inclusion; entitlement | Butler Gender Trouble (1990); Manne Down Girl (2017) |
| Care ethics | 1982 – | Carol Gilligan; Nel Noddings; Joan Tronto; Virginia Held | Ethics of care vs justice; relationality | Gilligan In a Different Voice; Noddings Caring |
Adjacent
- Philosopher catalog for biographies of named members.
- Philosophical positions catalog for the doctrines defended within each school.
- Argument and thought experiment catalog for the canonical moves these schools deploy.
- Epistemology survey · Metaphysics and Ontology · Philosophy of Mind and Language
- Philosophy Tier 3 index · Philosophy Tier 1 root