Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679), was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established social contract theory, the foundation of most later Western political philosophy.[1]
John Locke, commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism”, was an English philosopher and physician. Following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.
Adam Smith, pioneer of political economy, laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he developed the concept of division of labour, and expounded upon how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity.
Considered the central figure of modern philosophy, Kant argued that fundamental concepts of the human mind structure human experience, that reason is the source of morality, that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment, that space and time are forms of our sensibility, and that the world as it is “in-itself” is unknowable.
Plato was the innovator of the dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, and appears to have been the founder of Western political philosophy, with his “Republic”. Plato has also often been cited as a foundational figure for Western science, philosophy, mathematics, and Western religion.
A German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history.