Most Famous Ancient Greek Philosophers

Ancient Greek philosophy comprises the body of philosophical thought that arose in the Greek-speaking world from the sixth century BC through the early Roman period. It encompasses the Pre-Socratics, the classical Athenian schools of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and the later Hellenistic traditions including Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Skepticism. Its central concerns include metaphysics, ethics, political theory, logic, and natural philosophy. Greek philosophical method, with its emphasis on rational argument and systematic inquiry, shaped the entire subsequent Western philosophical tradition.

Philosophers in this tradition

Epicurus 341 BC – 270 BC · Greek
Epicurus was a Greek Hellenistic philosopher who founded the school known as the Garden in Athens around 307 BC. His ethics taught that pleasure, properly understood as the abse...
Diogenes of Sinope c. 412 BC – 323 BC · Greek
Diogenes of Sinope was an ancient Greek philosopher and one of the founders of the Cynic school. After his exile from Sinope on the Black Sea coast he settled in Athens, where h...
Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC · Greek
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath born in Stagira in 384 BC. A student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, he founded the Peripatetic school at the Lyceum in...
Empedocles c. 490 BC – c. 430 BC · Greek
Empedocles of Acragas was an ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher of the 5th century BC, born in the Greek city of Acragas in Sicily. His doctrine of the four elements, earth,...
Plato 428 BC – 348 BC · Greek
Plato was an Athenian philosopher and the founder of the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. A student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, ...
Antisthenes c. 445 BC – c. 365 BC · Greek
Antisthenes of Athens was an ancient Greek philosopher of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, a student of Socrates and traditionally regarded as the founder of the Cynic school of ph...
Socrates 470 BC – 399 BC · Greek
Socrates was a classical Athenian philosopher credited as a founder of Western philosophy. He wrote nothing himself; his ideas survive through the dialogues of his students, chi...
Philo of Larissa c. 159 BC – c. 84 BC · Greek
Philo of Larissa was the last head of the skeptical Platonic Academy and the teacher of Cicero in Rome. The successor of Clitomachus, he gradually moderated the radical skeptici...
Parmenides c. 515 BC – c. 460 BC · Greek
Parmenides of Elea was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC, the founder of the Eleatic school and one of the most influential thinker...
Pythagoras 570 BC – 495 BC · Greek
Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician born on the island of Samos around 570 BC. He founded a religious and philosophical brotherhood at Croton in southern Italy,...
Solon 630 BC – 560 BC · Greek
Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet, traditionally counted as one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Appointed archon during a period of severe social and economic cr...
Antiphon c. 480 BC – 411 BC · Greek
Antiphon was a Greek sophist of late fifth-century Athens, sometimes identified with Antiphon of Rhamnus, the celebrated orator and statesman of the same period. The two long fr...
Crantor c. 340 BC – c. 275 BC · Greek
Crantor of Soli was a Greek philosopher of the Old Academy and the first systematic commentator on Plato's Timaeus. A pupil of Xenocrates and the close friend and associate of P...
Cratylus c. 460 BC – c. 380 BC · Greek
Cratylus was a Greek philosopher of late fifth and early fourth century BC Athens, an Heraclitean who carried the doctrine of universal flux to its extreme conclusion. According...
Democritus c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC · Greek
Democritus of Abdera was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the fifth and early fourth centuries BC, regarded with his teacher Leucippus as a co-founder of the atomist traditio...
Gorgias 483 BC – 375 BC · Greek
Gorgias of Leontini was a Greek Sophist and rhetorician who lived to a great age, traveling between Sicily and Athens as a celebrated public speaker. His treatise On Non-Being a...
Heraclitus c. 535 BC – c. 475 BC · Greek
Heraclitus of Ephesus was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC, known in antiquity as the Obscure for the difficulty of his sayings. H...
Leucippus c. 480 BC – c. 420 BC · Greek
Leucippus was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and the founder, with his pupil Democritus, of the atomist tradition. Almost nothing survives of his biography or writing...
Anaxagoras c. 500 BC – c. 428 BC · Greek
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was an ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher of the 5th century BC, born in Ionia and active for many years in Athens, where he was a friend and report...
Critias c. 460 BC – 403 BC · Greek
Critias was an Athenian aristocrat, sophist, tragedian, and statesman of the late fifth century BC and the most prominent of the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens after the city's...
Thales of Miletus c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC · Greek
Thales of Miletus was an ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher of the 7th and 6th centuries BC, traditionally regarded as the first philosopher of the Western tradition and a f...
Melissus of Samos c. 470 BC – c. 400 BC · Greek
Melissus of Samos was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and the last great representative of the Eleatic school founded by Parmenides. Active in the mid-fifth century BC, he comm...
Polus c. 440 BC – c. 380 BC · Greek
Polus of Acragas was a Greek sophist and rhetorician of the late fifth century BC, a pupil of the great rhetorician Gorgias and the author of a now-lost handbook of rhetoric. He...
Sextus Empiricus c. 160 – c. 210 · Greek
Sextus Empiricus was a Greek physician and philosopher of the second and early third centuries AD, the principal extant source for ancient Pyrrhonian Skepticism. His major works...
Theophrastus c. 371 BC – c. 287 BC · Greek
Theophrastus of Eresus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the immediate successor of Aristotle as head of the Peripatetic School at the Lyceum in Athens. He directed the schoo...
Xenophanes 570 BC – 475 BC · Greek
Xenophanes of Colophon was a Greek philosopher and poet who traveled widely after leaving Ionia and lived to a great age. He produced the earliest sustained critique of anthropo...
Bion of Borysthenes c. 325 BC – c. 250 BC · Greek
Bion of Borysthenes was a Greek philosopher of the third century BC, the son of a freedman and a courtesan, who reinvented the ancient diatribe as a vehicle of moral instruction...
Philolaus 470 BC – 385 BC · Greek
Philolaus of Croton was a Greek Pythagorean philosopher and the first member of the Pythagorean school whose writings survived into the classical period. His fragments, preserve...
Protagoras 490 BC – 420 BC · Greek
Protagoras of Abdera was a Greek thinker traditionally counted as the first of the Sophists. He traveled widely as a teacher of rhetoric and civic virtue, charging substantial f...
Aristo of Chios c. 320 BC – c. 250 BC · Greek
Aristo of Chios was a Greek Stoic philosopher and pupil of Zeno of Citium who broke with his master on several important doctrines and led an austere variant of early Stoicism. ...
Anaximander 610 BC – 546 BC · Greek
Anaximander was a Greek philosopher of Miletus, a pupil and successor of Thales, born around 610 BC. He is the first known thinker to have written a work of natural philosophy i...
Anaximenes 585 BC – 528 BC · Greek
Anaximenes of Miletus was a Greek philosopher and the third of the Milesian school, after Thales and Anaximander. Born around 585 BC, he held that air is the underlying principl...
Theano c. 546 BC – c. 470 BC · Greek
Theano of Croton was a Greek Pythagorean philosopher of the late sixth and early fifth century BC and one of the earliest women in the Western philosophical tradition. According...
Thrasymachus c. 459 BC – c. 400 BC · Greek
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon was a Greek sophist of late fifth-century BC Athens and one of the most celebrated rhetoricians of his generation. His own writings on rhetoric and pol...
Zeno of Elea 490 BC – 430 BC · Greek
Zeno of Elea was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Parmenides. He defended his teacher's claim that reality is one and unchanging by constructing a series of paradoxes intended...
Pyrrho of Elis c. 360 BC – c. 270 BC · Greek
Pyrrho of Elis was an ancient Greek philosopher of the late fourth and early third centuries BC, the founder of the philosophical school of Skepticism that bears his name as Pyr...
Aesara of Lucania c. 350 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek
Aesara of Lucania was a Pythagorean philosopher of the fourth or third century BC, possibly the daughter of the Pythagorean Aresas, and one of the few female Pythagoreans whose ...
Alcmaeon of Croton c. 540 BC – c. 460 BC · Greek
Alcmaeon of Croton was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and physician, sometimes counted among the early Pythagoreans of southern Italy. He is the earliest known author of a Gre...
Anaxarchus c. 380 BC – c. 320 BC · Greek
Anaxarchus of Abdera was a Greek philosopher of the late fourth century BC, a Democritean who accompanied Alexander the Great on his eastern campaigns and the principal teacher ...
Andronicus of Rhodes c. 100 BC – c. 40 BC · Greek
Andronicus of Rhodes was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher of the first century BC, traditionally counted as the eleventh head of the Aristotelian school in Athens, and the editor...
Antipater of Tarsus c. 200 BC – c. 130 BC · Greek
Antipater of Tarsus was a Greek Stoic philosopher and the head of the Stoic school in the second century BC, succeeding Diogenes of Babylon at Athens around 152 BC. His writings...
Antiphon the Sophist c. 480 BC – c. 410 BC · Greek
Antiphon the Sophist was an Athenian sophist and intellectual of the late fifth century BC, traditionally distinguished by modern scholars from his contemporary, the orator Anti...
Apollodorus the Garden Tyrant c. 150 BC – c. 110 BC · Greek
Apollodorus, called the Garden Tyrant, was a Greek Epicurean philosopher of the second century BC and head of the Garden in Athens, the eighth or ninth scholarch of the school. ...
Archelaus c. 490 BC – c. 405 BC · Greek
Archelaus of Athens was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, pupil of Anaxagoras and, according to a strong ancient tradition, the teacher of Socrates. He combined his master's doc...
Archytas of Tarentum 428 BC – 347 BC · Greek
Archytas of Tarentum was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, statesman, and friend of Plato, the leading figure of the late Pythagorean tradition. He served as elected general o...
Arete of Cyrene c. 370 BC – c. 340 BC · Greek
Arete of Cyrene was a Greek philosopher of the Cyrenaic school and one of the earliest women in the Western philosophical tradition. The daughter of Aristippus the Elder, the fo...
Aristippus 435 BC – 356 BC · Greek
Aristippus of Cyrene was a Greek philosopher and the founder of the Cyrenaic school. A pupil of Socrates who reacted in a very different direction from Plato, he held that the g...
Aristoxenus c. 360 BC – c. 300 BC · Greek
Aristoxenus of Tarentum was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher and music theorist of the fourth century BC, a pupil of Aristotle and a son of the Pythagorean musician Spintharus. H...
Athenodorus Cananites c. 74 BC – c. 7 AD · Greek
Athenodorus Cananites of Tarsus was a Greek Stoic philosopher of the first century BC and the first century AD, a pupil of Posidonius and the principal philosophical tutor of th...
Crates of Athens c. 350 BC – c. 268 BC · Greek
Crates of Athens was a Greek philosopher and the fifth head of the Platonic Academy after Polemo, succeeding around 270 BC. Together with his slightly older friend Polemo, who h...
Crates of Thebes 365 BC – 285 BC · Greek
Crates of Thebes was a Greek Cynic philosopher and the principal student of Diogenes of Sinope. Born wealthy, he gave away his property to his city and adopted the Cynic life of...
Critolaus of Phaselis c. 200 BC – c. 118 BC · Greek
Critolaus of Phaselis was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher and the head of the Aristotelian school in the second century BC, one of the three philosophers, with Diogenes of Babyl...
Demetrius of Phalerum c. 350 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek
Demetrius of Phalerum was a Peripatetic philosopher and Athenian statesman who governed Athens for ten years on behalf of Cassander before fleeing in exile to the court of Ptole...
Diogenes of Apollonia c. 460 BC – c. 390 BC · Greek
Diogenes of Apollonia was a Greek pre-Socratic natural philosopher of the late fifth century BC and the last great representative of the early Ionian tradition of inquiry into t...
Diogenes of Babylon c. 230 BC – c. 150 BC · Greek
Diogenes of Babylon, also called Diogenes the Stoic, was a Greek philosopher, the head of the Stoic school after Chrysippus, and one of the three philosophers, with the Academic...
Eubulides of Miletus c. 400 BC – c. 330 BC · Greek
Eubulides of Miletus was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school and a contemporary and vigorous critic of Aristotle. He was renowned in antiquity for the invention or refine...
Eudemus of Rhodes c. 370 BC – c. 300 BC · Greek
Eudemus of Rhodes was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher of the fourth century BC, a senior pupil of Aristotle who, on Aristotle's death, was passed over in the succession to Theop...
Heraclides Ponticus c. 387 BC – c. 312 BC · Greek
Heraclides Ponticus was a Greek philosopher of the early Academy, born at Heraclea on the Pontus and trained at Athens under Plato. A polymath of extraordinary range, he wrote o...
Hermarchus c. 325 BC – c. 250 BC · Greek
Hermarchus of Mytilene was a Greek philosopher and Epicurus's chosen successor as the second head of the Garden in Athens. The principal philosophical writings attributed to him...
Hippasus of Metapontum c. 530 BC – c. 450 BC · Greek
Hippasus of Metapontum was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and Pythagorean of the early fifth century BC, traditionally credited or, in the less friendly versions of the story,...
Hippias of Elis c. 470 BC – c. 400 BC · Greek
Hippias of Elis was a Greek sophist of the late fifth century BC and one of the most colorful intellectuals of the age of Socrates. He boasted of a complete polymathic competenc...
Hippodamus of Miletus c. 498 BC – c. 408 BC · Greek
Hippodamus of Miletus was a Greek architect, urban planner, mathematician, and political philosopher of the fifth century BC, traditionally credited with the design of the recta...
Lastheneia of Mantinea c. 380 BC – c. 320 BC · Greek
Lastheneia of Mantinea was a Greek Platonist philosopher of the fourth century BC, one of the very few women known to have studied at Plato's Academy in Athens. According to Dio...
Lycophron c. 425 BC – c. 380 BC · Greek
Lycophron was a Greek sophist and rhetorician of the late fifth and early fourth century BC, a pupil of Gorgias and one of the boldest political philosophers of the sophistic tr...
Onesicritus c. 360 BC – c. 290 BC · Greek
Onesicritus of Astypalaea was a Greek Cynic philosopher of the late fourth century BC, a pupil of Diogenes of Sinope, who accompanied Alexander the Great on his Indian campaign ...
Persaeus of Citium c. 307 BC – c. 243 BC · Greek
Persaeus of Citium was a Greek Stoic philosopher and household friend of Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic school, whose name he shared with his teacher's birthplace. Sen...
Pherecydes of Syros c. 580 BC – c. 520 BC · Greek
Pherecydes of Syros was a Greek thinker of the early sixth century BC, traditionally counted as the teacher of Pythagoras and the author of the first Greek prose work on the god...
Phintys of Sparta c. 350 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek
Phintys of Sparta was a Pythagorean philosopher of the fourth or third century BC, the daughter of the Pythagorean Callicrates of Croton and one of the few female Pythagoreans w...
Polemo c. 350 BC – c. 270 BC · Greek
Polemo of Athens was a Greek philosopher and the fourth scholarch of the Platonic Academy, succeeding Xenocrates and presiding over the school for nearly forty years until his d...
Polystratus c. 270 BC – c. 219 BC · Greek
Polystratus was a Greek Epicurean philosopher and the third head of the Garden in Athens, succeeding Hermarchus around the middle of the third century BC. The papyrus rolls pres...
Prodicus of Ceos 465 BC – 395 BC · Greek
Prodicus of Ceos was a Greek sophist and rhetorician of the late fifth century BC, contemporary with Socrates. Coming to Athens as an envoy from his island, he remained as a cel...
Speusippus c. 408 BC – c. 339 BC · Greek
Speusippus was a Greek philosopher of Athens, the nephew of Plato, and his successor as scholarch of the Academy from 347 BC to his death in 339 BC. He broke with Plato on the t...
Sphaerus of Borysthenes c. 285 BC – c. 210 BC · Greek
Sphaerus of Borysthenes was a Greek Stoic philosopher, pupil of Zeno of Citium and of Cleanthes, who later traveled to Sparta as the philosophical adviser to the reforming kings...
Stilpo c. 360 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek
Stilpo of Megara was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school and one of the most admired philosophical teachers of the early Hellenistic age. He was famed for his ethical sel...
Xenocrates c. 396 BC – c. 314 BC · Greek
Xenocrates of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher of the early Academy and the third scholarch after Plato and Speusippus, holding the office for twenty-five years. He systematize...
Aenesidemus c. 100 BC – c. 40 BC · Greek
Aenesidemus of Cnossos was a 1st-century BC Greek philosopher who revived the Pyrrhonian school of Skepticism after a period in which Skepticism had been dominated by the New Ac...
Hipparchia of Maroneia c. 350 BC – c. 280 BC · Greek
Hipparchia of Maroneia was an ancient Greek Cynic philosopher of the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, one of the few women philosophers documented in the historical record f...
Strato of Lampsacus c. 335 BC – c. 269 BC · Greek
Strato of Lampsacus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the third head of the Peripatetic School at the Lyceum in Athens, succeeding Theophrastus in 287 BC. Known in antiquity ...