The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Two and a half thousand years of argument.

Scroll down through time to see who was thinking what, and when, across the world's philosophical traditions. Select anyone to read about their ideas.

Western

Arabic and Islamic

Indian

Chinese

  1. Thales c. 624 – c. 546 BCE
  2. Socrates c. 470 – 399 BCE
  3. Plato c. 429 – 347 BCE
  4. Aristotle 384–322 BCE
  5. Thomas Aquinas c. 1225 – 1274
  6. René Descartes 1596–1650
  7. Baruch Spinoza 1632–1677
  8. David Hume 1711–1776
  9. Immanuel Kant 1724–1804
  1. al-Farabi c. 870 – c. 950 CE
  2. Avicenna c. 970 – 1037 CE
  3. Averroes 1126–1198
  1. Nagarjuna fl. 150–250 CE
  1. Confucius c. 551 – c. 479 BCE
  2. Mencius c. 372 – c. 289 BCE
  3. Zhu Xi 1130–1200
From 1400, time is drawn 3× larger
  1. 7th century BCE
  2. Thales c. 624 – c. 546 BCE Western
  3. 6th century BCE

  4. Western · c. 600 BCE – 529 CE

    Ancient Greek and Roman

    From the first Greek natural philosophers to the closure of the Athenian schools, the era that laid the foundations of Western logic, ethics and metaphysics.

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  5. Chinese · c. 600 – 221 BCE

    Classical Chinese

    The 'Hundred Schools of Thought' of the late Zhou dynasty, ending with the unification of China under the Qin in 221 BCE.

    Read about this period →
  6. Confucius c. 551 – c. 479 BCE Chinese
  7. 5th century BCE
  8. Socrates c. 470 – 399 BCE Western
  9. Plato c. 429 – 347 BCE Western
  10. 4th century BCE
  11. Aristotle 384–322 BCE Western
  12. Mencius c. 372 – c. 289 BCE Chinese
  13. 2nd century CE
  14. Nagarjuna fl. 150–250 CE Indian
  15. 6th century CE

  16. Western · 529 – c. 1400 CE

    Medieval

    Philosophy in Latin Christendom, shaped by the recovery of Aristotle and the rise of the universities, and culminating in the scholastic syntheses of the thirteenth century.

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  17. 8th century CE

  18. Arabic and Islamic · c. 800 – c. 1200 CE

    Classical Islamic

    The era of the great falsafa philosophers, who built on Greek philosophy translated into Arabic, from al-Kindi to Averroes.

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  19. 9th century CE
  20. al-Farabi c. 870 – c. 950 CE Arabic and Islamic
  21. 10th century CE
  22. Avicenna c. 970 – 1037 CE Arabic and Islamic
  23. 12th century
  24. Averroes 1126–1198 Arabic and Islamic
  25. Zhu Xi 1130–1200 Chinese
  26. 13th century
  27. Thomas Aquinas c. 1225 – 1274 Western
  28. 16th century
  29. René Descartes 1596–1650 Western

  30. Western · c. 1600 – c. 1800

    Early modern

    The age of the new science, rationalism and empiricism, from Descartes to Kant.

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  31. 17th century
  32. Baruch Spinoza 1632–1677 Western
  33. 18th century
  34. David Hume 1711–1776 Western
  35. Immanuel Kant 1724–1804 Western