Famous Philosophers Of The 20th Century

List of famous philosophers of the 20th century along with their biographies that include trivia, interesting facts, timeline and life history.

What is an emotion? Is love just a feeling? Are our emotions irrational? What is life? Is it better to have choices? Does God actually exist? If yes, then why is there so much evil? Are you propounded by such philosophical questions in your mind? If yes, then your mind and heart surely takes a philosophical route whenever free. Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. First termed by Pythagoras, philosophy encompasses a huge body of knowledge. From the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century ‘natural philosophy’, there has been a phenomenal growth in the subject. In the 20th century, philosophy increasingly became professionalized as the period witnessed the development of a number of new philosophical schools including logical positivism, analytic philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, and post-structuralism. Interestingly, the philosophy of the 20th century is known as contemporary philosophy. The era saw some of greatest minds at work in the field of philosophy starting from Bertrand Russell, Gilbert Ryle, Alfred Tarski, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Leo Strauss, Ernst Cassirer, José Juan González, John Dewey and so on. With this segment, explore some of the famous philosophers of the 20th century.

Noam Chomsky

07 December 1928

East Oak Lane

American

Sagittarius

Pope John Paul II

18 May 1920

02 April 2005

Wadowice

Polish

Taurus

Alan Watts

06 January 1915

16 November 1973

Chislehurst, Kent, England

British,American

Capricorn

Albert Camus

07 November 1913

04 January 1960

Dréan

Algerian,French

Scorpio

Michel Foucault

15 October 1926

25 June 1984

Poitiers

French

Libra

Jean-Paul Sartre

21 June 1905

15 April 1980

Paris

French

Gemini

Deng Xiaoping

22 August 1904

19 February 1997

Guang'an, Sichuan

Chinese

Leo

Umberto Eco

05 January 1932

19 February 2016

Alessandria, Italy

Italian

Capricorn

Simone de Beauvoir

09 January 1908

14 April 1986

Paris

French

Capricorn

John Dewey

20 October 1859

01 June 1952

Burlington, Vermont, United States

American

Libra

Amartya Sen

03 November 1933

Santiniketan

Indian

Scorpio

Jacques Derrida

15 July 1930

09 October 2004

El Biar, French Algeria

Algerian,French

Cancer

Terence McKenna

16 November 1946

03 April 2000

Paonia, Colorado, United States

American

Scorpio

Hannah Arendt

14 October 1906

04 December 1975

Hanover, Germany

German

Libra

Karl Popper

28 July 1902

17 September 1994

Vienna

British

Leo

Kurt Gödel

28 April 1906

14 January 1978

Brno

American

Taurus

Albert Schweitzer

14 January 1875

04 September 1965

Kaysersberg

French

Capricorn

Peter Singer

06 July 1946

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Australian

Cancer

Christina Hoff Sommers

28 September 1950

Petaluma, California, U.S.

American

Libra

Daniel Dennett

28 March 1942

Boston, Massachusetts

American

Aries

John Rawls

21 February 1921

24 November 2002

Baltimore

American

Pisces

Roland Barthes

12 November 1915

25 March 1980

Cherbourg-Octeville

French

Scorpio

Paulo Freire

19 September 1921

02 May 1997

Recife, Brazil

Brazilian

Virgo

Peter Kropotkin

09 December 1842

08 February 1921

Moscow, Russian Empire

Russian

Sagittarius

Alain de Botton

20 December 1969

Zürich, Switzerland

Swiss,British

Sagittarius

George Santayana

16 December 1863

26 September 1952

Madrid

Spanish,Italian

Sagittarius

Murray Rothbard

02 March 1926

07 January 1995

Bronx, New York, United States

American

Pisces

Ken Wilber

31 January 1949

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

American

Aquarius

Robert M. Pirsig

06 September 1928

24 April 2017

Minneapolis, U.S.

American

Virgo

Francis Schaeffer

30 January 1912

15 May 1984

Philadelphia

American

Aquarius

Allan Bloom

14 September 1930

07 October 1992

Indianapolis

American

Virgo

Abraham Joshua Heschel

11 January 1907

23 December 1972

Warsaw

Polish

Capricorn

Imre Lakatos

09 November 1922

02 February 1974

Debrecen

Hungarian

Scorpio

Dallas Willard

04 September 1935

08 May 2013

Buffalo, Missouri, U.S.

American

Virgo

Abdolkarim Soroush

16 December 1945

Tehran

Iranian

Sagittarius

Bob Black

04 January 1951

Detroit, Michigan

American

Capricorn

Rajneesh

11 December 1931

19 January 1990

Bhopal State

Indian

Sagittarius

Sam Harris

09 April 1967

Los Angeles

American

Aries

Steven Pinker

18 September 1954

Montreal

Canadian,American

Virgo

John Major

29 March 1943

Carshalton

British

Aries

Roger Penrose

08 August 1931

Colchester

British

Leo

James Randi

07 August 1928

Toronto

American

Leo

Stefan Molyneux

24 September 1966

Athlone

Canadian

Libra

Judith Butler

24 February 1956

Cleveland

American

Pisces

Marshall McLuhan

21 July 1911

31 December 1980

Edmonton

Canadian

Cancer

Antonio Gramsci

22 January 1891

27 April 1937

Ales

Italian

Aquarius

Cornel West

02 June 1953

Tulsa

American

Gemini

Pier Paolo Pasolini

05 March 1922

02 November 1975

Bologna

Italian

Pisces

Pierre Bourdieu

01 August 1930

23 January 2002

Denguin

French

Leo

Tariq Ramadan

26 August 1962

Geneva

Swiss

Virgo

Jürgen Habermas

18 June 1929

Düsseldorf

German

Gemini

Gilles Deleuze

18 January 1925

04 November 1995

Paris

French

Capricorn

Theodor W. Adorno

11 September 1903

06 August 1969

Frankfurt

German,American

Virgo

Vandana Shiva

05 November 1952

Dehradun

Indian

Scorpio

Erich Fromm

23 March 1900

18 March 1980

Frankfurt

German

Aries

Jean Baudrillard

27 July 1929

06 March 2007

Reims, France

French

Leo

R. C. Sproul

13 February 1939

Pittsburgh

American

Aquarius

William Lane Craig

23 August 1949

Peoria

American

Leo

Iris Murdoch

15 July 1919

08 February 1999

Dublin

Irish

Cancer

Louis Althusser

16 October 1918

22 October 1990

Birmendreïs

French

Libra

Martha Nussbaum

06 May 1947

New York City

American

Taurus

Julia Kristeva

24 June 1941

Sliven

Bulgarian,French

Cancer

Isaiah Berlin

06 June 1909

05 November 1997

Riga

British

Gemini

Douglas Hofstadter

15 February 1945

New York City

American

Aquarius

Roger Scruton

17 February 1944

Buslingthorpe, Lincolnshire

British

Aquarius

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

24 February 1942

Kolkata

Indian

Pisces

Robert Nozick

16 November 1938

23 January 2002

Brooklyn

American

Scorpio

Michael J. Sandel

05 March 1953

Minneapolis

American

Pisces

René Girard

25 December 1923

04 November 2015

Avignon

French

Capricorn

Murray Bookchin

14 January 1921

30 July 2006

New York City

American

Capricorn

Ahmed Deedat

01 July 1918

08 August 2005

Surat

Indian

Cancer

Robert Anton Wilson

18 January 1932

11 January 2007

Brooklyn

American

Capricorn

John Searle

31 July 1932

Denver

American

Leo

Nick Bostrom

10 March 1973

Helsingborg

Swedish

Pisces

Richard Rorty

04 October 1931

08 June 2007

New York City

American

Libra

Mohammad Khatami

29 September 1943

Ardakan

Iranian

Libra

Emil Cioran

08 April 1911

20 June 1995

Rășinari

French,Romanian

Aries

Guy Debord

28 December 1931

30 November 1994

Paris

French

Capricorn

Thomas Nagel

04 July 1937

Belgrade

American

Cancer

Giorgio Agamben

22 April 1942

Rome

Italian

Taurus

Alain Badiou

17 January 1937

Rabat

French

Capricorn

Famous People By Profession

Buzzing Talents

Famous People

DID WE MISS SOMEONE?

CLICK HERE AND TELL US

WE'LL MAKE SURE
THEY'RE HERE A.S.A.P