Famous Irish Philosophers

Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke, was a member of parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Great Britain for several years. He supported  Catholic emancipation and strongly opposed the French Revolution. He felt revolution destroyed the fabric of good society and traditional institutions of state and society. He is considered the philosophical founder of modern conservatism. 

Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish chemist, natural philosopher, inventor, and physicist. Regarded as the first modern chemist, Boyle is often counted among the founders of modern chemistry. One of the pioneers of the scientific method, Robert Boyle is also remembered for his books, including The Sceptical Chymist, which is viewed as a keystone book in chemistry.

George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher who is credited with popularizing a theory called immaterialism, which claims that material substance like tables and chairs can't exist without being perceived by the mind. Berkeley influenced several philosophers like David Hume. Also remembered for his humanitarian work, George Berkeley worked towards creating homes for abandoned children in London.

One of the most popular Irish-born British novelists, Iris Murdoch is remembered for her psychological novels, which had a good dose of sexuality, philosophy, morality, and comic elements. While she won the Booker Prize for The Sea, the Sea, the Oxford alumnus had also worked for the HM Treasury and the UN.

John Scotus Eriugena was an Irish Neoplatonist theologian, philosopher, and poet. He is best remembered for his work De Divisione Naturae, which is widely regarded as one of the most important works of ancient philosophy. John Scotus Eriugena also served as the head of Aachen's Palace School after having succeeded Alcuin of York.

Scotch-Irish philosopher Francis Hutcheson is remembered as a pioneering figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. An Irish Presbyterian preacher, he also taught moral philosophy at Glasgow University. He believed in internal senses, apart from the 5 external senses. His 2-volume System of Moral Philosophy, one of his best-known works, was released posthumously.

Jan Łukasiewicz was a Polish philosopher and logician. He is best remembered for Łukasiewicz logic and Polish notation. His work centred on mathematical logic, philosophical logic, and history of logic. Jan Łukasiewicz is often counted among the most prominent historians of logic.

Irish physicist and Trinity College professor George Francis FitzGerald made pioneering contributions to wireless telegraphy with his discovery of a way of producing radio waves. His Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction was later used by Albert Einstein in his special theory of relativity. He also made unsuccessful attempts to create a flying machine.