Socrates

From Ancient Greek Σωκράτης (Sōkrátēs). Doublet of Sokratis.

A male given name from Ancient Greek of mostly historical use, known after a Greek philosopher.


Democritus

From Ancient Greek Δημόκριτος (Dēmókritos).

A Greek philosopher (c.460-c.370 BC). The originator of the atomic theory together with his teacher Leucippus.


Xenophanes

From Ancient Greek Ξενοφάνης (Xenophánēs). The name means “of foreign appearance” and is composed of ξένος (xénos, “foreign”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “appear”).

Lucretius was the Xenophanes of Roman culture, a great theorist (visionary), an ardent disciple of Universal Nature, an enemy of all superstition, false gods, and false fear of death, […]

1931, Hermann Schneider, Margaret Minna Green, The History of World Civilization, volume 2, page 614

No Xenophanes arose amongst the Jews to rebuke them for ascribing to Jahweh acts which would be accounted a shame and a disgrace amongst men; […]

1970, John Arthur Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man, page 77

Euthyphro is no Xenophanes but as a religious and thinking man he can turn to great teachers; […]

1985, Michael Despland, The Education of Desire, page 33

The pre-Socratic philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon; by extension or reference, any profound or transformative religious thinker.


Diogenes

From Latin Diogenēs, from Ancient Greek Διογένης (Diogénēs).

Diogenes of Sinope, an Ancient Greek philosopher (c.412-c.323 BC), the most famous of Cynic philosophers.


Plato

Via Latin Plato, from Ancient Greek Πλάτων (Plátōn), from πλατύς (platús, “broad, wide”), either because of Plato's robust body, or wide forehead or the breadth of his eloquence.

My name is Plato Jones. Plato Constantine Jones. Plato because my mother is Greek, and Jones because my father is Welsh, and Constantine after his father, my grandfather, who is Constantine Llewellyn Jones.

1993, Nina Bawden, The Real Plato Jones, Houghton Miffin Harcourt, page 1

The Greek philosopher, 427–347 BC, follower of Socrates.


Mill

Ste. Genevieve County
Ste. Genevieve County#English

An unincorporated community in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States.


Pascal

en-proper noun

Pascal (countable and uncountable, plural Pascals)

From Latin Paschālis, from paschālis (“Paschal; of or pertaining to Easter”), from pascha (“Easter”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives), for birth on Easter, or in honor of the 9th-century pope Paschal I (died 824). Doublet of Paschal. The programming language was named after French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal (1623–1662).

(countable) A male given name from Latin used in medieval England; today occasionally borrowed from French.

(countable) A surname transferred from the given name.

The French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal (1623–1662).

programming language
programming language

(computer languages) An imperative procedural programming language intended to encourage good programming practices through the use of structure.


Aristotle

/ˈæɹɪˌstɒtəl/

[ˈæɹɪˌstɒtᵊɫ̩]

/ˈæɹɪˌstɑtəl/

[ˈæɹɪˌstɑɾɫ̩]

/ˈɛɹɪˌstɑtəl/

[ˈɛɹɪˌstɑɾɫ̩]

From Ancient Greek Ἀριστοτέλης (Aristotélēs).

An ancient Greek philosopher, logician, and scientist (382–322 BCE), student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.

أَرِسْطُوطَالِيس

ʔarisṭūṭālīs


Descartes

Descartes (countable and uncountable, plural Descarteses)

René Descartes: A French philosopher and mathematician, who lived from 1596 to 1650.


Locke

Sacramento County
Sacramento County#English

A number of places in the United States:

An unincorporated community and historic district in Sacramento County, California.

A township and unincorporated community therein, in Elkhart County, Indiana.

A town in Cayuga County, New York, named after John Locke.


Pythagoras

/paɪˈθæɡ.əɹ.əs/

Midland American English

/paɪˈθæ.ɡɚ.əs/

From Ancient Greek Πῡθαγόρᾱς (Pūthagórās).

Pitagora

A male given name from Ancient Greek of mostly historical use, and a transliteration from modern Greek.

Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC), an Ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher.

Serge Lang and Gene Murrow (1988) Geometry, →ISBN, page 203: “By Pythagoras, we find the length of the third side, |AB|² = (2a)² – a² = 4a² – a² = 3a²”

Pythagoras' theorem
Pythagoras' theorem#English

(mathematics, colloquial) Ellipsis of Pythagoras' theorem.


Empedocles

From Ancient Greek Ἐμπεδοκλῆς (Empedoklês).

A Greek philosopher who held that all matter was composed of earth, air, fire and water.


Rousseau

Rousseau (countable and uncountable, plural Rousseaus)

From French Rousseau. Originally a French nickname for someone with red hair, from roux (“redhead”). Doublet of Russell. Compare russel.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), Swiss philosopher.


Hume

An unincorporated community in Fresno County, California. Former name: Humes.

A village in Shiloh Township and Young America Township, Edgar County, Illinois.

Whiteside County
Whiteside County#English

A township in Whiteside County, Illinois.

An unincorporated community in Fauquier County, Virginia.


Confucius

Borrowed from Latin Confucius, from Mandarin 孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, “Master Kong”).

The thirty eighth Year of the Cycle Confucius was preferr’d for his great Merit to be Prime Miniſter of the Kingdom of Lû, his native Country. Thro’ his wiſe Counſel the Face of Affairs was ſoon chang'd throughout the Land ; he reform’d the Abuſes that had crept into it, and reſtor’d Honeſty in dealing ; he taught young Men to reſpect the old, and honour their Parents, even after their Deceaſe ; he inſpir’d the fair Sex with Mildneſs and Chaſtity ; and caus’d Sincerity, Uprightneſs, and all other civil Virtues to prevail among the People.

1738, “Annals of the Chinese Monarchs”, in A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, Together with the Kingdoms of Korea, and Tibet, volume I, London, translation of original by J. B. du Halde, →OCLC, page 167

Applicants to higher schools had to pass entrance examinations reminiscent of those administered before 1966. This change, which came under attack in the fall of 1973 during the campaign to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius, pleased middle school teachers in No. 6 Middle School in Tan-tung, Liaoning.

1977, Thomas P. Bernstein, “Mobilizing Urban Youth to Go to the Countryside”, in Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages: The Transfer of Youth from Urban to Rural China, Yale University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 98

An influential Chinese philosopher who lived 551 B.C.E. – 479 B.C.E.; personal name Kong Qiu (孔丘).


Machiavelli

Probably from Italian mal- + chiavello, in which the second component is a diminutive of chiavo (“nail”). The name is attested in a Late Latin document in the form Malclavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman and writer, whose work The Prince (1532) advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods.


Machiavelli

Someone like Niccolò Machiavelli: a Machiavellian person


Thales

A pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor.


Heraclitus

From Latin Hēraclītus, from Ancient Greek Ἡράκλειτος (Hērákleitos).

An Ancient Greek male given name from Ancient Greek, notably borne by Heraclitus of Ephesus, a pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher


Anaximenes

From Ancient Greek Ἀναξιμένης (Anaximénēs).

(c. 585 BCE–c. 525 BCE) An ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus; the pupil of Anaximander. He taught that the basic element of which the world is composed is the air.


Anaximander

From Ancient Greek Ἀναξίμανδρος (Anaxímandros).

uder

Ἀναξίμανδρος

(c. 610 BCE–c. 546 BCE) A pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus; pupil of Thales and teacher of Anaximenes.


Anaxagoras

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἀναξαγόρας (Anaxagóras).

An ancient Greek philosopher (c. 500 BCE – 428 BCE) from Clazomenae, who is famous for introducing the cosmological concept of nous (mind), as an ordering force.


Laozi

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanisation of the standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 老子 (“the Old One, the Venerable One”).

der

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

(inexact, with 'the') Synonym of Tao Te Ching.


Marx

Karl Marx (1818–1883), a German political philosopher, economist, and sociologist.


Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian-born twentieth-century philosopher noted for the idea of "family resemblance" as that which individual objects of a sense of a term have in common.


Leucippus

(philosophy) an Ancient Greek philosopher from Miletus, the founder of atomism and the first thinker in western history to consider determinism as a possibility, disciple of Zeno of Elea


Lucretius

From Latin Lucretius, name of a patrician and plebeian Roman gens, possibly from lucrum (“profit”).

Titus Lucretius Carus, a Roman poet and philosopher.


Epictetus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἐπίκτητος (Epíktētos).


Leibniz

A surname from German — famously held by:

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), German mathematician, philosopher, and polymath


Hegel

A surname from German, notably borne by the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.


Plotinus

From Latin Plōtīnus, from a Late Latin variant of Plautus + -īnus (diminutive suffix).

Roman philosopher 205–270; father of Neoplatonism


Frege

Gottlob Frege, a German mathematician and philosopher.


Plethon

Borrowed from Byzantine Greek Πλήθων (Plḗthōn), adopted by Plethon as a nickname or cognomen from Attic Greek πλῆθος (plêthos, “multitude, great number”) as a classicizing substitute for his surname Γεμιστός (Gemistós), from γεμιστός (gemistós, “filled, stuffed”). The particular form may have been chosen to mirror Πλάτων (Plátōn, “Plato”).

der

Georgios Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355–1453), a Byzantine Greek philosopher.