Historical Map of Philosophies
Published at Apr 3, 2025 | Back to blog page
This was made in conjunction with Sonnet-3.7. You will have to zoom in to read the graph (mouse pinch not ctrl +). I might make a separate site just for graphing and mapping. Would really like to make an engine for it with 3js as I would love to weight these ideas based off of references.
Philosophy Timeline Color Key
- ■ Ancient Philosophy
Greek, Roman, early Chinese, Indian and other traditions (c. 600 BCE - 500 CE) - ■ Medieval Philosophy
Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and other scholastic traditions (c. 500 - 1400 CE) - ■ Renaissance Philosophy
Humanism, early modern thought, reformation (c. 1400 - 1600 CE) - ■ Early Modern Philosophy
Rationalism, empiricism, enlightenment (c. 1600 - 1800 CE) - ■ Modern Philosophy
Idealism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, early analytic (c. 1800 - 1900 CE) - ■ Contemporary Philosophy
Analytic, continental, postmodern traditions (c. 1900 CE - present) - ■ Non-Western Traditions
Distinctive Asian, African, Indigenous philosophical systems (across all periods)
Note: Philosophers categorized by their primary period of influence, though many worked across traditional boundaries.
flowchart TD %% Styling classDef ancient fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-weight:bold,rounded:true classDef medieval fill:#eeac99,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-style:italic,rounded:true classDef renaissance fill:#e06377,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-weight:bold,rounded:true classDef earlymodern fill:#c83349,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-weight:bold,rounded:true classDef modern fill:#5b9aa0,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-style:italic,rounded:true classDef contemporary fill:#d6e1c7,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-weight:bold,rounded:true classDef nonwestern fill:#ffd1dc,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,color:#000,font-weight:bold,rounded:true %% Main title title[Map of Global Philosophical Traditions and Influences] %% Subgraph: Ancient Western Philosophy subgraph Ancient_Western["Ancient Western Philosophy"] A["Thales (c.624-546 BCE) Water as first principle"] --> B["Anaximander (c.610-546 BCE) Apeiron, cosmic justice"] B --> C["Heraclitus (c.535-475 BCE) Flux, logos, fire"] B --> D["Parmenides (c.515-450 BCE) Being, immutability"] D --> E["Zeno of Elea (c.490-430 BCE) Paradoxes of motion"] C --> F["Democritus (c.460-370 BCE) Atomism, materialism"] D --> G["Protagoras (c.490-420 BCE) Relativism, man is measure"] G --> H["Socrates (469-399 BCE) Elenchus, virtue is knowledge"] F --> H H --> W["Plato (427-347 BCE) Forms, immortal soul, dialectic"] W --> X["Aristotle (384-322 BCE) Hylomorphism, categories, virtue ethics"] X --> Y["Epicurus (341-270 BCE) Atomic materialism, pleasure"] X --> Z["Zeno of Citium (334-262 BCE) Stoicism, logos, apatheia"] W --> AA["Pyrrho (c.360-270 BCE) Radical skepticism, epoche"] AA --> AB["Sextus Empiricus (c.160-210 CE) Methodical skepticism"] Z --> AC["Chrysippus (c.279-206 BCE) Stoic logic, compatibilism"] W --> AD["Diogenes (c.412-323 BCE) Cynicism, asceticism"] Z --> AE["Cicero (106-43 BCE) Eclectic Stoicism, natural law"] Z --> AF["Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE) Stoic ethics, consolation"] Z --> AG["Epictetus (c.50-135 CE) Dichotomy of control"] AG --> AH["Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) Stoic self-examination"] W --> AI["Plotinus (204-270 CE) Neoplatonism, the One"] AI --> AJ["Proclus (412-485 CE) Systematic Neoplatonism"] end %% Subgraph: Ancient Eastern Philosophy subgraph Ancient_Eastern["Ancient Eastern Philosophy"] I["Confucius (551-479 BCE) Ren, li, junzi"] --> J["Mozi (c.470-391 BCE) Universal love, utilitarianism"] I --> K["Mencius (372-289 BCE) Innate goodness, righteous rule"] I --> L["Xunzi (c.310-235 BCE) Human nature as evil, ritual"] M["Laozi (6th c. BCE) Wu-wei, naturalness, Dao"] --> N["Zhuangzi (369-286 BCE) Spontaneity, relativism"] K --> O["Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE) Cosmological Confucianism"] L --> P["Han Feizi (c.280-233 BCE) Legalism, power politics"] Q["Upanishads (c.800-200 BCE) Brahman, Atman, karma"] --> R["Buddha (c.563-483 BCE) Four Noble Truths, Middle Way"] Q --> S["Jaimini (c.200 BCE) Mimamsa, ritual dharma"] R --> T["Nagarjuna (c.150-250 CE) Madhyamaka, emptiness"] R --> U["Vasubandhu (4th-5th c. CE) Yogacara, mind-only"] Q --> V["Badarayana (c.200 BCE) Vedanta, Brahma Sutras"] end %% Subgraph: Medieval Western Philosophy subgraph Medieval_Western["Medieval Western Philosophy"] AI --> AP["Augustine (354-430) Original sin, divine illumination"] X --> AQ["Boethius (480-524) Consolation, universals"] AQ --> AR["John Scotus Eriugena (815-877) Christian Neoplatonism"] AP --> AS["Anselm (1033-1109) Ontological argument"] AS --> AT["Peter Abelard (1079-1142) Conceptualism, intention"] AT --> AU["Aquinas (1225-1274) Five Ways, natural law"] AU --> AV["Duns Scotus (1266-1308) Univocity, haecceity"] AU --> AW["William of Ockham (1287-1347) Nominalism, parsimony"] X --> AK["Al-Kindi (801-873) Islamic Aristotelianism"] AK --> AL["Al-Farabi (872-950) Political philosophy, emanation"] AL --> AM["Avicenna (980-1037) Essence-existence"] AM --> AN["Averroes (1126-1198) Intellect, naturalism"] AM --> AO["Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) Critique of philosophy"] AN --> AU AM --> AU end %% Subgraph: Medieval Eastern Philosophy subgraph Medieval_Eastern["Medieval Eastern Philosophy"] T --> AX["Dignaga (480-540) Buddhist epistemology"] AX --> AY["Dharmakirti (7th c.) Perception theory, apoha"] V --> AZ["Sankara (788-820) Advaita Vedanta, non-dualism"] V --> BA["Ramanuja (1017-1137) Qualified non-dualism"] AZ --> BB["Madhva (1238-1317) Dualistic Vedanta"] O --> BC["Wang Bi (226-249) Xuanxue, non-being"] BC --> BD["Ge Hong (283-343) Alchemy, immortality"] N --> BE["Sengzhao (384-414) Chinese Madhyamaka"] BE --> BF["Zhiyi (538-597) Tiantai, threefold truth"] BE --> BG["Fazang (643-712) Huayan, interpenetration"] O --> BH["Zhu Xi (1130-1200) Neo-Confucian metaphysics"] end %% Subgraph: Renaissance & Early Modern Philosophy subgraph Renaissance["Renaissance & Early Modern Philosophy"] AW --> BI["Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) Dignity of man"] AU --> BJ["Erasmus (1466-1536) Christian humanism"] BJ --> BK["More (1478-1535) Utopia, social criticism"] BJ --> BL["Luther (1483-1546) Sola fide, priesthood"] BL --> BM["Calvin (1509-1564) Predestination"] AT --> BN["Montaigne (1533-1592) Skepticism, self-examination"] AW --> BO["Machiavelli (1469-1527) Political realism, virtu"] BK --> BP["Hobbes (1588-1679) Social contract, absolutism"] BP --> BQ["Locke (1632-1704) Limited government"] BQ --> BR["Rousseau (1712-1778) General will, innocence"] BQ --> BS["Montesquieu (1689-1755) Separation of powers"] AW --> BT["Copernicus (1473-1543) Heliocentrism"] BT --> BU["Kepler (1571-1630) Planetary laws"] BT --> BV["Galileo (1564-1642) Empirical method"] BV --> BW["Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Induction, progress"] BU --> BX["Newton (1643-1727) Universal gravitation"] BP --> BY["Descartes (1596-1650) Cogito, dualism"] BY --> BZ["Malebranche (1638-1715) Occasionalism"] BY --> CA["Spinoza (1632-1677) Substance monism"] BY --> CB["Leibniz (1646-1716) Monads, harmony"] BQ --> CC["Berkeley (1685-1753) Subjective idealism"] CC --> CD["Hume (1711-1776) Skepticism, impressions"] CD --> CE["Reid (1710-1796) Common sense realism"] end %% Subgraph: Modern Philosophy subgraph Modern["Modern Philosophy"] BW --> CF["Voltaire (1694-1778) Religious tolerance"] CD --> CG["Smith (1723-1790) Free markets, invisible hand"] BR --> CH["Kant (1724-1804) Transcendental idealism"] CH --> CI["Fichte (1762-1814) Self-positing I, striving"] CI --> CJ["Schelling (1775-1854) Identity philosophy"] CJ --> CK["Hegel (1770-1831) Dialectic, Absolute Spirit"] CK --> CL["Schopenhauer (1788-1860) Will, pessimism"] CK --> CM["Marx (1818-1883) Dialectical materialism"] CK --> CN["Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Existential choice"] CL --> CO["Nietzsche (1844-1900) Will to power"] CP["Darwin (1809-1882) Natural selection"] --> CQ["Spencer (1820-1903) Social Darwinism"] CG --> CU["Bentham (1748-1832) Hedonistic utilitarianism"] CU --> CV["Mill (1806-1873) Qualitative utilitarianism"] CV --> CW["Sidgwick (1838-1900) Methods of ethics"] CH --> CX["Peirce (1839-1914) Pragmatic maxim"] CX --> CY["James (1842-1910) Radical empiricism"] CY --> CZ["Dewey (1859-1952) Instrumentalism"] CD --> DA["Frege (1848-1925) Predicate logic"] DA --> DB["Russell (1872-1970) Logical atomism"] end %% Subgraph: Contemporary Western Philosophy subgraph Contemporary_Western["Contemporary Western Philosophy"] DB --> DC["Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Language games"] DC --> DD["Logical Positivism (1920s-1930s) Verification"] DD --> DE["Quine (1908-2000) Holism, naturalized"] DC --> DF["Ordinary Language Philosophy (1940s) Use theory"] DF --> DG["Austin (1911-1960) Speech acts"] DF --> DH["Ryle (1900-1976) Category mistakes"] DE --> DI["Davidson (1917-2003) Radical interpretation"] DE --> DJ["Kripke (b. 1940) Rigid designation"] CH --> DK["Husserl (1859-1938) Phenomenology"] DK --> DL["Heidegger (1889-1976) Dasein, being-in-world"] DL --> DM["Sartre (1905-1980) Being and nothingness"] DM --> DN["Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) Embodied perception"] DM --> DO["Beauvoir (1908-1986) Ethics of ambiguity"] DL --> DP["Gadamer (1900-2002) Hermeneutics"] DL --> DQ["Levinas (1906-1995) Ethics of Other"] CM --> DR["Adorno (1903-1969) Negative dialectic"] DR --> DS["Habermas (b. 1929) Communicative rationality"] DL --> DT["Foucault (1926-1984) Power/knowledge"] DL --> DU["Derrida (1930-2004) Deconstruction"] DT --> DV["Butler (b. 1956) Gender performativity"] DT --> DW["Agamben (b. 1942) Bare life"] end %% Subgraph: Critical Theory & Postmodernism subgraph Critical_Theory["Critical Theory & Postmodernism"] CM --> GC["Horkheimer (1895-1973) Critical theory"] GC --> DR CM --> GD["Benjamin (1892-1940) Aura, mechanical reproduction"] GD --> DR CM --> GE["Gramsci (1891-1937) Cultural hegemony"] CM --> GF["Lukács (1885-1971) Reification"] GF --> DR GE --> DS DR --> GG["Fromm (1900-1980) Social character"] DR --> GH["Marcuse (1898-1979) One-dimensional man"] DS --> GI["Honneth (b. 1949) Recognition theory"] DT --> EE["Deleuze (1925-1995) Difference, rhizome"] DS --> EF["Fraser (b. 1947) Justice, recognition"] DU --> EG["Spivak (b. 1942) Subaltern voices"] EE --> GJ["Guattari (1930-1992) Schizoanalysis"] CM --> GK["Althusser (1918-1990) Structural Marxism"] GK --> DT DT --> GL["Said (1935-2003) Orientalism"] GL --> EG DT --> GM["Baudrillard (1929-2007) Simulation"] DU --> GN["Kristeva (b. 1941) Abjection"] GE --> GO["Stuart Hall (1932-2014) Cultural studies"] DV --> GP["Preciado (b. 1970) Technosexuality"] end %% Subgraph: Contemporary Political Philosophy subgraph Contemporary_Political["Contemporary Political & Ethics"] CV --> EM["Rawls (1921-2002) Justice as fairness"] EM --> EN["Nozick (1938-2002) Minimal state"] EM --> EO["Sen (b. 1933) Capabilities approach"] EO --> EP["Nussbaum (b. 1947) Human flourishing"] EM --> EQ["Sandel (b. 1953) Communitarian critique"] CW --> EV["Moore (1873-1958) Non-naturalism"] EV --> EW["Ross (1877-1971) Prima facie duties"] EW --> EX["Stevenson (1908-1979) Emotivism"] EX --> EY["Hare (1919-2002) Prescriptivism"] EW --> EZ["Foot (1920-2010) Natural goodness"] EZ --> FA["Williams (1929-2003) Moral luck"] EZ --> FB["MacIntyre (b. 1929) Virtue tradition"] EQ --> FC["Singer (b. 1946) Animal liberation"] EN --> FD["Parfit (1942-2017) Personal identity"] EE --> GB["Negri (b. 1933) Multitude, empire"] GB --> GQ["Hardt (b. 1960) Commonwealth"] DW --> GR["Mbembe (b. 1957) Necropolitics"] GL --> GR DT --> GS["Rancière (b. 1940) Disagreement"] GS --> GT["Mouffe (b. 1943) Agonistic pluralism"] GT --> GU["Laclau (1935-2014) Populist reason"] CN --> GA["Buber (1878-1965) I-Thou relation"] DL --> GA end %% Subgraph: Contemporary Eastern & Global Philosophy subgraph Contemporary_Eastern["Contemporary Eastern & Global Philosophy"] AZ --> CS["Vivekananda (1863-1902) Neo-Vedanta"] CS --> DX["Aurobindo (1872-1950) Integral yoga"] DX --> DY["Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) Comparative religion"] BH --> DZ["Mao Zedong (1893-1976) Sinification of Marxism"] BH --> CR["Wang Yangming (1472-1529) Unity of knowledge"] BA --> CT["Ramanuja (1017-1137) Qualified non-dualism"] EA["Japanese Philosophy (20th c.) Kyoto School"] --> EB["Nishida (1870-1945) Logic of place"] EB --> EC["Tanabe (1885-1962) Metanoetics"] EB --> ED["Nishitani (1900-1990) Emptiness"] ER["Senghor (1906-2001) Negritude"] --> ES["Wiredu (1931-2022) Conceptual decolonization"] ES --> ET["Gyekye (1939-2019) Communitarianism"] ET --> EU["Appiah (b. 1954) Cosmopolitanism"] DH --> EI["Chalmers (b. 1966) Hard problem"] DJ --> EJ["Putnam (1926-2016) Multiple realizability"] EJ --> EK["Dennett (b. 1942) Consciousness explained"] DI --> EL["Searle (1932-2022) Chinese room"] end %% Cross-subgraph connections %% Ancient cross-connections N --> C I --> H T --> AB Q --> AI %% Medieval cross-connections T --> BE AM --> AP AZ --> AR %% Renaissance cross-connections BH --> BY %% Modern cross-connections CN --> CO CN --> DL CN --> DM CN --> DO CN --> DQ CN --> DK %% Spinoza connections CA --> CK CA --> CO CA --> CM CA --> EE CA --> DR CA --> GB %% Contemporary cross-connections EB --> DL ED --> DL DY --> DS T --> EE ER --> GO ER --> GL ES --> EO EU --> EF %% Additional cross-subgraph connections M --> CA R --> CN CL --> DL CO --> DR DM --> DT DK --> DC BX --> CH DN --> DV DP --> GO FC --> GP GE --> GU GH --> GQ Y --> CP CV --> GI %% Recent cross-cultural philosophy connections ED --> DU EU --> EP DY --> EL GR --> DW T --> DV class A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,W,X,Y,Z,AA,AB,AC,AD,AE,AF,AG,AH,AI,AJ ancient class AK,AL,AM,AN,AO,AP,AQ,AR,AS,AT,AU,AV,AW medieval class AX,AY,AZ,BA,BB,BC,BD,BE,BF,BG,BH medieval class BI,BJ,BK,BL,BM,BN,BO,BP,BQ,BR,BS,BT,BU,BV,BW,BX,BY,BZ,CA,CB,CC,CD renaissance class CE,CF,CG,CH,CI,CJ,CK,CL,CM,CN,CO,CP,CQ,CR,CS,CT,CU,CV,CW,CX,CY,CZ,DA,DB modern class DC,DD,DE,DF,DG,DH,DI,DJ,DK,DL,DM,DN,DO,DP,DQ,DR,DS,DT,DU,DV,DW contemporary class DX,DY,DZ,EA,EB,EC,ED,ER,ES,ET,EU contemporary class EE,EF,EG,EI,EJ,EK,EL,EM,EN,EO,EP,EQ,EV,EW,EX,EY,EZ,FA,FB,FC,FD,GA,GB,GC,GD,GE,GF,GG,GH,GI,GJ,GK,GL,GM,GN,GO,GP,GQ,GR,GS,GT,GU contemporary class I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V nonwestern