| argumentative | | |
| adj. | 1. argumentative | given to or characterized by argument.; "an argumentative discourse"; "argumentative to the point of being cantankerous"; "an intelligent but argumentative child" |
| ~ quarrelsome | given to quarreling.; "arguing children"; "quarrelsome when drinking" |
| ~ combative, contentious, disputatious, disputative, litigious | inclined or showing an inclination to dispute or disagree, even to engage in law suits.; "a style described as abrasive and contentious"; "a disputatious lawyer"; "a litigious and acrimonious spirit" |
| ~ eristic, eristical | given to disputation for its own sake and often employing specious arguments. |
| philosopher | | |
| n. (person) | 1. philosopher | a specialist in philosophy. |
| ~ philosophy | the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics. |
| ~ nativist | a philosopher who subscribes to nativism. |
| ~ cynic | a member of a group of ancient Greek philosophers who advocated the doctrine that virtue is the only good and that the essence of virtue is self-control. |
| ~ eclectic, eclecticist | someone who selects according to the eclectic method. |
| ~ empiricist | a philosopher who subscribes to empiricism. |
| ~ epistemologist | a specialist in epistemology. |
| ~ aesthetician, esthetician | a philosopher who specializes in the nature of beauty. |
| ~ ethician, ethicist | a philosopher who specializes in ethics. |
| ~ existential philosopher, existentialist, existentialist philosopher | a philosopher who emphasizes freedom of choice and personal responsibility but who regards human existence in a hostile universe as unexplainable. |
| ~ gymnosophist | member of a Hindu sect practicing gymnosophy (especially nudism). |
| ~ libertarian | someone who believes the doctrine of free will. |
| ~ mechanist | a philosopher who subscribes to the doctrine of mechanism. |
| ~ moralist | a philosopher who specializes in morals and moral problems. |
| ~ naturalist | an advocate of the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms. |
| ~ necessitarian | someone who does not believe the doctrine of free will. |
| ~ nominalist | a philosopher who has adopted the doctrine of nominalism. |
| ~ pluralist | a philosopher who believes that no single explanation can account for all the phenomena of nature. |
| ~ pre-socratic | any philosopher who lived before Socrates. |
| ~ realist | a philosopher who believes that universals are real and exist independently of anyone thinking of them. |
| ~ bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student | a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. |
| ~ scholastic | a Scholastic philosopher or theologian. |
| ~ sophist | any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects. |
| ~ stoic | a member of the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno.; "a Stoic achieves happiness by submission to destiny" |
| ~ transcendentalist | advocate of transcendentalism. |
| ~ yogi | one who practices yoga and has achieved a high level of spiritual insight. |
| ~ abelard, peter abelard, pierre abelard | French philosopher and theologian; lover of Heloise (1079-1142). |
| ~ anaxagoras | a presocratic Athenian philosopher who maintained that everything is composed of very small particles that were arranged by some eternal intelligence (500-428 BC). |
| ~ anaximander | a presocratic Greek philosopher and student of Thales who believed the universal substance to be infinity rather than something resembling ordinary objects (611-547 BC). |
| ~ anaximenes | a presocratic Greek philosopher and associate of Anaximander who believed that all things are made of air in different degrees of density (6th century BC). |
| ~ arendt, hannah arendt | United States historian and political philosopher (born in Germany) (1906-1975). |
| ~ aristotle | one of the greatest of the ancient Athenian philosophers; pupil of Plato; teacher of Alexander the Great (384-322 BC). |
| ~ abul-walid mohammed ibn-ahmad ibn-mohammed ibn-roshd, averroes, ibn-roshd | Arabian philosopher born in Spain; wrote detailed commentaries on Aristotle that were admired by the Schoolmen (1126-1198). |
| ~ abu ali al-husain ibn abdallah ibn sina, avicenna, ibn-sina | Arabian physician and influential Islamic philosopher; his interpretation of Aristotle influenced St. Thomas Aquinas; writings on medicine were important for almost 500 years (980-1037). |
| ~ 1st baron verulam, baron verulam, francis bacon, sir francis bacon, viscount st. albans, bacon | English statesman and philosopher; precursor of British empiricism; advocated inductive reasoning (1561-1626). |
| ~ bentham, jeremy bentham | English philosopher and jurist; founder of utilitarianism (1748-1831). |
| ~ bergson, henri bergson, henri louis bergson | French philosopher who proposed elan vital as the cause of evolution and development (1859-1941). |
| ~ berkeley, bishop berkeley, george berkeley | Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop who opposed the materialism of Thomas Hobbes (1685-1753). |
| ~ anicius manlius severinus boethius, boethius | a Roman who was an early Christian philosopher and statesman who was executed for treason; Boethius had a decisive influence on medieval logic (circa 480-524). |
| ~ giordano bruno, bruno | Italian philosopher who used Copernican principles to develop a pantheistic monistic philosophy; condemned for heresy by the Inquisition and burned at the stake (1548-1600). |
| ~ buber, martin buber | Israeli religious philosopher (born in Austria); as a Zionist he promoted understanding between Jews and Arabs; his writings affected Christian thinkers as well as Jews (1878-1965). |
| ~ cassirer, ernst cassirer | German philosopher concerned with concept formation in the human mind and with symbolic forms in human culture generally (1874-1945). |
| ~ cleanthes | ancient Greek philosopher who succeeded Zeno of Citium as the leader of the Stoic school (300-232 BC). |
| ~ auguste comte, comte, isidore auguste marie francois comte | French philosopher remembered as the founder of positivism; he also established sociology as a systematic field of study. |
| ~ condorcet, marie jean antoine nicolas caritat, marquis de condorcet | French mathematician and philosopher (1743-1794). |
| ~ confucius, k'ung futzu, kong the master, kongfuze | Chinese philosopher whose ideas and sayings were collected after his death and became the basis of a philosophical doctrine known a Confucianism (circa 551-478 BC). |
| ~ democritus | Greek philosopher who developed an atomistic theory of matter (460-370 BC). |
| ~ derrida, jacques derrida | French philosopher and critic (born in Algeria); exponent of deconstructionism (1930-2004). |
| ~ descartes, rene descartes | French philosopher and mathematician; developed dualistic theory of mind and matter; introduced the use of coordinates to locate a point in two or three dimensions (1596-1650). |
| ~ john dewey, dewey | United States pragmatic philosopher who advocated progressive education (1859-1952). |
| ~ denis diderot, diderot | French philosopher who was a leading figure of the Enlightenment in France; principal editor of an encyclopedia that disseminated the scientific and philosophical knowledge of the time (1713-1784). |
| ~ diogenes | an ancient Greek philosopher and Cynic who rejected social conventions (circa 400-325 BC). |
| ~ empedocles | Greek philosopher who taught that all matter is composed of particles of fire and water and air and earth (fifth century BC). |
| ~ epictetus | Greek philosopher who was a Stoic (circa 50-130). |
| ~ epicurus | Greek philosopher who believed that the world is a random combination of atoms and that pleasure is the highest good (341-270 BC). |
| ~ ernst heinrich haeckel, haeckel | German biologist and philosopher; advocated Darwinism and formulated the theory of recapitulation; was an exponent of materialistic monism (1834-1919). |
| ~ david hartley, hartley | English philosopher who introduced the theory of the association of ideas (1705-1757). |
| ~ georg wilhelm friedrich hegel, hegel | German philosopher whose three stage process of dialectical reasoning was adopted by Karl Marx (1770-1831). |
| ~ heraclitus | a presocratic Greek philosopher who said that fire is the origin of all things and that permanence is an illusion as all things are in perpetual flux (circa 500 BC). |
| ~ herbart, johann friedrich herbart | German philosopher (1776-1841). |
| ~ herder, johann gottfried von herder | German philosopher who advocated intuition over reason (1744-1803). |
| ~ hobbes, thomas hobbes | English materialist and political philosopher who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of human beings (1588-1679). |
| ~ david hume, hume | Scottish philosopher whose sceptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses (1711-1776). |
| ~ edmund husserl, husserl | German philosopher who developed phenomenology (1859-1938). |
| ~ hypatia | Greek philosopher and astronomer; she invented the astrolabe (370-415). |
| ~ william james, james | United States pragmatic philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910). |
| ~ immanuel kant, kant | influential German idealist philosopher (1724-1804). |
| ~ kierkegaard, soren aabye kierkegaard, soren kierkegaard | Danish philosopher who is generally considered. along with Nietzsche, to be a founder of existentialism (1813-1855). |
| ~ lao-tse, lao-tzu, lao-zi | Chinese philosopher regarded as the founder of Taoism (6th century BC). |
| ~ gottfried wilhelm leibnitz, gottfried wilhelm leibniz, leibnitz, leibniz | German philosopher and mathematician who thought of the universe as consisting of independent monads and who devised a system of the calculus independent of Newton (1646-1716). |
| ~ john locke, locke | English empiricist philosopher who believed that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience (1632-1704). |
| ~ lucretius, titus lucretius carus | Roman philosopher and poet; in a long didactic poem he tried to provide a scientific explanation of the universe (96-55 BC). |
| ~ lully, ramon lully, raymond lully | Spanish philosopher (1235-1315). |
| ~ ernst mach, mach | Austrian physicist and philosopher who introduced the Mach number and who founded logical positivism (1838-1916). |
| ~ machiavelli, niccolo machiavelli | a statesman of Florence who advocated a strong central government (1469-1527). |
| ~ maimonides, moses maimonides, rabbi moses ben maimon | Spanish philosopher considered the greatest Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages who codified Jewish law in the Talmud (1135-1204). |
| ~ malebranche, nicolas de malebranche | French philosopher (1638-1715). |
| ~ herbert marcuse, marcuse | United States political philosopher (born in Germany) concerned about the dehumanizing effects of capitalism and modern technology (1898-1979). |
| ~ karl marx, marx | founder of modern communism; wrote the Communist Manifesto with Engels in 1848; wrote Das Kapital in 1867 (1818-1883). |
| ~ george herbert mead, mead | United States philosopher of pragmatism (1863-1931). |
| ~ john mill, john stuart mill, mill | English philosopher and economist remembered for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism (1806-1873). |
| ~ james mill, mill | Scottish philosopher who expounded Bentham's utilitarianism; father of John Stuart Mill (1773-1836). |
| ~ baron de la brede et de montesquieu, charles louis de secondat, montesquieu | French political philosopher who advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers (1689-1755). |
| ~ g. e. moore, george edward moore, moore | English philosopher (1873-1958). |
| ~ friedrich wilhelm nietzsche, nietzsche | influential German philosopher remembered for his concept of the superman and for his rejection of Christian values; considered, along with Kierkegaard, to be a founder of existentialism (1844-1900). |
| ~ occam, ockham, william of occam, william of ockham | English scholastic philosopher and assumed author of Occam's Razor (1285-1349). |
| ~ origen | Greek philosopher and theologian who reinterpreted Christian doctrine through the philosophy of Neoplatonism; his work was later condemned as unorthodox (185-254). |
| ~ jose ortega y gasset, ortega y gasset | Spanish philosopher who advocated leadership by an intellectual elite (1883-1955). |
| ~ parmenides | a presocratic Greek philosopher born in Italy; held the metaphysical view that being is the basic substance and ultimate reality of which all things are composed; said that motion and change are sensory illusions (5th century BC). |
| ~ blaise pascal, pascal | French mathematician and philosopher and Jansenist; invented an adding machine; contributed (with Fermat) to the theory of probability (1623-1662). |
| ~ charles peirce, charles sanders peirce, peirce | United States philosopher and logician; pioneer of pragmatism (1839-1914). |
| ~ perry, ralph barton perry | United States philosopher (1876-1957). |
| ~ plato | ancient Athenian philosopher; pupil of Socrates; teacher of Aristotle (428-347 BC). |
| ~ plotinus | Roman philosopher (born in Egypt) who was the leading representative of Neoplatonism (205-270). |
| ~ karl popper, popper, sir karl raimund popper | British philosopher (born in Austria) who argued that scientific theories can never be proved to be true, but are tested by attempts to falsify them (1902-1994). |
| ~ pythagoras | Greek philosopher and mathematician who proved the Pythagorean theorem; considered to be the first true mathematician (circa 580-500 BC). |
| ~ quine, w. v. quine, willard van orman quine | United States philosopher and logician who championed an empirical view of knowledge that depended on language (1908-2001). |
| ~ radhakrishnan, sarvepalli radhakrishnan, sir sarvepalli radhakrishnan | Indian philosopher and statesman who introduced Indian philosophy to the West (1888-1975). |
| ~ reid, thomas reid | Scottish philosopher of common sense who opposed the ideas of David Hume (1710-1796). |
| ~ jean-jacques rousseau, rousseau | French philosopher and writer born in Switzerland; believed that the natural goodness of man was warped by society; ideas influenced the French Revolution (1712-1778). |
| ~ bertrand arthur william russell, bertrand russell, earl russell, russell | English philosopher and mathematician who collaborated with Whitehead (1872-1970). |
| ~ arthur schopenhauer, schopenhauer | German pessimist philosopher (1788-1860). |
| ~ albert schweitzer, schweitzer | French philosopher and physician and organist who spent most of his life as a medical missionary in Gabon (1875-1965). |
| ~ lucius annaeus seneca, seneca | Roman statesman and philosopher who was an advisor to Nero; his nine extant tragedies are modeled on Greek tragedies (circa 4 BC - 65 AD). |
| ~ socrates | ancient Athenian philosopher; teacher of Plato and Xenophon (470-399 BC). |
| ~ herbert spencer, spencer | English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903). |
| ~ oswald spengler, spengler | German philosopher who argued that cultures grow and decay in cycles (1880-1936). |
| ~ baruch de spinoza, benedict de spinoza, de spinoza, spinoza | Dutch philosopher who espoused a pantheistic system (1632-1677). |
| ~ rudolf steiner, steiner | Austrian philosopher who founded anthroposophy (1861-1925). |
| ~ dugald stewart, stewart | Scottish philosopher and follower of Thomas Reid (1753-1828). |
| ~ rabindranath tagore, sir rabindranath tagore, tagore | Indian writer and philosopher whose poetry (based on traditional Hindu themes) pioneered the use of colloquial Bengali (1861-1941). |
| ~ pierre teilhard de chardin, teilhard de chardin | French paleontologist and philosopher (1881-1955). |
| ~ thales, thales of miletus | a presocratic Greek philosopher and astronomer (who predicted an eclipse in 585 BC) who was said by Aristotle to be the founder of physical science; he held that all things originated in water (624-546 BC). |
| ~ theophrastus | Greek philosopher who was a student of Aristotle and who succeeded Aristotle as the leader of the Peripatetics (371-287 BC). |
| ~ simone weil, weil | French philosopher (1909-1943). |
| ~ alfred north whitehead, whitehead | English philosopher and mathematician who collaborated with Bertrand Russell (1861-1947). |
| ~ bernard arthur owen williams, sir bernard williams, williams | English philosopher credited with reviving the field of moral philosophy (1929-2003). |
| ~ ludwig josef johan wittgenstein, ludwig wittgenstein, wittgenstein | British philosopher born in Austria; a major influence on logic and logical positivism (1889-1951). |
| ~ xenophanes | Greek philosopher (560-478 BC). |
| ~ zeno of citium, zeno | ancient Greek philosopher who founded the Stoic school (circa 335-263 BC). |
| ~ zeno, zeno of elea | ancient Greek philosopher who formulated paradoxes that defended the belief that motion and change are illusory (circa 495-430 BC). |
| n. (person) | 2. philosopher | a wise person who is calm and rational; someone who lives a life of reason with equanimity. |
| ~ individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul | a human being.; "there was too much for one person to do" |
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