The list traces the trajectory of the Western history of ideas. It begins with the architects of order (Plato to Aquinas), who believed truth was an objective, divine structure to be discovered. It moves through the Enlightenment period with thinkers like Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard, who turned the focus inward to the human mind and history. It engages with the hermeneutics of suspicion  (Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger), thinkers who dismantled the monolith of rationality, arguing that our high ideals are often masks for power, desire, or anxiety. I am also interested in the intersection between philosophy and the political. (Plato, Arendt, Schmitt, Levinas, Adorno, Althusser.)  These philosophers ask in one way or another how the individual relates to society, the state, and the law. 

The Timeline (in reverse chronological order)

Robert Spaemann (1927–2018) A defender of teleology in a scientific age, Spaemann argued that "persons" are not defined by their utility but by their inherent nature. He warned that denying the dignity and natural ends of human life dissolves the ethical subject entirely.

Louis Althusser (1918–1990) A structural Marxist who removed the humanism from Marx, focusing instead on the machinery of the state. He argued that we are not free subjects but are "interpellated" (constructed) by Ideological State Apparatuses like schools and the family.

Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) Levinas redefined peace not as a political treaty, but as a primary ethical responsibility. Peace is the interruption of the ego by the "Face of the Other," demanding a justice that precedes all conflict.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) A theorist of the public realm, Arendt diagnosed totalitarianism as a force that destroys human "plurality." She championed the vita activa (active life), warning that freedom dies when political action is replaced by bureaucratic administration.

Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) A sharp critic of the "Culture Industry," Adorno argued that Enlightenment rationality had turned on itself, thereby becoming a tool for domination. He believed mass culture pacifies the mind, replacing genuine experience with commodified conformity.

Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) The great interpreter of Hegel in France, Kojève viewed history as the struggle for recognition. He famously proclaimed the "End of History," where the liberal state satisfies the human need for recognition, leaving us as post-historical individuals.

Jacques Lacan (1901–1981) Lacan fused Freud with linguistics, asserting the linguistic and topological structure of the unconscious. He decentralized the ego, mapping the psyche through the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real to show that desire is an endless shifting, circling around a lack in being.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) He revolutionized the intersection of logic and language. He shifted philosophy from solving metaphysical problems to clarifying grammar, arguing that meaning is found not in abstract definitions but in the social "use" of words within "language games."

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) Seeking to recover the forgotten meaning of Being (Sein), Heidegger analyzed human existence as Dasein—a being shaped by time and the awareness of death. He viewed Western metaphysics as a long error that obscured the true nature of existence.

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) A controversial jurist who defined the political as the distinction between "friend and enemy." For Schmitt, sovereignty is the power to decide the "exception"—the moment when law is suspended to preserve the state. It is a conservative view of power that leaves humans at the center of politics. 

Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945) A Neo-Kantian who saw humans not just as rational, but as "symbolic animals." He argued we construct our reality through the symbolic forms of myth, language, and art, rather than just raw empiricism.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) The father of psychoanalysis who exposed the deeper forces driving the self. Regarding religion, he was a reductionist, viewing it as a collective neurosis and a "wish-fulfillment" born of the infant’s helplessness and need for a father figure. Later, he focused more on the similarity between religion and psychosis. He was also pessimistic about civilization, seeing it as a thin veneer of protection against the destructive forces in the human psyche. 

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) The prophet of nihilism who announced the "Death of God." He argued that Christian morality was a "slave revolt" against vitality and called for the Übermensch to create new, life-affirming values in the void of meaning. He often gets misunderstood because readers take him too literal and mis his profound irony. He is also a sharp observer of human nature.

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) The father of existentialism who rejected Hegel’s grand system in favor of the "single individual." He argued that true faith is not a rational conclusion but a terrifying "leap" into the absurd.

G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831) The titan of Idealism who claimed reality is the rational unfolding of Spirit (Geist) through history. Using the dialectical movement of  thesis-antithesis-synthesis, he argued that history is the progressive consciousness of freedom.

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) He is the philosopher most identified with the epistemic shift that defines enlightenment, a watershed in the history of philosophy.  He argued we cannot know things-in-themselves, only the world as our mind structures it. This "Copernican Revolution" limited pure reason to make room for moral faith, grounded in "categorical imperatives." 

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) The great synthesizer of Faith and Reason. He integrated Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology, establishing Natural Law as the bridge between human rationality and the divine order.

Cicero (106–43 BC) The Roman bridge between Greek philosophy and the Latin West. He championed "Natural Law"—a universal moral order binding on all nations, accessible to right reason regardless of political borders.

Aristotle (384–322 BC) The empiricist who grounded philosophy in the observation of nature and purpose (telos). He argued that human flourishing (eudaimonia) is achieved not through abstract contemplation alone, but through the practical cultivation of virtue. Philosophy starts with a "desire to know." 

Plato (428–348 BC) In many ways, Plato creates the foundation of Western thought. He posited that the material world is merely a shadow of a higher reality—the eternal "Forms." For Plato, the philosopher’s task is to ascend from the cave of opinion to the light of Truth. Philosophy searches for truth, and thereby also finds the Good.