Western philosophy covers a wide range of philosophers and ideas from Socrates to Nietzsche. It is divided into four eras: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern. Thales of Ionia is considered the originator of Western philosophy, while Socrates is the most influential classical philosopher. Christianity dominated philosophical thought until the Reformation, which led to debates about free will and the development of political philosophy, humanism, and science. During the Enlightenment, Western philosophy separated from religion and mythology, leading to diverse philosophers such as Rousseau and Descartes. Philosophy now encompasses all areas of life from psychology to linguistics via modern technology.
Western philosophy covers all philosophical thought of Western civilization. This covers a huge range of philosophers and ideas ranging from Socrates to Nietzsche. The western region once covered classical Roman and Greek culture, then all of Europe, and now includes parts of the new world such as North America and Australia. Western philosophy is divided into four major eras: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern.
Greek philosophers believed that Western philosophy originated with Thales of Ionia. Ionia is a region of present-day Turkey in Anatolia, but was once a Greek city-state on the Aegean. Thales was the first to separate philosophical thought from mythology and religion. This made him the most influential pre-Socratic philosopher.
The most influential classical philosopher of all in Western philosophy is Socrates. He is best remembered for developing Socratic irony and the Socratic method of learning/arguing. Socrates is also known to believe that a wise man is someone who knows he knows nothing.
His student, Plato, recorded their discussions and later established ideas such as political philosophy in his “Republic” and the Platonic idea of love. He also believed that knowledge and faith were separate from justification; this is to say that knowledge had proof, while faith only possessed faith. Plato established the first Western school of philosophy which was finally closed down in AD 529 by Justinian I because it was deemed a threat to Christianity.
As Christianity developed and took over the institutions of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, it also came to dominate philosophical thought. Most philosophical efforts aimed at proving the existence of God. Christian philosophy built on ideas from the Jewish and Islamic tradition, but found itself at loggerheads with classical Greek philosophy. Thomas Aquinas later reconciled the two.
Christianity’s dominance of Western philosophy ended with the Reformation in the late 15th century. Led by religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, it led to debates about free will and the nature of faith and God. Breaking the mold, it also allowed for the development of political philosophy under Niccolo Machiavelli, humanism under Erasmus, and science under philosophers such as Copernicus and Galileo Galilei.
During the Enlightenment, science came to the fore and, as with Thales 2,000 years earlier, Western philosophy separated from religion and mythology. This led to philosophers as diverse as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who had ideas about pedagogy, and Rene Descartes. Soren Kierkegaard helped bring philosophy away from abstract notions and back towards issues that affected the ordinary person. Under these philosophers and others like Sigmund Freud and Noam Chomsky, philosophy has moved into all areas of life from psychology to linguistics via modern technology.
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