Historical philosophers featured here...

Part of the file

This section contains original texts by, and modern commentary on, great historical philosophers from Plato to Bishop Berkeley.

Plato lived in ancient Athens in the fifth century B.C., and is most famous for writing the dialogues through which Socrates' ideas - as well as his own - come down to us. It is famously unclear whether these present an accurate picture of Socratic thought, or whether the character of Socrates is a mouthpiece for Plato.

Berkeley was an Irish philosopher best known for developing an early form of idealism, according to which the only things which exist are minds and the ideas which they perceive.