🔗 Who taught whom: the chains of philosophy
Philosophy is a relay, not a list of lone geniuses. Each tree below starts from a source with no recorded teacher and passes downward through direct teaching or inheritance; one indent means one generation, and the small print explains how the baton changed hands.
- 💧Thalesc. 624 BC–546 BC
- 🌀Anaximanderc. 610 BC–546 BC
Anaximander was his student and carried on the Milesian tradition of seeking the first principle of all things
- 🌀Anaximanderc. 610 BC–546 BC
- ☸️The Buddhac. 563 BC–483 BC
- 🪷Nagarjunac. 150–250
Nagarjuna is seen as the most important philosophical developer of his thought of dependent origination in the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism
- 🍃Huineng
- 🪷Nagarjunac. 150–250
- 📖Confucius551 BC–479 BC
- 🌱Menciusc. 372 BC–289 BC
Mencius is seen as one of the most important inheritors and developers of Confucius’s teaching
- 📜Xunzic. 313 BC–238 BC
- ⚖️Han Feizic. 280 BC–233 BC
Han Feizi was Xunzi’s disciple, developing his thought of "ritual and law together" further into pure Legalist theory
- ⚖️Han Feizic. 280 BC–233 BC
- 🀄Zhu Xi1130–1200
- ☯️Dong Zhongshu
- 🌱Menciusc. 372 BC–289 BC
- 🏛️Zenoc. 334 BC–262 BC
- 📜Senecac. 4 BC–65
- ⛓️Epictetusc. 55–135
Epictetus is one of the most important developers of the Stoic school’s practical ethics thereafter
- 👑Marcus Aurelius121–180
His Discourses is one of the most important intellectual sources of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
- 👑Marcus Aurelius121–180
- 🔗Chrysippus
- 📘Ibn Rushd1126–1198
- 📚Thomas Aquinasc. 1225–1274
Aquinas drew heavily on and responded to his commentaries on Aristotle
- 📚Thomas Aquinasc. 1225–1274
- ⏰Kant1724–1804
- 🌀Hegel1770–1831
Hegel’s dialectical system is an inheritance and fundamental reworking of Kant’s critical philosophy
- 📕Marx1818–1883
Marx critically reworked Hegel’s dialectic, stripping off its idealist shell
- ❤️Feuerbach
- 📕Marx1818–1883
- 🌑Schopenhauer1788–1860
- ⚡Nietzsche1844–1900
Nietzsche was deeply influenced by his pessimist philosophy in his early years and later fundamentally critiqued and reversed it
- 🌲Heidegger1889–1976
- 🚬Sartre1905–1980
Sartre’s existentialist philosophy drew heavily on and responded to Heidegger’s existential analysis
- 🕊️Hannah Arendt1906–1975
In her youth she was his student and lover, and their intellectual dialogue ran through many postwar years
- 🧩Derrida1930–2004
His method of deconstruction was deeply inspired by Heidegger’s critical reflection on the Western metaphysical tradition
- 🚬Sartre1905–1980
- 👁️Foucault1926–1984
His method of the genealogy of power was deeply inspired by Nietzsche’s "genealogical" method of research
- 🌲Heidegger1889–1976
- ⚡Nietzsche1844–1900
- 🌅Fichte
- 🌀Hegel1770–1831
- ☯️Laozi
- 🦋Zhuangzic. 369 BC–286 BC
Zhuangzi is seen as the most important inheritor and developer of Daoist thought
- 📜Wang Bi
- 🦋Zhuangzic. 369 BC–286 BC
- 🕊️Diotima
- ❓Socratesc. 470 BC–399 BC
By Socrates’s own account, it was she who taught him the core teaching of the philosophy of Eros
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- 📚Aristotle384 BC–322 BC
- ✨Plotinusc. 204–270
- 📕Augustine354–430
Augustine’s theological thought was deeply inspired by the Neoplatonic concept of "the One"
- 📕Augustine354–430
- ⛓️Boethiusc. 477–524
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- ❓Socratesc. 470 BC–399 BC
- 🔥Heraclitus
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- 📚Aristotle384 BC–322 BC
- ✨Plotinusc. 204–270
- 📕Augustine354–430
Augustine’s theological thought was deeply inspired by the Neoplatonic concept of "the One"
- 📕Augustine354–430
- ⛓️Boethiusc. 477–524
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- ⭕Parmenides
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- 📚Aristotle384 BC–322 BC
- ✨Plotinusc. 204–270
- 📕Augustine354–430
Augustine’s theological thought was deeply inspired by the Neoplatonic concept of "the One"
- 📕Augustine354–430
- ⛓️Boethiusc. 477–524
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- 🌀Anaxagoras
- ❓Socratesc. 470 BC–399 BC
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- 📚Aristotle384 BC–322 BC
- ✨Plotinusc. 204–270
- 📕Augustine354–430
Augustine’s theological thought was deeply inspired by the Neoplatonic concept of "the One"
- 📕Augustine354–430
- ⛓️Boethiusc. 477–524
- 💡Platoc. 427 BC–347 BC
- ❓Socratesc. 470 BC–399 BC
- ➗Frege
- 📐Russell1872–1970
- 🗣️Wittgenstein1889–1951
Wittgenstein studied under Russell at Cambridge in his early years and later parted ways with him in philosophical stance
- 🕸️Quine
- 🗣️Wittgenstein1889–1951
- 📐Russell1872–1970
- 🧠Husserl
- 🌲Heidegger1889–1976
- 🚬Sartre1905–1980
Sartre’s existentialist philosophy drew heavily on and responded to Heidegger’s existential analysis
- 🕊️Hannah Arendt1906–1975
In her youth she was his student and lover, and their intellectual dialogue ran through many postwar years
- 🧩Derrida1930–2004
His method of deconstruction was deeply inspired by Heidegger’s critical reflection on the Western metaphysical tradition
- 🚬Sartre1905–1980
- 🌲Heidegger1889–1976