swap_horiz Marcus Aurelius Alternatives

1

Laozi

Laozi, also known as Lao Tzu, was an ancient Chinese philosopher and attributed author of the Daodejing. This seminal te...

Ancient Chinese Metaphysics Daoism

9.8 Brilliant

2

Nagarjuna

Nagarjuna was a pivotal figure in early Buddhist philosophy. He developed the Madhyamaka school, exploring the concept o...

Indian Ancient Buddhist Emptiness

9.7 Brilliant

3

Plotinus

Plotinus was a 3rd-century CE philosopher in Roman Egypt and Italy, founder of Neoplatonism and author of treatises coll...

Ancient Roman Metaphysics Neoplatonism

9.4 Excellent

4

Heraclitus

Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher from Ephesus, active around 500 BCE, notable for doctrines of constant change and the...

Change Ancient Greek Presocratic

9.3 Excellent

5

Parmenides

Parmenides was a Greek philosopher from Elea whose poem On Nature argued that true being is ungenerated, unchanging, and...

Ancient Greek Presocratic Being

9.3 Excellent

6

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher whose 1859 On Liberty defended individual freedom and whose utilitarianism s...

Ethics British Liberty Utilitarianism

9.3 Excellent

7

Epicurus

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who founded the Garden in Athens in 306 BCE and made pleasure, friendship, and freedom...

Ethics Ancient Greek Epicureanism

9.2 Excellent

8

Chrysippus

Chrysippus was a 3rd-century BCE Stoic philosopher whose logic and ethics systematized Stoicism and shaped its later Rom...

Logic Ancient Greek Stoicism

9.1 Excellent

9

Mencius

Mencius was a Chinese Confucian philosopher of the 4th century BCE who argued that human nature is good and shaped later...

Ethics Ancient Chinese Confucianism

9.1 Excellent

10

Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and theologian whose 1843 Either/Or explored choice, anxiety, faith, and the...

Danish Ethics Existentialism Religion

9.1 Excellent

11

Epictetus

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher, formerly enslaved, whose Discourses and Enchiridion teach control over judgment...

Ethics Ancient Roman Stoicism

8.9 Great

12

Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Cypriot philosopher who founded Stoicism in Athens around 300 BCE, teaching virtue in accord with n...

Ethics Ancient Greek Stoicism

8.8 Great

13

Lucretius

Lucretius was a Roman poet and Epicurean thinker whose 1st-century BCE poem On the Nature of Things explains atomism in...

Ancient Poetry Roman Epicureanism

8.6 Great

14

Diogenes of Sinope

Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek Cynic philosopher of the 4th century BCE, famous for radical simplicity and criticism of...

Ethics Ancient Greek Cynicism

8.5 Great

15

Seneca

Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist who advised Nero and wrote major moral essays and letters...

Ethics Ancient Roman Stoicism

8.5 Great

16

Mozi

Mozi was a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century BCE whose Mohist school argued for impartial care, frugality, and meri...

Ethics Ancient Chinese Mohism

8.4 Great

17

Pyrrho

Pyrrho was a Greek philosopher from Elis whose suspension of judgment became the model for Pyrrhonian skepticism in late...

Ethics Ancient Greek Skepticism

8.1 Great

18

Porphyry

Porphyry was a 3rd-century CE Neoplatonist from Tyre who edited Plotinus's Enneads and wrote the influential logical int...

Logic Ancient Roman Neoplatonism

7.7 Good

19

Antisthenes

Antisthenes was a Greek philosopher and pupil of Socrates, often seen as a forerunner of Cynicism through his praise of...

Ethics Ancient Greek Cynicism

7.2 Good

20

Cleanthes

Cleanthes was the second head of the Stoic school in Athens and author of the Hymn to Zeus, preserving early Stoic theol...

Ethics Ancient Greek Stoicism

7.0 Good