Little Thinkerphilosophy for children

The shelf

Thirty-three people who would not stop asking

From Athens to Kalady to Kyoto. Each one gets a page — their question, their story, a thing to try, and one line worth remembering.

No portrait from Laozi's lifetime is knownLaozi571 BCE – 471 BCEChinaIs it better to push, or to let things happen?Traditional portrait of ConfuciusConfucius551 BCE – 479 BCELu, ChinaHow should we live well together?Mozi470 BCE – 391 BCEChinaShould you care about everyone equally?Marble bust of Socrates in the LouvreSocrates469 BCE – 399 BCEAthens, GreeceWhat does it mean to live a good life?Marble bust of PlatoPlato427 BCE – 347 BCEAthens, GreeceIs what we see all that is real?Diogenes in an ancient Roman mosaicDiogenes413 BCE – 323 BCESinope & Athens, GreeceHow little do you need to be happy?Marble bust of AristotleAristotle384 BCE – 322 BCEStagira & Athens, GreeceHow do we find out how things really work?Kautilya375 BCE – 283 BCEMagadha, IndiaWhat does it take to hold a country together?No portrait from Mencius's lifetime is knownMencius372 BCE – 289 BCEZou, ChinaAre people born good?No portrait from Zhuangzi's lifetime is knownZhuangzi369 BCE – 286 BCESong, ChinaIs a dream less real than a day?No portrait from Thiruvalluvar's lifetime is knownThiruvalluvar300 BCE – 300Tamil country, South IndiaWhat is the shortest way to say how to live?Marble bust of Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius121 – 180RomeWhat is actually up to you?Nagarjuna as depicted in a Tibetan paintingNagarjuna150 – 250South IndiaIf everything depends on something else, what holds it all up?Hypatia of Alexandria in a 19th-century paintingHypatia350 – 415Alexandria, EgyptCan numbers explain the sky?Adi Shankara788 – 820Kalady, IndiaIf you strip away everything you call yourself, what is left?Medieval portrait of Ibn Sina (Avicenna)Ibn Sina (Avicenna)980 – 1037Bukhara & Isfahan, PersiaAre you your mind, or your body, or both?Al-Ghazali1058 – 1111Tus, Persia & BaghdadWhat do you do when you stop being sure?Ibn Tufayl1105 – 1185Andalusia & MarrakeshHow much could you work out with no one to teach you?Ibn Rushd1126 – 1198Córdoba, AndalusiaCan thinking and believing disagree?A traditional depiction of Zhu XiZhu Xi1130 – 1200Fujian, ChinaHow do you find out how things work?Dogen1200 – 1253Kyoto & Fukui, JapanIs now just the way you get to later?Ibn Khaldun1332 – 1406Tunis & CairoWhy do strong groups fall apart?A traditional depiction of Wang YangmingWang Yangming1472 – 1529Zhejiang, ChinaIf you know what is right, why don't you do it?Portrait of René Descartes after Frans HalsRené Descartes1596 – 1650France & SwedenHow do you know you are really thinking right now?Zera Yacob1599 – 1692Aksum & Enfraz, EthiopiaCan you work out what is right without being told?Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la CruzSor Juana Inés de la Cruz1648 – 1695New Spain (Mexico)Why were girls not allowed to learn?Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft by John OpieMary Wollstonecraft1759 – 1797London, EnglandShould everyone get the same chance to learn?Portrait of John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill1806 – 1873London, EnglandHow much freedom should you have?W. E. B. Du Bois, photographed in his lifetimeW. E. B. Du Bois1868 – 1963United States & GhanaWho are you when other people see you wrongly?Nishida Kitaro, photographed in his lifetimeNishida Kitaro1870 – 1945JapanWhat is happening before you divide things into you and everything else?B. R. Ambedkar, photographed in his lifetimeB. R. Ambedkar1891 – 1956IndiaIs an unequal society stable, or only quiet?Photograph of Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt1906 – 1975Germany & USAWhy do good people sometimes do bad things together?Frantz Fanon1925 – 1961Martinique & AlgeriaHow does being ruled change how you see yourself?

Why so few, and why these?

  1. One idea eachEvery page carries a single question, so a child can hold the whole person in their head.
  2. Not only the famous onesAlexandria, Bukhara and Tehran are in here, because philosophy did not happen in one country.
  3. Honest about what is lostWhere writing did not survive — Hypatia, Socrates, Confucius — the page says so instead of inventing.
  4. Not the last wordAny shelf of philosophers is someone's selection. The useful question is the one this list cannot answer: who is missing, and why?

thirty-three philosophers on the shelf today · portrait credits