SØREN KIERKEGAARD The aesthetic versus the ethical Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher who is regarded as one of the two “fathers” of existentialism (the other one bei...

GIACOMO LEOPARDI  Music is not about beauty Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) was a major Italian thinker and poet who died at the age of 39. The following is from his book THOUGHTS (Pensieri, 18...

Ralph Waldo Emerson FRIENDSHIP AS ELEVATING THE SOUL   Emerson (1803-1882) was an American philosopher, writer and poet, who was the leader of the Transcendentalist movement of the 19th century. ...

THEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. ALIENATION AT WORK2. ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS3. HUMAN NATURE Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher and social revolutionary whose writings had a tremendous influence on...

JOHN STUART MILL  (1806-1873) Higher and lower kinds of happiness John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a British philosopher who was very influential in the fields of Ethics, Political Philosophy, an...

THEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. SELF-CREATION2. THE DEATH OF GOD3. THE VIRTUE OF GIFT-GIVING Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher and one of the most influential thinkers of modern times. ...

FRIEDRICH EDUARD BENEKE Morality expresses the ideal human essenceFriedrich Eduard Beneke (1798-1854) was a German philosopher who struggled against the philosophical norms of his time, and throughout...

JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT Music and unity John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893) was an American thinker, an influential music critic, and a member of the American Transcendentalist movement of the 19th century ...

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) was a major German philosopher, considered to be the founder of German idealism, a philosophical movement of the 18th-...