menu Home chevron_right
PHILOSOPHY

Top 10 Philosophers You Need to Know

Philosophy Tube | September 16, 2025



10 philosophers you need to know if you want to engage with the world today – we’re talking politics, race, trans rights, ethics metaphysics, art, culture, and more!

Subscribe! http://tinyurl.com/pr99a46

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/PhilosophyTube

Audible: http://tinyurl.com/jn6tpup

FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/j8bo4gb

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/jgjek5w

Twitter: @PhilosophyTube

Email: ollysphilosophychannel@gmail.com

Google+: google.com/+thephilosophytube

realphilosophytube.tumblr.com

Recommended Reading:
Giorgio Agamben, “State of Exception”
Achille Mbembe, “Necropolitics” http://tinyurl.com/hdgdmld
Falguni Sheth, “Toward A Political Philosophy of Race”
Berys Gaut, “The Philosophy of Creativity,” http://tinyurl.com/jhsveu8
Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex”
bell hooks, “Ain’t I A Woman,” “Feminism is For Everybody,” and “Understanding Patriarchy” http://tinyurl.com/99kps77
Davis Lewis, “On the Plurality of Worlds”
Karl Marx, “Das Kapital”
Elizabeth Ashford, “The Nature of our Duties Towards the Chronically Poor”
Talia Bettcher, “Transsexualism and Brain Sex” http://tinyurl.com/gnp38ms
Jeff McMahan, “The Ethics of Killing”

Music by Epidemic Sound (Epidemicsound.com)

If you or your organisation would like to financially support Philosophy Tube in distributing philosophical knowledge to those who might not otherwise have access to it in exchange for credits on the show, please get in touch!

Any copyrighted material should fall under fair use for educational purposes or commentary, but if you are a copyright holder and believe your material has been used unfairly please get in touch with us and we will be happy to discuss it.

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Written by Philosophy Tube

Comments

This post currently has 49 comments.

  3. @mr.anti-hero4398

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    This list sucks. The only real revolutionary thinker here is Marx, even though his work is highly derivative. Others on the list are either mediocre (at best) or straight-up bad.
    Simone is being the exception, and even even though I think she's decent, she's average at worst and good at best.
    A list without Cioran, Deleuze, Guattari, Nietzsche, Jean P. Sartre, Hegel, and Hume isn't much of a list…in my humble opinion.
    There's aslo E…Plat o or Wittgenstein.

  5. @LittleBitVic

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    "…he never says anything in one page what he could say in twelve …"

    ᴵ ᵐᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵇᵉ ᵃ ˡᶦᵗᵗˡᵉ ᵍᵘᶦˡᵗʸ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵃᵗ, ᵗᵒᵒ. ᴼᵒᵖˢ.

  15. @sonjahyvarinen7692

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    I'm watching this in 2021 as I'm studying for a philosophy test and it saddens me to see you like this, I'm glad you've found you're gender identity, it really shows that you're happier now <3

  18. @patrickpeacock9221

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    This list is a modern Social Justice Warriors reading list. It shouldn't be labeled a Philosopher's top 10.
    There is not one writer on the list that will explain the basics of the major subjects of Philosophy: Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Logic, Aesthetics. There's no methodology addressed, no history.
    His list is a "Philosophy of…" where you take a subject, then analyze that subject's basic tenants. But really, you are studying the subject, not really the basics of philosophical thought.

  24. @صبريبنبوزيد

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    Of course it is always personal but I however think there are philosophers one has to read in order to better understand philosophy and other writers afterwards. I mean, not to read Plato, Aristotle or Kant when learning a bout philosophy at the beginning does not seem to be an option …

  25. @jackdarby2168

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    No particular order because I'm not qualified to say😅

    1. Aristotle (greek)
    2. Saint Thomas Aquinas ( latin)
    3. Avincenna (arabic)
    4. Sri Shankaracharya( sanskrit)
    5. Plotinus ( greek)
    6. A Chinese representative
    7. Hegel( german)
    9. Saint Augustine( latin)
    10. Plato

  30. @SirMemesAlot71

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    >Marx included in top 10 philosophers.
    >Plato, Dostoyevsky, Aquinas, Plotinus, Dionysus the Areopagus, Jung, Lao Tzu, are all excluded.

    And this fucking idiot claims he understands philosophy. Absolutely pathetic

  31. @originalblob

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    Philosophy of philosophy question: Do you think philosophy should be thought of as an ongoing, continuous conversation through the ages, where new thinkers react to the ones that came before them and thus the individual philosophers can only ever be understood insofar as they form parts of this grand tradition? If this is the case, you might even say it is naive to suppose that philosophy is about this or that part of the world or of reality in and of itself. Instead the sole topics of philosophy are the works of preceding philosophers. In this sense being a good philosopher amounts to one's ability to continue the Conversation (with an capital "C") in a way that on the one hand does justice to your predecessors and on the other hand makes it possible for your eventual successors to pick up the Conversation. Or should philosophy be thought of as something different altogether, namely as a series of fresh beginnings, where each generation or even each author can and should be appreciated on his or her own terms, has to ask his or her own questions and fight his or her own fights? Then, being a philosopher is more about the sagacity with which you react to the present world around you and in turn how you manage to provoke a positive reaction in others towards the shared present. In other words: Is there this one philosophy with many different chapters or are there many small philosophies that may or may not be related to one another.

  35. @kevalinyaupane

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    … TRUTH STEP – in research received basic universal existence or never ending existence in universe. from astro… by mahadev (god) . basic existence supported to aom (om) and aom supported to mahadev. published existence proof book .

  40. @Shimansaji

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    First time seeing this particular video, and seeing your recommendation for Mbembe. Recently interested into Necropolitics and Afropessimism during these wild times.

  41. @MultiBOZA

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    Top 10 Western Philosophers:
    10. Thomas Hobbes
    9. Albert Camus
    8. Schopenhauer
    7. Jeremy Bentham
    6. Baruch Spinoza
    5. Wittgenstein
    4. Immanuel Kant
    3. Fridrich Nietzsche
    2. Aristotle
    1. Plato

  46. @spl2572

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    Anyone who thinks Marx is in any way shape or form good shows a total lack understanding of reality. It's the same as saying make up BS, lie and ignore reality and your alright because at least you pretend to care.

  49. @asianbuilder3344

    September 16, 2025 at 9:47 pm

    I was expecting giant Greek and German philosophers and you mentioned the most ordinary list I have ever seen or heard except Karl Marx. Even Marx himself was basically an economist instead of a philosopher.
    And also this video had a feminist bend also.

Comments are closed.

Related
What Is Nostalgia & Why Is It So Important?
Pursuit of Wonder | April 17, 2026
Related
Steven Pinker on Language | Big Think
Big Think | April 17, 2026
Related
4 Ways of Thinking About Abstract Objects – Philosophy Tube
Philosophy Tube | April 17, 2026

This area can contain widgets, menus, shortcodes and custom content. You can manage it from the Customizer, in the Second layer section.

 

 

 

Go to album
  • play_circle_filled

    92.9 : The Torch

  • play_circle_filled

    AGGRO
    'Til Deaf Do Us Part...

  • play_circle_filled

    SLACK!
    The Music That Made Gen-X

  • play_circle_filled

    KUDZU
    The Northwoods' Alt-Country & Americana

  • play_circle_filled

    BOOZHOO
    Indigenous Radio

  • play_circle_filled

    THE FLOW
    The Northwoods' Hip Hop and R&B

play_arrow skip_previous skip_next volume_down
playlist_play