Bee

1998-

Origin: Michigan, USA

Concentration: Phenomenology

Core belief: A good, true, and beautiful life is sought through intentionality and presence of one mind and body. 

Key Contribution(s): Writer, Editor, and Owner of The Well-Examined Life

Quote: "I do what I want and also philosophy"

Socrates

469–399 B.C.E.

Origin: Athens, Greece

​Concentration: Ancient Western Philosophy

Core Belief: The unexamined life is not worth living

Key Contribution(s): Socratic Method, Grandfather of Western Philosophy

Quote: "The unexamined life is not worth living"

Plato

428–347 B.C.E

Origin: Athens, Greece

Concentration: Ancient Western Philosophy, Politics

Core Belief: Platonic theory of forms

Key Contribution(s): Father of Western Philosophy

​Quote: “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

Aristotle

384–322 B.C.E

Origin: Macedonia, Greece

Concentration: Logic and Ancient Western Philosophy

Core Belief: 

Key Contribution(s): Aristotelian logic and rhetoric

Quote: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Immanuel Kant

1724-1804

Origin: Königsberg, Prussia (Russia)

Concentration: Deontology and Metaphysics

Core Belief: Morality is based on duty and rationalism.

Key Contribution(s): Father of Deontology

Quote: "All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason."

Martin Heidegger

1889-1976

Origin: Meßkirch, Baden (Germany)

Concentration: Phenomenology and Existentialism

Core belief: Dasien- humans are inextricably beings in the world 

Key Contribution(s): furthering Phenomenology

Quote: “Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

1908–1961

Origin: Rochefort-sur-Mer, France

Concentration: Phenomenology

Core Belief: Our mind and body act as one and we experience the world bodily

Key Contribution(s): furthering Phenomenology

Quote: “We know not through our intellect but through our experience.”

Jean-Paul Sartre

1905-1980

Origin: Paris, France

Concentration: Existentialism

Core Belief: Individuals create their own meaning

Key Contribution(s): literary fiction and politics

Quote: “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."