Philosophers from Italy

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Italian Philosophers of all time. This list of famous Italian Philosophers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Italian Philosophers.

1. #1

   

   Niccolò Machiavelli

   1469 - 1527

   HPI 90.45151 languages

   Niccolò Machiavelli is most famous for his book The Prince, which is a guide for rulers on how to maintain power.

2. #2

   

   Thomas Aquinas

   1225 - 1274

   HPI 88.70158 languages

   Thomas Aquinas is most famous for his work in the 13th century on the relationship between faith and reason.

3. #3

   

   Maria Montessori

   1870 - 1952

   HPI 84.5993 languages

   Maria Montessori is most famous for her philosophy of education. She believed that children should be allowed to develop at their own pace and have a natural curiosity about the world around them.

4. #4

   

   Parmenides

   501 BC - 470 BC

   HPI 84.4786 languages

   Parmenides is most famous for his poem, "On Nature," in which he argues that the world of our experience is an illusion and that the only thing that truly exists is a changeless, eternal, and perfect sphere.

5. #5

   

   Lucretius

   94 BC - 55 BC

   HPI 83.9681 languages

   Lucretius is most famous for his poem "De Rerum Natura" which is a long didactic poem about the nature of the universe and the development of life.

6. #6

   

   Empedocles

   490 BC - 430 BC

   HPI 83.6083 languages

   Empedocles is most famous for his theory of the four elements. He believed that everything was made up of four elements: earth, water, air, and fire.

7. #7

   

   Zeno of Elea

   490 BC - 425 BC

   HPI 81.6478 languages

   Zeno of Elea is most famous for his paradoxes, which are a series of arguments that purport to show that motion is impossible.

8. #8

   

   Antonio Gramsci

   1891 - 1937

   HPI 80.9497 languages

   Antonio Gramsci was a Marxist philosopher and activist who was imprisoned by Mussolini in the 1920s. He is most famous for his theory of cultural hegemony, which explains how the dominant class in society can maintain power by controlling the cultural aspects of society, such as religion, education, and media.

9. #9

   

   Pliny the Elder

   23 - 79

   HPI 80.6890 languages

   Pliny the Elder is most famous for his work Naturalis Historia, which is an encyclopedia of knowledge about natural science and history.

10. #10

    

    Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

    1463 - 1494

    HPI 79.5661 languages

    Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian philosopher who was most famous for his 900 theses that were published in 1486. The theses were a defense of the Christian faith and an attack on the Aristotelianism that was popular at the time.