The Most Famous
103 notable people
The top 10 Philosophers from United Kingdom trending on Wikipedia in the past 7 days, with a quick note on what drove the spike.
1588 - 1679
Trending in Dutch (#102) Wikipedia (369 views, on Sep 4).
1478 - 1535
Trending in Dutch (#159) and Spanish (#279) Wikipedia (245 views, on Sep 2).
This page contains a list of the greatest British Philosophers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,285 Philosophers, 103 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 3rd most number of Philosophers behind Germany and France.
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary British Philosophers of all time. This list of famous British 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 British Philosophers.
1561 - 1626
Francis Bacon was a philosopher and scientist who is most famous for his work Novum Organum, which was published in 1620. Bacon's work was an attempt to reform the way that knowledge is gained and used.
1632 - 1704
John Locke is most famous for his philosophy of empiricism, which states that all knowledge comes from experience.
1588 - 1679
Thomas Hobbes is most famous for his political philosophy, which is a form of social contract theory. Hobbes believed that the natural state of humanity is one of war, and that without a strong government to enforce the peace, life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
1711 - 1776
David Hume is most famous for his skepticism and empiricism.
1478 - 1535
Thomas More was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, and statesman. He was Lord Chancellor from 1529 to 1532 and is best known for his influential work Utopia.
1820 - 1903
Herbert Spencer is most famous for his theory of evolution.
1220 - 1292
Roger Bacon is most famous for his work on optics and the scientific method.
1748 - 1832
Jeremy Bentham is most famous for his theory of utilitarianism, which is the idea that the moral worth of an action is based on its usefulness in increasing pleasure and decreasing pain.
1285 - 1347
William of Ockham is most famous for his principle of parsimony, also known as Occam's Razor. This principle states that the simplest explanation is usually the best one.
1733 - 1804
Joseph Priestley is most famous for his discovery of oxygen.
Browse notable British Philosophers grouped by birth decade. Each decade shows the top 10 by HPI; expand to see everyone.
Which Philosophers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Philosophers since 1700.
