Western philosophy facts for kids

Western philosophy is the school of thinking of Western civilization. Generally, it is seen to start with the philosophy of Ancient Greece. Its early devleopment mainly occurred in Europe and the countries around the Mediterranean.

It is different from Eastern philosophy, which developed in Asian countries such as China, Persia, Japan, India and Korea.

Philosophical thought developed in Babylon, and that relating to Islam are sometimes counted as "Eastern", and sometimes as "Western".

Images for kids

Bust of Socrates, Roman copy after a Greek original from the 4th century BCE
Aristotle in The School of Athens, by Raphael
Map of Alexander the Great's empire and the route he and Pyrrho of Elis took to India
Erasmus is Credited as the Prince of the Humanists
Bronze statue of Giordano Bruno by Ettore Ferrari, Campo de' Fiori, Rome
Portrait of René Descartes, after Frans Hals, second half of 17th century
Portrait of David Hume, by Allan Ramsay, 1754
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, steel engraving, after 1828
Martin Heidegger
Bertrand Russell
Patricia Churchland, 2005
Edmund Husserl, in the 1910s
Ferdinand de Saussure
William James in 1906