6. Ralph Waldo Emerson More recently, an American philosopher, lecturer, abolitionist, and essayist by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson left his mark on society. He is best remembered for his essay on Self-Reliance. Living in the 1800s, he much resembled British Romantic contemporaries in the sense that he too believed in the strong connection between God, man, and nature. His work is life-changing as it really inspires the reader to trust their own judgment above all else. 7. Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant is a well-known modern philosopher that lived from 1724-1804 near the Baltic Sea and is remembered for his Critiques of Practical Reason, Pure Reason, and the Power of Judgement. He preached that measuring whether actions are right or wrong depends on whether or not we have fulfilled our duty rather than what the consequences of our actions are. By using his fundamental law of morality, he concludes that moral reason overrides any other sort of reason.

8. Epicurus Epicureanism was founded by Epicurus, who lived from 341 27 BCE. He was a sage and Greek philosopher who was highly influential. He believed that the goal of human life revolved around happiness, resulting from the absence of mental disturbances and physical pain. His philosophy was that happiness was the highest good of human living and that it was defined by the pursuit of pleasure, not the pure exercise of reason. He also believed that anxiety was derived from irrational desires, and by eliminating the fear of punishment and death, you could relieve yourself of anxiety and find happiness.

9. Socrates Often referred to as the founder of Western philosophy, Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens. He was the first to be considered a moral philosopher of ethical tradition of thought. He has no texts and is remembered mostly for his posthumous accounts of Xenophon and Plato, his students. He gave way to the rise of Socratic dialogue, a literary genre all about teaching through asking questions. In 399 BC, he was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth and failing to acknowledge the citys official gods. Source: Unsplash

10. Friedrich Nietzsche Another German philosopher makes it on the list. Friedrich Nietzsche greatly impacted the western world by sharing his writings on multiple subjects, spanning from science to art, culture, history, and everything in between. One of his main philosophies is known as nihilism, the idea that everything lacks meaning, including life itself. The existentialist and surrealist movements that followed his time were also built on the aforementioned idea.