| Philosopher | Birth Date | Main Ideas | Influenced By | Critiqued | Government Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plato | 427 BC | Justice, ideal state, philosopher-king | Socrates | Sophists, democracy | Aristocracy |
| Aristotle | 384 BC | Empirical study of political institutions, virtue | Plato | Plato | Polity |
| Cicero | 106 BC | Natural law, civic virtue | Platonic ideas | Stoicism, Epicureanism | Mixed government |
| Thomas Aquinas | 1225 | Natural law, ethics, political authority | Aristotle, Augustine | Aristotelian view | Natural law influenced governance |
| Niccolò Machiavelli | 1469 | Realpolitik, power dynamics | Ancient Rome | Republicans | Republic |
| Thomas Hobbes | 1588 | Social contract, absolute sovereignty | Descartes, Gassendi | Divine right of kings | Absolute monarchy |
| John Locke | 1632 | Natural rights, limited government | Hobbes, Filmer | Authoritarianism | Liberal democracy |
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1712 | General will, direct democracy | Locke, Enlightenment thinkers | Equality and liberty | Direct democracy |
| John Stuart Mill | 1806 | Individual liberty, utilitarianism | Utilitarianism, Romanticism | Conservatives, social contract views | Liberal democracy |
| John Rawls | 1921 | Justice as fairness, social contract | Kant, Locke, Rousseau | Utilitarianism, libertarianism | Liberal democracy, property-owning democracy |
From the notebook