Through science religion and politics they wade,
These thinkers that have shaped our world.
Causing us to stop and think twice,
Allowing ideas to be seen unfurled.
–
Aristotle, with his peripatetic style of teaching,
More mobile than Descartes, because,
As the father of philosophy,
He just thought, and therefore he was.
–
Plato, with his dialogues,
Founding the Western World’s first university.
Socrates, with his method of asking questions.
Seeking answers that prompted diversity.
–
Machiavelli, thinking that being feared
Was better than being loved,
If you really need to stay in power,
With a fist that is not velvet-gloved.
–
Spinoza, with his intellectual view
That miracles are not supernatural.
Kant, saying that we cannot perceive
What the world is really like.
A view offering no real collateral.
–
Aquinas, combining the principles of faith and reason.
Confucius, shaping thoughts about family and society.
Voltaire, thrusting attention on human suffering.
Buddha, saying that nothing is permanent.
All adding to the overall variety.
–
Asking assumption-challenging questions, about all we know,
Brings the process of thought to the brink,
But despite their firm challenge to conceptual truths,
And their logical analysis of all there is,
When all’s said and done,
Their job was second to none,
When you consider that all they did… was think!
