Western Philosophers Reviews

by Gurari

WesternPhilosophers could be awesome. It lays out a fun foundation of Western philosophers, but it becomes readily apparent that Eastern European, Asian (Russian, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian), South American, Australian, and African thinkers are not adequately represented. There are also a few female points of view, but the ratio of thinkers is imbalanced across gender as well. The map views and timeline views are a delight to explore. The ideas tab could try to chronicle thinking under major philosophical labels (e.g. trace the chronology/categorization of thinking in terms like “exitentialism”).

Should the representation of thought and those who put forth thought be balanced across the world, I would rate WesternPhilosophers higher.

by KiltBear

WesternPhilosophers certainly peaks my interest, but the way it hangs sends me into a fit of pique. But for free, you really can’t get too upset.

Bug: under the philosophers>ideas tab, clicking an idea works, but returning to the list of ideas (Reset button at top right) leads to 20-30 second delays in response or outright crashes, (iPad and iPhone iOS 14.0.1).

Weird: in the quizzes, it often feels like I am being tested more on what the philosophers look like than what they espoused. Please put names next to the pictures of the philosophers. Maybe even their dates. It will help build memory linkages to historical development of ideas and the learners initial suppositions on the topic.

Shortcomings: WesternPhilosophers is very clear that it is about western philosophy. It would be nice for it to expand to be more inclusive. Africa, India, China, and their surrounds also have so much to offer.

by Wstbbb

WesternPhilosophers is wonderful. It provokes ideas when I haven’t got time to read and helps you get a general idea of complex ideas. The only issue that I have is there are a few philosophers, namely Peter Kropotkin and Blaise Pascal, that aren’t included that I would really like to be on WesternPhilosophers . I’m not sure how you all prioritize who you add to WesternPhilosophers next, but I extend a request to create a page for those two with the hopes that I have a bit of influence in the process.

by ReallyAWrestler

I’m new to philosophy. New to deeper thinking of any brand, really. I am also highly distractable in terms of interest. When I recently became interested in philosophy/ethics, I immediately downloaded WesternPhilosophers and started exploring it.

I’m surprised and pleased to say that I absolutely love it. It also led me to the realization that the reason behind my distractability is one of accessibility. Many of my interests from the past are quite expensive. I think the reason that I’ve stuck with studying this particular topic is simply because WesternPhilosophers has so much on offer. E-books, audio books, footnotes. You can learn at your own pace, entirely for free.

I started with Kant. One of the more difficult to understand. And I absolutely love it. WesternPhilosophers has caused me to start thinking about philosophy and ethics myself. It has ignited a passion for knowledge in me. All because of the accessibility and comprehensive nature of WesternPhilosophers .

And so with that, I would like to extend a sincere message of thanks to the creator of this informative and useful piece of software. Not only for those of us with a mild interest but for those of us who are deciding to pursue life’s fundamental truths ourselves.

by Zombielara123

I never write review for apps, but this one absolutely amazed me. As a person who has explored all types of literature from Russian to German to American, WesternPhilosophers helps me connect all of the historical and psychological dots that tie these books together. It delivers the information in a beautiful and simplistic format, leaving the user asking for more. Highly recommended.

by Sylas 1

I think as time passes, maybe other philosophers should be added into the lineup. I would argue that Boethius is one of those thinkers that could fill in the gap between antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Also, if you ever have the chance. Would you consider adding Zeno (the stoic), Alfred Nortj Whitehead, and Karl Jaspers?

Overall, this is an amazing app, and thank you so much for developing it!

by Russ Bray

WesternPhilosophers is an amazing app that delivers information exactly how it should be: through a fun and beautiful method that makes me never want to stop learning. The information of quotes, ideas, and major works with such easy access mixed with minimalism art is so well done and creates an amazing UI. But, there could be some improvements.
App improvements:
• Summary for each philosopher before delving into them and their encyclopedia entries
• Expand timeline in later years to be able to not have to compress them so tightly and not have to scroll back and forth to see them all
• Ideas of philosophers is good when going to one philosopher and looking at theirs and the connections, but the tab for it with all ideas is almost pointless as you can’t tell what is connected

Also, I was wondering if you would be able to add some philosophers that are more recent
Sam Harris
Paul Bloom
Yuval Noah Harari
James Baldwin (maybe)

Thank you so much for an app like this that is so helpful in educating me on these historical figures!

by Neutral_Panda_Films

Absolutely delightful. First of all to have an app be free and with no other places to spend money is oddly refreshing.

But WesternPhilosophers is delightfully designed, super educational and easy to use with lots of fun unnecessary features. AR filters? Cool why not.

The social media angle to its design is super charming as well. Love that they all have usernames. And somewhat ironic considering WesternPhilosophers barely uses the internet, which is again, oddly refreshing.

The one thing I could wish for with WesternPhilosophers is I’m hoping eastern philosophers are coming at some point, but based on the fact that WesternPhilosophers hasn’t been updated in a year I’m guessing not :/ oh well fingers crossed anyways hope someone seees this

by Futureretiredlawyer

i love it. please do the same cartoonization of totalitarians and serial killers. the irony is it’ll be even more popular.

i love how somehow Frege and Davidson were left off. Those are the first two language philosophers i looked for, so there are probably numerous oversights... oh but thank goodness someone named Damaris Cudworth was included in Language. Couldn’t imagine discussing the history of analytic phil without Cudworth.

by Mr No 2

I’ve never had written a review for an app before – ever! But this was so good, I had to give it justice by giving this 5 stars; even though the quality is beyond that. I have no problems with anything in here at all: no adds, just philosophy. It’s pure, it’s good, and it’s executed well. An extremely brilliant app, I would definitely recommend to others. Cheers!

by ขอบคุณนะคะ~ CC

Everything about WesternPhilosophers makes reading and discovering philosophers more enjoyable. Especially the twitter format, which just makes quotes and reading them feel more engaging. It appeals to young curious people like me. Though I would love to see more philosophers, like from Asia or South America. Just a little more diversity would be nice, and WesternPhilosophers would even be better!

by 1776izzy

I am rather new the study of philosophy and was delighted to find this easy to use and engaging app! Personally I was a little sad that that there was not full access to the works of greats such as Socrates. I would love to see more audio books and writings in general. All this said I love the concept and hope to see more content added!

by Mccayd

Although I am new to philosophy and haven’t looked much into it, WesternPhilosophers was a perfect gateway into it. I’d highly recommend WesternPhilosophers to anyone and everyone. (Note to devs: I think it would be awesome to implement a feature where you can see your friends (or other people’s) favorites philosophers and teachings. Maybe this would be a cool way for people to spread their own philosophies and or messages!)

by Mimi |||

WesternPhilosophers, although it has a few minor bugs, is one of the most in depth apps I have seen. It has everything you need to know about all the famous and current philosophers with detailed descriptions and free voice readings with text. It also has a quiz if your looking to test your knowledge which is good but I would like to know the name of the philosopher that was correct because currently it’s just the picture. All in all has helped me in college immensely and is a wonderful app.

by K.a.r.l.a

Wow, unbelievably well designed app. Organized and aesthetically pleasing. Summaries and philosophers main ideas are written concisely. Quotes are referenced to multiplied philosophers.

I think the best feature is that when you select on any major work the philosopher has written, it would automatically take you to the ebook to purchase. I also enjoy some of the free books implemented within.

Major kudos! Keep up the good work.

by Baba Tulpa

🤝🍫♥️ Dark chocolate and unconditional love for the developers of this wonderful app. The interface is so appealing, easy to navigate & search material from it. And wait a minute? I don’t have to pay a single penny for this magnificent work? Oh, I am so excited to get hold of such a remarkable work. The beautiful, complex and vast realm of knowledge on my fingertips.🏆🙏🙏 Thank you so much.

**Humble Request**; If you decide to charge later, please don’t make it complex by monthly subscriptions, just take one-time payment.

by Bruh5127604489

I think WesternPhilosophers is great but would be really cool to have a feed like Twitter or typical social media where you can just scroll through different posts from your favorited philosophers. Maybe WesternPhilosophers just selects at random like 5-10 quotes from your favorited philosophers daily and you can scroll through them all easily instead of having to specifically find a certain philosopher and look at their specific posts?

by Naventhirty3

I don’t tend to do reviews, but here goes. I teach philosophy and ethics, and I’ve used a couple of online resources over the years to help “connect the dots.” WesternPhilosophers puts that in one place. It’s brilliant. And while it won’t provide the minutiae of a thinker’s work, it accurately and effectually gets you started. I look forward to some more contemporary additions in the future—Levinas, Agamben, Nancy, Zizek—but this is absolutely a gem for philosophers of all kinds, from the office to the arm chair. (Oh, the UI is very clever as well.)

by DylanOnTheMoon

I really like WesternPhilosophers a lot. I like the twitter style set up for each philosopher. Since it is a lot like a Twitter, it would be cool to see other people’s responses. It would also be cool to put my own quotes on my profile without needing to respond to a philosophers quote. Also one more thing, I think it would be cool to make a philosophers profile for them, for people like Dostoyevsky or even from people of Eastern philosophy like Taoism or Hindu and add quotes to their profile. I hope that is not too much. Great app, I go here everyday.

by Nealtucker

Wonderful wonderful wonderful. This is brilliant and beautiful. Some little tweaks needed here and there but if you love philosophy you NEED WesternPhilosophers. The motif is like Twitter but for philosophers past and present. Direct quotes only. Phenomenal. WesternPhilosophers I’ve been missing all my life.

To the developers: The Quiz section only shows faces, not names. The audiobooks are not downloading offline properly; I get a zip file error message. They play online perfectly though.

by Dawgylamma

I’ve always been interested in philosophy but a lot of it is just hard to grasp. WesternPhilosophers does an great job of putting the people and ideas in context. It’s also fun and takes the stodginess out of what can be an intimidating, nerdy field. And from an app design standpoint, it is really creative and fun to use.