The writings of Matteo Ricci introduce Kung Fu Tzu to Europe under a Latin version of his name - Confucius

In his Principles of Philosophy Descartes gives priority to reason, summed up in his famous phrase cogito ergo sum

Baruch Spinoza's Ethics, dealing with God, the mind and the emotions, is published shortly after his death

John Locke publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience

25-year-old George Berkeley attacks Locke in his Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

In his Monadology Leibniz describes a universe consisting of forceful interactive parts that he calls 'monads'

David Hume publishes his Treatise of Human Nature, in which he applies to the human mind the principles of experimental science

Two books in this year, Émile and Du Contrat Social, prompt orders for the arrest of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes the first of his three 'critiques', The Critique of Pure Reason

In his Principles Jeremy Bentham defines 'utility' as that which enhances pleasure and reduces pain

In his Science of Knowledge Johann Gottlieb Fichte contrasts the I, or Ego, and its opposing non-I, or non-Ego

In Phenomenology of Spirit Friedrich Hegel interprets history as the advance of the human mind, often through thesis, antithesis and synthesis

In The World as Will and Idea Schopenhauer develops the bleakest possible view of the effects of the human will

In his essay, Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson sets out the fundamentals of the philolosphy of Transcendentalism

The first issue of the quarterly magazine The Dial is issued by the Transcendentalists meeting at Ralph Waldo Emerson's home

With his emphasis on the subjective experience of human Existenz, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard plants the seed of existentialism

In On Liberty John Stuart Mill makes the classic liberal case for the priority of the freedom of the individual

Unpublished American poet Emily Dickinson writes more than 300 poems within the year

Pragmatism emerges as a philosophical approach in meetings of the Metaphysical Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts

In Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche envisages the Übermensch ('superman') enhancing human existence

German mathematician Gottlob Frege publishes Grundlagen der Arithmetik ('Foundations of Arithmetic'), linking mathematics and logic

US philosopher William James publishes his influential book The Varieties of Religious Experience

British philosopher G.E. Moore publishes Principia Ethica, an attempt to apply logic to ethics

US philosopher George Santayana publishes the first of the five volumes of his Life of Reason

US philosopher William James publishes Pragmatism: a New Name for Old Ways of Thinking