Key people

• Hannah Arendt


  Is a 20th century German philosopher who attended the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 and wrote about 'the banality of evil'
• Jeremy Bentham


  Is a 18th century English philosopher , regarded as the founder of utilitarianism, who argued that pleasure and pain are the same as good and bad.
• Phillipa foot


  20th century English philosopher who designed the runaway train thought experiment in 1967
• John Locke


  Is a17th century English philosopher who argued that when we are born, our mind is like a blank slate
• John Stewart Mill


  Is a 19th century English philosopher who developed utilitarianism by arguing that the quality of pleasure or pain produced by an action is more important than the quantity
• Friedrich Nietzsche


  A 19th century Germany atheist who expressed his belief that humans no longer need the idea of God by saying 'God is dead and we have killed him'
• Robert Nozick


  A 20th century American philosopher who used the example of the Chinese thought experiment to argue against Alan Turing's claim that computers can think
• Peter Singer


  A 20th century Australian philosopher and utilitarian who popularised the word 'speciesism', which describes prejudice and discrimination against animals
• Alan turing


  20th century English computer scientist and philosopher who designed the turing test to show whether a computer can think