Editing List of agnostics (section)

===Philosophy===
====Idealistic agnostics====
* [[Confucius]] (551&nbsp;BC–479&nbsp;BC): Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a Chinese religious system known as [[Confucianism]].<ref>{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought |year=1986 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415002288 |author=Wolfram Eberhard<!-- |access-date=10 July 2012--> |page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofchin00wolf/page/82 82] |quote=Confucius was an agnostic, but he did not deny the existence of supernatural beings. |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofchin00wolf/page/82 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=[[The Call (Hersey novel)|The Call]] |year=1986 |publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780140086959 |author=John Hersey<!-- |access-date=10 July 2012--> |page=208 |quote=The second, Confucius, was a humanist, an agnostic, and a supreme realist.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Confucius & Confucianism: The Essentials |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781405188418 |author=Lee Dian Rainey<!-- |access-date=10 July 2012--> |page=62 |quote=Others have read what Confucius said about ritual and the supernatural and concluded that Confucius was an agnostic and not at all interested in the religious side of life.}}</ref>
* [[Immanuel Kant]] (1724–1804): German philosopher; known for ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]''<ref>"While this sounds skeptical, Kant is only agnostic about our knowledge of metaphysical objects such as God. And, as noted above, Kant's agnosticism leads to the conclusion that we can neither affirm nor deny claims made by traditional metaphysics." Andrew Fiala, [[John Meiklejohn]], ''Critique of Pure Reason'' – Introduction, page xi.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics: Surveying the Evidence for the Truth of Christianity |year=2008 |publisher=Harvest House Publishers |isbn=9780736920841 |author=Ed Hindson, Ergun Caner |editor=Ed Hindson |editor2=Ergun Caner |editor3=Edward J. Verstraete |page=[https://archive.org/details/popularencyclope0000unse_p8q4/page/82 82] |quote=It is in this sense that modern atheism rests heavily upon the skepticism of David Hume and the agnosticism of Immanuel Kant. |url=https://archive.org/details/popularencyclope0000unse_p8q4/page/82 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Immanuel Kant |url=http://theologicalstudies.org/resource-library/philosophy-dictionary/134-immanuel-kant |publisher=Theological Studies |access-date=17 August 2012 |author=Michael Vlach |quote=Kant's philosophy was even more skeptical in regard to metaphysical issues like God, the soul, and freedom. According to Kant, these types of issues are beyond the limits of reason. Thus, the human mind cannot obtain any rational knowledge of anything beyond the physical world. Kant's theory would have an important influence on philosophy of religion since he asserted that concepts like God and the soul could not be known through reason. His theories have led some to claim that he is the father of agnosticism. Interestingly, Kant did believe in God and originated a form of the moral argument for God's existence. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307200942/http://www.theologicalstudies.org/resource-library/philosophy-dictionary/134-immanuel-kant |archive-date=7 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Light of Truth and Fire of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit |year=1997 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=9780802842886 |author=Gary D. Badcock<!--|access-date=16 August 2012--> |page=113 |quote=Kant has no interest in prayer or worship, and is in fact agnostic when it comes to such classical theological questions as the doctrine of God or of the Holy Spirit.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe |year=2006 |publisher=Baker Books |isbn=9780801067129 |editor1=Norman L. Geisler |editor2=Paul K. Hoffman<!-- |access-date=16 August 2012--> |page=45 |chapter=The Agnosticism of Immanuel Kant}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Catholicism |year=2007 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9780816075652 |author=Frank K. Flinn<!-- |access-date=16 August 2012--> |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofca0000flin/page/10 10] |quote=Following Locke, the classic agnostic claims not to accept more propositions than are warranted by empirical evidence. In this sense an agnostic appeals to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who claims in his Critique of Pure Reason that since God, freedom, immortality, and the soul can be both proved and disproved by theoretical reason, we ought to suspend judgement about them. |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofca0000flin/page/10 }}</ref>
* [[Laozi]] (born 604 BC): Chinese religious philosopher; author of the ''Tao Te Ching''; this association has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical religion [[Taoism]]<ref>"It is ridiculous to describe that Laozi had started the Dao religion. In fact Laozi is much more sympathetic to atheism than even Greek philosophers in general. To the most, like Buddha and philosophers of Enlightenment, Laoism is agnostic about God." Chen Lee Sun, ''Laozi's Daodejing-From the Chinese Hermeneutical and the Western Philosophical Perspectives: The English and Chinese Translations Based on Laozi's Original Daoism'' (2011), p. 119.</ref>

====Unclassified philosophers-agnostics====
* [[Isaiah Berlin]] (1909–1997): British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, thought by many to be the dominant scholar of his generation<ref>{{cite book |title=Isaiah Berlin: A Value Pluralist and Humanist View of Human Nature and the Meaning of Life |year=2006 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=978-90-420-1929-4 |author=Connie Aarsbergen-Ligtvoet<!-- |access-date=22 April 2012--> |page=133 |quote=The traditional religious strategies of grounding morality are blocked for Berlin. Being an agnostic, brought up in the empiricist tradition, he cannot refer to a holy book. With his Jewish background, he could have referred to the book of Genesis, to the Seven Laws of Noah as applying to the whole of humankind. As an agnostic, however, he needs a secular justification.}}</ref>
* [[Noam Chomsky]] (born 1928): American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author; lecturer, Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]; credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar<ref>"Like everyone participating I'm what's called here a "secular atheist", except that I can't even call myself an "atheist" because it is not at all clear what I'm being asked to deny." Noam Chomsky, ''Edge'' Discussion of [http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#chomsky Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413030733/http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#chomsky |date=13 April 2013 }}, November 2006 (Retrieved 21 April 2008).</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |title=Remarks on Religion |url=http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1990----.htm |access-date=7 April 2012 |quote=Do I believe in God? Can't answer, I'm afraid. |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203116/http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1990----.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Democritus]] (460 BC – 370 BC): Ancient Greek philosopher; influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of [[Leucippus]], who formulated an atomic theory for the [[cosmos]]<ref>"Most histories of atheism choose the Greek and Roman philosophers Epicurus, Democritus, and Lucretius as the first atheist writers. While these writers certainly changed the idea of God, they didn't entirely deny that gods could exist." [https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml Ancient Atheists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410154451/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml |date=10 April 2021 }}, BBC.</ref>
* [[John Dewey]] (1859–1952): American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer; his ideas have been influential in education and social reform<ref>"Dewey started his career as a Christian but over his long lifetime moved towards agnosticism. His philosophical writings start out apologetic; over his life he gradually lost interest in formal religion and focused more on democratic ideals. Moreover, he became very devoted to applying the scientific method of inquiry to both democracy and education." Shawn Olson, [http://johndewey.shawnolson.net/ John Dewey – American Pragmatic Philosopher] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323045857/http://johndewey.shawnolson.net/ |date=23 March 2012 }}, 2005.</ref>
* [[Epicurus]] (341&nbsp;BCE–270&nbsp;BCE): Ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called [[Epicureanism]]<ref>"Epicurus taught that the soul is also made of material objects, and so when the body dies the soul dies with it. There is no afterlife. Epicurus thought that gods might exist, but if they did, they did not have anything to do with human beings." [https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml Ancient Atheists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410154451/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml |date=10 April 2021 }}, BBC.</ref>
* [[Fred Edwords]] (born 1948): longtime Humanist activist; national director of the United Coalition of Reason<ref>"Frederick Edwords, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, who labels himself an agnostic..." [http://www.banned-books.com/truth-seeker/1994archive/121_2/ts212n.html Atheism 101] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121151626/http://www.banned-books.com/truth-seeker/1994archive/121_2/ts212n.html |date=21 January 2021 }}, by William B. Lindley, ''Truth Seeker'' Volume 121 (1994) No. 2, (Retrieved 14 April 2008)</ref>
* [[James Hall (philosopher)|James Hall]] (born 1933): philosopher; describes himself as an agnostic [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalian]]<ref>{{cite video |people=James Hall |title=Philosophy of Religion: Lecture 3 |medium=DVD |publisher=[[The Teaching Company]]}}</ref>
* [[Sidney Hook]] (1902–1989): American philosopher of the [[Pragmaticism|Pragmatist]] school known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics<ref>"This faith in rationality emerged early in Hook's life. Even before he was a teenager he proclaimed himself to be an agnostic." Edward S. Shapiro, ''Letters of Sidney Hook: Democracy, Communism, and the Cold War'', 1995, page 2.</ref>
* [[David Hume]] (1711–1776): Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical [[empiricism]] and [[philosophical skepticism|scepticism]]. He was one of the most important figures in the history of [[Western philosophy]] and the [[Scottish Enlightenment]]. Hume is often grouped with [[John Locke]], [[George Berkeley]], and a handful of others as a [[British Empiricism|British Empiricist]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy |year=2009 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=9780495603825 |author=Douglas J. Soccio<!--|access-date=10 July 2012--> |page=291 |quote=James Boswell was troubled that the agnostic Hume, whom many erroneously believed to be an atheist, could be so cheerful in the face of death.}}</ref>
* [[Edmund Husserl]] (1859–1938): German philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th-century philosophical school of phenomenology<ref>{{cite book |title=Altruistic Behavior: An Inquiry Into Motivation |year=1995 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=9789051838923 |author=Paul S. Penner<!-- |access-date=10 August 2012--> |page=5 |quote=You can be a realist, an idealist, an agnostic such as Edmund Husserl in his bracketing of the subject, or a synthesizer such as the Buddha in his concept of codependent origination.}}</ref>
* [[Harold Innis]] (1894–1952): Canadian political philosopher and professor of political economy at the [[University of Toronto]]; author of seminal works on media, [[communication theory]] and Canadian economic history<ref>{{cite book |title=Harold Innis |year=2003 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-2484-2 |author=Paul Heyer<!-- |access-date=22 April 2012--> |page=39 |quote=As an agnostic who favorably cites Marx and questions the role of religion in modernity, Innis would certainly have raised eyebrows at the University of Toronto or virtually any other academic institution in Canada at this time.}}</ref>
* [[Anthony Kenny]] (born 1931): president of [[Royal Institute of Philosophy]], wrote in his essay "Why I'm not an atheist" after justifying his agnostic position that "a claim to knowledge needs to be substantiated; ignorance need only be confessed".<ref>{{cite book |last=Kenny |first=Anthony |title=What I Believe |publisher=Continuum |year=2006 |chapter=Why I'm not an atheist |isbn=978-0-8264-8971-5}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Kuhn]] (1922–1996): American historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]'' was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "[[paradigm shift]]," which has since become an English-language staple<ref>{{cite book |title=Creativity: Ethics and Excellence in Science |year=2007 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739120538 |author=Mike W. Martin<!-- |access-date=17 July 2012--> |page=13 |quote=A softer skepticism, one more sympathetic to the aspirations of science, does not renounce the possibility of objective truth, but instead is agnostic about that possibility. Thomas Kuhn is such a skeptic.}}</ref>
* [[G. E. Moore]] (1873–1958): English philosopher; one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Apostles, 1820–1914: Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57213-2 |author=William C. Lubenow |author-link=William C. Lubenow <!--|access-date=22 April 2012--> |page=405 |quote=G. E. Moore was another agnostic Apostle. After an intense religious phase as a boy, Moore came to call himself an infidel.}}</ref>
* [[Karl R. Popper]] (1902–1994): Philosopher of science; promoted [[falsifiability]] as a necessary criterion of empirical statements in science<ref>"Referring to himself as an agnostic and an advocate of critical realism, Popper gained an early reputation as the chief exponent of the principle of falsification rather than verification." ''[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_n4_v56/ai_18501025 Karl Popper: philosopher of critical realism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810044425/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_n4_v56/ai_18501025/ |date=10 August 2011}}'', by Joe Barnhart, ''The Humanist'' magazine, July–August 1996. (Retrieved 13 October 2006)</ref>
* [[Protagoras]] (died 420 BCE): Greek [[Sophist]]; first major [[Humanism|Humanist]]; wrote that the existence of the gods was unknowable<ref>Only fragments of Protagoras' treatise ''On the Gods'' survive, but it opens with the sentence: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."</ref>
* [[Pyrrho]] (360 BC – c. 270 BC): Greek philosopher of classical antiquity; credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher and the inspiration for the school known as [[Pyrrhonism]], founded by [[Aenesidemus]] in the 1st century BC<ref>{{cite book |title=Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism |year=2008 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739125069 |pages=41–42 |author=Adrian Kuzminski<!-- |access-date=10 July 2012--> |quote=In particular, Flintoff notes the similarity between Pyrrho's agnosticism and suspension of judgment and the Buddha's refusal to countenance beliefs about the nature of things, including his insistence that such beliefs were to be neither affirmed nor denied.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Introduction to Ancient Philosophy |year=1998 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=9780765602169 |author=Don E. Marietta<!-- |access-date=10 July 2012--> |page=162 |quote=Pyrrho advocated agnosticism and suspension of judgment about the nature of the world. His Skepticism also applied to matters of ethics; he held that nothing is just or honorable by its nature.}}</ref>
* [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872–1970): British philosopher and mathematician; considered himself a philosophical agnostic, but said that the label "atheist" conveyed a more accurate impression to "the ordinary man in the street"<ref>Russell said: "As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist... None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof. Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line." [http://www.luminary.us/russell/atheist_agnostic.html Am I an Agnostic or an Atheist?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221010921/http://www.luminary.us/russell/atheist_agnostic.html |date=21 February 2007 }}, from ''Last Philosophical Testament 1943–1968'', (1997) Routledge {{ISBN|0-415-09409-7}}. Russell was chosen by ''[[Look (American magazine)|LOOK]]'' magazine to speak for agnostics in their well-known series explaining the religions of the U.S., and authored the essay "What Is An Agnostic?" which appeared 3 November 1953 in that magazine.</ref>
* [[Michael Schmidt-Salomon]] (born 1967): German philosopher, author and former editor of ''MIZ'' (''Contemporary Materials and Information: Political magazine for atheists and the irreligious'')<ref>MIZ title in German: ''Materialien und Informationen zur Zeit (MIZ) (Untertitel: Politisches Magazin für Konfessionslose und AtheistInnen)''</ref> Schmidt-Salomon has specified that he is not a "''pure'' atheist, but actually an ''agnostic''."<ref>"Like many other so-called "Atheists" I am also not a ''pure'' atheist, but actually an ''agnostic''..." [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.schmidt-salomon.de/salomon2.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2BVertreter%2Bdes%2BAtheismus%2BMichael%2BSchmidt-Salomon%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7TSHB Life without God: A decision for the people] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125020339/http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.schmidt-salomon.de/salomon2.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2BVertreter%2Bdes%2BAtheismus%2BMichael%2BSchmidt-Salomon%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7TSHB |date=25 January 2016 }} (Automatic Google translation of the [http://www.schmidt-salomon.de/salomon2.htm original] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117075433/http://www.schmidt-salomon.de/salomon2.htm |date=17 January 2020 }}, hosted at Schmidt-Salomon's website), by Michael Schmidt-Salomon 19 November 1996, first published in: ''Education and Criticism: Journal of Humanistic Philosophy and Free Thinking'' January 1997 (Retrieved 1 April 2008)</ref>
* [[Herbert Spencer]] (1820–1903): English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era<ref>{{cite book |title=The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality |year=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226710204 |page=54 |author=Julie A. Reuben<!-- |access-date=8 April 2013--> |quote=Herbert Spencer, the agnostic whose ideas were best known in the United States, did not deny the existence of God.}}</ref>
* [[Theophrastus]] (c. 371 BC – 287 BC): Greek philosopher; a native of Eresos in Lesbos; the successor to [[Aristotle]] in the Peripatetic school.<ref>{{cite book |title=Environmental Literacy in Science and Society: From Knowledge to Decisions |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521183338 |author=Roland W. Scholz<!-- |access-date=10 July 2012--> |page=62 |quote=Contrary to his teacher Aristotle, Theophrast was an agnostic naturalist who "denied the existence of a dominant intelligence outside the universe" (Nordenskiöld, 1928, p. 45).}}</ref>
* [[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]] (1820–1891): Indian Bengali [[polymath]]; a key figure of the [[Bengal Renaissance]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and his Elusive Milestones |year=1977 |publisher=Riddhi-India |author=Asok Sen |page=157 |quote=Vidyasagar did not explicitly deny the existence of God. His position was that of an agnostic who refused to be distracted from the ethical and practical tasks of society, by abstract ideals of divine perfection.}}</ref>
* [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889–1951): Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is best known for his philosophical works like the ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]'' and ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Wittgenstein|year=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781136731372|author=William Child|page=218|quote="Was Wittgenstein religious? If we call him an agnostic, this must not be understood in the sense of the familiar polemical agnosticism that concentrates, and prides itself, on the argument that man could never know about these matters. The idea of a God in the sense of the Bible, the image of God as the creator of the world, hardly ever engaged Wittgenstein's attention..., but the notion of a last judgement was of profound concern to him." – (Engelmann)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Ludwig Wittgenstein |year=2007 |publisher=[[Reaktion Books]] |isbn=9781861893208 |pages=145–146 |author=Edward Kanterian}}</ref>