Who is your favorite philosopher?

jduster

Hume is my favorite.

wuliheron

The Tao Te Ching is among the top 3 all time best selling books in the world, but you left out Lao Tzu.

Willowz

I'd vote Spinoza. But, Wittgenstein is the modern version of him.

disregardthat

Wittgenstein. Late Wittgenstein.

Willowz

This late/early never really made much sense to me. I mean he says that the Investigations is sort of a continuation of earlier work. A "contrast" is the term he used.

disregardthat

It's obviously a different philosophical direction and style no matter how sharp one considers the distinction.

Willowz

It always seemed to me as a more sociological and semi-psychological/cognitive approach. The Investigations that is.

Jimmy Snyder

I would have voted, but you left out Eddie Lawrence. You left out Wittgenstein too.

fuzzyfelt

I'd find this more interesting if reasons were given for the choice, for example, what is preferred about late Wittgenstein?

Willowz

Some of you choose Liebnitz. Could you explain why? I mean, how does his philosophy of monads make any sense? What is the holistic view?

wuliheron

Lao Tzu has the elegant simplicity of good physics. Its like poetry, either you like it or you don't and there's no accounting for taste.

Wittgenstein would be my second choice. I'd compare his later work to that of Socrates who managed to shift the focus in Greek philosophy away from metaphysics and more towards ethics and logistics by a simple and creative use of their own traditional Reductio ad absurdum approach. In his later work Wittgenstein helped to shift the focus of academic philosophy from Continental philosophy to Analytic philosophy and linguistics using again a simple and creative approach that incorporated the traditional logistics. Like Socrates' philosophy that of Wittgenstein is as interesting for its sweeping impact on academic philosophy as it is in and of itself.

fuzzyfelt

Thank you, wuliheron, that is exactly what I was hoping for! I think it is interesting to see what we find especially appealing in differing ideas. An elegant simplicity of good physics sounds a good reason. And thanks for the explanation you gave for late Wittgenstein, too.

wuliheron

You're welcome.

Tosh5457

I'm gonna go with Leibniz because he invented differential and integral calculus...

PlatosHeaven

Either W.V.O. Quine or Hilary Putnam.

No love for analytic philosophy? Russell is the only one on the list and his name is spelled wrong.

Willowz

Rorty is becoming my favourite philosopher. I love his nonchalant philosophy bashing.

yoda jedi

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Aristotle.




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