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]

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

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]

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.

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]

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.

You're welcome.

 

[Tosh5457]

I'm going to 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]

.



Aristotle.




.

 

[FlexGunship]

Lindsay Lohan

People go to college to find who they are as a person and find what they want to do in life, and I kind of already know that so it would be like I`d be taking a step back or something.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Lindsay Lohan

People go to college to find who they are as a person and find what they want to do in life, and I kind of already know that so it would be like I`d be taking a step back or something.

That requires translation from the ancient Hollyberic to modern. According to the Google translator, we get ~ "I have $100 million in the bank".

 

[wuliheron]

That requires translation from the ancient Hollyberic to modern. According to the Google translator, we get ~ "I have $100 million in the bank".

The more accurate translation, "I can be rich, famous, and party all the time without going to school."

 

[turbo]

None of my top three were in there, even though they are all dead and all widely quoted:

Samuel Clemens
Ambrose Bierce
George Carlin
(not necessarily in that order)

 

[disregardthat]

None of my top three were in there, even though they are all dead and all widely quoted:

Samuel Clemens
Ambrose Bierce
George Carlin
(not necessarily in that order)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_philosophers_(A–C)#A

 

[MarcoD]

Hmm... Wittingstein is that dude who wrote so incomprehensible that we now enjoy spelling his name incorrectly? I totally agree!

 

[RodA]

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

The Eastern Tradition & Philosophers are quite often, unfortunately, overlooked i think this would be one of those cases.

Jean Paul Sartre, his philosophy is simply beautiful
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/sartre%20sum.html

 

[epenguin]

other is my favourite, for his wider point of view.

 

[Noko]

Wittgenstein

After I understood him (or at least perceived to), everything else seemed like poetic garbage.

 

[epenguin]

Not Socrates. Reputedly he has more questions than answers.

 

[Lacy33]

Noam Chomsky

 

[Jobrag]

The best philosophers EVER!

 

[fashizzle]

my two favorites are

parmenides
zeno of elea

what do you guys think about these two?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

my two favorites are

parmenides
zeno of elea

what do you guys think about these two?

Parmenides is OK, but that's just one man's opinion. Zeno is hard to approach.

 

[Pythagorean]

The Dude

 

[DrClapeyron]

My father's friend. Laid back, serious and very funny guy. He can make life outside of work seem like such a joke, and that I believe is the key to life. Don't take things that shouldn't be taken seriously in the first place, because if problems arise from them you are likely to burn bridges and do things that you would later regret in life.

 

[Albuquerque]

Spinoza´s pantheistic account of God as synonym of Nature, the unmoved mover and the True substance, as his conception of Ethics as the human drive process for greater degrees of order in which the action of reason through work (organization) provides happiness and the progress of Civilization appeal to me as the most essential there is to know in western Philosophy...

...in my way of putting it and stretching it, it places moral as the individual instinct of Ethics, the intuition for the need of the Estate and the realization of Man through the mind in the production of Work/Order in the most energy efficient possible manner...the codes of ethics are then nothing but the codes for energy efficiency in society in the process of evolution and constant adaptation through the work of reason...the opposition to the 2 law of TD...hmmm, or is it rather a tango with it ?

 

[MarcoD]

Spinoza´s pantheistic account of God as synonym of Nature, the unmoved mover and the True substance, as his conception of Ethics as the human drive process for greater degrees of order in which the action of reason through work (organization) provides happiness and the progress of Civilization appeal to me as the most essential there is to know in western Philosophy...

...in my way of putting it and stretching it, it places moral as the individual instinct of Ethics, the intuition for the need of the Estate and the realization of Man through the mind in the production of Work/Order in the most energy efficient possible manner...the codes of ethics are then nothing but the codes for energy efficiency in society in the process of evolution and constant adaptation through the work of reason...the opposition to the 2 law of TD...hmmm, or is it rather a tango with it ?

I don't have a favorite philosopher, I don't consider myself to be very good at it. But I read some Spinoza once in a close approximation of what he originally wrote.

What is nice is his attempt and trying to apply pure logic, or science, to derive ethics and a proof, or understanding, of God. Unfortunately, it's all very dated. If the Ethica would have been published now, he would end up in a home for the mentally ill.

(Probably, my favorite philosopher would be Nietzsche. Because he makes me laugh with his dark irony.)

 

[Albuquerque]

My own odd interpretation of the use of Ethics and moral good is always related with the integration of progressive sets of systems and categories of interest and the amount of effort, energy efficiency, work, implied in the functional task process towards an end whatever that end might be as long as it is natural (genuine)...so I have a relative to scope approach interpretation of its use, regarding the depth of field concerning systemically either the species among other species, or the social group to which we want apply a moral judgement...and yet my view still tends like Spinoza´s towards a necessary and deterministic approach to the problem in terms of logical and rational justification...that is to say, that moral and ethics cannot be justified or circularly reasoned with more moral and ethics but they need something out of their own scope to ground themselves as an say, valid "operating system" regarding behaviour and conduct...my notion of "good" in here is thus further reducible to the notion of optimal input in terms of the energy efficiency or the amount of work one can spare to accomplish a task which is seen as necessary for the species or the said group at hand in its natural causal progression in the world...and that´s how I look at the problem shocking as it may seam...a sort of neo-Darwinistic stance concerning the need for cooperation among social species regarding the accomplishment of complex tasks that require increasing degrees of consensus in order to be carried about and in which trust is a central factor...

 

[MarcoD]

I assume you don't have kids?

 

[e^(i Pi)+1=0]

Lao Tzu and Alan Watts

 

[ryan.j]

No Rand or Camus?!

Nothing shy of an affront.

 

[920118]

No Rand or Camus?!

Nothing shy of an affront.

Including Rand or Camus in this poll would be like including the pope in a poll on everyones favourite scientists...

My favourite is other.

 

[moogull]

Where's Descartes!

 

[eggshell]

hume is a badass, also a big fan of epicurus. if you've read hume's "enquiry concerning human understanding" then i highly recommend reading carl jung; you really only have to read the first chapter to understand the relationship between the two.

not surprised to see the rationalist school of thought held in such high esteem on this forum though, i can't help but laugh.

 

[sigurdW]

my two favorites are

parmenides
zeno of elea

what do you guys think about these two?

A good choice!

 

[sigurdW]

Where's Descartes!

Good Question!

 

[malik333]

socrates is my favourite philosopher.

 

[Gravy]

Diogenes the Cynic... Not for his contributions to philosophy, but because he was visibly indifferent to wealth, and evidently carried around a lamp during the day time. Just imagine having a beer (or five) with the guy while showing him a CGI-heavy documentary on dinosaurs! ... He'd be hilarious, in my mind.

Favourite philosopher with regards to his philosophical contributions? .. Late Wittgenstein and his private language argument.

 

[epenguin]

Lao Tzu and Alan Watts

I totally reject Alan Watts for reasons exactly opposite to the ones you give.

 

[Dadface]

The Mekon and Lord Snooty and his pals.