Question of the Day, October 2, 2010

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable,
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table...

cookie for the reference.

Bruce's Philosopher Song from Monty Python.

That's really not worth a cookie

 

[runnernda]

John Locke and I pretty much see eye-to-eye with the whole liberal democracy thing, so I've always really liked him. I also like Pascal, but he wasn't up there.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Locke.

For reasons that should be obvious to anyone awesome.

 

[Continuity]

Bertrand Russell anyone?

 

[jjofearth]

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable,
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table...

cookie for the reference.

Bruce's Philosopher Song from Monty Python.

That's really not worth a cookie

Do you want your cookie or not?

 

[Giest4life]

Wittgenstein and Satre are hardly philosophers--but hey, that's a sceptic speaking.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

Bertrand Russell. Working towards people as a whole cooperating for the good of all has an appeal to me. Doesn't hurt that, being agnostic, I share his views on religion.

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

I am a big fan of Camus, so I picked other.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I demand more Socrates!

Also, can my favorite philosopher be Mark Twain? He's insightful and humorous.

 

[Yureina]

I'll go with Descartes

 

[neoontime]

Socrates, wonder why he wan't mentioned.
Yay for too many questions.

 

[porschecm2]

Of the ones listed, Aristotle. Otherwise, Augustine or Pascal.

 

[Hgame]

Where is Karl Marx? Id vote for him

 

[Fearzone]

Ayn Rand.

Lao Tsu in close second.

Freud and Melanie Klein in there if you want to consider them such.

Among the more traditional philophers, probably Hobbes.

Geez, who picked that list anyway? If I had to pick from it, it would be Aristotle. Okay, fair enough, he was pretty good.

 

[SaintWaldo]

I picked Nietzsche for the poll because he's the one I agree with most.

But my name should give a huge clue about my actual, unlisted, favorite.

 

[Jaebird]

George Carlin. 'Nuff said.

 

[Tahmoh]

Lao Tsu

 

[Nouw]

Confucius.

Say DIE!

I'd probably choose some Buddhist.

 

[BlackIronGuardian]

I'm a Camusian, but as a history student, I have to give credits to Hegel.

 

[Exterminas]

I am amazed by the feedback this poll caused. I happen to study philosophy for several years now and always was under the impression that most of my fellow students didn't even bother to read the philosophers original texts but settled with secondary literature, wikipedia even, at worst.

May I ask who, if any, of you have actually read anything from their favorite philosopher?

Especially Nietzsche strikes me as an odd candidate. German is my native language and I will be damed before I can safely say that I can take more than an accurate guess at what Nietzsches texts are about, because his language is so overloaded with symbolism and metaphors.

So I wonder how you non-german folk happen to develop such a liking for Nietzsche? Is that actually thougt in school, is it based on pop-culture ideas about his philosophy or is the average person on the internet just way more literate than anybody in real life? ^^