Question of the Day, October 2, 2010

[Sepiida]

David Hume. Laid much of the groundwork for a little thing called the scientific method.

 

[reiem531]

O.O

No Socrates? That guy was such a badass!

 

[Ophiuchus]

I haven't studied much philosophy, but I was tangentially introduced to Kierkegaard during the first year of my degree and I like his thinking... so I guess him.

 

[jp201]

no Democritus?

my vote is for him.

He was thought of as crazy as he came up with the theory that everything can be broken down into tiny pieces and would eventually not be able to be broken down anymore.

By the way he was from 460-370 BC and he called these tiny particles that could not be seen or broken down atoms.

Yeah the same atoms that were not discovered until late 1800's when scientists finally found evidence of their existence.

He had a theory that could not be proven for over 2200 years when they concluded he was correct.

There's more (and less) to it than that. He wasn't really proposing a super advanced scientific theory for which there was no evidence at the time (although it turned out that way in retrospect). He was attempting to balance the two great opposing schools of Western philosophy: empiricism (what you see is what there is) and rationalism (only the pure reasoning of the mind is true).

The problem is, in a nutshell, that empiricists have a hard time creating universal rules or even talking about constants (if you can't step in the same river twice can we even call it the same river?). Rationalists, well, if you can't learn from observing, with what are you left?

Democritus compromised. There ARE things that are constant, indivisible, and unchanging - atoms - to appease our innate need for rationalism. They just rearrange themselves all the time to create our ever-changing material world to explain why we need empiricism. So I don't really give him scientific credit, per se (it's not like he was doing electron scattering and needed a theory to support the evidence)... But, even more significantly, I give him credit for coming up with the entire theoretical framework scientists and most people think about the material world: that on some level, we can come down to constants or rules that, through permutation, create the endless variety of our universe. Profound.

Speaking of which, many Greeks considered him their VERY BEST philosopher. The only writings that survive were the tiny bit on atoms, which is really clever and influential stuff. WHAT DID WE LOSE?!

However its unbelievable that generally he came up with an idea that could not be proven by science for over 2 millennium.

 

[ENKC]

Other (Montaigne).

 

[velcthulhu]

what... no Confucius?

 

[LadyRhian]

Nietsche is peachy, but Sartre is smarter.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I'm an existentialist of the "life and the world have the meaning you put in to it camp" rather than the more nihilistic bent that many of the later philosophers took. I quite like Kierkegaard, I can't say I agree with all of his ideas (and I certainly can't claim to have a comprehensive knowledge of his work) but I still like what I've read. Nietzsche on the other hand I really dislike.

I generally stay away from the Greek philosophers. Plato in particular really irks me given the lengths he went to slander those he didn't like (such as the Sophists) while boosting himself by turning Socrates into a puppet. I certainly take issue with his belief in ideal forms and concepts but I see the value in pursuing these - while their may not be a perfect definition at the end the discussion and thought put in to pursuing this has a great value.

 

[Ganthrinor]

Other: Epicurus

 

[VicunaBlue]

Epicurus.

Flamewar ahoy!

I'm going for Baruch Spinoza. Dude had balls.

What? I like me some Hedonism.

 

[ottenni]

Batman.

All problems can be solved by throwing a batarang at it and tying it up.

And no i'm not doing this wrong, if you have a problem with this you can take it up with Batman.

 

[AvsJoe]

I don't know too many, but I recall that Machiavelli was Lincoln's philosopher when he defeated Napolean in WWII. He said something along the lines of "we are all but dust in the art of war" or something.

 

[teutonicman]

Bladed Thesis is my favourite.

 

[Tyler Tucsok]

My vote is for Carl Marx

 

[justnotcricket]

I've always had a soft spot for Socrates, both for making a good point about wisdom being the recognition of one's own ignorance, and for being ancient Athens' temporary resident shit-stirrer.

 

[philosophicalbastard]

I am my own favorite philosopher.

Edit: On second thought I'd chose Kamina of Gurren Lagann, but I feel my first choice also works.

 

[vic_elor]

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

Especially Nietzsche strikes me as an odd candidate.

I've read a fair amount of plato's work over the years. My favorite is the symposium, especially the fanciful tale in which one speaker describes the original form of man as this strange ball-like creature or how the gods punished us by putting sex organs on our backsides so we couldn't see each other when we mated.

Way surpassing all that are a set of books I came across a few months ago that are now my all time favorites: "Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington" and "Plato and Platypus walk into a bar" both by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein. Neither text is to terribly advanced, easy enough for those who haven't studied philosophy to keep up. The first book is all about logical fallacies that appear in popular politics and the second is a survey level history of philosophy. The catch to both books is that each fallacy or topic is explained using jokes. "Plato and a Platypus" was particularly funny.

 

[Juven Ignus]

Voltaire. Guy fought an entire government with sarcasm.

 

[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?

Now it's worth one Cookie please.

http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/super_mario_cookie.jpg