Your favorite philosopher

[Silvanus]

Adam Smith, economist and philosopher. For the for being the father of Capitalism I salute you.

Because capitalism has brought so much good into the world, right?

For what its worth, Smith himself was not the advocate of an utterly unfettered market, as some like to imagine him. He recognised the dangers of corporate exploitation, & argued in favour of greater equity for the worker.



As for me, I'd say Thomas Paine. Well-argued, well-written, easy to read exploration of human rights, constitutionalism, and the French Revolution. Even better, "Rights of Man" is amusingly peppered with personal insults aimed at Edmund Burke. Enjoyed it.

 

[oreso]

Wittgenstein!

A crazy person who brought some level-headed logic to the world of philosophy, and so effectively ending all this nonsense talk. Twice. Possibly.

Spoiler: The beginning of the Tractatus

1 The world is all that is the case.

1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.

Spoiler: The end of the Tractatus

6.53 The correct method in philosophy would really be the following: to say nothing except what can be said, i.e. propositions of natural science--i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy -- and then, whenever someone else wanted to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had failed to give a meaning to certain signs in his propositions. Although it would not be satisfying to the other person--he would not have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy--this method would be the only strictly correct one.

6.54 My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.)

7 What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

So... Anything which isn't a fact is outside 'the world', it's just opinion. And trying to get to 'the truth' about things without a factual basis is nonsense (including the Tractatus itself). So people should stop trying.

Which is not to say that he believed ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, etc were nonsense and not worth talking about. My interpretation (and this is a controversial interpretation) is that while he believed that those things were nonsense, actually they were the ONLY things worth talking about, but philosophers shouldn't pretend they're saying anything factual about them. And anything that IS factual falls within the range of scientists, not philosophers.

... He later had other theories which were less pithy about the nature of language and meaning (how we can talk about non-factual things without talking nonsense).

Cheers!

 

[Kaisikudo]

I have a bust of Aristotle, although I would have to go with Plato as my favourite philosopher overall.

 

[putowtin]

wins everytime!

(Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar, Who could think you under the table!)

 

[Zen Bard]

Ayn Rand! Because without her we wouldn't have "Bioshock"!

Just kidding...

Actually, I'll have to stick with the classic - Friedrich Nietzsche.

Oh sure, he tends to rant nonsensically at times. But overall, I like his core "Will to Power" philosophy.

 

[Lord Garnaat]

Jesus Christ.

And hopefully to prevent this from turning into a religious discussion: I am an agnostic. I make no claims that he is or isn't divine. I make no claims that he is or isn't a real person historically rather than just an amalgamation of ideas and stories attributed to a name. For all intents and purposes, barring discovery of time travel, he is a real person historically speaking, and probably the most important Philosopher that has yet lived on this island we call Earth...Every single non-violent movement every pacifist has stemmed from Jesus' sermon on the mount speech. The idea that the only way to break the cycle of violence is to replace it with one of love. That we should turn the other cheek, to not back down but to not respond in kind to those who would hurt us. The US civil rights movement, the Indian independence movement, the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the velvet revolution, the Rosenstrasse protest in the heart of Nazi Berlin; are all heritage from that simple idea.

Bingo. Well said.

I'd like to say Jesus too, but as a Christian, I'm not sure if it'd be fair to count a god as a philosopher, so I'll say C.S. Lewis. A brilliant man with an absolutely uncanny ability to make the spiritual understandable (The Screwtape Letters) and the mundane breathtaking (The Great Divorce), Lewis' body of work, I think, manages to capture and explain everything modern Christianity should be.

I'm inclined to agree with both points. Hopefully it's not too much of a cop-out for a Christian to say Jesus is their favorite philosopher, but if so then C.S. Lewis is my personal favorite. A brilliant writer in both fiction and otherwise, and he always found a way to make even the most esoteric parts of religion immediately understandable. Awesome guy.

Besides that, I have to admit that Confucius made some excellent points. I'm a firm believer in the importance of social harmony and cohesion, so many of his theories are quite appealing.

 

[Kuredan]

I would say that my favorites would be a three way tie between Søren Kierkegaard, Diogenes of Sinope, and Marcus Aurelius. The common theme between all of them is the idea that actions or what we chose to do determines our happiness and identity and that every action should be deliberate and deliberated inside of us. All three call for simple, virtuous lives lived introspectively and that fits with my personality.

From Kierkegaard I agreed with his assertion on the differences between corporate and private religious life, which is a theme that governs the spiritual side of my life and makes me eschew things like Mega Churches or religious corporations on a matter of principal. Additionally, his existential beliefs fit with my view of the way we acquire identity and meaning.

I see Diogenes as an extension of Socratic inquiry with an eye more bent on finding what is virtuous (and living it out) and calling attention to things like injustice, pretension, or any other human construct that is meant for decisive and destructive purposes. Diogenes was not afraid of pricking the social conscience and agitating those who mindlessly clung to their ideas.

From Marcus Aurelius I learned most of what I know of service and sacrifice and I find him to be an exemplar of what it means to be a civil servant. In his Meditations we see that on more than one occasion, he put his country in front of personal tragedies and led his army to victory I also appreciate the Stoic philosophies about the mastery of self, especially in situations beyond our control. On of my favorite quotes of his is paraphrased as "One man prays 'How may I not lose my child?' I pray 'How may I not be afraid to lose him?' " It seems rather cold in the light of modern thought and in the face of tragedy I don't always hold this to be true, but I agree that our attitude in situations beyond our control determines the outcome because it is the only thing we can control.

 

[AT God]

George Carlin.

For the sake of content limit, Carlin was a comedian/prophet, also known as the King of Comedy. If you have a Netflix subscription you should stop what ever you are doing and watch at least 3 of his specials which are available to stream.

 

[SkullKing]

Probably David Gemmel

He isn´t really considered a philosopher, but I can´t read his books and not think of him as one. His books have some very deep and meaningful discussions.

 

[norashepard]

I don't trust the opinion of anyone who gets paid to sit around all day, but I still find them interesting.

Case in point, Kant. What initially seems a cold and heartless moral theory, under study becomes one of the most elegant and fair ways to live a life. (If you don't know about Kant, he is basically the Qunari from Dragon Age, but REAL. And he never contradicts himself. Almost every other philosopher in recent memory (ever) has said things that go against other things they have said. Kant doesn't. IT'S JUST INTERESTING OKAY.

In terms of who I like the most, over all, out of everyone? Nobody. They're all silly.

 

[Lionsfan]

Definitely Hobbes.

I mean, sometimes you just gotta keep things simple, and you'll be happier

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

My favourite philosophers are Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Thomas Robert Malthus.

No, I'm not going to explain myself here, I shouldn't need to.

Edit: Also agreeing with Mycroft Holmes, Jesus is easily one of the most important to list, also agreeing with his anti-flaming points.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I really like Jean Paul Sartre's writings on the nature of memory. I wrote my dissertation on the philosophical importance of memory and heavily incorporated his works, as well as Locke, Mill, Freud and others.

I'm 5 years removed from my philosophical studies. While I still remember the different ideas (to a general degree) I can no longer tell you the specific terminology for them nor with whom they are associated/accredited.

I should go find my old books. I do still love a good philosophical discussion.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I don't like to define "philosopher" as someone's title or occupation, as philosophy occurs in everyone on a daily basis and comes from multiple sources, including personal thoughts, experiences, people... really just life in general. Everyone is a philosopher sometimes but no one is a philosopher all the time, even if they dedicate more time to the subject than most.

But in the interest of contributing to this topic, I will say that my favorite philosophical quote comes from Bruce Lee when he was describing Jeet Kun Do: "Truth exists outside all molds." I'm sure others said such things before he did (hell, Bill O'Reilly has said it himself multiple times), but that was where I first heard it. It's why I don't like to identify myself as part of any group: it just clouds your judgement. Obviously I can't just not belong to any group (especially since I'm in the military), but I keep this in mind and try to frame my thought processes outside of the perspective of whatever group I'm in.

 

[Flatfrog]

Daniel Dennett.

He gets science and therefore wins.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I don't like to define "philosopher" as someone's title or occupation, as philosophy occurs in everyone on a daily basis and comes from multiple sources, including personal thoughts, experiences, people... really just life in general. Everyone is a philosopher sometimes but no one is a philosopher all the time, even if they dedicate more time to the subject than most.

But in the interest of contributing to this topic, I will say that my favorite philosophical quote comes from Bruce Lee when he was describing Jeet Kun Do: "Truth exists outside all molds." I'm sure others said such things before he did (hell, Bill O'Reilly has said it himself multiple times), but that was where I first heard it. It's why I don't like to identify myself as part of any group: it just clouds your judgement. Obviously I can't just not belong to any group (especially since I'm in the military), but I keep this in mind and try to frame my thought processes outside of the perspective of whatever group I'm in.

Bruce Lee definitely. Any quote from Bruce Lee is pure awesome. I only wonder what more he could have taught if he hadn't passed on.

 

[axlryder]

Daniel Dennett.

He gets science and therefore wins.

A lot of philosophers understood/understand science. Many of the greats were logicians, mathematicians and scientists themselves. Many philosophers have even made great contributions in those fields (though Dennett is still alive and that gives him something of a leg up in terms of potential for contemporary relevance when compared to anyone who's, well, dead). That said, he's the first person mentioned in this thread who I'm actually not familiar with. Googling Dennett, all I'm seeing is a bunch of videos on atheism. Could you elucidate what other "philosophical" contributions he's made outside of his criticisms of religion? More specifically, what is it that he's said/done which resonates with you personally outside of religious denouncement/criticism?

 

[Me55enger]

I was going to write something inherently philisophical by naming someone who you would not necessarily consider a philosopher.

But my Capatcha was Chuck Norris.

I choose Chuck Norris.

 

[axlryder]

I was going to write something inherently philisophical by naming someone who you would not necessarily consider a philosopher.

But my Capatcha was Chuck Norris.

I choose Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doesn't need to philosophize, as his very existence is the ultimate profundity.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

You probably want to go with Jesus of Nazareth rather than Christ then. Christ implies divinity.

I actually never knew it was a title. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ

Apparently though, it is considered part of his actual name now, so what I said was technically correct. Although not in the original sense of the word.