Greatest Philosophers in your mind

Top 10 are
1.Hegel
2.Kant
3.Kierkegaard
4.Nietszche
5.Aristotle
6.Averroes
7.Heidegger
8.Aquinas
9.Avicenna
10.Augustine
How have your greatest influenced you.
[edit on 25-4-2010 by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010]

[edit on 25-4-2010 by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010]

Kant, Nietzsche and Husserl should be there also. And what about Descartes? Bit strange that you missed all analytical tradition (Hobbes, Locke, ...).

Originally posted by zeddissad
Kant, Nietzsche and Husserl should be there also. And what about Descartes? Bit strange that you missed all analytical tradition (Hobbes, Locke, ...).

I don't really care for that tradition. Yeah I should have put Nietszche, Kant, and Husserl.

So hard to narrow down a list.

I guess it also comes down to which fields of study you find most interesting. All the people listed so far are worthy of recognition for their contributions to Philosophy.

Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Nietzsche are ones that stick out for me.

[edit on 25/4/2010 by Dark Ghost]

reply to post by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010


Nr 1. Manly P. Hall, nr 2. Francis Bacon aka Shakespeare ;P nr 3. Plato

[edit on 25-4-2010 by skekke]

Originally posted by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010
I don't really care for that tradition. Yeah I should have put Nietszche, Kant, and Husserl.

If you don't care about tradition you don't care about history - it is IMHO legitimate view to see history as battle between tradition and novelty. At least cultural history clearly show such pattern. It is also base of Anglosaxon political system. Conservatives (should) represent tradition, liberals novelty. But our times are bit strange. "The time is out of joint ..." to cite Shakespear/Bacon.
Please take look at modern hermeneutics (H-G. Gadamer). You will probably realize that without tradition there is no understanding ...

Terence Mckenna and me.

Camus comes to mind, as he did not lose his mind when the reality around him was strangely absurde.

His theory of people opening there minds and having the divorce between the world and themselves, made plenty of sense to me

Most people would disagree, but I consider Ghandi to be a great philosopher.

That's my choice, first and last.

~Keeper

Originally posted by zeddissad

Originally posted by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010
I don't really care for that tradition. Yeah I should have put Nietszche, Kant, and Husserl.

If you don't care about tradition you don't care about history - it is IMHO legitimate view to see history as battle between tradition and novelty. At least cultural history clearly show such pattern. It is also base of Anglosaxon political system. Conservatives (should) represent tradition, liberals novelty. But our times are bit strange. "The time is out of joint ..." to cite Shakespear/Bacon.
Please take look at modern hermeneutics (H-G. Gadamer). You will probably realize that without tradition there is no understanding ...

Yeah that is true but the tradition that I like to focus my ideas around are from that of the school of idealism and continental philosophy and some scholastic.

reply to post by colloredbrothers


How could I forget about Terence...
He's just amazing!

Here's a link to a good guy named theduderinok on youtube..
He has a lot of Terence Mckenna's material..

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010


My mother always inflicted me with philosophical quotes from Confucius... some of which I later learned had either been bastardized or an accidental byproduct of her raw sense of humour.

I'm going to add Zhaozhao and Fung Yu-Lan

Krishnamurti, Lao Zi, Buddha, Plato, Heidegger, Illich, Baudrillaird, Foucault, Bevoir

Mc Kenna and Gandhi are great too, I agree with those, who named them

Socrates and Plato have always been my favorites. They opened my eyes to things inadvertently. A lot of things they said made me question things like religion, the nature of politics, trust, and friendship.

A lot of my favorite "philosophers" aren't really philosophers. I have always been a huge fan of Chomsky's analytical style of aproaching politics and social questions. I don't always agree with him but I admire his approach.

I am also a huge fan of the world Neil Postman implied was ideal through his works. He pointed out issues with technological glut, the destruction of eductaion, and the loss of child hood. In doing so he drew an implied picture of a world that should be. A world where the human spirit and freedom were still to be valued. A world with some sense of order and purpose is necesary and Postman made a good argument to that extent.

reply to post by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010


How about these:

Lao Tzu- some of this shows up in plato, but skewed a bit (mustard seed)
the Theravada- positivist outcome of the nihilistic philosophy of a long decadent culture
Plotinus- roots catholicism AND relativity can be found in the one McKenna translated- I bet einstein or his first wife read this one- alot
Reichenbach- the secular scientific philosophy of time

luis

John Trudell stands out in my mind. You can find his videos on youtube.

Originally posted by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010

Yeah that is true but the tradition that I like to focus my ideas around are from that of the school of idealism and continental philosophy and some scholastic.

We should not forget modern (linguistics/psychoanalyzes inspired) French school - Lacan, Derrida, Foucault ... They all studied phenomenology which is rooted in German idealism ... Above mentioned Gadamer is also phenomenologist (he studied with/under Heidegger). Husserl and Heidegger studied Hegel and Kant precisely. Heidegger was also specialist at classical philosophy (presocratics, Plato, Aristotle,...).
Now I'm at my point - there are no best philosophers - all philosophers work on one thing. That is philosophy. Sorry, I'm bit drunk now, but hopefully understandable.

Originally posted by zeddissad
Originally posted by EarthquakeNewMadrid2010

Yeah that is true but the tradition that I like to focus my ideas around are from that of the school of idealism and continental philosophy and some scholastic.

We should not forget modern (linguistics/psychoanalyzes inspired) French school - Lacan, Derrida, Foucault ... They all studied phenomenology which is rooted in German idealism ... Above mentioned Gadamer is also phenomenologist (he studied with/under Heidegger). Husserl and Heidegger studied Hegel and Kant precisely. Heidegger was also specialist at classical philosophy (presocratics, Plato, Aristotle,...).
Now I'm at my point - there are no best philosophers - all philosophers work on one thing. That is philosophy. Sorry, I'm bit drunk now, but hopefully understandable.

Heidegger's language is definitely the most enrapturing. Hegel definitely has the most interesting perspectives. German idealism is the best

Excellent list, but no Plato?!

My own favourites, in no particular order, would be, -

Plato, Plotinus, Ficino, Emerson, Averroes, Eriugena, William James,
Bergson, Meister Eckhart, Henry More...

In terms of the influence they had, obviously Descartes or Kant would rank
higher for many people, but I get the most inspiration from these philosophers.

Bruce Lee was an excellent philosopher, despite many people believing he was just one badass mofo.
His philosophies were mainly based around Taoism, just like mine, and the way he incorporates martial arts into his philosophies is astounding.