Who are the greatest living thinkers?

Originally posted by muse7
Phage

To me, Phage is more of a "database". He doesn't really make conceptions from what I see. I always see him correcting people and tell us what he knows but nothing really new. He doesn't really bring solutions or new ideas to the table. He's forever in an argument between what's right and wrong. That's not his fault though, lol.

God.

He is so smart that humanity, as a collective whole, still hasn't been able to figure out how he did it, and how it all works.

My favorite Philosopher .... of our time, although deceased now (sadly) is Manly P Hall.

I have listened to many hours of his lectures and love every one of them, always learn something new it seems.

In 1934, Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) in Los Angeles, California, dedicating it to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems. The PRS claims to be non-sectarian and entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control, and the Society's programs stress the need for the integration of philosophy, religion, and science into one system of instruction. The PRS Library, a public facility devoted to source materials in obscure fields, has many rare and scarce items now impossible to obtain elsewhere.

Simon & Garfunkel

Dr. Michio Kaku

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

reply to post by woodwardjnr


(Modern) Not in this order unfair to say "living"

Amit Goswami
Benoit Mandelbrot
Richard Feynman
Marshall McLuhan
Daniel Pinchbeck
Buckmiester Fuller dead?
Krishnamurti dead as well?
Mitchell Feigenbaum
Simon Schama
Douglas Hofstadher
Jose Arguelles
Terrance McKenna (dead)
Stephen Colbert

Mahatma Gandhi

"Carefully watch your THOUGHTS, for they become your WORDS. Manage and watch your WORDS, for they will become your ACTIONS. Consider and judge your ACTIONS, for they have become your HABITS. Acknowledge and watch your HABITS, for they shall become your VALUES. Understand and embrace your VALUES, for they become YOUR DESTINY." - Mahatma Gandhi

Be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

The above words have profound meaning though not many have able to comprehend.

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one."
— John Lennon

"And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty." - 1984, George Orwell

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


There are none left. Or at least if there are, they are purposefully not celebrated any more and are kept away from the public eye. The fact is people have been getting stupider and stupider for the last thousand years. The majority of people these days just do not have the mental capacity to even understand the writings of Plato Socrates and Aristotle never mind think thoughts on the same level as them, and those who do are found at a standstill, unable to connect with the society which we have created through ignorance. If you had asked me say, two years ago my answer would have been that the greatest minds are here on ats and the type of people that come on here, however recently I have largely lost faith in this site and come to see that it is just as wrought with ignorance as the rest of the world. Its an utter shame.. but its true, mankind no longer delights in knowledge but simply in the mindless satisfaction of desires, and where knowledge so to speak is still loved it is only to sustain the life of the ego or further the capacity to satisfy desires. Science and academia and such things, in the modern world are but a scratch on the side of the iceberg of consciousness. For example you have quantum physicists trying desperately to prove that applied consciousness does not cause the wave function to collapse from a super-position into an actual position, when heisenberg himself, one of the pioneers of quantum theory said that it is so. It is not all thinking that has suffered, the best way i can put it is that the engineer has thrived while the philosopher has died out, because engineering does not threaten the status quo. I read new scientist every week just to get an update on whats happening and every week i see a decline in the insight and ingenuity of thought within modern scientific circles and an increase in mechanical cut and dry office-cubicle type thought. Not only do we refuse to think outside the box, but we actually spend our mental energy trying to keep ourselves in the box, to fortify it and strengthen its foundations, without knowing of the wondrous joy and mystery which lies outside our limited scope of mundane awareness.

reply to post by simplyLOVE


Great points, I couldn't agree more. Science is grounded wholly in materialism so any kinds of "new philosophy" is going to come from that which is very limited as its a nuts and bolts mindset and not a big picture issue. Even these cosmologist aren't doing anything but making guesses about stuff that is completely inconsequential to life as a human while at the same time we mean less and less in the scheme of things.

reply to post by vethumanbeing


I now think i should have read all the replies before saying what i said cause I actually agree with you about every one of these and i would add (if we are going for modern rather than living)
Ghandi,
Einstein,
Bohr,
Heisenberg,
Mother Teresa,
Meher Baba,
Aldhous Huxley,
R.D Laing,
Eknath Easwaran
Stephen Hawking
Rick Straussman

and my dad, but i guess that doesnt count but it does to me

reply to post by NihilistSanta


Totally, I mean who cares what the half life of some obscure radiocative material is or whatever, that knowledge is utterly useless unless it reveals some wisdom concerning, why are we here? what is reality? what is consciousness? what is the meaning of life and the task of humanity? etc. And the sciences which do touch on some semblance of a path towards truth such as Psychology/Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Neurobiology, Quantum Mechanics and Theoretical Physics, are limited because they are not linked to the rest of the subjects, over specialisation is so acute that the distance between the left and right walls of science is so far apart that we cannot relate any discoveries we make in these fields to actual real life, and so whats the use? But I reckon this has been done on purpose by TPTB

Originally posted by simplyLOVE
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

dad, but i guess that doesnt count but it does to me

I think many feel as you do

Originally posted by simplyLOVE
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

I now think i should have read all the replies before saying what i said cause I actually agree with you about every one of these and i would add (if we are going for modern rather than living)
Ghandi,
Einstein,
Bohr,
Heisenberg,
Mother Teresa,
Meher Baba,
Aldhous Huxley,
R.D Laing,
Eknath Easwaran
Stephen Hawking
Rick Straussman

and my dad, but i guess that doesnt count but it does to me

YEA! I would have included my Father as well, but oh well you know how that goes; happens to the best of us. Nice list I will add Nicolai Tesla and Robert A. Monroe.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by woodwardjnr

 

My respect plummeted for him when he introduced the idea of reverse causation during the "big crunch" where everything that's ever happened would happen in reverse order with broken glasses reassembling themselves. I think Hawking is prepared to go to any lengths to deny the existence of God as well and has a real axe to grind in that department. Like Steve Jobs on his deathbed who went "oh WOW, oh WOW, oh WOW" I think Hawking might be in for a big surprise.

Hawking an unlikely flagbearer for atheism; yet there it is. No imagination at ALL; and he a brilliant theoretical physicist (very surprising his opinions regarding the Non-existance of God). Whom I havent seen show up on anyones list so far is the major network star Popular Science guru--recanted all of his previous doubts as well regarding the existance of God on his deathbead wrote Brocas Brain....confound me I cant remember his name.

Hawking might be angry with having LGD, he doesnt realise the contract HE signed before incarnation in this life was to be one of the greatest modern physicists with a terrible handicap and prove to the world disease is meaningless/full if your mind trumps the illness dispite awful odds.

reply to post by vethumanbeing


You are thinking of Carl Sagan and he has been mentioned . I don't think the stories of him recanting are credible though because his wife is still around I believe she denied this.

Originally posted by NihilistSanta
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

You are thinking of Carl Sagan and he has been mentioned . I don't think the stories of him recanting are credible though because his wife is still around I believe she denied this.

Thankyou. He has probably contacted her (a postumous visitation) and made her promise: "Do not tell them anything, about ANYTHING; certainly this one thing most of all-- I have no idea where I am". If when alive and left one clue expressing at least a sense of humor or finality regarding/pointing to an intact belief system it could have been the gravestone epitaph "Dont Forget To Feed The Dogs".

Originally posted by vethumanbeing

Originally posted by simplyLOVE
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

I now think i should have read all the replies before saying what i said cause I actually agree with you about every one of these and i would add (if we are going for modern rather than living)
Ghandi,
Einstein,
Bohr,
Heisenberg,
Mother Teresa,
Meher Baba,
Aldhous Huxley,
R.D Laing,
Eknath Easwaran
Stephen Hawking
Rick Straussman

and my dad, but i guess that doesnt count but it does to me

YEA! I would have included my Father as well, but oh well you know how that goes; happens to the best of us. Nice list I will add Nicolai Tesla and Robert A. Monroe.

edit on 31-3-2013 by vethumanbeing because:
(no reason given)

Just a Quick Question about your choices here!!

How many are Living thinkers??

I could list at least 100 dead names..including Howard Zin But I find it hard to name Living thinkers

Originally posted by rickymouse

I can't think of any off hand.

You must be one of them Take him!