Who is your favorite philosopher?

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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

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My favourite philosophers:

1. Hume. He was born dead, and revived. He was almost chucked to the garbage.
2. Socrates. He is the most misvalued philosopher. He was an argumentative man, who wanted to win all his arguments, even by unscrupulous means, such as with the use of fallacies. I don't like this, but I also don't like that most people who adore him put him on a pedestal. They speak of him as if he were a legend, a person larger than life. Which he wasn't. He was a flesh-and-blood, egotistic, human being. I hate hifoluters. To them, it seems, ideas mean nothing, they all go by reputation.
Least liked philosophers:
1. Kant. He was not able to create a solution to his own formulation of the problem of ethics.

2. Randt. She was the reason I was not admitted into the philosophy department at Western in London. I criticised her cuttingly and mercilessly, and the "middle-aged-white-male, die! die! die!!" spirit of the department ousted me before I could enroll in a course. I must say here, I am a middle aged white male. Or rather, I was at the time, which was five years ago, now I'm an old-age white male. My criticism stemmed on the fact that like Kandt, she never found a solution to the problem, and worse than Kandt, Randt never even named the problem she wanted to find a solution for. She was a sorry, good-for-nothing, quite, overrated philosopher, whose only road to fame was her gender, which was unique in a sea of male philosophers. But with her thoughts she merited nothing.

3. Wittgenstein. He squandered his brain power away for nothing. He never postulated anything, he never put forth an argument, he never tried to deconstruct anything, he never tried anything. He breezed through life stating the obvious in very surprising ways. He was a genius, I don't argue against that; I argue that he never did anything with his genius other than create glib statements.
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StayCurious
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by StayCurious »

Alan Watts, Ram Dass, and Terrence McKenna all for different reasons. Heavily recommend them to everyone. May you and peace meet.
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philojoe
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

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Sean Goonan, author of The Foundation for Exploration
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h_k_s
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Favorite Philosopher: Aristotle
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by h_k_s »

Mosesquine wrote: January 13th, 2017, 6:46 am My favorite philosophers are Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Frege, Russell, Quine, Davidson, Lewis, Kripke, and so on. Who is your favorite philosopher?
Well you asked in singular and you answered in plural.

My favorite is Aristotle.

My favorites are Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibniz, Russell (except for his atheism), and Scruton (except for his politics).
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JohnHermes
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by JohnHermes »

The Philosophers I follow are more into the esoteric/occult genre.
Image

I'll list a few and their background: Not orderly fashioned:
  • Manly P Hall - 33rd degree freemason with his best work "The secret teaching of all ages"
  • Carlos Castaneda - Anthropologist met a Yaaqui shaman, best work "The art of dreaming"
  • William Walker Atkinson - Hermetic adept, best work "The Kybalion"
[/list]
Wmhoerr
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Wmhoerr »

My favourite philosopher was Bertram Russell, but I also liked Schopenhauer, Voltaire and many others. But people usually read novels before philosophers and it is here that many philosophical ideas are first introduced. I can recommend “The Summing Up” by Somerset Maugham. I remember he was having a drink with a friend on the Italian island of Capri and concluded that “… after the second bottle of wine we began to think there was not much wrong with the world”. I was also influenced by early travel books and have begun a list of these on evolution-path.org/snippets
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Arjen
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Favorite Philosopher: Immanuel Kant

Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Arjen »

I have had many favorites over time.

My first favorite was Socrates. Who else would spend his life on philosophy, yet never write anything, get arrested for corrupting the minds of the young, get broken out of jail by his friends and yet stay in that very same jail, only to receive the death penalty?

Plato is a favorite too of course. He was writing about Socrates, after all. But also because of all of the things that he wrote about. It is so diverse and we see changes in his writing style, showing his growth in his thoughts. Love the man.

Aristotle for his scientific approach to so many things. Although many that know me know that I often disliked his philosophies, showing where he deviated from Plato (and I liked Plato better). But, I have gained a deep respect for him since then. The amount of work that this man did is almost impossible to do for any man. I am humbled by him.

Jean Jacques Rousseau, because he dares to think. The enlightenment was a wonderful period. Until I read his emile, on raising children (great book), and learned that he had brought his own children to the orphanage!

Kant, simply for his work in metaphysics. A start of psychology, I would say.

Jacques Lacan, for his objet petit a (the mirror stage).

Currently into Pjotr Kropotkin, for his work on human interactions in the sense of Anarchy/Politics and mutual aid.

And many others will remain unnamed.
The saying that what is true in theory is not always true in practice, means that the theory is wrong!
~Immanuel Kant
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Burning ghost
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Burning ghost »

Mosesquine wrote: January 15th, 2017, 12:56 am
Burning ghost wrote:All the dead ones. None of the living ones.
Saul Kripke (1940 - ) is the living one.
Let me know when he becomes one of my “favs” then :wink:
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Consul
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Consul »

You don't have to be dead in order to be a good philosopher!
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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Burning ghost
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Burning ghost »

My point was that once they’re done then they can be approached in a more dispassionate manner.

I also tend to get more out of people whose words I dislike because trying to find out why they think what they think is a fascinating, and difficult, task to take on - even if I never agree with their points by doing this I can at least come to view and agree with part of their perspective and even adjust my own too if I’m lucky.

In this respect my favourite dislikes are (or have been) Kant, Derrida, Foucault (even though he isn’t technically a “philosopher”) and Heidegger. Kant’s work is the only one of these I’ve come to admire after approaching it with a vicious intent to metaphorically crack his head open on a rock - his precision, in places, ended up splitting the rock in two much to my brow-furrowed pleasure! :D
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Burning ghost
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Burning ghost »

Consul wrote: February 12th, 2019, 1:16 am You don't have to be dead in order to be a good philosopher!
I never said that. The question was “Who is your fav?” NOT who is the best.
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Consul
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Consul »

Mosesquine wrote: January 14th, 2017, 1:42 amDavid Kellogg Lewis is the most important metaphysician in the analytic tradition in the 20th century. So, he is on the list.
David Malet Armstrong is no less important than Lewis (they were good friends, by the way)!

For example, here's a splendid lecture on The Scope & Limits of Knowledge:

"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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Consul
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Consul »

Burning ghost wrote: February 12th, 2019, 1:19 amI never said that. The question was “Who is your fav?” NOT who is the best.
Okay, one of my favorite living philosophers is John Heil. His 2012 book The Universe As We Find It is a masterpiece of contemporary metaphysics.

Here's a lecture:
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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Consul
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Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Consul »

Burning ghost wrote: February 12th, 2019, 1:18 amI also tend to get more out of people whose words I dislike because trying to find out why they think what they think is a fascinating, and difficult, task to take on - even if I never agree with their points by doing this I can at least come to view and agree with part of their perspective and even adjust my own too if I’m lucky.
Reading books by people who share all your opinions is intellectual masturbation. It feels good, but your mind won't grow.
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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Arjen
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Favorite Philosopher: Immanuel Kant

Re: Who is your favorite philosopher?

Post by Arjen »

Consul wrote: February 12th, 2019, 1:16 am You don't have to be dead in order to be a good philosopher!
Back at the University, the faculty joke was:
"The only good philosopher is a dead philosopher!"
:P
The saying that what is true in theory is not always true in practice, means that the theory is wrong!
~Immanuel Kant
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