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I'm curious as to some of y'all's (yes, I'm from the south) favorite philosophers that are more recent? "Recent" being defined as no earlier than the turn of the 20th century.
Some of my personal favorites include Alan Watts and Ram Dass. If you haven't read anything by them or heard any of there lectures, I greatly recommend it. I would describe their work to be "wording the unwordable."
I did a university (college to you, good person) paper on Metaphysics last year and was quite taken by Derek Parfit's ideas on personal identity. I haven't read a Parfit book fully but do intend to, but I would still list him as my favourite recent philosopher for the lack of anyone else I have really read. His approach to personal identity really hit me hard and got me thinking. I think research for the essay I did on his views will leave a lasting effect on my own philosophical views.
I haven't read or heard anything by the two people listed and will look into it. I am meaning to know a bit more about recent and currently still active philosophy.
Among the modern living philosophers I am highly influenced by Thomas Nagel and particularly by his “Philosophy of mind”. He argues for consciousness and subjective experience. His widely known article “ what is it Like to Be a Bat” has something of a subjective character, that means a being has something, mental that feels who it is and only it feels who it is and since it is a subjective state or approach it is not measurable or ascribable from an objective standpoint.
Some aspects of us are not easily observable or analyzable and that to understand what a particular organism is one has to be in the state of the organism and it is impossible.
StayCurious wrote: ↑February 17th, 2018, 11:17 pm
I'm curious as to some of y'all's (yes, I'm from the south) favorite philosophers that are more recent? "Recent" being defined as no earlier than the turn of the 20th century.
Some of my personal favorites include Alan Watts and Ram Dass. If you haven't read anything by them or heard any of there lectures, I greatly recommend it. I would describe their work to be "wording the unwordable."
Thank you, may you have peace.
I am my favorite philosopher! *__-
(I do appreciate your faves, by the way! Be Here Now!)
Otherwise, without 'being/experiencing/Knowing it (philosophical thought)', it is like picking a 'favorite' flavor derived from a list of other people's descriptions of the flavors.
I don't know whether he'd be most people's cup of tea here but I've found a lot of John Gray's work particularly insightful recently. I read Straw Dogs a few days ago, sort of wish I'd been aware of that ten or fifteen years ago.
I don't know how "recent" he is, but I've found this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2J7wSu ... F1AD9047B0) from Shelly Kagan (and various stuff involving him on YouTube) to be incredibly helpful. Cracked open his book on death a year ago but couldn't finish it in time (was a library book), unfortunately.
Mark Rowlands (author of the supreme The Philosopher and the Wolf) has a very cool book on memory called Memory and the Self in which he introduces his concept of "Rilkean memory" that I plan on returning to.
StayCurious wrote: ↑February 17th, 2018, 11:17 pm
I'm curious as to some of y'all's (yes, I'm from the south) favorite philosophers that are more recent? "Recent" being defined as no earlier than the turn of the 20th century.
Some of my personal favorites include Alan Watts and Ram Dass. If you haven't read anything by them or heard any of there lectures, I greatly recommend it. I would describe their work to be "wording the unwordable."
Thank you, may you have peace.
I like Roger Scruton. I don't agree with any of his politics. However I do agree with his abstract philosophical thoughts and books.
Kevin Levites wrote: ↑April 25th, 2019, 6:23 pm
I prefer Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan, Issac Asimov, Michael Shermer, Arthur C. Clarke, Joe Nickell, and Sanjay Gupta.
Good to see another lover of science and science fiction! Carl Sagan a particularly deep thinker. Richard Dawkins also provided tremendous insights in his early days.
Kevin Levites wrote: ↑April 25th, 2019, 6:23 pm
I prefer Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan, Issac Asimov, Michael Shermer, Arthur C. Clarke, Joe Nickell, and Sanjay Gupta.
Good to see another lover of science and science fiction! Carl Sagan a particularly deep thinker. Richard Dawkins also provided tremendous insights in his early days.
Alan Watts's understanding of the nature of reality was so far ahead of almost everyone else's. Very few understand him. I think, apart from being a natural genius, the guy also had eidetic memory.
Such a genuine fake can't even call himself a philosopher anymore with a straight face, just a spiritual entertainer.