The best philosopher

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

I hear rankings of and superlatives about scientists, athletes, politicians, actors, musicians, journalists, etc., etc. But I have never heard any such things about the enterprise of Philosophy.

So who is the best philosopher ever? Second best? Third best?

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Wow. That's pretty difficult, since there are the most well known, and the unknown as well. I'm not spun up on philosophy to give a correct and intelligent answer, but one of the best I've read for wisdom is Solomon. I'm speaking from through the eyes of Christianity when I say this. Aristotle and Socrates were great also. God bless.


Jerry

 

[Patzak]

HArd to say who's the best, but I have a favourite for every age.

Aristotle
Aquinas (I hate him actually, but there's no denying he was a genius)
Spinoza
Hegel
early Heidegger
Deleuze (I haven't read enough to be sure though)

Of all these I'd say Spinoza and Hegel were the greatest for the sheer power of their intellect (same goes for Aristotle and Aquinas of course, but I find the former two to be even more impressive), Heidegger and Deleuze for originality of their thought.

Christianmarine: if you haven't yet, try reading some Confucius. I find his sayings to be quite similar to the proverbs quoted in your earlier thread. Other confucianists as well (Zhung Zi I think).

 

[Eudaimonist]

So who is the best philosopher ever? Second best? Third best?

Aristotle and Ayn Rand are the best, of course.

Just kidding about Ayn Rand. While I respect her philosophical insights immensely, she focused too much in her life on novel writing and too little on developing her philosophy in print.

I'll rank them this way:

1) Aristotle
2) Plato
3) Kant

I'm not saying that I approve of Plato's or Kant's philosophical ideas, but they are great and influential philosophers.

 

[Jebediah]

1. Kant

2. Kierkegaard

3. C. S. Lewis

 

[xAtheistx]

Aristotle and Socrates were great also.

I can't vote for Aristotle on the grounds that he was wrong about damn near everything scientifically. I can provide examples if so required.

Socrates kicked ass though.

 

[Verv]

I hear rankings of and superlatives about scientists, athletes, politicians, actors, musicians, journalists, etc., etc. But I have never heard any such things about the enterprise of Philosophy.

So who is the best philosopher ever? Second best? Third best?

My three picks:

(1) Socrates
(2) John Locke
(3) Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Socrates is best because he was perpetually objective, and without having any goal in mind he simply questioned, interrogated, and tried to establish norms of objective thought for everyone.

John Locke because he wrote the most important essays concerning politics and the 'nature of man,' invetigating the very nature of who we are and how we should live; tackling a very large subject.

J.-J. Rousseau because he took John Locke a step further and investigated exclusively what he believed the natural man would be as, and from this tried to come up with very interesting moral conclusions that I love. He even was the man responsible for looking at a sort of innocence in savagery, and seeing a profoundness in the way a human can be.

I admire these three men a lot ebcause I think that their intellectual contributions were tremendous, and more than tremendous, they were truly profound and not mere outward speculation, but also inward reflection.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I can't vote for aristotle on the grounds that he was wrong about damn near everything scientifically.

Why are you judging how great a philosopher he is by how poor a scientist he was before scientific method was even invented?

To his credit, he did argue convincingly that the Earth is round rather than flat based on his observations of lunar eclipses. Quite ingenious for his day.

 

[fuzzyh]

The only true philosophical answer to the question "who is the best philosopher?"

Define best.

Now on to my list.

1. Aquinas
2. Kant - sheerly due to his intelligence
3. Aristotle
4. Plato

 

[AFallingStar]

I think Socrates and Descartes would be my top two. The third is still up for grabs...

 

[psychedelicist]

Celia Green. Maybe not the best of all time, but my current favorite.

I guess I'll be the first to throw Neitzche in there. I'm not a nihilist but I like his style nonetheless. You knew someone would eventually bring him up, anyways.

I also like aldous huxley very much, even though he presented no ideas that hadn't been heard already at some point or another. Again, probably not good enough to make the 'best philosopher of all time' but still one of my favorites.

 

[xAtheistx]

Neitzche

So what do you think psych... Is God dead?

 

[savvy]

I've always had a fondness for Socrates.

 

[TeddyKGB]

So what do you think psych... Is God dead?

Yes, according to Zarathustra. A natural death, though.

Nietzsche would say, of course, that Jesus lives on.

And he was not a moral nihilist, despite popular opinion. He thought moral nihilism could result from the collapse of Christianity, but he also thought it could be avoided by natural reason.

 

[TeddyKGB]

I've always had a fondness for Socrates.

Euthyphro pwns.

 

[savvy]

Euthyphro pwns.

Indeed it does.

p.s. I hate you for making me spend valuable minutes pondering the meaning of pwns.

 

[TeddyKGB]

p.s. I hate you for making me spend valuable minutes pondering the meaning of pwns.

I hate me for employing such puerile internet verbiage.

Euthyphro owns.

 

[savvy]

I hate me for employing such puerile internet verbiage.

Euthyphro owns.

This I discovered with the help of a handy slang dictionary. Valuable brain cells were lost upon learning the meaning.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I've always had a fondness for Socrates.

Me too. He had a very interesting life. I personally find him more admirable than Jesus, and I try to live the Examined Life as well.

 

[TheGMan]

I've always had a fondness for Socrates.

I can't stand the self-important old man. Okay, that's Plato's portrayal of him but if it's at all accurate it's no wonder the Athenians sentenced him to drink hemlock.

Sorry. I had to study the Apologia in my Ancient Greek class.

Right... best philosophers... ho hum...

• Nelson Goodman for the "Grue Paradox" which is perhaps the most important question in epistemlogy to date.
• Søren Kierkegaard for recognising that the human individual transcended reason.
• I suppose I should have a political philosopher in there as well so I'll have Adam Smith.