who are your favourite philosophers and why?

Question

i am a bit of a fan of existentialism alas jean paul sartre, although i am still a bit of a beginner in terms of understanding it as a whole and yet to grasp this concept fully. what i do know about it is the meaning of things that exist and why they are what they are. if you understand what i mean! i also like reading the works of michel foucault, karl marx, immanuel kant, charles s. pierce and plato to name but a couple. what theories do you agree with or have your views on? do you have a favourite philosopher? do you agree or disagree with what they say? do they influence the way you look at things in general, as well as your life? and if so, how?

Answer 1

I would draw a discintion between "problem solving philosophers" and "poetic" philiosophers.

The "problem solvers", amongst whom I'd include Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkley, Hume, Kant, Logical Positivists and Popper, where after knowledge of the world. They can appear mundane: "the world" can appear mundane compared to notions of the "great sweep of history" or "the Absolute" or whatever. However they were about what I think we should be about - finding answers to real questions. What can I know? Is the material world real? How can we know about it? How can we avoid error? Can we avoid error? If we can't avoid error all together can we at least get better? etc.etc.etc.

The "poetic" philosophers (and you might be better off with a description from someone who likes them) seem to be interested in .......well b*ll*cks really. Stuff that has absolutely zero explanatory power, like dialectics. Stuff that denies the value of individual people - like giving value to the "march of history".

My favourite "bit" of philosophy is William James' plea for usefulness (as an aim of philosophy: not as a criterion of truth) when he quotes an anarchist against "poetic" philosophers who invent an "absolute" and claim it to be above good and evil and discussing men who commit suicide because they cannot find work to keep their families from starving claim "that slain man makes the universe richer, and that is philosophy. But while professors Royce and Bradley and a whole host of guileless thoroughfed thinkers are unveiling Reality and the Absolute and explaining away evil and pain, this is the condition of the only being known to us anywhere in the universe with a developed consciousness of what the universe is. What these people experience IS Reality"

On that basis I suppose my favourite philosopher would have to be Karl Popper (and on lots of other bases as well!), particularly his "The Open Society and its Enemies" which critiques and warns against the dangers of a "revolt against reason" contained in (what I would call) "poetic" philosophy.

Answer 2

It'd have to be Nietzsche, who was the first philosopher to make me think; I may have read some philosophers before him, but they never seemed to be talking about anything that had to do with me. Nietzsche compelled me to think about things that personally concerned me, and to wonder why I believed in the things that I believed in. In that sense, he made philosophy seem like a crucially important activity, not just an academic thing.

I don't now agree with all or maybe even most of his ideas. I don't have much time for the whole superman/will-to-power thing, for example, and his ideas about women and racial characteristics are extremely wacky. In his last stuff he's verging on full-blown megalomania. But he scolded me into thinking for the first time in my life, and I'll always be grateful for that.

He also might be, of all the great philosophers, the most brilliant (because most vivid and least verbose) writer. In that respect he certainly knocks spots off Sartre, Foucault, Marx and Kant, although I have more sympathy with their actual theories.

Answer 3

A bid for Karl Marx. He was the original freethinker and defies a pigeonhole. Ranging from theology to finance to architecture (as well as economic ****" as he called his hard graft for Das Kapital). The key idea is the materialist dialectic - that society moves (backwards or forwards, no inevitable progress) through the clash of opposing material forces. It is a great insight and allows huge insights into otherwise perplexing issues (Northern Ireland would make for wonderful Marxian analysis). Poor Karl is greatly misunderstood, a man like him would have been first against the wall in any Bolshevik or Maoist tyranny - he was too honest and too brave to be cowed by such riff-raff. As he said towards the end of his life, "I know this, I'm not a Marxist!"

Answer 4

I find the teachings of the Buddha particularly enlightening and calming.

However, I don't restrict myself to Buddhism. I also have a fine appreciation of Lao Tsu and Chuang - Tsu, and the Taoist books they wrote.

The Western philosophy of Stoicism is particularly interesting to me, especially the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and Seneca's "De Vita Beata". Like Buddhism, Stoicism is a philosophy meant to be lived, not merely discussed as some dry academic subject.

In the modern day, I find that the most lucid and interesting philosophical points raised come from Nietzsche.

Answer 5

There are many wonderfully brilliant minds in existence both from our own time and from the times of our history. The light of knowledge is in abundance but true seekers of that light are found few and far between. And those who claim to be the avid seekers of philosophical truth are either lost in the unfathomable depths of idealistic subjectivism, or they fall flat at the feet of objective realism as they try to win for themselves intellectual sense of superiority in their high notions and thoughts.

It is impossible to choose for me a favourite among all philosopher from all times of the past or that of the present. If philosophy is to do with favouritism than I would choose them all, and then I will include myself among my favourites as the best.

Yes, that would be me, and why not? I understand how I have developed my thoughts and how they accompany my own personal feelings. I am contemporary to myself, I know the time and age I live in. My philosophy, may be limited, may be not very elaborate, but it is practical, it is experiential and intuitive. I can apply with full confidence and sense of responsibility what I conceive in my mind. I am consistent, vigorous and charming when I think about matter concerning my attention. My philosophy is philosophy of life - it is alive as I am alive.

On the other hand, if I choose someone else as my favourite philosopher then that would be for my mind alone and therefore for the world around me. But my philosophy is for my mind and for my heart as well. I am not completely certain, however, if I understand fully what I am, and more importantly what I can be. But I am in the pursuit of this important revolutionary knowledge, and hope that one day soon I will be able to answer this vital question - essentially who am I? I especially like myself when I ask this question to myself, perhaps this is why I am my own favourite philosopher?

'I am therefore they are what they are', you can quote this if you like.

Answer 6

I'm fond of Neitzsche, he's so over the top that his stuff forces you to question everything he says, and there is alot of good stuff in his words, but alot of crap as well.
And Sartre is actually one of the weakest existentialist, just the most popular, I've always believed existentialism to be the idea that nothing really exists outside of us, DeCartes "I think therefore I am" is where that all began.

Answer 7

My favorite philosophers are Xavier Zubiri, Sri Aurobindo, Isaac Luria, Dante, and Thomas Aquinas. Zubiri's structure and make-up of his philosophical system is by far the greatest consummation of Catholic and dynamic thought. Sri Aurobindo serves as the primary of the Integral school, alongside with Ken Wilber and the others. Isaac Luria and the Kabbalah offer their fair round of insight. Thomas Aquinas is ever flawless in his interpretation of faith and also that of the religious truth. Lenin, Marx, Savio, Malcolm X, Qutb, and other revolutionaries shine forth enlightenment upon the world in these trial-filled days of oppression as the peaceful ones such as Gibran, MLK Jr., Yogananda, Maritaines, and St. John of the Cross give the world hope.

Quotes of Zubiri:

"A human being starts “in” reality, not in the human imagination. Reality has images. Images have images. Reality is not an image of an image. Reality is the foundation of human reality with all its possible real moments and dimensions, “static” and “dynamic”. Reality is the “given”. A gift.

“The identification of what is real with being is an important consequence of the acceptance of Greek philosophy. It is what I have termed the entification of reality: things are not entities unless they have being. Now, to be is always but an ulterior act of the real. Whatsoever a being may be, it is always and only being “of” the real. Ulteriority is the precise meaning of this “of”. Therefore, reality and entity are not formally identical. Prior to being entities, and precisely in order to be able to be so, things begin by being real. The fundament of being is reality. And this is still more true, if it is fitting, when we are dealing with the reality of God. God is not the subsistent being, is not the supreme being, not even when festooned with the attribute of infinitude. God is not a divine entity, He is supreme reality. The important assumption common to St. Thomas and Duns Scotus, to which I referred above, is just the entification of reality and, therefore, the identification of God with the supreme entity. No. God is beyond being. God has no being; only worldly things have being, which by virtue of “already” being real, “are” in the world. As fundament of the power of the real God would formally be supreme reality that is ultimate, possibilitating and impelling.” (Xavier Zubiri, Man and God, p. 131)

Sri Aurobindo:

"They proved to me by convincing reasons that God does not exist; Afterwards I saw God, for he came and embraced me. And now what am I to believe- the reasoning of others or my own experience? Truth is what the soul has seen and experienced; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion." -From the Hour of God

Answer 8

Ford X. He died before he could spread many of his ideas and it's a shame because in my eyes, my closest friend, was philosophy incarnate. He told me so much, from the meaning of life to how a tree feels. It's a shame he got shot but at least he left me with all of his ideas.

Answer 9

♥♫♦ Plato "Allegory Of the Oppressed" the reason that I like it is because it teaches us how we are chained down and how the mind is prison without a education. I like that the book shows us how to escape poverty in itself. I like it even though I had to read it seven times to really understand it. I hope that I have helped you. ♥♫♦

Answer 10

my favorites are Friedrich nietzsche (Thus spoke zarathustra)
and Rene Descartes (The discourse on method) and of course there is Ayn Rand (The fountainhead - best book ive read so far)

You should definitely read these two books by nietzsche and descartes (Both are oxford classics)