Greatest Philosopher of All Time?

[Pangur Bán]

Alright, this poll isn't comprehensive, but considerably better than a previous poll on the subject.

The philosophers selcted for the poll were not selected randomly. They are partly based on my own knowledge, which is decent over all, extensive in some areas, but doesn't cover all areas comprehensively. To be seen as more objective, I have relied partly on other internet lists of great philosophers. This way, factors other than my knowledge and opinion come to bare on the selction on the poll:

Most Popular Philosophers On Amazon.co.uk

Most Popular Philosophers On Amazon.de

Geometry.net's List of Great Philosophers

Gustavus Adolphus College List

Epistemelinks's List

Stanford University

Yahoo Directory of Philosophers

Radical Academy List

 

[Pangur Bán]

These are links for the philosophers on the poll. These are the best you'll get anywhere on the web, so be grateful

Aristotle

St Augustine

Avicenna

Confucius

Descartes

Frege

Hegel

Heidegger

Hobbes

Hume

Kant

Kierkegaard

Leibniz

Locke

Nietzsche

For Plato-Socrates: Plato and Socrates

Thales of Miletus

Wittgenstein

##########################################

Some comment on omitted philosophers. I'm almost certain that all genuine candidates for "greatest ever philosopher" are on the poll. You may like Mill or Epicurus or Russell, but there is absolutely no chance that any of these men would be greater than, say, Aristotle or Descartes.

Frankly, I don't think much of St Augustine or Avicenna either, but the former is so widely praised that I have to yield to others' opinion. Avicenna is almost universally regarded as the greatest Islamic philosopher, and he is there as a token. I don't think he's a genuine candidate. There is no Indian philosopher because my extremely limited knowledge does not yield any obvious example, except the Buddha. The reason Confucius is there and the Buddha isn't, is quite simply space and the fact that I know and appreciate much more of Confucius's philosophy than the Buddha's.

Marx is out because most of his philosophy was laid down in the Enlightenment and by Hegel. My knowledge of this forum tells me that he will get an unreasonable number of votes, which I suspect would stem from his obvious political impact, rather than his philosophical abilities.

 

[Pangur Bán]

In my own opinion, these are the greatest philosophers of all time:

1) Aristotle - He is the real link between the modern and ancient world. He deseerves credit as one of the greatest men in history for transforming science from a mixed bundle of curiosities, into a systematic system of investigation of knowledge. Unlike Plato, he pursued almost every form of human knowledge and still distinguished himself above most of his contemporaries. The man was a Super-Genius.

2)Descartes - He deserves the credit for breaking the medieval philosophical system. His rational approach transformed the old philosophical system into one that could achieve the intellectual results we now take for granted. Descartes method sets western philosophy above non-western philosophy .He is the first modern philosopher.

3)Hume - If Thales and Aristotle laid the first wounds on religion, Hume's attack has it on the brink of death. If the basis of religion is the soul and revelation, he undermines both. The problem of the self raised by Hume has only been ignored, and never effectively challenged. No-one can believe in any afterlife, any soul-issuing God, etc, without ignoring the challenge.
As if religion weren't enough, his scepticism and attack on causation undermine the foundation of science as we know it. the problem of causation which Hume raised has only ever been effectively ignored, never solved, although frequently complicated. He undermined the idea of causation as it was universally when he wrote, and as it is now among virtually all people.The problems raised by Hume are catastrophic for human thinking in general.

 

[newfangle]

Ayn Rand

 

[Pangur Bán]

Originally posted by newfangle
Ayn Rand

Why? Obviously you have reasons, what are they?

 

[newfangle]

She describes reality.

 

[Suppersalmon]

Karl Marx

 

[Pangur Bán]

Originally posted by newfangle
She describes reality.

Sorry, I still don't have even the slightest understanding of why you think she is the greatest philosopher of all time, if indeed you really do. You think she is a greater philosopher than Aristotle, Descartes, etc, etc. Why?

 

[newfangle]

Well in all fairness, she bases her philosophy on Aristotle. He got my vote btw.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Plato had the greatest contribution. Plato and Aristotle pretty much sum up all ancient philosophy...

 

[kmad]

John Locke

why is Descartes winning? Only reason he was popular was because his beliefs fit in well with the church's interests

 

[Peri]

I'm going to go for Thomas Paine and the 'Rights of Man'.
Pretty self-explanatory really

 

[Pangur Bán]

Originally posted by kmad
John Locke

why is Descartes winning? Only reason he was popular was because his beliefs fit in well with the church's interests

Hardly.

But as for the posters on this forum, we'll never know since hardly anyone posts their vote, and when they do, they do not explain.

 

[kmad]

I picked locke because his blank slate theory laid the groundwork for modern education methods, which may have been a vital prerequisite to the enlightenment

I would have picked karl marx if he was up there

 

[Pangur Bán]

Originally posted by kmad

I would have picked karl marx if he was up there

Yes, if you read my first posts, you'll see that I purposely left him out. I don't expect the poll to resemble the truth, but Marx would simply get an unfair number of votes.

 

[mes17]

"All western philosophy is a footnote to Plato".(I've forgotten who said that).

If you're familiar with Plato then there's not much that's been written that can't be found in his works albeit in another form. Decartes meditations are merely a non-allegorical version of the cave parable from The Republic.
I'm of the opinion that you could completely ignore Aristotle and miss nothing of importance.(Sorry Calcagus)

Of the philosophers not on the list, Zeno is glaringly omitted. Metaphysics begins and ends with him. No one in the last 2500 years has said anything to definitively answer his speculations.

I actually voted for Kierkegaard as he is probably the most original of modern philosphers. His "Johannas Climacas" and "Concluding Unscientific Postscript" are works of rhetorical genius. He's also the only philosopher that makes me laugh.

 

[mes17]

"why is Descartes winning? Only reason he was popular was because his beliefs fit in well with the church's interests"

I don't know if he was that popular at the time but his posthumously published works often contradict the idea that he was really a believer. They were published after his death on his instructions so he wouldn't face the Galileo treatment from the church. Anyway, his proof of the existence of god is torn down fairly easily in most freshman Introduction to Philosophy classes.
In my opinion his main contribution was to clearly spell out the question of being. He wasn't the first to ask but his explanation and exploration of possible answers certainly sparked a renewed interest and a flurry of new writings.

 

[thestonesfan]

Karl Marx hated capitalism because he was failure.

Karl Marx was a freakin' LOSER. That's fun to say. I can't believe he has followers.

That crap about civilization arising because of "class struggles" makes me laugh. What a tool.

And don't get me started on the lunacy of the "blank slate" theory. One of the worst instances of leftist "feel-good" crap.

 

[Akka]

I'm a bit puzzled to see philosophers like St-Augustine, Avicenna, Kierkegaard, and some others, and not ANY one from the Enlightement (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot).

I'd go for Voltaire, personnally.
But as he's not in the poll, I went for Socrates-Plato and Descartes.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Originally posted by mes17

I'm of the opinion that you could completely ignore Aristotle and miss nothing of importance.(Sorry Calcagus)

Well, I hoped you're trying to lure me into an argument, I can only assume that you're not really speaking your mind.

I suppose such an opinion is plausible, if, and only if, you ignore the invention of logic, the invention of systematic science, etc

Of the philosophers not on the list, Zeno is glaringly omitted.

Zeno had no chance. His paradoxes are pretty clever, but they've been answered AFAIK. At any rate, we don't have enough knowledge of him to make any proper judgement on his greatness as a philosopher.

If you're familiar with Plato then there's not much that's been written that can't be found in his works albeit in another form

Not true. He doesn't even touch on causation, for instance. At any rate, any any ancient writer with as much written record as Plato, can be twisted into much more than is plausible to sensible people. Take the Bible for instance.

Plato is overrated. His theory of ideas is simply a fusion of Parmenides and Heraclius; his moral philosophy probably belongs to Socrates; and his political writings, esp. in the Republic are simply are rip-off from classical Sparta.