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Your favorite philosopher?

I mentioned (or seconded) William James before, and it occurs to me to add one reason why. So often here on the forums a newly hatched thinker comes up with the blinding question of the decade, and my immediate reaction is, "Oh Jeez, just go read " The Tigers in India," or "Does Consciousness Exist," and call back in the morning. James may not have all the answers to the questions, but he asked them pretty well.

At the more homely or homiletic level of philosophy, I second the mention of Epictetus. After a couple of thousand years and numerous raids by lesser thinkers some his stuff seems kind of trite these days, but you can still pick some meat off the bones of the Enchiridion, and I find myself very often reminding my self that "everything has two handles."
 
Multivac said:
Wasn't he a Vulcan? Or am I more confused than usual? ;)
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Yup. When I was a little kid I thought Vulcan was a real planet, but only the species was made up. While I don't exactly agree with the Vulcan application of logic, I've always wished for a large segment of humanity to place a significantly greater value on logical reasoning and science, instead of so many people explicitly putting blind faith and "what feels right" above logic and science. Also that whole thing about not only valuing, but practicing peace. Not exactly an erudite response, but it makes the most emotional sense to me. ;)
 
tkmikkelsen said:
For me it has to be Democritus on the sole notion that he thought about the atom and was more or less correct 2000 years before anyone could prove that he was correct.

A lot Plato's works are also very good and sometimes have me wondering where the world would have been today, if the Greek schools of philosophy had not been closed by the zealots of the early christian church. Thank goodness for the Arabic scholars that preserved these works of wisdom when the christian church did it's best to make sure everyone was kept ignorant.
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Democritus is indeed an excellent pick!

Plato was opposed to the proto-scientific thought of the pre-Socratics. Though he had some interesting and enduring ideas (he view of what knowkedge is) overall I'd say that his influence was mostly negative.
 
Humes fork said:
Democritus is indeed an excellent pick!

Plato was opposed to the proto-scientific thought of the pre-Socratics. Though he had some interesting and enduring ideas (he view of what knowkedge is) overall I'd say that his influence was mostly negative.
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Was negative, or is negative? I must ask you what your reasons are? Shall I create a new thread for my inquiry?
 
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Humes fork said:
Democritus is indeed an excellent pick!

Plato was opposed to the proto-scientific thought of the pre-Socratics. Though he had some interesting and enduring ideas (he view of what knowkedge is) overall I'd say that his influence was mostly negative.
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Plato was a hardcore believer in human reason and did frown upon experimentation, but his student and follower Aristotle was changing that and was more keen on experimentation and investigation of the natural world.

What I find interesting about Plato is that he seems to understand human reason and behavior very well. Almost like an early psychologist and a lot of his observations still rings true today or maybe it was just Socrates that was that good and Plato really did not come up with any ideas of his own. :-)
 
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