Favorite Philosophers

[Iron Star]

Marx, Sartre, Foucault, and some of Nietzsche's works.

[Dhul Fiqar]

Foucault and Nietzche! In fact I just started a Foucault thread :)

--- G.

[El Commandante]

You've got to throw in a bit of Freud - ok so he may have falsified some of his data and made up some of his research but he sure did have some good ideas - membership of the church keeps you permanently at the level of a child because you do not develop skills in accepting blame and responsibility for your own actions. I like that idea.

[RyeN]

plato's use of retorich has taght me much about conflict resolution. So I give a big ups to him.

[Dhul Fiqar]

Freud was more of a scientist (or pseudo-scientist according to his critics) than a philosopher - but there is definitely a clear philosophy underlying his work. And a lot of it is extremely valid - he has been overly tainted by the admittedly many mistakes he made - but after all he was the FIRST psychologist! So I am all for cutting the guy some slack =D

--- G.

[Dhul Fiqar]

Plato - like Hegel - was a brilliant man that perhaps was not quite critical enough of the prevailing social order that had treated him so well.

--- G.

[YKTMX]

Reading Philisophy comes just after 'getting testicular cancer' on my "things to do before I die" list.

[Anarchist Freedom]

plato marx and engels



:che:

[Purple]

Anton Szandor Lavey.. Not the smartest guy around, but in a few areas he proves his intelligens..

[FatFreeMilk]

What about Socrates? Plato was one of his students and then Aristotle was his student so he's like the big daddy of ancient philosophes right? We have to do socratic seminars in 5th period now :rolleyes: yippee!

my first post in philosophy :D
too bad it was a dumb one
oh well

[Pete]

I like my secularization of Hindu ideas. Mwhaha. Take that suckers, I am the weaver of many threads into a beautiful selffulling philosophy.

On another point, T.S. Eliot is my favourite philospher. Take that *does crazy karate moves*

[Jesus Christ]

Ghandi to an extent
d'Alembert
van Fraassen

[Bradyman]

Its all about T.S. Elliot.

[Beccie]

Plato - like Hegel - was a brilliant man that perhaps was not quite critical enough of the prevailing social order that had treated him so well.

I thought Plato was extremely critical of Athenian Democracy he argued that it was unjust. He believed that people were born with a Gold Silver a Bronze soul and that your position in a just society should be determined by the colour of your soul. In Platos ideal society the guardians were the rulers and the philosophers and they had souls of gold. The auxiliaries were the military they had souls of silver. The rest of the people who were driven by their desires, they were involved in life sustaining work and had souls of bronze. He believed that the colour of your soul was determined at birth and could not be changed. He argued that it was unjust for a person of a silver or bronze soul to be a leader and vice versa. He has been called authoritarian because of his views of a just society. I could be wrong....

[Valkyrie]

No, You're right Beccie-- Plato's ideal form of government was a hierarchic caste system with power given to an elite rulership based on his philosophy-king thesis. He was very critical of the common participation in the political process.

Not all his ideas were that bad though --- his theory of forms is interesting.

[Dhul Fiqar]

It's been quite a while since I read anything by either Plato or Hegel - so I could be misremembering or selectively interpreting what I know of their approach to political philosophy. I just seem to recall they both had similarly convenient approaches to idealism and their principles of political philosophy.

--- G.

[Marxist in Nebraska]

Marx, of course... Howard Zinn is good in his philosophy, too...

[Umoja]

Plato has to be my favorite, if only because of the impact Neo-Platonic thinking has on me.

[Beccie]

his theory of forms is interesting

Yes, I agree. :)

[Metanoia]

I have my first Nietzche book, but haven't found the hours in the day to get to reading it as yet.

My favourite philosophers to this date would have to be Blavatsky, Jung and perhaps Crowley if these can be classed as philosophers. I don't read a great deal of clearly philosophical titles to comment much.

[FabFabian]

Mary Wolstencraft and Simone de Beauvoir. There is too much testosterone in here. :P

[Soviet power supreme]

hmm.Demokritos was right about atoms in ancient greece.Aristotle can be remembered as a father of logic.Descartes' cogito, ergo sum. Marx's communist theory.oh yeah and john locke's tabula rasa. i would say at least these five.

[Sartrefan]

Socrates' ethics, Plato's theory of knowledge, Hume's rejection of miracles, Dewey's optimism, Sartre's dichotomous darkness (how's the darn thing black on both sides if they're opposite? :rolleyes:

de Beauvoir's freedom;

i like to read Marx/Engels...but how does one account for a proletariat that's been rather drowsy all this time? Are the PressorMen (Tosh's term) so velvety that the slavery is mistaken for freedom? Or isn't there a spontaneous uprising to be had?

Maybe I'm supposed to start it? :D

[Soviet power supreme]

Socrates' ethics

How do you know about them?Plato's writings are the only thing that proves socrates' philosophy.Plato put his own ideas into socrate's mouth in his dialogues.Can you be sure that aren't Plato's ethics?

[Sartrefan]

Originally posted by Soviet power [email protected] 5 2003, 05:04 PM
Plato put his own ideas into socrate's mouth in his dialogues.Can you be sure that aren't Plato's ethics?
SPS--you're bang on about Plato's use of Socrates throughout the dialogues. And whether Plato is simply a philosophical stenographer (and it's all Socrates) or using his old friend as a character (and it's all Plato) or something in between is unprovable.

By 'Socratic ethics' I mean the kind of ethical egoism found in the early dialogues--like 'Apology'...no sane person can knowingly act for anything other than her/his own good. And the good of my community just is my own good...rather communistic of him, eh?

It's a convenient (though unprovable) way to try to keep stuff straight in mind though. ;)

[Zorio]

Most of you are assuming that Plato was in fact writing about how to build his "ideal society", when a lot of philospphers don't think that at all. There are two ways of reading Republic, one that Plato is angered by Athenian Democracy because of it's mob-rules attitude towards things, and the other is that he's writing about ways of bettering the self. I'm of the latter group as a lot of the things he writes about aren't exactly ethical or moral for that matter. The point of Republic is to better the self as Socrates says "It is easier to read a larger image than the smaller one, so we read the larger image to better understand the small" (that's not an exact quote, he says something along those lines to Glaucon when asked how to view morality).

So yes, you can view Plato as teaching of hierarchical caste system, or of a way of controlling the mind (by having the rational portion in command of the emotions [competetive and appetitive portions of the psyche], thus having morality when all three parts are working together perfectly in unison).

It is much easier to understand Republic after the first reading, most people only see the society in the book, and not the larger picture of bettering the individual.

[Sartrefan]

Zorio--I have always thought that claiming the Republic as a political text was like saying the 'allegory of the cave' is a treatise on spelunking..... :)

[Anastacia]

Jesus, Kung Tse... Don't know. I haven't read so much.

[Iepilei]

I disliked Plato's notion of the republic, but I do like reading about his theories in regards to forms. I choose Socrates over him, though, because his admittance to the fact that we inherantly know 'nothing' in regards to the world. The notion of, "questioning till it hurts" is another aspect of Socrates I've always admired.

Immanuel Kant is also a fascinating individual to read up on. I've also been drawn to Nietzche and Decartes. I especially like the theory of "clockwork" in the form of the universe. A lending to deist philosophies surrounding the potential creation and abandonment of the universe.

Marx, of course, goes without saying. The works of Rand, though I disagree with her notion of selfishness, are also interesting reads.

[RedComrade]

I am just now beginning to familiarize myself with the broader subject of philosophy outside of my own selcet niche of Leftist thinkers. I was curious as to the book or book(s) that provide a good introduction to philosophy including most or all of the major schools and thinkers and there ideas, something that it is around a college reading level but won't take a year and a bachelor's degree to read. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sartrefan]

RedComrade...why not get an overview book from the library, flip through it until you see someone interesting, then get one of the philosopher's books and see if you like them? seems to me it's best to read the original stuff before you read what someone else says about the original.

if you want something short, try J.S.Mill's "Utilitarianism", Plato's "Socrates' Apology" (Hackett Publishing has a $4 version w/3 other dialogues), C.S. Lewis' "The Four Loves" or Dennett's "Mind's I"...well, dennett isn't short, but may be interesting. Lots of people like Chomsky.

good hunting.

who's the contemporary Leftist thinker you'd recommend to anyone?

[che's long lost daughter]

I would have to say Plato and Sigmund Freud (if ever he is considered one)

[Monty Cantsin]

I don’t know how any socialist can like Plato as a hole when he talks about philosophers rule and that this would be less corrupt then other forms of government. He also talks about preventing free thinking by limiting what kind of poems and plays people can be told as children and how they can be told. He also talks about breading a class in society that’s hole purpose is to fight wars for the state. His ideas resemble something of Sparta. But the good points about Plato is the ways in which he presents his arguments.

[Svartvit]

Thad would be Alan Watts, but I like Ajahn Cha's anekdotes and fictional stories.

[iloveatomickitten]

Nietzsche and plato althought a combination of the two does result in something that can be regarded as fascist - their writings are superb.

[hazard]

you gotta go with Plato, Russell and Descartes

existentialism is a waste of time, I mean, the only live option a person has is suicide? gimmie a break. its an anti-socilaist mind trap devised by capitalism to restrict free thought as a form of population control. fortunately atomism smashes this mind trap like so much rubbish.

[Cha Chi]

My favorites would probably be Marx, or coarse, Plato and Voltaire.

[Atheny]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10 2003, 06:48 PM
Immanuel Kant is also a fascinating individual to read up on. I've also been drawn to Nietzche ...Marx, of course, goes without saying. The works of Rand, though I disagree with her notion of selfishness, are also interesting reads.


how can you name kant and Nietzche as two of your favourite philosophers in the same breath as Marx. Kant and Nietzche (along with Schopenhauer) are what arguably what formed the basis for nazi philosophy....

[shakermaker]

Originally posted by Soviet power [email protected] 23 2003, 07:46 PM
Aristotle can be remembered as a father of logic.
Aristoteles (or Aristotle, whatever) was a sovinist!