The Most Influential Philosopher

[Apoi_Viitor]

Rosa Lichtenstein

[TelevisionIncarnate]

Plato? Socrates? Descartes? Berkeley? Nietzsche? Machiavelli?

[Caj]

Within philosophy, Aristotle was probably the most influential of the options. Concerning the influence on the world, none of them come even close to Marx.

[El Louton]

Marx of course!

[KurtFF8]

Within philosophy, Aristotle was probably the most influential of the options. Concerning the influence on the world, none of them come even close to Marx.

Well that's of course debatable. Aristotle influenced the entire Western way of thought that remained an influence for pretty much the entirety of Western "rule" and remains to some extent influential.

Marx had a much more direct influence than most philosophers, however.

[ClearlyChrist]

Personally, Nietzsche, Kant Or Indeed Marx, Although Whether Or Not Considering Him A Philosopher Is Correct, He Has Still Had A Large Lasting Effect On Me. Every Bit As Much As Any Other Philosopher.

[Philosophis Pony]

I think it would be Socrates, the wisest philosopher for his time and forever changed and nurtured philosophy to what it is today.

[tfb]

I'm with the people who say Aristotle in a way, Marx in another way. That's only for the options that are here, though. I guess the most influential would have to be the very first, which I think was Thales. There were probably people who philosophized before him, but he's the oldest I know.

[ericksolvi]

Could have done with more options really.
Marx was the only philosopher to actually influence peoples actions. Most philosophy is read by toffs and intellectuals who then fail to utilise and continue living and perceiving the world as they always have. Marx has had a fundamental, lasting impact on many people, motivating them to great acts such as revolution.

One other philosopher at least on the list had a real world impact. Jean Jacques Rousseau was as influential to the french revolution as Marx was to the Soviet. He was also an influence to Marx. He wrote:
"The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

[o well this is ok I guess]

Well that's of course debatable. Aristotle influenced the entire Western way of thought that remained an influence for pretty much the entirety of Western "rule" and remains to some extent influential.

But the same can be said of Plato and the Stoics. How exactly do we determine which of them is to be considered the "superior" one, regarding their influence on western thought?

[Grenzer]

After some thought, I'd have to say Marx. However, if the question is "Who is the most influential philosopher ever," then I think my answer would remain the same. It's pretty obvious to those of us here what effect Marx has had on the twentieth century, so I won't get into that. There have been many excellent philosophers throughout the millennia, so it's not an easy choice. Aristotle is definitely up there with the best of them.

I am not so sure Muhammad or Jesus could be considered philosophy. The evidence that Jesus even existed as a historical figure is a bit tenuous. Whether he existed or not is kind of irrelevant since the Bible is amalgamation of the works of several writers. The same applies to Muhammad.

[WorkingClassGirl]

Kant (and Hegel) is the basic of bourgeois philosophy, which dominates.
Aristotle is the basic of logical thinking.
Marx' economic is more interesting than his philosophy.

[RedScot24/11/1859]

It's got to be Nietzsche, the guy may not have been the most ethically inspiring but his non-nihilistic work is pure genius.

[Stork]

I Kant decide

[Marxaveli]

Could have done with more options really.
Marx was the only philosopher to actually influence peoples actions. Most philosophy is read by toffs and intellectuals who then fail to utilise and continue living and perceiving the world as they always have. Marx has had a fundamental, lasting impact on many people, motivating them to great acts such as revolution.

Not true, John Locke's Treatises of Government had a huge impact on the political thought of America's founders, and his concept separation of powers for a decentralized government was more or less used to create the Constitution and our political system.

Marx is the most influential overall though, thus I voted for him.

[∞]

Actually I changed my mind. Wittgenstein's philosophy is far too eloquent. I side with him. Its sad to see the tradition of Russell and Wittgenstein being replaced with ideologues of concept-fetishism who base their entire framework out of nowhere.

[hatzel]

I voted Avicenna to protest the rampant Eurocentrism in this poll. Though Kierkegaard would be the one I'd most readily read.

[∞]

Buddha should be on here. Wouldn't vote for him, but he should be on here.

Why the hell wasn't Russell put on the list? Hes influenced me more than Wittgenstein.

[pastradamus]

What about Socrates? The founder of all philosophical though and he isn't even there.

[Elsa]

Aristotle, Plato (because he was so easy to interpret by christians) and Socrates - from an European perspective

[Valdyr]

Most influential for the world (which I consider most important): Marx*

Most influential "within" philosophy (not as important, but interesting): Kant, Wittgenstein, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Nietzsche, Aquinas

Most influential to me personally: Marx*, Hegel, Wittgenstein**, Rousseau

*He is influential as a philosopher insofar as his ideas are "anti-philosophical" in relation to philosophy as usually conceived.

**For his criticisms of metaphysics (or bourgeois metaphysics as I'd say) and conceptual analysis rather than the conclusions he draws from these criticisms.

[∞]

Aquinas was an idiot.

[Valdyr]

Aquinas was an idiot.

Agreed, but sadly I don't think there's any denying he was influential, which is different from being a good philosopher. He's basically shaped the entire Catholic church's doctrine, arguments about God still often follow his structure, I doubt we'd consider Aristotle as important as we do without Aquinas bringing him back, etc.

[Philo]

When it comes to influence on the field, I'd have to say Kant, followed very closely by Plato, Aristotle, Wittgenstein, and Quine. However, most influential to my views have been:

Wilfrid Sellars
C.S. Peirce
John Dewey
Immanuel Kant
Robert Brandom
Rudolf Carnap
Alfred Tarski
David Papineau
Fred Dretske
Ruth Garrett Millikan
William of Ockham (the Ockham's Razor guy, but mainly for his philosophy of language)
G.W.F. Hegel (mainly for his theory of categories)
David Hume
Jean Meslier
Ludwig Wittgenstein (mainly for his valuable contributions to nominalism)
Roy Wood Sellars
John McDowell
Aristotle (mainly for theories of the mental, intentionality, etc.)
William Lycan
Willem A. deVries
H.A. Prichard
Friedrich Nietzsche
Max Stirner
Paul Chuchland
Patricia Churchland
G.A. Cohen

I am of course incredibly influenced by Proudhon, Marx, Bakunin, Malatesta, etc. but primarily as political theorists and not "core philosophers."

[gpistelli]

Marx, of course, is the first one. But I like, too, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Lévinas, Enrique Dussel, Gustavo Gutierrez and Franz Hinkellamert, if we are talking about those who studied philosophy as its major work. I would recommend to my comrades some attention to latin american works on philosophy, which are really rich but are not sufficiently reproduced outside of our region.

[Spurcatu]

Was Marx a philospher or not? Well, his works operate in the borderlines of political theory, sociology, economy and philosophy. Both political theory, sociology and economics could be seen as sub-categories in philosphy. Marx' economic and political theories are based on a 'true' humanism (meaning: not capitalist 'humanism'), as I see it, and this humanism is the 'red line' through all of his works (at least those I've read).

Even though Marx' 'will' was to end all philosophy, this doesn't make him less of a philosopher. This was just a part of his theory that, in communism, all conflicts would end, and we would reach the 'complete' synthesis. This means no philosophy (at least as we know it), because philosophy is based on dialectics (thesis vs. antithesis -> synthesis).

Obviously, Marx has had the greatest influence on people's life. This still doesn't make him 'the most influential philosopher', because 'most influencial' isn't defined. The answer to such a question is impossible, because you can interpret it as you like. Therefore, I will try to give answers to each 'category':
The most influential philosopher...
...for the greatest amount of people: Marx
...in philosophy: Maybe Socrates, for starting the whole thing.
...in politics: Marx -- even right-wingers tend to use marxist expressions, such as class, class struggle etc.

Marx's mixture of political theory, sociology, economy and philosophy is also known as dialectical materialism and it has been thought in most former communist countries.
In philosophy even though Socrates and Aristotle are two main figure, i would go for Plato. Plato's "The Republic" was the first major political reevaluation of society and the first major political alternative to what was a status-quo in that period. The Republic indirectly could be at the base of The Communist Manifesto as well as the base of Rousseau's Social Contract. The Republic could be the archetypal form from which a lot of political factions had sprung.
Also in Nietzsche's writings, his number 1 nemesis was Plato and all the socratic legacy. Nietzsche blames Plato for the appearance of judeo-christian faith and the geo-centric theory, the belief that the absolute meaning lies behind material existence(belief in the after life), Nietzsche naming christianity as "platonism for the masses". Behind all this i would say that Nietzsche had a great envy for him, for being the one that has managed such a great moral reform in the whole history of western civilization.
Generally I would go for:
1. Plato
2. Socrates
3. Aristotle
4. Kant
5. Hegel
6. Jean Jacques Rousseau

For my personal interest:
1. Jean Jacques Rousseau
2. Karl Marx
3. Nietzsche
4. Henry David Thoreau (not quite a philosopher)
5. Epicurus
6. Heraclitus of Ephesus
7. Antisthenes
8. Zeno of Citium

[DoCt SPARTAN]

If Marx didn't think out of the box and look at the world and all its injustice of separate classes and Capitalist kings and the peasants below them! (us)

Also, if it wasn't for basic leftist ideas, this website wouldn't be here! or have inspired Lenin !!

[Luís Henrique]

7. Antisthenes

Yes, this one is certainly underrated. Anticipated the whole nominalist controversy.

Luís Henrique

[Libertarian101]

Kant because he accomplished the "Copernican revolution" in philosophy. Marx wasn't a philosopher.

I wont argue the first point- even though I do not think kant is the most important- but I think its quite insane to say that Marx was not a philosopher. Sure, he didn't tackle the common questions of that day such as reason, morality, origins of the universe etc etc, but he created a whole, relatively new, school of thought. I think this is quite obviously the work of a philosopher.

[Geiseric]

Marx was completely a philosopher, he just talked about real things. He, Engels, and Rousseau are my favorites. They were all branded enemies by their home states, kinda like Socrates.

[Philo]

My own philosophical views have shifted substantially since I last posted here, so who influenced me has changed. However, I would still maintain that Kant, Hume and Plato are probably the most influential philosophers, even if that is a bad thing!

Quine is probably the most influential in current American academic philosophy though.

[F9]

for me at least for now it would be Kant,Socrates and Marx, i went for the first one on the poll.Philosophy fascinates me more and more every day but i still have lot to learn and read!

[TomHPMc]

Whaaaat? No option for Plato? As in "all Western Philosophy is footnotes on Plato"--THAT Plato. He deserves a lot of credit if only for the fact that he wrote stuff down.

The philosophers who have had the most impact on me in the last couple of years would probably have to be Marx and Sartre though.

[Mackenzie_Blanc]

For me, J.J. Rousseau would probably be the most influential, in that he shattered my libertarian ideology into smithereens. Émile (besides the disgusting sexism in Book V) is perhaps the most interesting treatise on education and the human condition, especially given the punctual detail to minute issues.

[AConfusedSocialDemocrat]

Has to be Aristotle, the guy pretty much invented the Occidental philosophical tradition.

[Robespierre]

Rousseau, because he brought the people into play and introduced romanticism into politics. What is revolution at all if not an epic romance?

[Rafiq]

Rousseau, because he brought the people into play and introduced romanticism into politics. What is revolution at all if not an epic romance?

The cataclysmic overthrow of one class by another

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[Valdyr]

Plato is probably the most influential as far as the general philosophical tradition is concerned. A.N. Whitehead once said that all of Western philosophy was a footnote to Plato, and I agree in the sense that Plato sets the broad terms for philosophical discussion. Right behind him would be either Aristotle or Kant.

[kasama-rl]

Marx, Mao, Badiou

Probably Mao's works on philosophy are the most widely read philosophical work in history (and the most widely read Marxist work other than the Communist manifesto) -- if only because the size of China and the sharp burst of interest globally during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.)

Obviously part of the problem in the thread is that people want to give their *favorite* philosophy, and don't care as much who is (objectively or speculatively) the most *influential* philosopher.

On most influential: Obviously you have to look to religious philosophers (since religious worldviews are among the most influential), i.e. Buddha, Jesus, St. Paul, Mohammed, Luther, and so on.

On Marx as a philosopher: Marx's thinking revolutionized the world and set hundreds of millions into motion over the following century. It is true that his "main work" was on political economy, and that much of his other work was historical-political analysis. But that doesn't mean that he wasn't the most influential philosopher (in many ways) -- i.e. he synethesized the philosophy we call materialist dialectics, and it took the world by storm. And that philosophical approach (even if he never systematized it himself in a series of books on philosophy per se) is evident in everything he wrote.

My favorite discussion of that is Althusser's "Reading Capital" which reads Capital as a philosophical work, laying bare the method and approach that is embedded in this work (on political economy). In other words, Marx's main work on political economy is (at the same time) a work deeply revealing about philosophy. Andthe actual work of extracting from Marx's body of work his philosophical method was largely left to others (to Engels in Dialectics of Nature, to Comintern systematizers, to Althusser, to Mao, to many others)....

And so I certainly think it is fair to describe Marx as a highly influential philosophical thinker -- and perhaps the most influential of modern times.

Also, there is the question of "influential" in what way: Kant's thinking is influential (in the making of the modern and scientific mind), even if most of the people who are influenced have never read Kant, or even know his name.

Marx is both influential and known... i.e. millions called themselves Marxists.... (while only a few people will ever say "I am a kantian".)

So that is another side to "influential" -- i.e. was he as a person seen by the influenced as an influence.

[Nevsky]

I voted for Immanuel Kant. The man basically did nothing else in his life than thinking and writing essential philosophical works. If anyone deserves the title "father of modern philosophy", it is him. He laid the foundations for both the idealist philosophy of Hegel - which spawned marxism with all the well known socio-political consequences - and Arthur Schopenhauer's anti-hegelian wing, a major influence on psychoanalysis, literature, nietzschean thougth and so on.

[Valdyr]

Marx, Mao, Badiou
Obviously part of the problem in the thread is that people want to give their *favorite* philosophy, and don't care as much who is (objectively or speculatively) the most *influential* philosopher.

-snip-

Also, there is the question of "influential" in what way: Kant's thinking is influential (in the making of the modern and scientific mind), even if most of the people who are influenced have never read Kant, or even know his name.

Marx is both influential and known... i.e. millions called themselves Marxists.... (while only a few people will ever say "I am a kantian".)

So that is another side to "influential" -- i.e. was he as a person seen by the influenced as an influence.

These were problems I was wrestling with when I was making my post. To simplify, the way I see it, there are more or less four ways to interpret the notion of "influential" as far as philosophers are concerned. Building on what you said:

1. That philosopher is a significant part of the ideological fabric of the contemporary world, whether people are conscious of that influence or not.

2. That philosopher is influential on people who consciously adopt some particular set of beliefs (e.g. Marxism or Christianity)

3. That philosopher is influential on philosophy as an academic discipline.

4. The philosophy has been influential to my own thought, i.e. I think they are most "correct."

Now, each of those has different answers, some of which are easier to provide than others. 3 is probably the easiest to answer, whilst 1 is probably the hardest. However, here's an attempt:

1. Kant, Descartes, Nietzsche, Plato, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, Locke, Heidegger, core religious figures (Jesus etc.), Augustine, Aquinas, Luther...this list could get very long

2. Also a difficult and probably long list. Marx, Mao, Lenin, core religious figures, religious thinkers (Augustine, Kierkegaard, etc.), Locke...

3. Much easier to assess. For "continental" philosophy, it's probably something like Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Rousseau, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Nietzsche, Marx, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Husserl, Bergson, Cassirer, Heidegger, Lukacs, Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, Levi-Strauss, Canguillhem, Althusser, Debord, Gramsci, Freud, Lacan, Arendt, Foucault, Deleuze, Nancy, Lyotard, Dilthey, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty, Kuhn, Baudrillard, Habermas, Jameson, Butler, de Beauvoir, Derrida, Levinas, Buber, Agamben, Dewey, Negri, Castoriadis, Vattimo, Irigaray, Ranciere, Badiou, Zizek, and Meillassoux.

For "analytic" phil, it's p. much the same up to Kant, except with the addition of anglophone philosophers like Hume, Locke, Reid, Berkeley, Bentham, and Hobbes, and with less influence from Leibniz and Spinoza. After Kant, you can pretty much then skip forward to Mill, Frege, Brentano, Bolzano, Russell, Wittgenstein, Tarski, Ramsey, Carnap, Schlick, Neurath, Ayer, Popper, Reichenbach, Hempel, Nagel (Ernest), Quine, Ryle, Austin, Kuhn, Chomsky, Black, McTaggart, Chisholm, Davidson, Searle, Nagel (thomas), Smart, Mackie, Armstrong, Fodor, Dretske, Dennett, Plantinga, Gettier, Geach, Williamson, Williams, Nozick, Rawls, MacIntyre, Lakatos, Van Fraasen, Kitcher...I could go on for a while.

Forgive me for the people I've inevitably stupidly forgotten, I'm in a rush.

Finally 4., my influences, would be very lengthy as well, but keeping it short for better or worse, something like Plato, Hegel, Marx, Lacan, Badiou, Zizek, Lenin, Mao, Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Freud, Reich, Bloch, Benjamin, Gramsci, Feuerbach, Jakubowski, Spinoza, Balibar, Bosteels, Toscano, Irigaray, Copjec...idk.

[Tim Cornelis]

I should have voted 'other' (voted Marx).
John Locke and Montesquieu laid the ideological foundations for liberal capitalism, one of the most widespread and advocated of political systems.

[John Lennin]

Kant.
His work is more or less the basis of every modern philosopher.
Well, that's it.

[L1NKS]

I'd go with the political philosopher and dissident Noam Chomsky. When it comes to understanding (contemporary) politics his work is invaluable.

[savage anomaly]

Nietzsche, Spinoza - not necessarily in that order. Damn shame neither are on the poll. Nietzsche and Spinoza have much more in common than many on this site would admit, but that's because I think Spinoza (and Nietzsche to an extent, but not the extent that he was before Kaufmann, Foucault, Deleuze, etc. rehabilitated him) has been so chronically misread that even *philosophy professors* fail to appreciate how modern and revolutionary he was. So instead of talking about the revolutionary, anti-transcendent, non-dialectical, wholly immanent philosophy of liberation that is the real Spinoza, they cast him as this bourgeois ideologue - or worse - A pre-Hegelian!

[Synthesis-]

So far i've only read Descarte, a small bit of Kant, a small bit of Plato and Rousseau and of course Karl Marx. I would say the most influential in the modern world are John Locke (liberal capitalism), Immanuel Kant(science), Plato(Idealism), Aristotle, Spinoza, David Hume, Thomas Hobbes (man against every man) and of course Karl Marx. I'm reading Hegel currently and hes very hard to read lol im still on the preface.

[Ciudad]

Descartes is the most influential philosopher now, as his baneful influence corrupted more or less all schools of thought in various ways. Kant is a reformulation of Descartes, and reduces to solipsism. Hume and Locke is a reformulation of Descartes, and reduces to solipsism.

Berkeley found a way out, to his credit, by erasing one side of Descartes' dualism, denying that 'perception' entailed the existence of 'the external world', since perceptions are citizens of 'the internal world'. In the process, he forgot to tell us what the heck 'the internal world' is, the mind construed as an entity that is no clearer in the role of an entertainer of internal thought than the human person itself is. Countless went with him in this direction, and it is perhaps the most fashionable ideology these days (at least among academic leftists).

Only problem is, Berkeley's view of the mind was still that of the ghost in the machine. He too required God in order to curtail solipsism, otherwise the ghost in others would be subject to Occam's razor.

Now, God is dead. No wonder these views are popular, when solipsism affirms the idealized independence of the political/economical/social actor.

Marx diagnosed speculative philosophy as a failure to understand human practice -- after which the only light in the tunnel was Wittgenstein, who repeated the diagnosis even more powerfully in another idiom -- but now, most prefer to ignore them and chase their own theoretical ambitions, all falling prey to the same disease.

One cannot go on with traditional philosophy unless one believes either in a God, or oneself as a God, and consequently one's circumstances as divinely circumscribed.

[3dward]

Yeah that's bullshit, Marxism itself is not a political ideology like most people think, it is a philosophy just like skepticism and existentialism. That is the difference in communism and marxism, marxism is the philosophy and communism is the political ideology.
Well not exactly. Marxism is the framework, the complete picture. Communism is just a socio-economical formation, or evolution stage of the society, that arises as a result of the development of socialism, which is in turn, another socio-economical formation.

The philosophy of Marxism is called dialectical materialism. The application of the dialectical materialism to the history, called historical materialism and the notions of political economy developed by Marx on “Das Kapital” is what gave birth to the notion of class struggle, socialism and communism, among other things.

So the basis is dialectical materialism after all, which is the philosophy. Marxism is the entire system. And this is why I think Marx is the most influential philosopher ever. Although his main work was an economical one, he never could have done it without his strong knowledge of the dialectical materialism. And more important even, he helped to create a system that gives a real practical answer to the problems of the world.

[darkblues]

db

[Comrade Jacob]

Why no Engels? I voted Marx but was very tempted by Lenin.

[RedBen]

reminds me of the philosopher's song(monty python) :D too many to pick just one... then again i would be posting for days if i picked my "top"

[MDC5000]

Nietzsche

[nominal9]

Aristotle... still, after all these years.....That's not a "popularity contest" answer... and not an indication of support or agreement on my part.... just a recognition of the historical debt owed...

[Lev Ulyanov]

Could have done with more options really.
Marx was the only philosopher to actually influence peoples actions. Most philosophy is read by toffs and intellectuals who then fail to utilise and continue living and perceiving the world as they always have. Marx has had a fundamental, lasting impact on many people, motivating them to great acts such as revolution.

I don't consider myself a toff thank you very much.

[Venas Abiertas]

Could have done with more options really.
Marx was the only philosopher to actually influence peoples actions. Most philosophy is read by toffs and intellectuals who then fail to utilise and continue living and perceiving the world as they always have. Marx has had a fundamental, lasting impact on many people, motivating them to great acts such as revolution.

Honestly, some of you guys need to read a little more about philosophers, even if it's just on Wikipedia. Philosophers have had a tremendous impact on the way many ideas develop and come to the forefront in society. They often articulate in an understandable form complex changes in social conditions, science, and economics so that people can manage them in practical ways.

Read about the impact of Jeremy Bentham on animal rights, John Stuart Mills and Mary Wollstonecraft on feminism, Hobbes and Locke on representative government, Rousseau and Voltaire on personal freedom, Bacon, Descartes and Pascal on science, Fichte, Schopenhauer and Nietsche on totalitarian governments, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Marx and Engels, Von Mises and Hayek on capitalism, Kierkegaard and Sartre on the quest for meaning in life, Foucault on power structures, etc.

Many notions you have bouncing around in your own heads owe their existence to the fact that some philosopher wrote and spoke and argued about them in a way that made them palatable to the masses. Where would Marx be without Plato, Thomas More, and Hegel, for example?

[TheSocialistMetalhead]

I'd probably say Plato.

[cyu]

Most influential bag of money (in the modern era):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koch

Among his "contributions" to humanity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Foundation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Prosperity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville_Institution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Energy_Research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_Foundation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Patriots

Some more about his "wonderful" influence here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2520079&postcount=5
And here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2657165&postcount=113

[Czy]

Plato is the most influential philosopher of all time, followed by Aristotle and Kant.

The greatest philosopher of all time is Marx.

[Althusser]

Why is Kant so influential? All I know is that Kantian ethics is horrible. What else did he contribute?

[Czy]

Why is Kant so influential? All I know is that Kantian ethics is horrible. What else did he contribute?

Kant’s philosophy is remarkable for the importance he assigns to human cognition. Till him, all philosophers had assumed that the possibility of knowledge (including philosophical knowledge) revolves around the world; that is, the world comes with its own structure and to know something about the world is to get that external structure right.

Slowly during his life, Kant realized that matters stand exactly the other way round: the structure that philosophers have sought to attribute to the world is rather the reflex of the very organization of human cognition. This was essentially the 'Copernican Revolution' in philosophy that people ascribe to Kant.

-Czy

[Niccolo]

The trio of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have influenced all spheres of philosophy, and their legacy continues to mould and shape philosophy. Kant's work is fascinating, and wholly fascinating in its entirety.

My favourite philosopher from the list would be Marx, and the rest all have their merits, notably Hegel (the main influence on a whole host of philosophers, including Marx), Avicenna (who made important contributions to medicine), and Lenin, who put philosophy into practice.

[Sinister Intents]

Marx :)

[SensibleLuxemburgist]

Non-left philosopher: Socrates, the father of all philosophy
Left philosopher: Karl Marx, the father of Communist philosophy

[Goblin]

Some of my favorites: Marx (of course), Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sokrates, Aristoteles, Freud (i consider him a philosopher), Sartre, Descartes, Heidegger, Montaigne, Spinoza, Foucault.

[Brutus]

Needs more Camus, gobbers.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I'm going to be mean and just say outright that anyone who votes "Marx" probably doesn't know what they're talking about. The only three people who could claim that title are Plato, Aristotle and Kant. Those three have done more to shape philosophy than probably everyone else in history combined (well, maybe Heraclitus, Parmenides and Socrates too). Perhaps as far as a world with a unified Communist society is concerned, Marx would be more influential, but even there he was drawing heavily from/responding to Hegel, Kant, Aristotle, Plato, Smith, Hume and others.


Could have done with more options really.
Marx was the only philosopher to actually influence peoples actions. Most philosophy is read by toffs and intellectuals who then fail to utilise and continue living and perceiving the world as they always have. Marx has had a fundamental, lasting impact on many people, motivating them to great acts such as revolution.

Nooooo you don't know what you're talking about. Did you know Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great? Descartes invented geometric coordinates? All sorts of philosophers helped teach others to act or created the means to act (despite Marx's quip about Philosophers not changing the world, though I don't think that's what Marx meant anyways)


Marx wasn't a philosopher.

I disagree - Marx was a philosopher who merely moved into a critique of economics and politics as he matured. His early stuff is deeply philosophical and his later works shaped how we see the metaphysical status of the human in relation to history. Marx and Engels were not only philosophers but they remained concerned with philosophical topics during their careers.

The distinction between philosophy and other intellectual pursuits was not so sharp in the 1800s as it was today. Descartes did anatomy, Leibniz invented calculus and Aristotle did biology, and they all saw those pursuits as intertwined with their philosophy. Likewise with Marx IMO

[Marshal of the People]

My favourite philosopher is Rebecca Black.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Vendredism

[Fegelnator]

Kant is everywhere, and thus probably the most influential.

[RyanBerry98]

Who honestly thinks Wittgenstein was the most influential? Honestly?

[4thInter]

When the water chokes you what do you wash it down with? -Aristotle

[RedRev]

I picked Marx, because without him, let's be honest, socialism as we know it wouldn't exist

[GimmieFire]

I'd say Aristotle. I've heard his name the most.

[Sinister Intents]

I picked Marx, because without him, let's be honest, socialism as we know it wouldn't exist

Ehhh, I'm sure it'd exist as we know it, without Marx we'd probably just be using different terminology and history might be vastly different if say Marx died of a brain tumor and never created his works with Engels and others. I'm sure Bakunin would have influenced other areas, and anarchism may be more prevelent. We can't ever know for sure how things may have panned out.

[VCrakeV]

I felt the need to pick Socrates. Why? Not because of any particular philosophy he had, but because he was one of the first (and likely the first Western) people to have a significant impact philosophy, and actually make philosophy a thing. He was the first who actually always asked "Why?" and "How?", instead of just accepting things as is. At its core that's what philosophy is about - questioning everything - and Socrates was the one who popularized doing so.

[hiac]

Totally true, 100% agreed.

It is a great test, pick an idea and find a philosopher which first talked about that.

[Subversive]

I'm amazed that so many people lack insight into the fact that Aristotle basically crafted the fate of the entire Western world and is still so influential that his core philosophies are still found within almost everything to this very day.
He is by far the most "influential" philosopher on that list. There is no comparison.

Marx was certainly a great philosopher, but he was not the most "influential". Nor was anyone else on the list.
Only Socrates and Plato could compare, and only because he was their pupil and their works can not be definitively separated from one another. Though, they can be somewhat distinguished.
Globally his only true peers would probably be Jesus, Confucius, Lao Zi, and Gautama Buddha. Take your pick.

I assume that the poll's results merely imply people are reading this question from a personal perspective and are not answering it as a universal. But, sadly, I can just as easily assume that most people here are simply just uninformed about Western philosophy.
There is really no true argument that he's not the most influential person named on that list.

And really? Kant is on the list but not figures like Jesus Christ? Seems kinda silly to me. Oh well... apparently the poll was made 7 years ago, so it's not like it really matters now.

[Fegelnator]

Aristotle or Plato, but Kant has the most influence on the live-philosophy most have in some form: postmodernism, which can be traced from Derrida through Wittgenstein to Kant.

*Derrida was the postmodernist, who based himself on
*Wittgenstein's language games, who in turn took a lot of influence from
*Kant's insecurity paradigm.

[Dean]

I'm amazed that so many people lack insight into the fact that Aristotle basically crafted the fate of the entire Western world and is still so influential that his core philosophies are still found within almost everything to this very day.
He is by far the most "influential" philosopher on that list. There is no comparison.

Marx was certainly a great philosopher, but he was not the most "influential". Nor was anyone else on the list.
Only Socrates and Plato could compare, and only because he was their pupil and their works can not be definitively separated from one another. Though, they can be somewhat distinguished.
Globally his only true peers would probably be Jesus, Confucius, Lao Zi, and Gautama Buddha. Take your pick.

I assume that the poll's results merely imply people are reading this question from a personal perspective and are not answering it as a universal. But, sadly, I can just as easily assume that most people here are simply just uninformed about Western philosophy.
There is really no true argument that he's not the most influential person named on that list.

And really? Kant is on the list but not figures like Jesus Christ? Seems kinda silly to me. Oh well... apparently the poll was made 7 years ago, so it's not like it really matters now.

Yes, Marx was also heavily influenced by Aristotle and he talks about him in his works.

It's also important to understand that no philosopher stands on their own. I would argue that Zoroaster and the Ahura Mazda cult that he codified and promoted were far more influential than Jesus (who was himself largely a creation of the Zoroastrian tradition / Mithraic cults that entered Rome). But major Persian leaders were responsible for expanding the empire and thus adherents of the Zoroastrian state religion.

For some reason, the initial post of this thread was removed long ago (I didn't actually start this poll, my choice when I voted wasn't even listed).

[Бай Ганьо]

What do you mean by "influential"? Influential within the discipline of philosophy? Then, I'd say (excluding the Greeks) Descartes, Kant, and Wittgenstein because they were influential in both traditions, continental and analytic philosophy.

Marx, despite the significance of his work to continental philosophers and to society as a whole, has had little impact on analytic philosophy, analytical marxism being a quite recent (1980s) and not particularly successful school of thought.

[Lysergic]

I feel the three most influential philosophers are as followed:

1) Socrates:

Socrates, although having never wrote any books was a very interesting man. His philosophy regarding socratic thought has lead to the creation of almost every other philosophy. He taught us never to stop asking "why?" even when we get an answer.

2) Karl Marx:

Karl Marx's views on the system and exposing plenty of injustices and immoral actions carried out by the capitalist class have been most impressive. His thoughts, although never correctly implemented, have provided much of the world insight to the capitalist agenda and how to better approach life.

3) Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzche's secular views on life are very influential and I personally believe ( as an atheist ) that society should embrace Nietzsche's philosophy of godlessness. He described religion as something that restricted human emotion, and was nothing more than oppression under the veil of salvation

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Unless your answers are Aristotle, Plato/Socrates, Descartes or Kant (*maybe* Hume), I don't think you have a firm grasp or understanding of the history of the Western Philosophical tradition. I don't say that to be harsh, but just honest. Hopefully in 400 years we can say Marx is up there with the others, and he is certainly still a titan today, but he did not shape the whole course of the tradition the way Aristotle did (the guy they once called THE Philosopher). Not that this is unique to Marxists ... I'm sure Hayek and Ayn Rand would be #1 and #3 on a libertarian forum.

[Art Vandelay]

I don't know, I think a case can certainly be made for Hegel. His fingerprints are literally all over continental philosophy, existentialism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, etc.

[Communist Mutant From Outer Space]

Aristotle was highly influential in the classical and medieval era, but nowadays his influence wanes. Nietzsche for me is the most influential philosopher, since his philosophy has spread widely among a variety a groups and people, from Guevara to Powell. Hegel's grip on the world can still be felt though, so agree with 9mm's post above.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I don't know, I think a case can certainly be made for Hegel. His fingerprints are literally all over continental philosophy, existentialism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, etc.

True, but there are schools of philosophy which don't really want to touch Hegel. Hegel is relevant for like half the tradition.


Aristotle was highly influential in the classical and medieval era, but nowadays his influence wanes. Nietzsche for me is the most influential philosopher, since his philosophy has spread widely among a variety a groups and people, from Guevara to Powell. Hegel's grip on the world can still be felt though, so agree with 9mm's post above.

The modern era and the postmodern world often no longer deals directly with Aristotle, but they are shaped by Aristotle's thought by proxy. Nietzsche and Descartes, for instance, are more direct influences of contemporary philosophy, but they were responding to the ancients and their inheritors in their own time (for instance, Descartes's critique of Scholasticism)

Also, he is still very relevant in ethics and political philosophy.

Anyways, I think Nietzsche and Marx are highly influential, but less so than Hegel or Kant. That's not fixed of course - Nietzsche has been becoming more relevant as time goes on in Continental thought, but I think there are more philosophers and other intellectuals who dismiss or overlook them than there are who dismiss or overlook Kant. As much as anything else, claiming Marx's influence implicitly supports the influence of Hegel and therefore Kant.

[Alan OldStudent]

A hard question. My views continue to change.


Aristotle (ancient realism, materialism-antipode to Plato)
Avicenna (who influenced much of European and world philosophy. He encouraged the scholastics toward rationalism and realism, especially via Aquinas.)
Marx (Not mainly a philosopher but who has had the most profound influence on philosophy after the 19th century). As Pogue said, Marx's ideas have certainly motivated more people to concrete action than any other philosopher, unless one considers Mohamed to have been a philosopher.

Regards,
AOS

[Scortwych131]

Imo I think it's quite hard to decide on 'the most influential' philosopher considering each had a different field. Kierkegaard was an existentialist, Kant was more focused on metaphysics etc. You all get my point.

Looking at Aristotle though, he did influence other philosophers like Descartes and Spinoza, so he's fairly influential, but like I said previously; it's hard to decide on the most influential as each all contribute to different fields of philosophy.

But where is Socrates though? :confused::confused: like damn he should be up there!

[A Psychological Symphony]

Socrates basically started western philosophy... Any western philosophers before him are referred to as "Pre-Socratics" which just goes to show how much he revolutionized thought in the western world. His influence even spread throughout the globe (not necessarily further west) after holy wars moved Plato's dialogues of him to the east.

I suppose you could argue for Aristotle, but with no Socrates you have no Plato, and with no Plato you have no Aristotle.