The BBC asked this question - the link takes you to the results.
I have to say, I was a bit shocked at the man they picked - but given the Beebs political leanings, maybe I shouldn't be.
That said, I thought the list was atrocious (Aquinas? He was a theologian - maybe the best ever, but NOT a philosopher. Plato? An unreconstructed apologist for aristocracy and totally anti-democratic- and hence off my list), and so I offer my own top ten to counter it. Further, I will take any submissions from my dear readers as to who they think should be in the top 10.
However (unlike myself), you will be asked to provide a REASON for asserting so and so is the greatest/one of the greatest philosophers of all time -especially if you deride someone on my list in any way.
So without further ado, here's my top 10;
1. Nietzsche
2. Socrates
3. Hume
4. Einstein/Darwin/Popper (The holy trinity of scientists get to share a slot, though I also thought of putting Hawking in as well)
5. Daniel Dennett
6. Machiavelli
7. Sartre
8. Freud
9. Thomas Paine
10. Buddha
Honourable mentions;
Voltaire, Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Liebniz, Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Hanna Arendt, Ayn Rand, and of course, Hegel.
So there you go. IMO, ole Freddy the syphyllitic wins the race!
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3 comments:
Since Plato made your honourable mentions list, but not Xenophon, you've got the wrong spelling for #2.
Also how does Einstein make the list, when you raise objections to Aquinas?
--Richard.
Hey Richard,
I fail to comprehend your objection to my spelling of 'Socrates', and the relationship either has to Xenophon escapes me.
If you mean that Socrates has to be channelled through Plato (because nothing Socrates wrote survives to reach us save what Plato himself relates), and thus Plato deserves the #2 slot I respectfully suggest that Plato for his early writings was more interested in being faithful to his teacher than in his own agenda. Contrasting Plato's later works with his early ones you can see the clear distinction between them.
As for Aquinas, I made the point that he is a Theologian (and maybe the best ever) but not a philosopher. Philosophers investigate how we think about the world. Theologians investigate how we think about God. Two different things.
So Einstein qualifies, whereas Aquinas does not.
Plato's thoughts are channeled through characters in dialogues, much like Shakespeare's. (Who is, shockingly, not on your list.) To hold one of his characters as a superior philosopher to the author is a great compliment... but still wrong. Rather like holding that Falstaff is funnier than Shakespeare.
It's my opinion that Plato's work, like Machiavelli's, should be viewed as an ensemble, in which case it is necessary to read the early works in the light of the later works, and the old works in the light of the later works. It is the same genius writing both, and he is aware of what has been written previously.
So, unless your opinion of Socrates is informed by your reading of Xenophon and Plato, who both recorded what Socrates taught (and if Xenophon's apology is a different story than Plato's then both must be considered, at best equally unreliable) then your second greatest philosopher of all time is Plato.
Aquinas certainly does qualify as a philosopher, I direct you to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy that notes "Many contemporary philosophers are unsure how to read Thomas. As the above sketch makes clear, he was a professional theologian. Nonetheless, we find among his writings works anyone would recognize as philosophical and the dozen commentaries on Aristotle increasingly enjoy the respect and interest of Aristotelian scholars."
(There are entries to be found on Einstein, Darwin and Galileo as well)
--Richard
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