Skinner and Trotsky, sure, but Heidegger? Are you kidding? He is the most or second most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. Freud's influence permeates the society.
Overrated:
Friedrich Hayek
Ayn Rand
William F. Buckley
Milton Friedman
Why overrated? Because their thought does not stand up to analysis.
Freud, Chomsky, and Hawking.
Freud.
Noam Chomsky
jjjjjjjjjjj wrote:
Skinner and Trotsky, sure, but Heidegger? Are you kidding? He is the most or second most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. Freud's influence permeates the society.
Roger Scruton said of Heidegger, "His major work Being and Time is formidably difficult—unless it is utter nonsense, in which case it is laughably easy. I am not sure how to judge it, and have read no commentator who even begins to make sense of it." I take the latter view. And to top it all off he was a damn Nazi!
And yes, Freud's influence permeates the society. That just means that he continues to be overrated.
One more: T.S. Eliot
Flagpole and...well just flagpole I guess...we'll see if this one gets deleted.
Freud is a fraud.
deleuze wrote:
Freud? He's probably THE most influential thinker (for better or worse) of the 20th century. Your Aunt Sally uses Freudian terms when gossiping with Cousin Betty.
But his theories are all wrong and pretty much useless. Hence, way overrated.
This thread should be titled "which intellectual do you disagree with"
Greenspan.
deleuze: did you take your LRC name from Gilles Deleuze?
Another vote for Noam Chomsky
430 miler.
Concerned Citizen wrote:
deleuze: did you take your LRC name from Gilles Deleuze?
Yep.
Concerned Citizen wrote:And yes, Freud's influence permeates the society. That just means that he continues to be overrated.
So, wait. If an intellectual invents a way of seeing that is useful to ordinary people as they attempt to understand their lives, this is a strike against the intellectual?
What's the purpose of intellectuals?
Actually, without a criterion or two for evaluating intellectuals, this thread is just so many knee-jerk reactions.
12345 wrote:
This thread should be titled "which intellectual do you disagree with"
For sure.
12345 wrote:
This thread should be titled "which intellectual do you disagree despite having never read his or her works"
fixed
Renato Canova
I'm assuming you're not talking about Chomsky as a linguist? No one is more influential in syntactic theory than him, from the early days through the Minimalist Program.
As a political scientist or commentator he is one dimensional but right about a lot of things.