Who is the greatest philosopher of all time?

I am not the greatest philosopher of all time, but I am the most interesting. People hang on my every word....even the prepositions.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

its just kind of absurd to think of Ayn Rand as a "philosopher". The fact that people take her seriously is...unnerving...

Jesus.

All other philosophers just serve to distract and detract from his message.

PCGG wrote:

Jesus.

All other philosophers just serve to distract and detract from his message.

jesus lost his philosopher cred when he claimed to have magic powers.

satansmouf wrote:

jesus lost his philosopher cred when he claimed to have magic powers.

Damn right.

I gotta go with good old Immanuel Kant on this one. His categorical imperative is maybe the best thing that anyone ever came up with. It is free of religion, but does not condemn it. It is the basic rule to live by that everyone can follow everywhere and still keep whatever faith they have. Be they atheistic, monotheistic or polytheistic.

confucious

Lao Tsu

Intergalactic wrote:

He is kind of like the Michael Jordan of philosophy - there have been those who won more championships and were more influential (Bill Russell/Plato), those who scored more points (Wilt/Descartes), etc., but when you factor it all in, it's hard to beat Hume.

I was expecting someone to mention Bertrand Russell, not Bill Russell.

I don't want to get into the "greatest" debate, so I'll name some whose work I have enjoyed or been enlightened by: Plato (his Socrates can be an annoying know-it-all, but his dialogues are, as a whole, enjoyable, accessible, and surprisingly modern in tone), Hobbes (his exposition of the "state of nature," where conflict is a "war of all against all," and where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short," remains a classic description of the unordered human condition, and without him, "Calvin and Hobbes" might have been called something like "Calvin and Leibniz," which would be a shame), Bentham (the rigorous utilitarian, whose views were somewhat toned down for mass consumption by John Stuart Mill), Russell (a controversial figure for reasons that have little to do with his contributions to analytic philosophy and logic).

credibility of OP is ruined by including ayn rand in the list of potential options.

If you don't discount him because he was the son of God, Jesus Christ would probably be number one. You also, have to include Confucious and Gathama Buddah and can you include a someone who was is primarily known as a leader like Mahat Ghuandi. (Pardon, my horrible spelling

Let's review Kant's philosophy:

There is no such thing as reality. Man is a retarded animal who is too stupid to really know anything, and the universe exists only in our own minds anyway, so all opinions are equally valid and nobody is right or wrong. Like L. Ron Hubbard said, what's true is what's true to you. God might exist, we just don't know that or anything else for sure. An action is only moral if it benefits someone else. If you benefit from your own actions, then you are selfish and evil and will burn in Hell if it exists. When in doubt, just do what everyobdy else is doing, because the majority is all wise.

You ridicule Ayn Rand, but take this asshole seriously?

George Carlin

Bill Maher

Michael Moore

Jesus

while the conclusion of his 'categorical imperative' may fit what moral desires you possess, in terms of a philosophical argument the logic utilized is entirely flawed. An action is good if its complement leads to something undesirable? These kinds of circular definitions are of use only to induhviduals who have already bought into the conclusion and care little for how that conclusion is constructed.

Plato

Spinoza

Kant

Wittgenstein

Rand

gig wrote:

Let's review Kant's philosophy:

There is no such thing as reality. Man is a retarded animal who is too stupid to really know anything, and the universe exists only in our own minds anyway, so all opinions are equally valid and nobody is right or wrong. Like L. Ron Hubbard said, what's true is what's true to you. God might exist, we just don't know that or anything else for sure. An action is only moral if it benefits someone else. If you benefit from your own actions, then you are selfish and evil and will burn in Hell if it exists. When in doubt, just do what everyobdy else is doing, because the majority is all wise.

You ridicule Ayn Rand, but take this asshole seriously?

Obviously you don´t know shit about Kant. Most stupid post on LR in quite a while, and that says a lot.

snake bite wrote:

Aristotle

Plato

Kant

Nietzsche

Marx

Rand

Hume

Aquinas

Who is the single GREATEST of all time?

None of them. It's Lennon

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

Jus kiddin, I hate that stupid song.

Popeye: "I am what I am, and that's all that I am."