Here is an endless subject for debate.
Of all the philosophers of whom we have records, which one has been the most important? Or: which one was closest to the truth?
Why did you choose that particular person?
Z

Nostradamos, because he was one of the most mysterious philosophers I know, and I'm trying to find reruns of the History Channel special on him.

sorry to disagree with you yoda but nostradamos ws a seer not a philosopher.

Confucius. I personally prefer his "Analects" over the books of western Philosophers. and I also agree that Nostardomus was not a philosopher but rather a seer.

I like Rousseau, especially his thoughts on government and authority.

I'm taking a philosophy class right now, and it's pretty intriguing. We haven't delved into it very deeply, but I've been impressed with Immanuel Kant and Aristotle, and I tend to disagree a lot with Ayn Rand and Plato.
I'm interested to get to the oriental philosophy.

Some would put Ayn Rand in the same category as Nostradamos when it comes to philosophy.

Alfred North Whitehead once remarked that all (subsequent) philosophy is but a footnote to Plato. Plato seems to me to be the most important philosopher for two reasons:

First, he preserved in his early dialogues the person and teaching of his master, Sokrates, who has been significant as a model throughout intellectual history of what philosophising should be (David's painting of Socrates on his death bed is emblematic).

Second, Plato provided future thinkers with most of the categories of philosophising and tentative methods and terminology for subsequent discussion that once and for all time removed it from religious speculation, superstition, and grounded it upon human reason. Almost single-handedly, Plato defined Western civilisation.
Z

This post has been edited by Zarathustra: Sep 14 2007, 11:34 AM

Mickey Mouse & Mao Zedong.

Neither true philosophers according to the definition.

But both have affected and effected more people world wide than Plato or others mentioned here.

Think about it?

If you want to use the amount of people affected you should look for one of the earlies philosophers. Plato has affected people from his own time all the way through to today, while I doubt Mao has had any effect on people who lived a few hundred years ago.


I'd nominate Socrates, although some of the philosophers predating him, Parmenides especially, might also take the throne for what they did to our view of knowledge and wisdom. We owe this discussion, and this forum itself, as well as all that which makes this forum possible to them.

What they gave us was a new view of how you can achieve wisdom. Before that wisdom and knowledge as the monopoly of the gods, to be dealt out, often via priest or shamans, to those worthy. Take as an example the myth of how Prometheus gifted man with fire. The new view Socrates and his predecessors gave us was that wisdom could be achieved through reason and that a human could better himself and become more on his own without having to beg the gods for scraps.

The ones preceding Socrates talked about this, but he forced it down peoples throats. Forcing us to take responsibility for our beliefs and back them up with reason, and not letting us excuse faulty ones by referring to the gods. This, predictably, wasn't very popular. Lets us not forget that he died because of it. The ripples he created gave us Plato, Aristotle and later science and all its offspring.

Socrates. He was the wisest man of all. Probably smarter than most people, yet knew he actually knew very little about the universe and what it contained. That is very good outlook in my opinion.

Even though he is almost universally considered a religious icon, the philosophy towards life and how we live propounded by Jesus (a man) has affected people world wide for about two thousand years. Even though I don't believe any of the supernatural mumbo-jumbo that's a part of any religion, I do find the man's advice on living worthy of trying to live by.

Bob Dylan. Because he is of our time, and you may not like it at times but Bob tells it like it is.

I would say Socrates too, for he did not write anything. No one does wrong wilfully / virtue is knoweldge - powerful.