It's a tie between Schopenhauer and Marcus Aurelius.

As a philosophy lover and one who avoids having favorites of anything, this may be difficult....

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Heraclitus. He said important things about the nature of process and change which the rest of philosophy has yet to catch up with. I just wish we had more of him.

Gottlob Frege. I don't know why. His work on logic of course, but it was his failed project on Arithmetic and his work on Sinn und Bedeutung of which I'm the most fond.

David Hume. One of the clearest thinking curmudgeons that the world has ever produced.

Zeno of Citium and the school of the Stoics (notably Cleanthes and Chrysippus). Where to begin? I love their work on virtue and ethics, but I also dig their ontology and epistemology. They are also, arguably, the world's first existentialists.

Zhuangzi, and to a lesser extent Lao Tzu. Obvious choices for a Taoist, but the order of preference is worthy of comment. Lao Tzu composed the basic melodies of Taoism, but Zhuangzi wrote symphonies.

Nagarjuna. I have very fundamental differences with the Buddha and Buddhism, but Nagarjuna was to Buddhism what Zhuangzi was to Taoism, he took the rough cut and produced a stunning diamond.


Okay. That's enough.

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Other favorites: Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Martin Heidegger, Daniel Dennett, Democritus, and Nietzsche.

Also, though not strictly philosophers, their work has had such enormous philosophical import that I would have to mention Georg Cantor, Kurt Godel, and David Hilbert in the same breath.

(February 6, 2013 at 11:27 am)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote: Minimalist Wrote: George Carlin.


why? just the genius common sense humor, that`s one of my reason he`s a favorite comedian of mine .

He was a stand-up philosopher....one of the few who made money at it!

This is my absolute favorite speech he gives. I love irony and he was good at pulling out the irony in things and forcing you to realize what it was. I Can barley get past "are you fucking kidding me? You can't be this stupid." Phase when someone like a religious person start spouting off crazy shit with a straight face and an expression of accomplishment of speaking the bullshit they just said.

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(February 6, 2013 at 1:00 pm)apophenia Wrote:


As a philosophy lover and one who avoids having favorites of anything, this may be difficult....

---

Heraclitus. He said important things about the nature of process and change which the rest of philosophy has yet to catch up with. I just wish we had more of him.

Gottlob Frege. I don't know why. His work on logic of course, but it was his failed project on Arithmetic and his work on Sinn und Bedeutung of which I'm the most fond.

David Hume. One of the clearest thinking curmudgeons that the world has ever produced.

Zeno of Citium and the school of the Stoics (notably Cleanthes and Chrysippus). Where to begin? I love their work on virtue and ethics, but I also dig their ontology and epistemology. They are also, arguably, the world's first existentialists.

Zhuangzi, and to a lesser extent Lao Tzu. Obvious choices for a Taoist, but the order of preference is worthy of comment. Lao Tzu composed the basic melodies of Taoism, but Zhuangzi wrote symphonies.

Nagarjuna. I have very fundamental differences with the Buddha and Buddhism, but Nagarjuna was to Buddhism what Zhuangzi was to Taoism, he took the rough cut and produced a stunning diamond.


Okay. That's enough.

---

Other favorites: Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Martin Heidegger, Daniel Dennett, Democritus, and Nietzsche.

Also, though not strictly philosophers, their work has had such enormous philosophical import that I would have to mention Georg Cantor, Kurt Godel, and David Hilbert in the same breath.

Have heard a few of these but not familiar with most of them( but with time and curiosity i shall learn) just now getting into hume but he got alot of his stuff from kant which put a twist on decartes. I love all these plus Aristotle, socrates ( not big on some of plato ironically) i like locke which i discovered by worshiping thomas paine. I like madison though he is less of the rest. Sam harris is a favorite. But overall even though i can not make my mind up about the rest hitchens will always be my favorite. (He lead me to socrates and thomas paine) he was like a serious
george carlin but much more educated and had way with word beyond imagination. I miss the ol hitch.

(February 6, 2013 at 12:39 am)justin Wrote: who is your favorite philosopher and why? (favorite one so far if your like me and can`t make up his damn mind)

Currently, (because it changes) British Philosopher John Gray.

Bryan McGee is a good author. My favorite philosopher is the Holy Spirit and the revelations that I have received which overlap substantially with philosophy. God has given me answers to many questions that I have raised concerning salvation, the providence of God and free will, how prayer works, etc, and gave me revelations. This is my favorite, to receive revelations from God.

Recently I have been thinking about Alastair MacIntyre and Aristotle. I would like to attend school to study the relationship between analytic philosophy, linguistics and computational linguistics and teach philosophy someday, but I haven't yet been able to do so.

Before I was a Christian, my favorite philosopher was Noam Chomsky. I have since become less impressed with his approach. Other philosophers who have influenced me are David Hume and Friedrich Nietzsche and Immanuel Kant.

Recently I have studied Russell Kirk, a conservative political philosopher who has impressed me. Theologically I have been influenced by the charismatic movement a lot. I like Alvin Plantiga's approach to apologetic's and would like to get deeper into his studies of epistemology.