favorite philosopher?

[leninsungtruth]

Who is your favorite philosopher and why? Please include your favorite philosophical piece as well.

[Carl G]

The Apache leader Cochise, because he used his philosophy to help his people evade the U.S. Army, and to negotiate a fairly favorable treaty with the U.S. Government.

His works are written in the wind, and in the souls of his people.

[Dan Rowden]

My favourite philosopher is me, but I've yet to write my favourite piece. Can I take a rain check?

[Shahrazad]

Dan Rowden

[Trevor Salyzyn]

Diogenes, but he never wrote anything down. That's also why he's my favourite philosopher.

[Shahrazad]

What's wrong with writing things down?

[keenobserver]

What's wrong with writing things down?

Those in the know already know it.
Those that aren't never will.
Those who believe they are will interpret half-truths.
Those who read what they write will be further misled.

(you get the idea)

[Tomas]

.




BBC - Radio 4 - In Our Time - Greatest Philosopher
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/ino ... pher.shtml




.

[HUNTEDvsINVIS]

Jesus.

someone who actually lived what he preeched. rare. special.

[Carl G]

Is it clear that Jesus actually lived?

[HUNTEDvsINVIS]

"his works are written in wind, and in the souls of his people". ditto.

All reality transcends into the metaphysical realm,ultimately, as I've said, it makes no real difference if you believe in the Christ or not, the point is to aply texts accurately to life, which everyone is too lazy to do. You can alternate them, but you can learn from them, and you can hope in them. Life, is hope. The next second of your life can bring about the eternal end. Nietzschean philosophy, btw, bears shocking similarities to Christianity. It contradicts itself, it calls ultimately for an acceptance of the most beautiful and most horrific aspects of life, and both lay down "rules" for living. Nietzsche failed to see that he was stubornly flying in the direction he was trying to escape from. The concept of God is the concept of the idea that the universe means something for us, and will take us somewhere, and this is a truth, and can only be, for even if there is no point to anything, that was a point, an expression, that was the way things were.

Sometimes I think that the agony and pain of life reflects the fact that God is almighty. God can create not only joy and sunshine but also horror and eternal fire, and this might is shown in the world we see around us every day. And the more we love him despite his evil, the more we prove that we love him enough to allow him to sacrifice us. Strange arguments, we want to tear the world around us into perfection, we hate it for killing not just our bodies but our living souls, but, we can not escape the truth, the allpowerful, the crummy states of our souls in solitudes, the absolute. The idea of God is really all we have, and, as Nietzsche showed us, all the bloody points we fly to are probably bound to tie themselves up again at the feet of God.

"And there will be horror, and there will always be those who breathe it, and I will be there for them, with them, burning alongside them, for them, as them"

[ memo: the author of this text ate a bizarre species of "muffin" this morning that may have induced temporary insanity and loss of atheist sensibility, and will report back wether or not she believed herself. ]

[HUNTEDvsINVIS]

BTW, that Benjamin guy never responded to my messages, and it is just as well, his art was crap anyway, and his words were lies.

[Tomas]

.

BTW, that Benjamin guy never responded to my messages, and it is just as well, his art was crap anyway, and his words were lies.

-tomas-
Who?
.

[windhawk]

I always kinda' liked Heidegger, not for what he said, but for how he made me feel (now, that's brilliant). He might of been a Nazi, but "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking" is...

Always remember, in any argument, it is possible to retreat into silence...

[Dan Rowden]

Heidegger? Good grief. Who in the world could possibly understand that guy?

[Ataraxia]

He's a hard slog,but worth it.

ich bin mit meinem Dasein zufrieden ,ya can't say fairer than that :)

[Dan Rowden]

I don't agree. Anyone who writes as obliquely as that has nothing worthwhile to say. Name me one important insight he had.

[edit: and don't say "I am content with my existence"!]

[windhawk]

Ah, I had to take an independent study in existentialism, and realized one day what he meant by "...the destiny of Being." (That's with a capital Bee). I wrote a paper, got the grade, and still reread him in awe of the people who can explain him.

BTW, I said that since Being is revealed as Truth, and Truth is of our apprehension, then the Destiny of Being is our own destiny writ large. This, of course, was before his "turn;" Now That (his turn), I never did quite comprehend.

The best thing I can say for picking up a degree in Computer Science was that it allowed me to live outside of academia long enough to learn who I am, and not have to live at THAT level constantly. Now that I near an early retirement, I'm going back to get a totally useless Doctorate in Philosophy, that will mean everything to me. An odd life, in retrospect.

[Dan Rowden]

I'm afraid I can't relate to the notion of attaining something useless.

[Ataraxia]

I don't agree. Anyone who writes as obliquely as that has nothing worthwhile to say. Name me one important insight he had.

[edit: and don't say "I am content with my existence"!]

Damn,I'm stumped then ;)

Look i agree with where you're going with this Dan-impenatrability is ultimately poor philosophy.

i'm still content i bothered.

[Dan Rowden]

I tried pretty hard to get through "Sein und Zeit". I had a "feeling" there was something there but I couldn't turn that feeling into anything tangible. Heidegger was yet another of those philosophers who tended to write for academics.

[windhawk]

I'm sorry if I offended, by "useless" I meant a degree that would likely provide me with no income. I'm committed to this, I sincerely believe in the Ghost in the Machine, and much of the stuff coming out of the Computer Science guys is rather unsophisticated from a philosophical standpoint.

It's funny, but some of the brightest minds in the world are trying to come up with an experiment that proves we live in an extra-dimensional world (string theory), while at the same time the best Neurobiologists are trying to reduce consciousness to a purely physical phenomena whilst the physicists are trying to prove...

Like I said, I believe in the Ghost. Call me old-fashoned ;-)

[Dan Rowden]

What is it you think you'll get from a philosophy degree that you can't get from just thinking for yourself? And, aside from that, what is the nature of the ghost in the machine?

[Ataraxia]

What is it you think you'll get from a philosophy degree that you can't get from just thinking for yourself?

Be that as it may, is your contention that you would've been just as wise had you not read Buddha,LaoZsu,Nieztsche,Schopenhauer,Weineger,Kierkeguard et al?

[Dan Rowden]

Yes, but it might have taken me a bit longer. And, of course, you don't need to have anything to do with academia to read those guys.