Favorite Philosophers

williejonesjr

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None, they seem annoying to me.
What? You're kidding. The great almighty Socrates was a trip! These ppl, called Sophists came to his town, pretty much just to make money off the locals, teaching them stuff Socrates thought was incorrect. Socrates would always challenge these Sophists, kinda calling them out. Eventually the ppl paying the Sophists started listening to Socrates & following him. Well, the Sophists didn"t like that they were losing business & long story short, the dissenters had Socrates killed by poisoning.

No, they weren't just "saying stuff"- they're like us. They were the first ppl to really THINK & contemplate what was going on in the world instead of just blindly accepting it & going along with the status quo. Socrates saw through the bullshit & wasn't afraid to let folks know.

He'd be really outspoken if he were alive today- he wouldn't put up with any of the crap they'd trying to pull on us!
He'd probably be a top commenter here!!!
 

mecca

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What? You're kidding. The great almighty Socrates was a trip! These ppl, called Sophists came to his town, pretty much just to make money off the locals, teaching them stuff Socrates thought was incorrect. Socrates would always challenge these Sophists, kinda calling them out. Eventually the ppl paying the Sophists started listening to Socrates & following him. Well, the Sophists didn"t like that they were losing business & long story short, the dissenters had Socrates killed by poisoning.

No, they weren't just "saying stuff"- they're like us. They were the first ppl to really THINK & contemplate what was going on in the world instead of just blindly accepting it & going along with the status quo. Socrates saw through the bullshit & wasn't afraid to let folks know.

He'd be really outspoken if he were alive today- he wouldn't put up with any of the crap they'd trying to pull on us!
He'd probably be a top commenter here!!!
Ok fine, you're right. But I'm still annoyed.
 

Loki

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I keep meaning to read more philosophy honestly. I love the subject, but the reading tends to be dry. Right now I'm trying to make my way through the Zen koans, which are a sort of philosophical teachings I suppose. Marcus Aurellius has always been a favorite, but I've not read his entire works by any means, mostly just some here and there, but I like the way he thought.

A sort of "modern philosopher" I enjoy following is Jason Silva, but while he does have his own original musings and philosophies, he is kind of just like an aggregate of other philosophers and brings others' philosophies to his audience more so than his own, wrapped up into entertaining and easily consumable nuggets.
 

williejonesjr

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I keep meaning to read more philosophy honestly. I love the subject, but the reading tends to be dry. Right now I'm trying to make my way through the Zen koans, which are a sort of philosophical teachings I suppose. Marcus Aurellius has always been a favorite, but I've not read his entire works by any means, mostly just some here and there, but I like the way he thought.

A sort of "modern philosopher" I enjoy following is Jason Silva, but while he does have his own original musings and philosophies, he is kind of just like an aggregate of other philosophers and brings others' philosophies to his audience more so than his own, wrapped up into entertaining and easily consumable nuggets.
Marcus Aurellius! Another great political philosopher!
 

Etagloc

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I hate how people put them on a pedestal... they're just people who said some stuff.
It's not about them. Putting them on pedestals or not putting them on pedestals is besides the point. It's not about them. It's about their ideas.

Socrates and Plato basically invented Western philosophy. You might not be interested in them but I'd bet every dollar I have that you've never read The Republic. If you studied the Republic (you would need to get a good translation- don't get the Benjamin Jowett one), I think you'd feel differently.

You can't completely understand Western Civilization without Plato. He is so influential to its core that you would need to understand Plato to understand its roots. For example, I saw a lecture where a professor said that Plato's Republic is actually where the modern university is derived from. It's a very powerful book, although there's a lot of debate about how it is to be interpreted.

You don't have to read Plato but I think every educated person should at least read The Republic.
 

Etagloc

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Socrates and Plato. I would have loved to live in that time period.
We still live in that time period. Nothing's really changed. We still have modern-day versions of Socrates and modern-day Sophists running around. Even back then, Socrates and his ilk must have been in the minority- if I remember correctly, the citizens of Athens voted to have him put to death.

Plato's philosophy even predicts this happening to Socrates. Plato was so powerful that a lot of my own life was predicted by his theories. You can see his theories reflected in everyday life.

That's the thing about philosophy. A lot of people don't want to do the work to study philosophy and understand what it's about and they wanna skip past philosophy. Not because it's not rewarding but because it's difficult. Then they try to make a virtue out of this after the fact.

The truth is- you might not see philosophy but philosophy can see you. You might say "I don't need to study philosophy" and ignore it but there's philosophers and books that are talking exactly about you. Not just in that aspect but in many, many aspects of your life.

If you know about his cave metaphor from The Republic then you probably know that pretty much everyone here has probably at some point lived what Plato was talking about it in the cave metaphor. Many, many people have been killed over what Plato was talking about in the cave metaphor. The stuff his theories were talking about- you can see it around us all the time.

Socrates is still with us in spirit. We mostly know him through Plato's work as Socrates left no writings but we can take those theories and apply them in our own world.

People don't realize that nothing has really changed in the world. Technology changes, the year changes but people don't really change.

I think Frantz Fanon and Paulo Freire were two brilliant modern philosophers. They were extremely innovative and you can look at Socrates through Freire's model and it's pretty interesting.
 

Etagloc

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I keep meaning to read more philosophy honestly. I love the subject, but the reading tends to be dry. Right now I'm trying to make my way through the Zen koans, which are a sort of philosophical teachings I suppose. Marcus Aurellius has always been a favorite, but I've not read his entire works by any means, mostly just some here and there, but I like the way he thought.

A sort of "modern philosopher" I enjoy following is Jason Silva, but while he does have his own original musings and philosophies, he is kind of just like an aggregate of other philosophers and brings others' philosophies to his audience more so than his own, wrapped up into entertaining and easily consumable nuggets.
For modern-day, living philosopher, have you checked out Zizek? He's a great philosopher. I think people will be talking about his theories hundreds of years from now. He's very famous but he's the real deal. He's a serious philosopher, he just is passionate about taking extremely difficult and technical philosophy and making it accessible to everyday people.

Plus his theories are so brilliant that he also is one where once you start to study his theories, you'll see them around in everyday life. He can literally walk down a street and use his theories to explain random stuff he encounters while walking down the street. I have a movie of his where he drinks a coke and uses his theories to theorize about the coke before he drinks it. It sounds funny but he actually said some very profound things. Then there's another scene where he's near a toilet and uses his theories to discuss toilets.

That is the great test of a theory, I believe. Can you walk outside and see it in real life? The test of a theory is if it can predict things.

If your theories can't predict regular experience, it might be that your theories are very detached from regular experience, might be pure dogmas and may just be strings of fancy phrases without deep meaning.
 

williejonesjr

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It's not about them. Putting them on pedestals or not putting them on pedestals is besides the point. It's not about them. It's about their ideas.

Socrates and Plato basically invented Western philosophy. You might not be interested in them but I'd bet every dollar I have that you've never read The Republic. If you studied the Republic (you would need to get a good translation- don't get the Benjamin Jowett one), I think you'd feel differently.

You can't completely understand Western Civilization without Plato. He is so influential to its core that you would need to understand Plato to understand its roots. For example, I saw a lecture where a professor said that Plato's Republic is actually where the modern university is derived from. It's a very powerful book, although there's a lot of debate about how it is to be interpreted.

You don't have to read Plato but I think every educated person should at least read The Republic.
This is what it's about, man - schoolin' the youngins!
 

williejonesjr

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For modern-day, living philosopher, have you checked out Zizek? He's a great philosopher. I think people will be talking about his theories hundreds of years from now. He's very famous but he's the real deal. He's a serious philosopher, he just is passionate about taking extremely difficult and technical philosophy and making it accessible to everyday people.

Plus his theories are so brilliant that he also is one where once you start to study his theories, you'll see them around in everyday life. He can literally walk down a street and use his theories to explain random stuff he encounters while walking down the street. I have a movie of his where he drinks a coke and uses his theories to theorize about the coke before he drinks it. It sounds funny but he actually said some very profound things. Then there's another scene where he's near a toilet and uses his theories to discuss toilets.

That is the great test of a theory, I believe. Can you walk outside and see it in real life? The test of a theory is if it can predict things.

If your theories can't predict regular experience, it might be that your theories are very detached from regular experience, might be pure dogmas and may just be strings of fancy phrases without deep meaning.
Sounds cool. I'll have to check him out.
 

williejonesjr

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We still live in that time period. Nothing's really changed. We still have modern-day versions of Socrates and modern-day Sophists running around. Even back then, Socrates and his ilk must have been in the minority- if I remember correctly, the citizens of Athens voted to have him put to death.

Plato's philosophy even predicts this happening to Socrates. Plato was so powerful that a lot of my own life was predicted by his theories. You can see his theories reflected in everyday life.

That's the thing about philosophy. A lot of people don't want to do the work to study philosophy and understand what it's about and they wanna skip past philosophy. Not because it's not rewarding but because it's difficult. Then they try to make a virtue out of this after the fact.

The truth is- you might not see philosophy but philosophy can see you. You might say "I don't need to study philosophy" and ignore it but there's philosophers and books that are talking exactly about you. Not just in that aspect but in many, many aspects of your life.

If you know about his cave metaphor from The Republic then you probably know that pretty much everyone here has probably at some point lived what Plato was talking about it in the cave metaphor. Many, many people have been killed over what Plato was talking about in the cave metaphor. The stuff his theories were talking about- you can see it around us all the time.

Socrates is still with us in spirit. We mostly know him through Plato's work as Socrates left no writings but we can take those theories and apply them in our own world.

People don't realize that nothing has really changed in the world. Technology changes, the year changes but people don't really change.

I think Frantz Fanon and Paulo Freire were two brilliant modern philosophers. They were extremely innovative and you can look at Socrates through Freire's model and it's pretty interesting.
Great commentary, Etagloc. Thank you for expanding. And yes, they Athenians did vote to put Socrates to death. He had to drink a poison. He was surrounded by his loyal followers when he took his last breaths
 

Etagloc

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Great commentary, Etagloc. Thank you for expanding. And yes, they Athenians did vote to put Socrates to death. He had to drink a poison. He was surrounded by his loyal followers when he took his last breaths
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. The death of Socrates- what a way to die! If I understand correctly, the guards were even willing to let him escape because he was so loved and popular but Socrates chose to drink the hemlock and not to run. I myself don't understand that.

But what this shows is that Socrates was not the egghead caricature that modern society wants to depict intelligent people as. Socrates was a man. These dudes now..... many of your local philosophy professors are spineless. They've totally betrayed Socrates' legacy. There are homeless drunks who keep it truer to Socrates' legacy than these professors do. They won't even speak out, much less die for their beliefs.

But Socrates was like the head of a hydra. You cut off the head and more heads appear. One day, his name could be completely forgotten and lost. But he'll continuously reappear in every generation regardless.
 
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