Who is your favorite philosopher and why

[taolanes]

I have to go with Pythagoras just because he was crazy. He had a secret society, and they killed someone for giving away the secret that irrational numbers exist.

 

[bg23]

Clarence Darrow.
I admire him.

 

[taolanes]

Hmmm never heard of him

 

[bg23]

american lawyer.
determinist.

 

[Lasher]

I could never choose between Spicoli, Spackler or Webb.

 

[atmas]

I have to go with Pythagoras just because he was crazy. He had a secret society, and they killed someone for giving away the secret that irrational numbers exist.

I would go with Heraclitus because in such a pre-scientific period he espoused an idea that even today informs much of quantum physics (that the fundamental substance of the Universe is fire; read: energy). However, Wittgenstein gave a totally new and unique view of philosphical inquiry at a time when many thought that no new philosophy was possible, so for his linguistic philosophy to present such a new view shows he is someone to with which to contend.

 

[taolanes]

Aren't determinists more scientists than philosophers?

 

[bg23]

Aren't determinists more scientists than philosophers?

Not necessarily.

 

[atmas]

Aren't determinists more scientists than philosophers?

The Viennese Circle sought to take philosophy into the scientific sphere. Today's analytical philosophy, all the rage in most graduate seminars, seeks to apply rigorous mathematical logic to even the softest philosophical fields such as religious study. Philosophy is called the science of sciences for a reason.

 

[Lasher]

Aren't determinists more scientists than philosophers?

The reminds me of the comment Hawking made in 'A Brief History of Time' about how philosophy pretty much bailed on science cause it couldn't hack the math.

 

[Guest]

Yogi Berra.

No explanation is necessary.

 

[taolanes]

Yeah I guess you HAVE to be a determinist to be a scientist, but a philosopher could believe pretty much anything.

Oh and Heraclitus was another great Greek. Nothing is real, everything is changing, even as I'm talking to you I'm growing old and wrinkly and I'll eventually die. Yet if nothing in the world is true, how do we even have knowledge?

 

[Guest]

It's a toss-up between Plato and Aristotle, the old standbys.

They've had profound influences and contributions, spanning centuries, over the way we think about ourselves, the application of logic and reason, and how we as individuals interact with others in society.













Like Laurel and Manu.

 

[BBWetKitty]

Vince Lombardi.

 

[dolf]

pooh bear

 

[atmas]

Yeah I guess you HAVE to be a determinist to be a scientist, but if a philosopher could believe pretty much anything.

Oh and Heraclitus was another great Greek. Nothing is real, everything is changing, even as I'm talking to you I'm growing old and wrinkly and I'll eventually die. Yet if nothing in the world is true, how do we even have knowledge?

"For it is not possible to step into the same river twice."

There are certain things we take to be true, some with evidence and some withouty, but metaphysically (via Hume), there is really no metaphysical connection between any two things. hume said that a stone crashing through a window could not be thought of as the agent that breaks the window: could not the window have been breaking spontaneously at the instant the stone hit it?
However, we as humans make certain assumptions about truth that allows us to go about our lives, and often those assumptions take the form of inductive reasoning, which goes something like this: in the past the future behaved a certain way. Looking into the future of the present, i will assume that the future of the present will behave like th efuture of the past did.
this, for example, allows for weather forecasters to be right at least once in a while.

 

[bg23]

pooh bear

god, i love you.

 

[stonedfox]

pooh bear

Dammit! You already picked mine! Winnie the Pooh is the only philosopher that makes any sense to me.

 

[atmas]

pooh bear

The more it snows tiddley pom
the more it goes tiddley pom
the more it goes tiddley pom
on snowing

 

[bg23]

The more it snows tiddley pom
the more it goes tiddley pom
the more it goes tiddley pom
on snowing

i find it admirable
and vaguely disturbing
that you know that.

 

[Elmer Keith]

The more it snows tiddley pom
the more it goes tiddley pom
the more it goes tiddley pom
on snowing

Yabba Dabba Doo

 

[atmas]

i find it admirable
and vaguely disturbing
that you know that.

On days when I have nothing to do
I sometimes wonder if it's true
that who is what, and what is who...

And I often wonder,
How are you?

 

[Elmer Keith]

Straight? Ayn Rand

 

[bg23]

On days when I have nothing to do
I sometimes wonder if it's true
that who is what, and what is who...

And I often wonder,
How are you?

Sometimes I wonder
If you check
Your email.

Freelance. It's my thing.

 

[urbodyismytempl]

My favorite is david hume, b/c he's so down to earth for a philosopher. i get sick of all that existential crap those other guys spew