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[MBTI General] Favourite Scientist and favourite Philosopher?

Obsidius

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Hey NT buddies and, visitors, who is your favourite scientist and favourite philosopher (respectively)?

My favourite scientist is (cliche I know); Einstein

My favourite philosopher is a tie between; Nietzsche and Wittgenstein

If and of you want to give reasons for your choices go ahead, should be interesting :)
 

Lark

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I'm not sure that I have a favourite scientist, I like things which Einstein wrote, similarly I like things that some of the guys working on the manhattan project wrote too.

Philosophy has a broad back but I would say that I like Plato, for his writing on soul mates, friendship and the logos, Aristotle, for his writings on de anima or the soul, Camus, more literary than philosopher maybe but I agree with him that suicide is probably the greatest question in philosophy, life either is worth living or its not, a lot can be reduced to that, Aquinas, virtue ethics I hold in pretty high esteem, some people think that subjectivism and relativisim are a credible challenge to ethics per se, I think only really to modern ethics, understood as ethical theory since Kant, virtue ethics are axiomatic original position, Marx, Freud and Fromm, I think they were all very good on the score of illusion and reality, probably the first two as interpreted by the third, Bertrand Russell, in particular for his book the conquest of happiness, which is very wise but mainly because he was a great writer and is a pleasure to read.
 

Mole

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Charles Darwin made the greatest change in our view of our place in the world.

Charles Darwin made such a large change that Islam has not yet caught up and still teaches Creationism, even in elite Islamic schools in the West.

And Charles Darwin made such a large change that the Catholic Church was forced to incorporate Natual Selection into their view of the world.

And Charles Darwin made such a large change that 40% of Americans have not caught up and still believe the world is less than 10,000 years old.

Charles Darwin taught us that for four and half thousand million years all life on Earth is related to each other.

To hard to swallow? Most of us haven't even started digesting it yet.

And of course Charles Darwin is brilliantly complemented by the Ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, who taught us how to question our assumptions, and that's what Darwin did in spades.
 

Obsidius

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Charles Darwin made the greatest change in our view of our place in the world.

Charles Darwin made such a large change that Islam has not yet caught up and still teaches Creationism, even in elite Islamic schools in the West.

And Charles Darwin made such a large change that the Catholic Church was forced to incorporate Natual Selection into their view of the world.

And Charles Darwin made such a large change that 40% of Americans have not caught up and still believe the world is less than 10,000 years old.

Charles Darwin taught us that for four and half thousand million years all life on Earth is related to each other.

To hard to swallow? Most of us haven't even started digesting it yet.

And of course Charles Darwin is brilliantly complemented by the Ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, who taught us how to question our assumptions, and that's what Darwin did in spades.

Gotta agree that Darwin was definitely one of the greats, probably in my top 5, perhaps in my top 3! Good pick :)
 

BadOctopus

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I <3 Nikola Tesla. So neurotic, but so brilliant, fascinating, and enigmatic. He played a huge part in the development of technology in the twentieth century.

Also he was in love with a pigeon. So that's fun.
 

Obsidius

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Also he was in love with a pigeon. So that's fun.

Wait, are you serious? First of all, you oh me a new keyboard miss! I just spat tea all over mine XD But holy crap, I never knew that! That's hilarious!
 

Obsidius

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Please read some Nietzsche! Unless you're the type that thinks in facts and figures, then stay away, it'll piss you off.

(to Phobik)
 

BadOctopus

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Wait, are you serious? First of all, you oh me a new keyboard miss! I just spat tea all over mine XD But holy crap, I never knew that! That's hilarious!
Sorry about the keyboard. Okay, so Tesla wasn't in love with it, but he did love pigeons, and he had this special bond with a white female pigeon, and when she died, he was devastated. You can't make this crap up.

If you're interested in Tesla, there's a biography about him called "Tesla: Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney that's pretty great. That poor guy had serious OCD. I often wonder how much more he'd have been able to accomplish without all his neuroses.
 

Obsidius

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Sorry about the keyboard. Okay, so Tesla wasn't in love with it, but he did love pigeons, and he had this special bond with a white female pigeon, and when she died, he was devastated. You can't make this crap up.

If you're interested in Tesla, there's a biography about him called "Tesla: Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney that's pretty great. That poor guy had serious OCD. I often wonder how much more he'd have been able to accomplish without all his neuroses.

Ah okay, makes a bit more sense :) That is interesting though, I'll have to get ahold of it sometime! I often think about that with a lot of these geniuses, such as what Einstein could have done if he didn't die as early as he did (I believe he was working on a UFT), or how much more Nietzsche could have accomplished if he didn't go insane...
 

grey_beard

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Sorry about the keyboard. Okay, so Tesla wasn't in love with it, but he did love pigeons, and he had this special bond with a white female pigeon, and when she died, he was devastated. You can't make this crap up.

If you're interested in Tesla, there's a biography about him called "Tesla: Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney that's pretty great. That poor guy had serious OCD. I often wonder how much more he'd have been able to accomplish without all his neuroses.

I like the fact that Tesla was good friends with Mark Twain...:shock:
 

grey_beard

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I like the fact that Tesla was good friends with Mark Twain...:shock:

Scientist -- hooom, hmm, now. Euler or Feynman for the scientist. Probably Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle for philosopher.
 

Mole

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Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle for philosopher.

Oh no, Grey Beard, oh no, not Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle!

Thomas taught that heretics should be tortured and they were. And Thomas looked forward to going to heaven so he could look down and see the suffering of the souls in hell.

Aristotle wrote the Republic ruled not by democracy but by a philospher king.
 

Evee

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Aristotle wrote the Republic ruled not by democracy but by a philospher king.

Plato wrote The Republic, Mole. Aristotle wrote Politics.

My favorite philosopher at this moment is Marcus Aurelius, who just happened to be the perfect example of Plato's philosopher king.
 

grey_beard

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Oh no, Grey Beard, oh no, not Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle!

Thomas taught that heretics should be tortured and they were. And Thomas looked forward to going to heaven so he could look down and see the suffering of the souls in hell.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? (Yes, I know you're not 'American' so the joke won't feel the same to you.)
But Summa Theologica was a monumental achievement: and for someone who once wrote that he was most grateful to God, for the fact that "I have understood every word I ever read," to then at the end of his life, following a vision, to say "I can write no more. I have seen things which make all my writings like straw" -- argues both humility, *and* provides a benchmark for the grandeur and/or humility of heaven.

Aristotle wrote the Republic ruled not by democracy but by a philospher king.
Democracy always degenerates into mob rule. Republics are safer. But Aristotle I named for his advancement of the natural sciences and classifications, an early form of, as it were, "natural philosophy." What I have against Aristotle was not his fault. But the ancients -- and then the Renaissance -- just *had* to go and practice argument from authority, for the longest time, instead of empiricism -- as witnessed by the deference to Galen on medical matters, and in fact as still practiced (suffered) by the practice of medicine to this day: although the modern instances are as much a lingering symptom of the infection of the Renaissance as they are a by-product of the Grand Rounds and rules of thumb and heuristics designed to cope with a flood of details concerning a highly variable yet intricate system such as the human body.
 

Mole

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Democracy always degenerates into mob rule. Republics are safer.

In 1999 we voted for either a Republic or a Monarchy, and the Monarchy won hands down as all of Australia except for one small territory voted to keep the Queen.
 

Bknight

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Favorite Philosopher: Socrates/ Voltaire; Tie between the two

Favorite Scientist: Michio Kaku
 

Coriolis

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Favorite scientist: Galileo

Favorite Philosopher: probably Sun Tzu.
(I am not well-read in philosophy, relative to other topics.)
 
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