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Who is your favorite philosopher?

Lark

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Michael Foley at the moment, I dont like a lot of the other popular contemporary philosophers like AC Grayling, Alain de Botan (spelling) and I dont like the atheistic new wave, a lot of what they write does not seem like philosophy at all, there's nothing of the sincere doubts or self scrutiny which exist with other philosophers.

I like Foley because he questions a lot of contemporary or emerging norms and mores without necessarily choosing to treat those which are alternatives as sacrosanct automatically. I dont like a lot of the philosophers which tend to be popular with others, especially Neitzsche, because perhaps in the past their critic was valid but it has in many ways become normative or part of the culture without being recognised as such and then new readers discover it for the first time and believe it has the same validity or relevence as it once did and apply it as though there has been no change or development in between times.
 

Salomé

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Michael Foley is not a philosopher, he's a poet. (I do love him though... :unsure:)

I wouldn't class Alain de Botton as a philosopher either, although his writings have a clear philosophical bent. I adore him.

EDIT. Ah, ok. That Michael Foley. Phew. For a moment I thought we'd found a point of agreement.
 

Lark

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Michael Foley is not a philosopher, he's a poet. (I do love him though... :unsure:)

I wouldn't class Alain de Botton as a philosopher either, although his writings have a clear philosophical bent. I adore him.

EDIT. Ah, ok. That Michael Foley. Phew. For a moment I thought we'd found a point of agreement.

His consolations of philosophy was alright if you were unfamiliar with the subject matter, I consider him to be a populariser of philosophy rather than a philosopher but some people following his books on topics such as religion think he's a philosopher, I've read better books in a similar theme released in and around the time he does release his books too.

Yeah, not the Michael Foley you were thinking about the one which writes about the absurd from an existential perspective.
 

wolfy

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On a related note, Zhuangzi is also quite good, I couldn't really pick a "favorite" just a scatter plot of philosophers with interesting ideas.

Yeah, I think it was in Tao: The Watercourse Way that I read about a few of his ideas.
 

Salomé

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Yeah, not the Michael Foley you were thinking about the one which writes about the absurd from an existential perspective.

That IS the one I was thinking about....

And he is not a philosopher. Just a delightfully grumpy old geezer.

Pretty sure he teaches IT at the "University" of Westminster.
 

Lark

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That IS the one I was thinking about....

And he is not a philosopher. Just a delightfully grumpy old geezer.

Pretty sure he teaches IT at the "University" of Westminster.

I'm pretty sure he's a lecturer in Derry, Northern Ireland.

I dont really get the grumpy old geezer thing but I do think he's a good social critic and has pointed out the absurdity of a lot of modern conventions and norms. Although I'd not be surprised that a lot of liberals and other progs would want to dismiss his perspective.
 

Thursday

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Ralph Waldo Emerson for his violent disregard for anything other than self-respect, harmony, and honesty in the most inherent and human of things.
 

Fluffywolf

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I am myself, my own favorite philosopher.
 

Nicodemus

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Nicodemus, I'm curious as to who your favourite is
Schopenhauer. There are others whose ideas are closer to my own, but none for whom I have more respect.

add to it that you study philosophy you must have a good knowledge of many of them and what they said.
If I do, it is because I have an interest in philosophy, not because I have studied it.

I'm confused as to the true definition of the word philosophy.
There is none. That is, I suppose, the main reason that what counts as philosophy today is assumed to be part of the same discipline as what counted as philosophy in the 18th century. I believe philosophy is best defined as a form of discourse that concerns itself with texts, ideas, questions that are culturally considered to be philosophical; for there is no quality in things philosophical that marks them as being of one kind - except, perhaps, arguments, but arguments are not exclusive to philosophy.

So in this regard is Buddhism a philosophy? Or is it a psychotherapy? I'm more comfortable with the word psychotherapy to define it. Because the ultimate result of Buddhism is bliss/happiness. The goal though is Nirvana.
Since there is no accepted definition of 'religion' either, I guess you can claim both that and philosophy for Buddhism.
 
R

Riva

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Schopenhauer. There are others whose ideas are closer to my own, but none for whom I have more respect.

His philosophy does have a lot of similarities with Buddhism and Jainism. Where does he differ?

Since this is a thread dedicated to philosophy, asking questions solely regarding one of them wouldn't be an issue I suppose.
 

Nicodemus

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His philosophy does have a lot of similarities with Buddhism and Jainism. Where does he differ?
Tell me everything you know about Buddhism, then I tell you everything I know about Schopenhauer's philosophy; in the end, we compare. Or we just read away our respective ignorances by ourselves.
 
R

Riva

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Tell me everything you know about Buddhism, then I tell you everything I know about Schopenhauer's philosophy; in the end, we compare. Or we just read away our respective ignorances by ourselves.

I simply assumed you know about Buddhism and Jainism.

His analysis of will led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fully satisfied. The corollary of this is an ultimately painful human condition. Consequently, he considered that a lifestyle of negating desires.....

I do not know how he arrived a the conclusion but the conclusions do seem to be the same. The answers to one's sufferings (painful human conditions) also have their similarities.

Well if you are not in the mood...
 

Nicodemus

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I simply assumed you know about Buddhism and Jainism.
Not enough to make a Great Comparison.

I do not know how he arrived a the conclusion but the conclusions do seem to be the same. The answers to one's sufferings (painful human conditions) also have their similarities.
He got his ideas out of life and the Upanishads, which, he said, "have been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death."
 

The Outsider

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I don't pick favorites, but I appreciate Saul Kripke for providing a sound and complete set of semantics for modal logic as a teenager.
 

Polaris

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Heidegger for Being and Time, Sartre for Being and Nothingness as well as Nausea, and Nietzsche for practically everything he ever wrote. Ayn Rand is worth an honorable mention for being very interesting and charismatic to me, not to mention authoring what is possibly my favorite book (The Fountainhead); I do find her to be philosophically flawed, though, to put it rather mildly. I also really enjoyed what I read of Kierkegaard, but would need to read more of him before I could form a clear opinion on his works as a whole. Oh, and of course, Merleau-Ponty for his Phenomenology of Perception--a truly phenomenal book.
 

ilikeitlikethat

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Desire is the route that leads to suffering, yay Buddha :D

I'm too stoned to be 'Zen'.

** it's true.:smile:

MY favourite philospher, is Nike.

'Just do it.'

Like, wow!

It gets me saying 'be like Nike right' because, here in the UK in this part of the world in my neck of the woods, Nike rhymes with the word like.
So, I say
"Be like Nike right and
'Just Do It.'"
 

Orangey

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Simone de Beauvoir, Herbert Marcuse, John Dewey, and Alasdair MacIntyre.
 

ilikeitlikethat

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The person who said
"Give a man a fish, and he will for a day, teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime."
 

nanook

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i have been compared with schopenhauer two times, by different persons. not sure if it was a compliment. i don't know the man. i have read something about his dog. ( hey, i posted on topic earlyer)
 
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