Yogi Berra

Name two for each category: 2 points for the winner, 1 for the runner up, we'll tally in a while, however long until the thread runs out of steam, and see who "won." ;p

I'll start us off:

My choices:

-Mental: NIETZSCHE 1st, Runner Up: Kierkegaard

I must admit choosing in this category is harder than the "politcal" arena for me. I do value the ideas of Descartes, Aristotle, and Kant very much, even if I don't agree with them all (look at my choices and you migh guess why) and other titans, too, are interesting choices. I also must admit it is all I can do to stop myself for voting for Jean-Paul Sartre; I withold that vote because the two I HAVE picked were just as influential, in my opinion, as he, and THEY influenced HIM enough so that it could be argued without these two men, Sarte would not have had the philosophic backrund to build his ideas off of.

But Nietzsche is, I believe, a masterful thinker, and is able to dabble in so many fields of thought at once (I can see some of the early Kiekegaard in him, even though Nietszche never studied him, and yet even still I can liken some of Nietzsche's thoughts to a comletely different giant of thought, Kant.) All in all, he is my choice not just because I believe his philosophical points are AMAZING and I hold so many of them to be truly enlightening, more so than others (here, if I must point finers regarding "who" he is more brilliant than, I mut say that David Hume has always held a lower standing with me, I just cannot stomach his Utilitarianism and he is seemingly oblivious or uncaring to the paradoxes he creates in it) but because I believe Friedrich Nietszche can be linked and has used a bit of everyone and everything from the Greeks to his contemporaries, from such extremes as Hegel, Kant, and Kiekegaard.

*Runner up, SOREN KIEKEGAARD: I'm a sucker for the "fathers" of movements, especially a great one, and I believe Existential thinking is truly the most exciting, enlightening, and progressively challenging movements to our world (I agree with Nietzsche when he says a good philosopher must go magainst the grain and be the "heretic" of his day somewhat) than its modern-day contemporaries (I hold a much lower view of the analytic thinkers) and quite possible it may be said since the Greeks. Kierkegaard did not start the movement the way it is today, but he nevertheless did start it as much s any one philosopher can "start" a movement by himself/herself, and his works "Fear ad Trembling" "Either/Or" and "The Sickness Unto Death" all hold huge ideals that hugely impacted future thinkers, and his style is quite possibly the most accessible of the "modern" (post-Descartes) philosophers.


Phew. :)

So, for the Mental Category:

-Nietzsche: 2
-Kierkegaard: 1


My Political Philosopher votes..........

-Political: LOCKE, Marx 1st runner up

John Locke was a brilliant politacl philopher, nd his Second Treatise is still credited as being one of the most important philosophical doctrines of all time. Locke's ideal for not only "how" humans form governments but "why" they do and should puts him over Rousseau (another philosopher I like in this category) and Hobbes (this is purely taste for me, feel free to dispute tis- it's what the thread is for and what philosophy is for, after all) for the 1st place here.

Runner up: Marx

I DO NOT AGREE with Marx's ideals 100%, or even all that much- what he desired and whathe said may well have been two different things, and if that's the case......... who knows.

Nevertheless, no one can doubt Marx IS one of the penultimate philosophical minds, and of the "bad boy" politcal philosophers (those that are commonly viewed b the general public as "bad" or "immoral) I place him aead of/more important than Machiavelli, for while "The Prince may be viewed as a manual for all tyrants, it is still subject to its own faults, and did not at all have the impact Marx's book had in actually formin governments.

Which brings me to why rank Locke over Marx:

USA vs. USSR.

I know its not as simple as that, but Jefferson and the other FF of the USA did take Locke as the/a HUGE influence on their attempt at a democratic government "a democratic aristocracy of the people," in true Locke fashion) while Marx sparked Communist/"thoeretically" Communist USSR.

Which is still standing/had the longer and greater impact on the world?

The USA- my home, and (for all of its MANY imperfections, this is no utopia to be sure) I believe Locke would be proud of at least the theory behind it's initial construction.

Plus to go one further, if you wantt o argue China and Cuba are Communist and THEY still stand and are important, Locke's model of demoracy is now the model of countless nations, in some form, across the globe, outnumbering the Communist regimes........

(Oh, I can tell this WILL get tricky.) ;)

So:

-Locke: 2
-Marx: 1

Let the intelletual pissing contest begin! :p

Frued doesn't count; psychology and philosophy are two different monsters. Plus, if we let him in, then we'd, to be fair, have to let the workers of litrature in, like Shakespeare, and that would just dillute the field and conversation.

Full-Time Philosophers, please (sadly this eliminates Yogi, but I award him the "Most Philosophically Amusing Athelete" award for his lietime of...... being Yogi.) ;)

Come on, then..... ;)

what is a "Full-Time Philosophers" ?? is it a job anyone can apply for? hows the pay and the holidays? just joking - just want to point pout that you cant draw a nice clear line what is and what isnt a philosopher. you cant say "popular perception of say Aristotle is that he was a philosopher but oliver sacks, Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), L Ron Hubbard and chomsky dont count because ...because.... ? not enough people see them as "philosophers " ? their degrees at university didnt come from the philosophy department?
you have to leave it open if you want a real debate

Thomas Paine, although an prodege of Locke and a child of the Enlightenment gets my secondary vote for political just because he was dedicated to his cause and I'm going to agree with Marx for primary political as he finally found the voice of the prols.

come on though for philosophy freud was all about human nature which is a huge part of philosophy, and im not huge on existentialism, so I'll go with Kant as primary and im sticking to freud as secondary think it over take it or leave it

now i will randomly list my future possible picks if you reject the aforesaid persons: Martin Luther, Jesus (come on he was either on an acid trip or had to do a lot of thinking to convince himself he was the son of god), btw Rouseau was a freeloading idiot who contradicted himself like crazy (although all great thinkers have to contradict themselves at times), Adam Smith anyone?, ummm... Francis Bacon?

OK, I'll bend on Freud- I still say psychology and philosophy are too different to toss him in, but let's let him in and see what happens, eh? ;)

And an interesting choice with Paine, ottovanbis- good thinker/writer/phlosoher and very much overlooked, but I think that perhaps his influences penatrate his writing so much he lacks a definititive voice too dissimial from Locke or Jefferson.

So, that brings our tally to:

MENTAL:
-Kant: 2
-Nietszche: 2
-Kierkegaard: 1
-Freud: 1

Political:
-Marx: 3
-Locke: 2
-Paine: 1

Interesting.......

Why Kant, out of curiosity (obviously he's a giant, and a grea philosoher but there are many- why him in particular; and I take you don't care for Nietzsche being anti-existential and pr-analytical, so far as I can make out anyway.)

haven't really studied nietzsche in depth as i did with paine and i believe his voice is far more defined than that of locke although he was in some ways similar to jefferson. i would like to consider aristotle just because his way of thought dominated western history for about a millenium

i studied AP EURO HISTORY and never learned about Kierkegaard, explain please how he was influential or exactly how he influenced his movement, and I do know a little on existentialism and it is somewhat interesting

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates himself was permanently pissed

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
With half a pint of shandy got particularly ill
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart
"I drink therefore I am"

Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed

btw i like your electoral system pre revolution of 1800 for voting on philosophers, i think it is quite fitting, too bad we cant have parties and vps and what not

BRAVISIMO THAT WAS MARVELOUS, YOU ARE A TRUE POET!!! I ENJOYED EVERY WORD OF THAT, MY HEART LEAPT UP WHEN I BEHELD.... WELL DONE INDEED SIR

great insight and social commentary as well, whether or not it was intended

"I Drink Therefore I am" brilliant LOL ROFLMAO

I'll add to Kant "Consciousness is a temporal stream of existance"
Uh, political. Anyone but Socrates, I hate him to the very depths of my soul. ^_^

how can you hate socrates he was awesome dude and so was plato

what soul? i don't believe in a soul (seriously) and i also think religion is bullshit! i want to be on the list

I hope you know that's a Monty Python song, ottovanbis. I didn't think it needed a citation but it looks like you didn't get it.

what about jesus and martin luther (the fat white german dude not the civil rights activist) im serious too

jesus=>ghandi=> martin luther king (thoreau's civil disobedience somewhere in the middle of that sandwhich)

oh really never saw that part, well it's brilliant either way, and citation is nice to avoid charges of plagarism... ahem

mental
1.Friedrich Nietzsche
2.Albert Camus
3.Max Stirner
4.Jean Paul Sartre
5.Aristotle

Political
1. Adolph Hitler

interesting choices by the angry greek, interesting indeed, i'd say that hitler was either insane (though not in the technical sense) or a genius (depends on perspective), but either way a product of deeply rooted western anti-semitism rooting back to the days of the Roman Empire when the Romans "pacified" the Jews. i agree with nietzsche and aristotle and possibly sartre, but i've never heard of camus nor striner

albert camus is the "founder" of existentialism along with sartre. Camus most famous book is "The Stranger" (L' Entranger)
Max Stirner is the one that mixed most nihilism, anarchism and philosophical egoism. Famous writing: The Ego and It's Own

@Invictus - you beat me to it! :-)

+1 Monty Python!

For both of these categories, I'll say from the start that my votes could change depending on my mood or the day, there are a lot of philosophers I like, (though I have to admit I only took so much philosophy in college so I'm no expert), but I'll commit to these for now:

Mental:
1) Nietzche -2
2) Hericlitus (what we have left of his work at least) -1

Political:
1) John Stuart Mill - 2
2) John Rawls - 1 (choosing this one was REALLY hard, but I had to make some sort of decision...)

@Invictus: I was about to look for a transcript of that to post. Nice work.