Favorite Philosopher?

[Michelle420]

Granny...

... hands down...

... `cause she been around the block an' back.

Grandmothers have a lot of great insight, I wish mine were still living.

 

[emptystep]

That right there is the philosophy of mud or as my wife calls it, my 'redneck tendencies'. In our culture we have 87 different words for 'mud'. That is boot-suckin' mud.

 

[Michelle420]

That right there is the philosophy of mud or as my wife calls it, my 'redneck tendencies'. In our culture we have 87 different words for 'mud'. That is boot-suckin' mud.

Liber mud

LIBER MUD: The MUD as a Basis for Western Mysticism

Liber MUD: The MUD as a Basis for Western Mysticism

 

[Oddball]

Here's one from French revolutionary Frédéric Bastiat...Easy to read and digest.

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

 

[Michelle420]

Here's one from French revolutionary Frédéric Bastiat...Easy to read and digest.

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

Very Cool, Thanks

 

[Sherry]

Some humorists and stand-up comedians are very much the equivalent of what would be termed philosophers of today. Alive and dead.

Will Rogers
George Carlin
Bill Cosby



First to come to mind for me on the favorite list:

John Stuart Mill

The first one who came to my mind was Steven Wright.

 

[emptystep]

That right there is the philosophy of mud or as my wife calls it, my 'redneck tendencies'. In our culture we have 87 different words for 'mud'. That is boot-suckin' mud.

Liber mud

LIBER MUD: The MUD as a Basis for Western Mysticism

Liber MUD: The MUD as a Basis for Western Mysticism

No, No, dude. Mud, as in dirt + water = mud. (I'm just messing with ya. )

 

[emptystep]

Some humorists and stand-up comedians are very much the equivalent of what would be termed philosophers of today. Alive and dead.

Will Rogers
George Carlin
Bill Cosby



First to come to mind for me on the favorite list:

John Stuart Mill

The first one who came to my mind was Steven Wright.

Richard Pryor - parental discretion advised
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjD4PHojNBU]It's Richard Pryor running down the street. - YouTube[/ame]

On June 9, 1980, Pryor set himself on fire after freebasing cocaine while drinking 151-proof rum. He ran down Parthenia St. from his Northridge, California home until subdued by police. He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for the burns covering more than half of his body. Pryor spent six weeks in recovery at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital.

.......At the end of the bit, he poked fun at people who told jokes about it by waving a lit match and saying, "What's this? It's Richard Pryor running down the street."

 

[Michelle420]

The Truth Contest | What is the Ultimate Truth?

 

[Michelle420]

[ame=http://youtu.be/uX9Z9V21SwI]Alan Watts - The Million Masks Of God. - YouTube[/ame]

 

[hjmick]

My dad.

 

[Michelle420]

Here's one from French revolutionary Frédéric Bastiat...Easy to read and digest.

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

He's an economist

 

[midcan5]

Lots of Favorites and whys and quotes. May just change the way you see the world.

Ludwig Wittgenstein - we only know (understand) the world through language
Derek Parfit - complexity of moral choices - ethics for the heavy
Jeremy Waldron - arguments for liberalism
Mark Kingwell - contemporary observer of culture
Stanley Fish - you only agree if you already agree if you
John Rawls - what justice would be if we could choose
Peter Singer - extreme choices
Isaiah Berlin - types of liberty
Karl Popper - society and conformity
Adam Swift - educator
Roland Barthes - power of images and their references
Michel Foucault - changing ideas of madness etc
Jean-Paul Sartre - existentialism
Albert Camus - novelist of the absurd

Dislikes: Robert Nozick - narcissistic materialist with empty excuses for why.

A few excellent blogs. Check top four.

Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
Rust Belt Philosophy
The Contemporary Condition
The Philosopher's Stone

Others:
The Partially Examined Life | A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog
The Splintered Mind
Crooked Timber ? Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made
3:AM Magazine
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Ethical Werewolf
Flickers of Freedom
Samir Chopra « A brain-droppings collection space
logicandlanguage.net

"One thinks that one is tracing the outline of the thing's nature, and one is merely tracing round the frame through which we look at it" Wittgenstein

"Ideally citizens are to think of themselves as if they were legislators and ask themselves what statutes, supported by what reasons satisfying the criterion of reciprocity, they would think is most reasonable to enact." John Rawls

"Liberals demand that the social order should in principle be capable of explaining itself at the tribunal of each person's understanding." Jeremy Waldron

"Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs." Isaiah Berlin

"It is not enough to ask, Will my act harm other people? Even if the answer is No, my act may still be wrong, because of its effects on other people. I should ask, Will my act be one of a set of acts that will together harm other people? The answer may be Yes. And the harm to others may be great." Derek Parfit

"I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens." Mark Kingwell

"Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle — the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative." Karl Popper

"People know what they do; they frequently know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does." Michel Foucault

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Albert Camus

"Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive." Roland Barthes

"Can we be sure that our donation will really get to the people who need it? Doesn’t most aid get swallowed up in administrative costs, or waste, or downright corruption? Isn’t the real problem the growing world population, and is there any point in saving lives until the problem has been solved? These questions can all be answered: but I also point out that even if a substantial proportion of our donations were wasted, the cost to us of making the donation is so small, compared to the benefits that it provides when it, or some of it, does get through to those who need our help, that we would still be saving lives at a small cost to ourselves – even if aid organizations were much less efficient than they actually are." Peter Singer

"It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are." Stanley Fish

"I know. I know that I shall never again meet anything or anybody who will inspire me with passion. You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it. I know I'll never jump again." Sartre 'Nausea'


"Adam Swift’s Political Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide for Students and Politicians" Adam Swift?s Political Philosophy: A Beginner?s Guide for Students and Politicians ? Crooked Timber

 

[Oddball]

You forgot your favorite....Karl Marx.

dickweed.

 

[Wry Catcher]

"By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth."
George Carlin

"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."
Will Rogers

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."
Mark Twain

 

[Michelle420]

Lots of Favorites and whys and quotes. May just change the way you see the world.

Ludwig Wittgenstein - we only know (understand) the world through language
Derek Parfit - complexity of moral choices - ethics for the heavy
Jeremy Waldron - arguments for liberalism
Mark Kingwell - contemporary observer of culture
Stanley Fish - you only agree if you already agree if you
John Rawls - what justice would be if we could choose
Peter Singer - extreme choices
Isaiah Berlin - types of liberty
Karl Popper - society and conformity
Adam Swift - educator
Roland Barthes - power of images and their references
Michel Foucault - changing ideas of madness etc
Jean-Paul Sartre - existentialism
Albert Camus - novelist of the absurd

Dislikes: Robert Nozick - narcissistic materialist with empty excuses for why.

A few excellent blogs. Check top four.

Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
Rust Belt Philosophy
The Contemporary Condition
The Philosopher's Stone

Others:
The Partially Examined Life | A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog
The Splintered Mind
Crooked Timber ? Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made
3:AM Magazine
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Ethical Werewolf
Flickers of Freedom
Samir Chopra « A brain-droppings collection space
logicandlanguage.net

"One thinks that one is tracing the outline of the thing's nature, and one is merely tracing round the frame through which we look at it" Wittgenstein

"Ideally citizens are to think of themselves as if they were legislators and ask themselves what statutes, supported by what reasons satisfying the criterion of reciprocity, they would think is most reasonable to enact." John Rawls

"Liberals demand that the social order should in principle be capable of explaining itself at the tribunal of each person's understanding." Jeremy Waldron

"Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs." Isaiah Berlin

"It is not enough to ask, Will my act harm other people? Even if the answer is No, my act may still be wrong, because of its effects on other people. I should ask, Will my act be one of a set of acts that will together harm other people? The answer may be Yes. And the harm to others may be great." Derek Parfit

"I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens." Mark Kingwell

"Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle — the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative." Karl Popper

"People know what they do; they frequently know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does." Michel Foucault

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Albert Camus

"Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive." Roland Barthes

"Can we be sure that our donation will really get to the people who need it? Doesn’t most aid get swallowed up in administrative costs, or waste, or downright corruption? Isn’t the real problem the growing world population, and is there any point in saving lives until the problem has been solved? These questions can all be answered: but I also point out that even if a substantial proportion of our donations were wasted, the cost to us of making the donation is so small, compared to the benefits that it provides when it, or some of it, does get through to those who need our help, that we would still be saving lives at a small cost to ourselves – even if aid organizations were much less efficient than they actually are." Peter Singer

"It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are." Stanley Fish

"I know. I know that I shall never again meet anything or anybody who will inspire me with passion. You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it. I know I'll never jump again." Sartre 'Nausea'


"Adam Swift’s Political Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide for Students and Politicians" Adam Swift?s Political Philosophy: A Beginner?s Guide for Students and Politicians ? Crooked Timber

Thanks for the reply, I bolded the one's that interest me off the bat, mostly because of the why's you listed for liking them.

 

[Unkotare]

If you've got a 'favorite,' you're missing the point.

 

[Michelle420]

If you've got a 'favorite,' you're missing the point.

So there is a point, I knew it !

 

[Oddball]

Here's one from French revolutionary Frédéric Bastiat...Easy to read and digest.

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

He's an economist

Would that necessarily preclude such a person from holding forth on matters of philosophy?.... The Law is a philosophical treatise, not at all unlike F. A. Hayek's (an economist) seminal political philosophy work The Road To Serfdom.

 

[midcan5]

Thanks for the reply, I bolded the one's that interest me off the bat, mostly because of the why's you listed for liking them.

Also check out A.C. Grayling's writing, good stuff. Lots on web, 'The Meaning of Things' is a good read. A.C. Grayling Quotes (Author of The Meaning of Things)

For specific topics, Oxford Shorts are usually excellent. Oxford University Press: Very Short Introductions

Dig into this stuff slowly, some very heavy lifting. A few suggestions.

Parfit - Check 'Reasons and Persons' first. Parfit has allowed his current book, which is now two volumes, to be edited while providing the ongoing text on the internet free. His arguments are often long and dense. http://commonweb.unifr.ch/artsdean/pub/gestens/f/as/files/4610/17613_101712.pdf

Berlin - I especially enjoyed 'The Sense of Reality' check out 'The Hedgehog and the Fox.' But his books on liberty and crooked timber are good also. Home page
http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/onib/crowder/IBVPREL2003.pdf

Popper - 'Selections' or maybe browse 'Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge' or 'The Poverty of Historicism.' Popper Selections by Karl R. Popper - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Barthes - Since I do photography 'Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography' was a must read. 'Image, Music, Text' too. I once owned most of his books but since gave to library. Roland Barthes (Author of Camera Lucida)

Foucault - 'Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason' Books by Michel Foucault (Author of Discipline and Punish)

Sartre - Nausea and No Exist are interesting piece of the literature of existentialism. “What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself.” JPS