A Game
- Posted by Andrew Bailey on Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 12:42 PM
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7 Comments |
I've asked a number of the grad students at Notre Dame for an "all time top 3" list of philosophers. Interestingly, Aristotle has been listed by all; Kant by most, Plato by none. I favor Aristotle, Descartes, and x, where x is some deserving twentieth century analytic philosopher (David Lewis, perhaps, but it'll take a hundred years to know this with any certainty).
I thought about such a listing some time ago, and I was then inclined to name Descartes, Plantinga, and Aristotle as all time my top 3. I hadn't read enough Lewis, I suppose. =)
7 Comments:
the metaphysician at 3:37 PM said... How I shall answer your question depends on how I am to take "all time top 3". For example, are you asking for (a) a list of the 3 most important philosophers ever, or (b) a list of the 3 best philosophers ever, or (c) a list of the 3 most influential philosophers ever, or (to draw this to a close) (d) a list of one's 3 most favorite philosophers?
Tentatively, here are my list*s*:
Re (a): Plato, Aristotle, Descartes.
Re (b): Bertrand Russell, David Lewis, Saul Kripke.
Re (c): Plato, Aristotle, Kant.
Re (d): Peter van Inwagen, John Martin Fischer, Tony Brueckner.
BTW, Roderick Chisholm was once asked whom he thought was the greatest philosopher of all time, and a day later he came back with the answer: Thomas Reid.
the metaphysician at 3:41 PM said... On second thought, change 'Re (c)' to: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine.
Noumena at 8:34 PM said... Just for the record, my top two choices were easy -- Kant and Aristotle -- but narrowing things down to the third is hard. Tentatively, I'm going to say Dewey, just because what he was up to was important (among other things, without Dewey, Analytic philosophy would never have gotten any traction in the US) and very different from either Kant or Aristotle, and yet he's so rarely discussed seriously these days. It's tentative because I've never actually read Dewey; I'm relying on Don Howard for this.
Matthew at 6:07 AM said... This would be a lot easier if we could do top three living philosophers, or top metaphysicians of the late 20th century. Nevertheless I'm going to have to go for Plato, Leibniz, and Frege.
Alex at 7:41 PM said... You forget that I said Plato.
I happen to like Chisholm's answer as well. Any guy who defends common sense against the revisionary impulses of those crazy philosophers is fine in my book.
Andrew Bailey at 7:54 PM said... Alex, I wrote this before I asked you. =)
Jason Newman at 12:44 AM said... The three best philosophers of all time:
(1) Plato
(2) Kant
(3) Frege
Most influential:
(1) Plato
(2) Aristotle
(3) Marx
Personal faves:
(1) Frege
(2) Fodor
(3) Putnam
