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Thread: Greatest minds of the western philosophical tradition...

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    Default Greatest minds of the western philosophical tradition...

    ....according to me....
    limiting myself to the western intellectual tradition (sorry Confucius and Avicenna).

    At this time, I choose to pay personal homage to Voltaire - a person who directly impacted, and represents a clear and distinct dividing line between an era of intolerance, and an age of toleration.

    Antiquity
    Plato
    Aristotle

    Middle Ages
    Thomas Aquinas

    Renaissance
    Erasmus

    Early Modern era
    Isacc Newton
    Francis Bacon
    Renee Descartes

    Enlightenment
    Voltaire
    John Locke
    Jean-Jacque Rosseau

    Romanticism
    Goethe
    Immanual Kant

    Modern era
    John Stuart Mill
    Nietzsche
    Einstein

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    The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!"

    - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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    Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

    - Albert Einstein, "Why Socialism?"

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    "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."

    - Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cypress View Post
    ....according to me....
    limiting myself to the western intellectual tradition (sorry Confucius and Avicenna).

    At this time, I choose to pay personal homage to Voltaire - a person who directly impacted, and represents a clear and distinct dividing line between an era of intolerance, and an age of toleration.
    Begins and ends with Socrates!
    Tie Your 'roo down Mate

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    Cypress (02-20-2020)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Miss Margot Frank View Post
    Begins and ends with Socrates!
    ^^ Fundamentally changed the nature of human thought and philosophy by focusing inquiry onto the moral and ethical dimensions of life. Have to wonder how much of it was filtered through Plato, since we do not actually have a single word written by Socrates.

    Wrapping this up: the dawn of my appreciation for Socrates began with "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" !

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cypress View Post
    ^^ Fundamentally changed the nature of human thought and philosophy by focusing inquiry onto the moral and ethical dimensions of life. Have to wonder how much of it was filtered through Plato, since we do not actually have a single word written by Socrates.

    Wrapping this up: the dawn of my appreciation for Socrates began with "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" !
    Plato would be the first ,to give Socrates the credit he deserved
    Tie Your 'roo down Mate

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    While the liberal tradition probably traces its roots to John Stuart Mill, Voltaire, and maybe Rosseau,
    I maintain the modern conservative tradition can trace its roots back to Hobbes. With its prodigious emphasis on the need for security and order in the face of perceived relentless dangers posed by anarchy, immigrants, crime, outsiders, et al. As well, the elevation of passion over reason and virtue as a motivating force for political actions.

    Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher born in 1588, which means that he was born over 2,000 years after Plato. And yet he, just as Aristotle, had very much Plato in mind when he was writing his political philosophy. He was responding to Plato’s rationalism and especially Plato’s utopian, from Hobbes’ point of view, unrealistic thinking in The Republic, because Hobbes was, a realist, who rejected ideal solutions for politics.

    According to Hobbes, the strongest human passions are the desire for power and the fear of violent death. Hobbes described the human predicament in the state of nature as a futile search for peace, security, and order. Whereas Plato used education to transform people’s attitudes, Hobbes relied not on reason, but on human passions to rescue people from their condition of pervasive insecurity.

    Source credit: Dennis G. Dalton, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

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    Aristotle: Ethics

    I maintain that Aristotle was arguably the greatest human mind ever. As a philosopher, he might have been outclassed by only by Plato; he invented the discipline of logic; and he was arguably the foremost natural scientist, biologist and zoologist of antiquity.

    Basically, a mind which ranged from philosophy, ethics, logic, biology, politics, geology, zoology, and medicine.

    What is happiness? What is moral excellence? How can you attain them? Can either be taught? For more than 2,000 years, thoughtful people have been turning to Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) to help them find answers to questions like these.

    Aristotle's four cardinal virtues:
    Courage, moderation, justice, and prudence

    Aristotle claims that happiness (eudaimonia)— not pleasure, honor, or wealth— is the real goal of life,
    and that only moral excellence can make you happy
    Aristotle explains of how and why people attain— or fall short of— ethical excellence

    Source credit: Father Joseph Koterski, S.J., Ph.D. Fordham University

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    Default Segueing to studying the Existentialists

    Apparently, the most important Existential philosophers and writers

    Soren Kierkegaard
    Friedrich Nietzsche
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    Jean-Paul Sartre

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cypress View Post
    ....according to me....
    limiting myself to the western intellectual tradition (sorry Confucius and Avicenna).

    At this time, I choose to pay personal homage to Voltaire - a person who directly impacted, and represents a clear and distinct dividing line between an era of intolerance, and an age of toleration.
    Antiquity
    Marcus Aurelius
    Aristotle
    Domacles
    Augustus

    Middle Ages
    Augustine
    Boethius
    William of Okham

    Renaissance
    Leonardo Devinci
    Nicoḷ Capernicus
    Nicoḷ Machiavelli

    Early Modern Era
    Isaac Newton
    Thomas Hobbes

    Enlightenment
    Voltaire
    Thomas Jefferson
    Ben Franklin

    Romantacism
    Victor Hugo
    William Blake

    Modern Era
    Noam Chomsky
    Arthur Koestler
    George Carlin
    Mott The Hoople
    Last edited by Mott the Hoople; 04-15-2020 at 06:01 PM.
    You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mott the Hoople View Post
    Antiquity
    Marcus Aurelius
    Aristotle
    Domacles

    Middle Ages
    Augustine
    Boethius
    William of Okham

    Renaissance
    Leonardo Devinci
    Nicoḷ Capernicus
    Nicoḷ Machiavelli

    Early Modern Era
    Isaac Newton
    Thomas Hobbes

    Enlightenment
    Voltaire
    Thomas Jefferson
    Ben Franklin

    Romantacism
    Victor Hugo
    William Blake

    Modern Era
    Noam Chomsky
    Arthur Koestler
    George Carlin
    Mott The Hoople
    A good list.

    I believe the Stoic school is underated, so we should probably give Zeno an honorable mention for the minds of antiquity

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cypress View Post
    A good list.

    I believe the Stoic school is underated, so we should probably give Zeno an honorable mention for the minds of antiquity
    I think a gave stoicism it’s due via Marcus Aurelius. Having said that I think Cato the Younger embodied all the pitfalls of Stoicism.

    On your comments on Thomas Hobbes. I would argue that John Stuart Mills was the father of modern conservatism. I think Hobbes was the father of modern realism. Virtually all the philosophers we cited are rationalist but Hobbes understood that people are rarely rational and are mostly emotional and passionate. Which, from what I’ve seen, is entirely true.
    You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mott the Hoople View Post
    I think a gave stoicism it’s due via Marcus Aurelius. Having said that I think Cato the Younger embodied all the pitfalls of Stoicism.

    On your comments on Thomas Hobbes. I would argue that John Stuart Mills was the father of modern conservatism. I think Hobbes was the father of modern realism. Virtually all the philosophers we cited are rationalist but Hobbes understood that people are rarely rational and are mostly emotional and passionate. Which, from what I’ve seen, is entirely true.
    In all honesty, trying to apply the label of conservative to Hobbes is anachronistic. He was a mind that defies modern convention.

    Both liberals and conservatives try to claim Mills. I think a stronger argument can be made for him being more a testament to liberalism

    I maintain that Edmund Burke is the grandfather of conservatism - and unequivocally so. No liberal I am familiar with has ever claimed Burke.

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    Renaissance must include Goslicki?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawrzy...te_note-cole-1

    In this book Goślicki shows the ideal statesman who is well versed in the humanities as well as in economy, politics, and law. He argued that law is above the ruler, who must respect it, and that it is illegitimate to rule over a people against its will. He equated godliness with reason, and reason with law.[1] Many of the book's ideas comprised the foundations of Polish Nobles' Democracy (1505–1795) and were based on 14th-century writings by Stanisław of Skarbimierz. The book was not translated into Polish for 400 years.[1]

    The book was influential abroad, exporting the ideas of Poland's Golden Freedom and democratic system. It was a political and social classic, widely read and long popular in England after its 1598 translation;[5] read by Elizabeth I of England, it was also known by Shakespeare, who used his depiction of an incompetent senator as a model for Polonius in Hamlet.[1] Its ideas might be seen in the turmoil that gripped England around the times of Glorious Revolution.[1] Goślicki's ideas were perhaps suggestive for future national constitutions. Goślicki never wrote that "all men are created equal," but did say, "Sometimes a people, justly provoked and irritated, by the Tyranny and Usurpations of their Kings, take upon themselves the undoubted Right of vindicating their own liberties.

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