Thread: What philosophers do you agree with?

What philosophers do you agree with? Please name the teachings or works you like.


Me:

Plato: love his writings on basic forms of government
Machiavelli: The Prince. A how to book on how-to rule a country. Very interesting stuff.
Descartes: I like his Discourse on Method treastise. Taught me to question even my most core beleifs.
Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, various letters to people
James Madison: Constitution, Bill of Rights, letters
Friederich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil. Talked allot about human nature and the nature of morality and religion.
Ayn Rand: The Fountainhead. Main idea is that man's ego is responsible for all human progress.

Kant's Categorical Imparative was one work that I really studied (due to my coursework) and it started a real soul searching from thereon. I think it's an excellent start to real ethical philosophy - you don't argue for the sake of arguing, you do it for the 'right' reasons.

Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, Randolph, Calhoun, some of TS Eliot, Santayana, Aristotle, and several more .

"It is disconcerting how a doctrine which denounces supernatural derivation yet asserts its own infallibility"

I don't know any. I am a philistine. Which philosopher first came up with the idea that every gene, every action, every happening on this world is predetermined by physics, and that there is no meaning to life and that meaning is just something biological beings persuade themselves into believing in so that they won't have to deal with the cynical and hard fact of nature? It couldn't have been Nietsche, cos I think he believed in free will....

He sounds pretty cold and fiendish. Keep believing that Jargon.

Originally Posted by chu chu rocket

I don't know any. I am a philistine. Which philosopher first came up with the idea that every gene, every action, every happening on this world is predetermined by physics, and that there is no meaning to life and that meaning is just something biological beings persuade themselves into believing in so that they won't have to deal with the cynical and hard fact of nature? It couldn't have been Nietsche, cos I think he believed in free will....

Mechanistic philosophy, if I recall correctly - exemplified by the french mathematician laplace (though not necessarily the first).

It astounds me how a brilliant mathematician can put forth such an absurd philosophy.

Of course it is outrightly debunked by heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the more recent chaos theory.

John nash and his governing dynamics plus his contributions to game theory.

If everyone goes for the blonde, nobody gets her.

Thanks. I found those two last posts incredibly helpful! (or frustrating, as I don't understand the wave-particle concepts or quantum mechanics.)

Originally Posted by chu chu rocket

I don't know any. I am a philistine. Which philosopher first came up with the idea that every gene, every action, every happening on this world is predetermined by physics, and that there is no meaning to life and that meaning is just something biological beings persuade themselves into believing in so that they won't have to deal with the cynical and hard fact of nature? It couldn't have been Nietsche, cos I think he believed in free will....

The reductionists?

(whomever they were....)

Hey, what level of mathematical knowledge do I need to understand game theory? Can you give an undergrad some book recommendations on game theory and maths? I'll let quantum mech aside, cuz I don't have the skills or time to go there (not now, anyway) but game theory could easily be of value to my life! Hey, even the short wikipedia entry on the prisoner's dilemma introduced a whole new dimension to my simple brain.