7 Comments to “Ask Bweinh! Poll — Philosophers”

1. aarong on July 9th, 2007 11:58 am

   uhhhhh… Aquinas? Anyone? Aquinas is the only reason we really know about Aristotle. Plus, he had a cool nickname: The Dumb Ox.

   Kierkegaard makes this list but no Aquinas? Heck, Augustine isn’t even on this list. Great city of God, Batman. Is this list even real?

   Oh, and Calvin and Hobbes should be conjoined for the purposes of this list, also.

2. Steve on July 9th, 2007 12:11 pm

   Most of the list is real, excepting the odd “Maxon,” “Vezzini,” and “Mr. Rogers.” As for Aquinas, I’m not Catholic and I don’t argue for natural law, so although I appreciate and respect his work, this question asked for favorite philosophers. And mine are Pascal, Tocqueville, Kierkegaard, Kant, and Hobbes, who was fifth on the strength of the phrase “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

3. Aaron on July 9th, 2007 12:51 pm

   There was quite a great deal more to Aquinas than natural law, but favorite is the key word. And while I concede first and foremost this is entirely subjective (hence the Princess Bride reference), I am disheartened by Aquinas’ exclusion. Aquinas’ contributions to the works of your favorites should not be overlooked. For example, his arguments, however antiquated they are now, for the existence of God, are legendary. As is his appeal to reason. Also, his push for a return to the Aristotelian way of approaching philosophy. Where would we be with out his call to arms for that way of thinking? Also, his quote, “It is all straw”, goes down as one of the best.

   I also concede Aquinas is, at times, nearly impossible to read. But truly not any more than Kant.

   I suppose more would need to be explained if I were to answer this question, i.e., does this include religious philosophers, aka theologians? If so, here is my list:

   1. G.K. Chesterton
   2. Aquinas
   3. Aristotle
   4. Augustine
   5. Alvin Plantinga (a great modern thinker who successfully seems to include Rachel Welch analogies into his Problem of Evil arguments)

4. dsweetgoober on July 9th, 2007 10:41 pm

   Paul stood on mars Hill in the heart of Athens, the birthplace of philosophy and pagan relgion, and sounded its death knell saying “the (past) times of ignorance God has winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; Because he hath aappointed a day in which he will judge the world in rightousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead”.

   Socrates said of philosophy that it should be used to search out the best ideas for the purpose of binding them together to make a raft to get through life “until” he said “we should receive some more sure word (logos) from God”. That Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

   I say all that to say that all my choices were BC because any philosophy after Christ (excluding theologians) is simply seeking for an answer God has already given them and which answer they have rejected. And who picked Nietzsche? He declared God to be dead.

5. Steve on July 9th, 2007 10:57 pm

   An interesting way to look at it… I would say though that not all philosophy is predicated on Socrates’ idea of getting through life — some is designed to discover the best way to govern ourselves as a society, or how to show to others that same glory Christ displayed. There can be and are Christian philosophers seeking answers after finding the Answer.

   I’ll leave the selector of Nietzsche to defend himself, though, because I don’t know what he was thinking either.

6. aaron.guest on July 10th, 2007 6:10 am

   I’m going to agree with Steve here. I don’t think much of philosophy is centered on the idea of getting through life. I think there’s a fine line, in the end, between philosophy and religion and that the two inevitably tangle up in the search for meanings, i.e. the philosophy of mind, epistemology and the philosophy of baseball.

   As early church father Justin said, the word (logos) has been spread, disseminated into the world in the time before Christ (justifying the Greek philosophers, in a way). He went on to state that it is the role of the Christian to reclaim what has been used for other purposes, but is good. What is inherently Christian.

   Philosophy, Anno Domino, in some cases, does this. Tries to reclaim what is essentially of Christ. And so it’s important.

7. David on July 10th, 2007 9:22 am

   I excepted theologians in my statement. Philosophy means a lover of wisdom—specifically the higher wisdom revealed by God or the gods—and I agree with the view held by Augustine and others that men like Socrates did uncover good things that are valid. With Jesus not having been revealed yet they were limited in what they could know but they were honest seekers. Christians who are using philosophical means to explore life as a Christian, or define Christian doctrine, fall more into the theologian category for me and I in no way mean to discount their work.

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