Despite the fact that there are three prongs to this forum, most of the threads tend to dwell on the polemics of religious belief and non-belief. So I thought I'd try to instigate a little philsophical discussion by asking if you regulars have any favorite philosopher or philosophical works. And if so, what about them draws your admiration?

In the last year I have discovered John D. Caputo and have immensely enjoyed his works, On Religion; After the Death of God (with Gianni Vattimo); Philosophy and Theology; On Reading Kierkegaard; and perhaps one of the most refreshing and thoughtful books I've ever read, The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event. Here's a sympathetic review of this captivating book. Caputo is a Professor of Religion and Humanities at Syracuse University.Friedrich Nietzsche is never too far from whatever subject I address. Deficit or not, there it is, or he is, or my pastiched configuration of what I think and need him to say...is. His humor, wit, bombastic verve and stylistic delivery is able to lighten, lift and set to flight or smash, burn and shatter to pieces. He is rarely indifferent to his subject matter: detatched, removed, simply observing and making smart comments...he is viscerally engaged in ways that impart great urgency and profound importance. Everything under the sun is subject to his often brilliant tools of psychological incision and philosophical evaluation. He is often wrong, but even when severely off-base, his mistakes are spurs that demand the reader think more carefully and care more deeply about the subject at hand. He gets personal and attacks personalities as well as ideas, arguing that ideas are the surface expression of internal personal struggles...and these struggles go deep, covering whole histories and geneological networks that span millenia. His work is about perspective: entertaining as many points of view as one's intellect and will can survey...allowing the contradictions, collisions, and convergences to bring us closer to what really matters about an argument, or more importantly, way of life. He is an iconoclastic intervention, rudely intruding upon those beliefs, habits and moral customs traditionally held as holy, good, true and beautiful in European civilization. He certainly qualifies as a philosopher if that means someone who passionately embraces the Socratic dictum "The unexamined life is not worth living." Edited by: Dissident Heart at: 7/29/07 8:16 pm

Sun Tzu Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a wellpreserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,shouting..."Holy Crap...what a ride!"

Interesting choice, Frank. It looks to me as though Sun Tzu has been made to fit the category of philosophy post factum, whereas he wrote primarily a practical and theoretical manual of warfare. That doesn't make it any less valuable as philosophy -- if we applied that principle across the board, we'd have to say that Neo-Platonism isn't really a form of Platonism -- but it would mean that a lot of what we take as the philosophy of Sun Tzu is actually made up of layers added to "The Art of War" by later readers and commentators.What would you say is the essence of the philosophy in Sun Tzu? How would you describe that philosophy to someone who didn't know anything about it?

Hey Frank, can you prove that Sun Tzu actually existed?

Um, I've read a limited amount of philosophy, but I'm going to go with Michel Foucault, flawed as writings are.And just so we're clear, he's my favourite philosopher, not the one I think is right, or even the most gifted. Full of Porn*http://plainofpillars.blogspot.com

Here's a real gem conversation between Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky discussing human nature, justice, power and the ideal and necessary society for humanity to flourish.Here's the video link.

Quote:MadWhat would you say is the essence of the philosophy in Sun Tzu? How would you describe that philosophy to someone who didn't know anything about it? I have not read it all, but if I were to sum it up I would say that it explains the methods to best wage war, the costs of not being prepared, the costs of being prepared, the costs of loss, the costs and benefits of victory, when best to accept a fight, and how best to avoid one as well, all of this from a very practical and realistic view. Quote:DHHey Frank, can you prove that Sun Tzu actually existed? Nope, I do not know anything about the evidence (or lack there of) of a historical Sun Tzu.But I would expect that the writings of the person (even if they are transcribed) are at least singed and not considered tampered with.But aside from reading some of his quotes and writings I know nearly nothing about the man. And Sun Tzu is the only Philosophy work that I have really read willingly. Later Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a wellpreserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,shouting..."Holy Crap...what a ride!"

I don't know that I could choose one favorite philosopher at this point. I respect the work of many who I think have created greatly to philosophy.Protagoras offered relativist views in contrast to Plato's objectivist worldview. Realism dominated philosophic and religious thought at the time, but Protagoras boldly asserted that man is the measure of all things, and brought reality into the relative construct of the human mind. Therefore, I think that his contribution to philosophy was huge.Descartes also contributed heavily to the deconstruction of the common view that reality is absolute and is perceived as is. His contribution to doubt and skepticism paved the way for many great skeptical philosophers to dissent from religion and and other objectivist worldviews.Kant, I consider to be one of the most brilliant philosophers in history. Though I disagree with a lot of his conclusions, his elevation of reason over any faith-based or emotion-based system contributed heavily to empiricism and the modern scientific method. Hegel, perhaps, is the philosopher who has most infuenced my current worldview. His unraveling of Kant's objectivist worldview and his ability to bring "reality" into the relative in such a clear and sussinct way has caused me to evaluate many of my epistemological assumptions about the world and our place in it.Heidegger also gets an honorable mention from me and has also been influential in my current worldview. Cheryl Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. -Thomas Jefferson

One of my favorite books is Critique of Philosophy and Religion by Walter Kaufmann.Kaufmann's book challenges the best and brightest in philosophy and religion; confronting existentialism and positivism, liberal theology and biblical criticism, William James and Thomas Aquinas, Rudolf Bultmann and Paul Tillich, Heidegger and Wittgenstein, Freud, Kant, Plato, Pascal, Neibuhr, Fromm, Zen and Talmudic traditions...exploring the philosophic search for truth, making sense of language and meaning, religious srcipture and poetry, faith and evidence, mysticism and truth in religion...and a set of three dialogues: Satan and a Christian, Satan and a Theologian, and Satan and an Atheist....all of which are thoroughly roasted by Kaufmann's devilishly delightful intellect. Kaufmann pulls no punches and delivers a pugnacious criticism of every sacred cow in the academy, temple and popular culture.