Philosophers mega-thread

[Tyler Robinson]

I wanted to create a mega-thread on all philosophers from ancient history to present day. And share their philosophies and principles. 

Also sharing  independent philosophies and different philosophical trends that dominated cultures. 

First starting with Soren Kierkegaard. 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[Max_V]

Awesome! I haven't read Kierkegaard yet, but have read people that were very influenced by him. My favourite is Albert Camus. His work helped me a lot through difficult times. 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Max_V

[Ulax]

Derrida.

The father of postmodernism :).

[Carl-Richard]

You would start with the pre-socratics (some have a fascinating amount of non-duality in them).

[Tyler Robinson]

@Carl-Richard mention a couple of them. Are you talking about someone like my favorite Epictetus? 

[Carl-Richard]

1 minute ago, Tyler Robinson said:

@Carl-Richard mention a couple of them. Are you talking about someone like my favorite Epictetus? 

No. These guys were around 600-700 years before him. Thales is considered the first philosopher, and Parmenides is the non-duality guy.

[Tyler Robinson]

11 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

No. These guys were around 600-700 years before him. Thales is considered the first philosopher, and Parmenides is the non-duality guy.

Aight. Auwill do it. 

[Jannes]

Dont understand me wrong these little clips can be a great inspiration themself or a Motivation to dive deeper into philosophy but they give the illusion that the whole philosophy of a philospoher can be summarized and understood like that. You dont really get a sense of what a philosopher is really about until you read the original texts. 

[Carl-Richard]

35 minutes ago, Jannes said:

You dont really get a sense of what a philosopher is really about until you read the original texts. 

What if you're reading Hegel or Heidegger? 

[Tyler Robinson]

48 minutes ago, Jannes said:

Dont understand me wrong these little clips can be a great inspiration themself or a Motivation to dive deeper into philosophy but they give the illusion that the whole philosophy of a philospoher can be summarized and understood like that. You dont really get a sense of what a philosopher is really about until you read the original texts. 

Reading is good but writing everything in too much detail will be beyond the scope of the forum 

 

[Jannes]

26 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

What if you're reading Hegel or Heidegger? 

Expecting to understand everything in philosophy is probably the wrong approach. ?

I studied philosophy for 3 semester now and only got a very short look into these two. Hopefully I can avoid Heidegger altogether although it would also feel powerful if I managed to make sense of him. 

[DocWatts]

On 9/14/2022 at 3:27 PM, Jannes said:

You dont really get a sense of what a philosopher is really about until you read the original texts. 

Problem is that the majority of these texts were written for other academic philosophers, with close to zero consideration given for people who aren't already hyper specialized in that philosopher's sub-field. Then also add to that a language and/or cultural barrier, and the fact that a lot of great philosophers were unfortunately just bad writers.

The average person isn't going to get anything out of trying to read Hegel of Heidegger. There are better ways to get the insights of Hegel than by fruitlessly bashing one's head against the Phenomenology of Spirit.

That said there are some philosophers that have made an effort to make their ideas accessible to the public (Bertrand Russell comes to mind) but these are the exception.

In %90 of cases you'll be better off finding a contemporary author who specializes in making the work of other philosophers more accessible to non-specialists (for example someone like Hubert Dreyfus would be a better go to understand Heidegger than trying to read Heidegger directly).

Edited September 16, 2022 by DocWatts

[Nilsi]

On 9/16/2022 at 5:05 PM, DocWatts said:

Problem is that the majority of these texts were written for other academic philosophers, with close to zero consideration given for people who aren't already hyper specialized in that philosopher's sub-field. Then also add to that a language and/or cultural barrier, and the fact that a lot of great philosophers were unfortunately just bad writers.

The average person isn't going to get anything out of trying to read Hegel of Heidegger. There are better ways to get the insights of Hegel than by fruitlessly bashing one's head against the Phenomenology of Spirit.

That said there are some philosophers that have made an effort to make their ideas accessible to the public (Bertrand Russell comes to mind) but these are the exception.

In %90 of cases you'll be better off finding a contemporary author who specializes in making the work of other philosophers more accessible to non-specialists (for example someone like Hubert Dreyfus would be a better go to understand Heidegger than trying to read Heidegger directly).

I kinda agree, but I find relying on others interpretations highly problematic for obvious reasons. If you really want to understand these guys, you basically have to understand all of philosophy and it's history; so go do that, or don't even bother wasting your time on this. Understanding Heidegger will not add anything to your life other than the intrinsic joy you get out of it.

[DocWatts]

59 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

I kinda agree, but I find relying on others interpretations highly problematic for obvious reasons. 

Sure, but that can be mitigated by seeking out multiple authors who interpret the original work from differing perspectives and with differing areas of emphasis. 

 

59 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

 If you really want to understand these guys, you basically have to understand all of philosophy and it's history; so go do that, or don't even bother wasting your time on this. Understanding Heidegger will not add anything to your life other than the intrinsic joy you get out of it.

I wouldn't recommend someone read Heidegger who wasn't already well versed in the history of philosophy, since the entirety of something like Being and Time is an attempt to reevaluate the entire Western philosophic tradition.

That said, part of the work of good contemporary academics is to give non-specialists an onramp or starting point to begin to understand what's essentially a circular endeavour.

Edited September 17, 2022 by DocWatts

[Nilsi]

2 hours ago, DocWatts said:

That said, part of the work of good contemporary academics is to give non-specialists an onramp or starting point to begin to understand what's essentially a circular endeavour.

I agree, and I love what John Vervaeke has done to that end, but to study western philosophy in such depths (actually reading Heidegger, Hegel, Wittgenstein etc.) you have to be at least slightly masochistic and psychopathic. Just read Bertrand Russells "History of Western Philosophy" and you will get the gist of it (unironically).

[DocWatts]

1 hour ago, Nilsi said:

I agree, and I love what John Vervaeke has done to that end, but to study western philosophy in such depths (actually reading Heidegger, Hegel, Wittgenstein etc.) you have to be at least slightly masochistic and psychopathic. Just read Bertrand Russells "History of Western Philosophy" and you will get the gist of it (unironically).

I was actually thinking of John Vervaeke as I was writing that, and I'll second your recommendation for Russel's 'History of Western Philosophy '.

[Vibroverse]

On 17.09.2022 at 9:59 PM, Nilsi said:

I agree, and I love what John Vervaeke has done to that end, but to study western philosophy in such depths (actually reading Heidegger, Hegel, Wittgenstein etc.) you have to be at least slightly masochistic and psychopathic. Just read Bertrand Russells "History of Western Philosophy" and you will get the gist of it (unironically).

You will get the geist of it. 

[Nilsi]

3 hours ago, Vibroverse said:

You will get the geist of it. 

Lach.

[DocWatts]

20 hours ago, Vibroverse said:

You will get the geist of it. 

Well done sir lol.