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Small, Far Away wrote:

 Barksdale wrote:
Is Burke a philosopher?

Assuming you mean Edmund, the Irish MP and Father of Conservatism in Britain, yes

Then Burke.

jasper76 wrote:If Carl Sagan can be called a philosopher, then he is my favorite.

And Sagan.

Mencius.

Sarte and Bukowski.

I'll have to add Calvin Broadus Jr. to my list of favorite philosophers

Don't really have one, philosophy isn't a subject that I enjoy much and I feel a lot of it just comes across as grandiose statements that can't really be proven or disproven. Mind you I could just be a dumby and a lot of it could be that it is just too "deep" for me. There is one thing that I think is

real important that I learned from philosophy and that is critical thinking other than that I haven't found it that useful. I think my viewpoint is more influenced by comedians like Louis CK, Woody Allen (especially for anxious energy that he exudes), etc.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I think my viewpoint is more influenced by comedians like Louis CK, Woody Allen (especially for anxious energy that he exudes), etc.

Honestly, I think many comedians are better philosophers than many modern philosophers

I think you may be right in that a lot of it comes off as grandiose and cant be proved, but I don't think that's really the point of the subject. I think it's more how does a school of thought feel about a subject. I think that is in part, why I would describe myself politically as a utilitarian, instead of a Lockean or Hobbesean thinker.

 Cheesecat wrote:
Don't really have one, philosophy isn't a subject that I enjoy much and I feel a lot of it just comes across as grandiose statements that can't really be proven or disproven.

I'd disagree with that. Philosophy includes the study of logic, which is about how good or bad arguments are, which gives philosophers a really good way of proving or disproving their statements.

Donald Rumsfeld:
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know."


Hah! No not really. He robbed it from NASA and they got it from somebody way back where. But it turns into an intriguing claim about knowledge (Ontology).

Myamoto Musashi.
Zun Tsu.
Conflict psychologists..

PHILOSOPHERS!!?? Their brains are full of mildew!!

Relapse wrote:
PHILOSOPHERS!!?? Their brains are full of mildew!!

I'm just hear to help you "Build a better mind and body". Now smoke yourself...

The best philosophers of all time are every Junior Enlisted Ever. You get 2-3 Lance Corporals together on a field exercise or deployed and they will start talking about the most amazing nonsense that would put Plato and Socrates to shame.