Greatest minds of the western philosophical tradition...

Best Of Enemies Official Trailer (2015) - Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley Jr. HD

Best of Enemies' is a documentary about the legendary series of nationally televised debates in 1968 between two great public intellectuals, the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. Intended as commentary on the issues of their day, these vitriolic and explosive encounters came to define the modern era of public discourse in the media, marking the big bang moment of our contemporary media landscape when spectacle trumped content and argument replaced substance. Best of Enemies delves into the entangled biographies of these two great thinkers and luxuriates in the language and the theater of their debates, begging the question, 'What has television done to the way we discuss politics in our democracy today?'
 
I'll add Johnny Carson to this thread. He was THE smartest and most clever talk show host all-time. No one is CLOSE to being as good as he was.
 
I'll add Frank Zappa to this thread. He was a BRILLIANT musician, able to record music in MANY different genres. Including rock and roll, jazz, and classical, and everything in between these genres. He was a clever lyricist, as well as an amazing guitarist. Just a fantastic musician.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
I think a gave stoicism it’s due via Marcus Aurelius. Having said that I think Cato the Younger embodied all the pitfalls of Stoicism.

On your comments on Thomas Hobbes. I would argue that John Stuart Mills was the father of modern conservatism. I think Hobbes was the father of modern realism. Virtually all the philosophers we cited are rationalist but Hobbes understood that people are rarely rational and are mostly emotional and passionate. Which, from what I’ve seen, is entirely true.
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Hobbes can come off as cynical or advocating for totalitarianism. But he had a valid point that people don't really know what makes them happy.
 
I'll add film director Alfred Hitchcock to this thread. He was a brilliant director, I've never seen a film directed by him I didn't like.
 
jacksonsprat22 said:
Hobbes can come off as cynical or advocating for totalitarianism. But he had a valid point that people don't really know what makes them happy.
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Hobbes gets a bad wrap, and context is everything.

Hobbes had just lived through the 30 years war, which was Europe's first truly cataclysmic conflict resulting in millions of deaths.

On that basis, I have never really begrudged Hobbes philosophy of a social contract between the people and a powerful state to guarantee security and safety. He obviously had reason to have a pessimistic outlook on base human nature
 
I'll add legendary blues musician Muddy Waters to this thread. He was a brilliant musician, and a wonderful slide guitar player, as well. And he's my favorite musician, all-time, in ANY music genre.
 
I'll add legendary soul and r&b songstress Aretha Franklin to this thread. She was an absolutely brilliant vocalist, my second favorite female vocalist all -time, in any music genre, behind only Linda Ronstadt. Ms. Franklin's singing was pure magic.
 
I'll add a man who was a wonderfully talented blues musician, Fenton Robinson. He was a fantastic guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. His blues music had a slight jazz feel to it, and was always nice and mellow. Unfortunately he didn't record many albums during his career, and he died at just age 62, from brain cancer, in late November of 1997. If you like your blues with a bit of jazz, please check out this genius's music on YouTube. You will NOT be disappointed.
 
Enlightenment vs. Existentialists

Reason and logic? Or passion and imagination?
It comes down to the Enlightenment thinkers versus Romanticism and the Existentialists.

Existentialism is, in my view, the most exciting and important philosophical movement of the past century and a half. Fifty years after the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre gave it its identity. and one hundred and fi fty years after the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard gave it its initial impetus, existentialism continues to win new enthusiasts and, in keeping with its still exciting and revolutionary message, vehement critics.

The message of existentialism, unlike that of many more obscure and academic philosophical movements, is about as simple as can be. It is that every one of us, as an individual, is responsible—responsible for what we do, responsible for who we are, responsible for the way we face and deal with the world, responsible, ultimately, for the way the world is. It is, in a very short phrase, the philosophy of “no excuses!” Life may be difficult; circumstances may be impossible. There may be obstacles, not least of which are our own personalities, characters, emotions, and limited means or intelligence. But, nevertheless, we are responsible. We cannot shift that burden onto God, or nature, or the ways of the world. If there is a God, we choose to believe. If nature made us one way, it is up to us to decide what we are to do with what nature gives us—whether to go along or fight back, to modify or transcend nature. As the delightfully priggish Kate Hepburn says to a wonderfully vulgar Humphrey Bogart in the movie The African Queen, “Nature is what we are put on this earth to rise above.” That is what existentialism is all about. We are responsible for ourselves.

There are no excuses.

Three themes pervade existentialism:

• A strong emphasis on the individual (although this is variously defined and understood).

• The central role of the passions, as opposed to the usual philosophical emphasis on reason and rationality. The emphasis instead is on a passionate commitment. For the existentialist, to live is to live passionately.

• The importance of human freedom. Existentialists are concerned with personal freedom, both political freedom and free will. This is central to Kierkegaard and Sartre, but not so obviously to Nietzsche and Heidegger. The relationship between freedom and reason is particularly at issue. Traditionally, acting “rationally” is said to be free, while acting out of emotion is considered being a “slave to one’s passions.” The existentialists suggest that we live best and are most ourselves in terms of passion. Kierkegaard’s notion of “passionate commitment” is central.

Source credit: Dr. Robert Solomon, University of Texas
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midcan5 said:
I would add to this list writers and poets as they influence the world at another level. Dickens, Dostoevsky, Twain, Austen, Camus, Sartre, Faulkner, Whitman, Dickinson, Poe, Hughes, etc. etc.


'“They are changing the world”: thinkers choose their favourite living philosophers'

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/...rs-choose-their-favourite-living-philosophers

https://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/25-writers-who-changed-the-world/
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What about Danielle Steel?;)
 
I'll add Elvis Presley to this thread. He had one of the greatest minds in a musical sense. He was able to interpret and appreciate SO much music that was written by others, and make these songs HIS. He was a genius in his ability to do this.
 
Could our time have become so disenchanted that it no longer concerns itself with questions of meaning, but only calculates costs and very practical, instrumental benefits? Considered by many to be the 20th century’s most influential philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) claims this to be the case. Heidegger believes that we have become so lost in “average everydayness” that we barely comprehend our authentic possibilities. Each of us has irreplaceable and nontransferable possibilities, but Heidegger believes that we mostly flee them. Only through a resolute comprehension of our finitude—the finality and inescapable possibility of our death—can we find our authenticity.

In the midst of average, everyday life, Heidegger points to two modes of living: the authentic versus the inauthentic. Authentic existence involves discovering what are truly one’s own unique life possibilities. Inauthentic existence involves, often uncomprehendingly, a fleeing from what are one’s own individual possibilities.

Source credit. Professor Steven Erickson
 
I'll add writer Ray Bradbury to this thread. He's my favorite writer, all-time. He was able to brilliantly weave elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, into an often intoxicating mix. EVERYONE needs to read at least a book or two by this man. Simply magic.
 
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