Who is your favorite philosopher?

[anti-NAFTA]

Please let's share our favorite philosopher(s) and tell why.

My favorite is probably Soren Kierkegaard because I agree with his anti-rational and anti-establishment views on religion and its necessity to be a personal mode of thought rather than an institutional one.

[maveric]

1. George Carlin.

Makes more sense than most.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. I would agree with that

except I could never understand Kirkegaard much at all. Needs to be taught to me--I don't think one can do it alone simply by reading Kirkegarrd.

[anti-NAFTA]

4. What have you read that is so abstruse?

Heidegger though is what I would call incomprehensible.

[asthmaticeog]

14. For incomprehensibility

I daresay Wittgenstein takes the all-time prize.

[markses]

16. Heidegger? Nahhh

Read Maurice Blanchot. Heidegger is like children's literature. ;-)

[Selwynn]

3. SK is a good choice, Paul Tillich and Nietzsche follow

[anti-NAFTA]

7. what do you like about Nietzsche? eom

[Fight_n_back]

5. Hunter S Thompson

I also like the little bald kid in "The Matrix".

There is no spoon...

or Martin Buber but he is so damn SERIOUS.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

6. Prof. Irwin Corey

http://www.irwincorey.org/

[mitchum]

8. Marcus Aurelius...

that old heathen had his fellow man's number

[Zomby Woof]

9. this guy in Seattle

Used to hang out on the corner of Pike and 1st Avenue. Muttered a lot, yelled a few times. I used to stop and listen. Always made sense to me. I knew he had the meaning of life on his fingertips much more than the polished suits and urban sophisticates who pretended he wasn't there.

True philosophers live among us, invisible to the vast majority of day-to-day people.

[Brucey]

10. Hard to pick one...

Wittgenstein because of his personality and breakthroughs in thinking about positivism and language; Bertrand Russell because of his integrity and foundation writing on arithmetic; Kant because of his stand on conscience and the moral imperative; and Sartre and other existentialists because of their innovative way of dealing with the problem of mystery.

[anti-NAFTA]

11. why has this become a joke thread?

[anti-NAFTA]

12. why? eom

[markses]

13. All the "Favorite Philosopher" threads become joke threads

There's about one per month.

Just wait. Some devastatingly original soul will post the Philosopher Song from Monty Python, another will name Homer Simpson, or Winnie the Pooh, or Yogi Berra.

Then there will be the old "Heidegger was a Nazi" controversy, followed by a naive critique of Foucault and Derrida (both of whom will be strangely labelled "postmodernists") from common sense libertarians who read "What is an Author" in freshman literary theory, and take the critique offered by their 80 year-old New Critic professor as the last word on the matter (because, of course, Foucault was that stupid, or so goes the general sentiment).

As resentful anti-intellectualism goes, you ain't seen nothing yet.

[anti-NAFTA]

15. fuck it then.

That sucks.

[markses]

17. As the kiddies say,

True.

[anti-NAFTA]

20. I just read the lyrics to the Philosopher Song

and it really sucks. I like Monty Python, but this song isn't witty at all.

[markses]

21. Oh, boy

Now you've gone and done it!

[NewHampster]

18. My Brother who stated the truth

Things Clump

[asthmaticeog]

19. It depends on my mood.

When I'm ultra-mad at humanity, Nietzsche's ideas about knighthood really resonate with me (in college I was a Nietzsche die-hard; I've chilled out some). When I'm more myself, Bertrand Russell's essays are just the thing. What an amazing human being, amazing mind. Hegel, I also like - his dialectic is an incredibly useful creative tool.

[trof]

22. H. Allen Smith and H. L. Mencken

May I have two?
Thank you.

http://members.shaw.ca/hallensmith/
The Recipe-from "The Great Chili Confrontation"- H. Allen Smith
"Make sure you have good meat, three pounds of lean chuck, or round, or tenderloin tips. Be sure the meat is trimmed down to where there is not a shred of gristle in it. Texans are great gristle eaters and I find most of their chili inferior for that and other reasons. The poor creatures just know any better. Out, then, with all gristle!

Have the meat course ground. Sear it in an iron kettle. If you don't have an iron kettle you are not civilized; go out and get one. Don't break up the chunks of beef. It is good to have lumpy meat in your chili. When you've got it seared, add one or two small cans of tomato paste or tomato sauce or if you want to use fresh or canned tomatoes put them through a colander. Now chop one or two onions and, if you hanker for it, half a bell pepper. Add these ingredients to the pot with a quart of water. Crush a couple or ore cloves of garlic and then add about half a teaspoon or oregano, maybe a couple of pinches of sweet basil, and a quarter teaspoon of cumin seed or cumin powder.

A lady in San Diego has written me that she buys the cumin seed whole, roasts it in an iron skillet, then uses a rolling pin to convert it into a powder - she says store bought cumin powder can become stale. A perfectionist. Now put in some salt and for a starter, two tablespoons of chili powder. If you can get the Chimayo ground chilies, packaged in Albuquerque, do so by all means. I will speak of it later, for I think it is the best I've ever used. Sometimes when they are available I use chili pods but don't be skittish about using a good brand of chili powder.

Simmer your chili for an hour and a half or longer, adding some Ac'cent to sharpen the flavor, and then about ten minutes from conclusion, add your beans. Use pinto beans if you can get them; if they are not available, canned kidney beans will do. Simmer a bit longer, doing some tasting and as the Gourmet Cookbook has it, "correct seasoning." When you've got it right, to suit your personal taste, let it set a while. It will taste better the second day, still better the third, and absolutely superb the fourth.

Texans consider it a bloody sacrilege to cook beans with chili. I say they're all daft. They also scream bloody murder at the idea of any sweet pepper being included. You'll have to make up your own mind - just don't let their raucous way of talking overpower you. On a personal note: I cannot eat chili without a large glass of cold milk at my elbow. No beer, no water, no wine - just cold milk."



http://www.mencken.org/
"By an inferior man I mean one who knows nothing that is not known to every adult, who can do nothing that could not be learned by anyone in a few weeks, and who meanly admires mean things.

“If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.” —“Epitaph”
- H. L. Mencken

[solinvictus]

23. Nietzsche

Because of his assessment that to progress, man must overcome himself.

[liberalitch]

24. Buddha.....

but hannah arendt rocks too.