Greatest Philosopher Poll

[altariel]

In Our Time is running a poll to discover who the nation (or, at least, the section that listens to Radio 4) thinks is the Greatest Philosopher Ever. Julian Baggini put a persuasive case for David Hume, but I voted for John Stuart Mill, because some stupid people recently said he was harmful, and also because so far as I know he was the only one on the list to write about women. Also, half a pint of shandy would make me feel ill too.

Comments

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Very interesting - thanks for the link! I don't feel qualified to vote, but I'm tempted by Aristotle simply because he was so clear-sighted, logical, and always 'concrete, never abstract' as the Imagists would say…

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh I wasn't qualified to vote at all, that's never stopped me yet!

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Thinking of the 'Twenty Greatest Americans' list stopped me :)