4 janvier 2013
The Philosophers That Philosophers Like Best
By Tom Bartlett. In a recent podcast, the hosts of Philosophy Bites called up well-known philosophers—people like Martha Nussbaum, Patricia Churchland, Michael Sandel—and asked them to name their favorite philosopher. Many laughed at first, perhaps because it’s odd to talk about philosophers as if they were football teams or pizza places. Others complained good-naturedly that they wished the question could have been submitted in advance so they would have had more time to think about it, which is exactly what you would expect from a philosopher.
Several named more than one. Others, like Peter Singer, came up with fairly obscure names (he picked the 19th-century British utilitarian Henry Sidgwick). The most surprising answer came from Catharine MacKinnon, who said her favorite philosopher is “the last woman I talked to, whoever she is.”
I tallied the results, which are below. I didn’t include those who received only a single vote, so apologies to Descartes, Frege, Montaigne, Plato, Socrates, and Thucydides.
Several named more than one. Others, like Peter Singer, came up with fairly obscure names (he picked the 19th-century British utilitarian Henry Sidgwick). The most surprising answer came from Catharine MacKinnon, who said her favorite philosopher is “the last woman I talked to, whoever she is.”
I tallied the results, which are below. I didn’t include those who received only a single vote, so apologies to Descartes, Frege, Montaigne, Plato, Socrates, and Thucydides.
- David Hume (12 votes)
- Immanuel Kant (7 votes)
- Aristotle (6 votes)
- Friedrich Nietzsche (5 votes)
- John Stuart Mill (3 votes)
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (3 votes)
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2 votes)
- Thomas Hobbes (2 votes)
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