The Greatest Thinker Of The Millennium

[Homo Aestheticus]

Several years ago the  BBC  held a poll asking its audience to vote for the greatest thinker of the last 1,000 years... Was it Aquinas ? Newton ? Descartes ? Kant ? Darwin ? Nietzsche ? Maxwell ? Hawking ? Wittgenstein ? 

The Economist magazine urged the audience to vote for David Hume while most other outlets said it should go to either Kant or Einstein.

The BBC audience would have none of that... They chose Karl Marx as number one.

They summarized it like this:

"It can seriously be claimed for Karl Marx that his ideas had a greater influence in a shorter time than those of any other thinker in history. During his lifetime he was a little-known, impoverished intellectual, living on the charity of friends and spending his days reading and writing, often in the British Museum. Yet within 70 years of his death in 1883 something like a third of the entire human race was living under governments that called themselves by his name -- called themsleves "Marxist". Nothing like this had ever occured before, nor is likely to happen again. Even the spread of early Christianity or Islam could not match it, nor could the spread of Buddhism during its expansionist phase. It is an utterly amazing phenomenon, more so in view of the fact that on a practical level the record of Marxism was one of persistent failure: the ideas conquered, yet the societies to which they gave rise either collapsed or detached themsleves from Marxist policies. Although dictatorships throughout the twentieth century have grotesquely distorted his original ideas, his work as a philosopher, social scientist, historian and a revolutionary is respected by academics today. His ideas about exploitation, alienation and class struggle are more vibrant than at any time in the past 20 years..."

****

Now, I must admit that I'm not AT ALL conversant in either philosophy or political/economic theory but putting aside both the 'grotesque distortions' of Marx (as well as those dreadful eastern european/russian statues)..... anyone who came up with the following would  probably  get my vote as well:

--The irreducible thing that human beings have to do if they are to live at all is to get the means of subsistence: they must have the wherewithal to feed, clothe, and house themselves, and to meet other basic wants. Producing these things is the one task that cannot be avoided. The fundamental determinant of all social change is the development of the means of production. Riding forward on the back of this, and being both made and unmade by it comes the development of social classes and of the conflict between classes. Then above this comes "the superstructure" : social and political institutions, religions, philosophies, the arts, ideas; all such things grow up on the basis of the economic substructure, and are ultimately determined by it..."

--What the bourgeoisie produces.... is its own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

--Money is the universal, self-constituted value of all things. Hence, it has robbed the whole world....of its proper value.

--Money commodifies, transforms and degrades human relationships.

--Money is the alienated essence of man's labor and life, and this alien essence dominates him as he worships it.

--As long as capitalism persists, there will be poverty and war.

--History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men and women, real, living, who do all this. 

--Criticism of religion is the foundation of all criticism.

--We can forgive Christianity much, because it taught us the worship of the child.

--The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.

[Dr. Dread]

You.

[karlhenning]

Two n's in millennium.

(Just saying.)

[Renfield]

I see the Economist firmly grounded in empiricism, the "hands-on" approach, and am not surprised! (Not to say Hume is not a worthy candidate.)

But if you're going for "most important", it would very likely have to be Descartes for starting this whole business.

For "greatest this millennium", I'd be hard-pressed to choose between Kant and Georg Cantor.


I certainly would not even consider Marx, despite his being influential and quite certainly a great thinker - I think a number of philosophers outclass him, and even Weber in his own field. Not to mention Adam Smith for economic/political theory.

[Haffner]

Wasn't Marx pretty much nothing without Hegel? Just asking. I'm fairly sure Marx is quoted as having been massively impacted by Hegel's philosophy.

[aquablob]

Karl Marx may well be the most influential thinker of the millennium (not sure), but if the question is greatest thinker, my vote (albeit without first defining great) would go to Newton.

Marx was a far greater thinker than am I, but he was mistaken about many things. Here is a biggie: "As long as capitalism persists, there will be poverty and war." While this may be true, more accurate would be: "As long as civilization persists, there will be poverty and war."

Newton was mistaken about some things also, but in a far more impressive way!

Newton, all the way!

[Renfield]

Karl Marx may well be the most influential thinker of the millennium (not sure), but if the question is greatest thinker, my vote (albeit without first defining great) would go to Newton.

Marx was a far greater thinker than am I, but he was mistaken about many things. Here is a biggie: "As long as capitalism persists, there will be poverty and war." While this may be true, more accurate would be: "As long as civilization persists, there will be poverty and war."

Newton was mistaken about some things also, but in a far more impressive way!

Newton, all the way!

But, speaking of influences, where would Newton be without Leibniz and Galileo?

[Franco]

My favorite Marx quote: Whatever it is, I'm against it.

Close behind is, Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.  (Thanks, Harold.)

[karlhenning]

Close behind is, Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.  (Thanks, Harold.)

I heard that first, actually, sung by Robin Williams in The Fisher King.

[Cato]

The Greatest Stinker of the Millennium is Karl Marx.

Yes, Marx depends heavily on Hegel: without Hegel, Marx might still exist, but would have been bagging apples for a living and doing more good as a result.

Candidates for Greatest Non-Divine Thinkers:  Leonardo, Michelangelo, Dürer, Bach, Jan Potocki, Beethoven, Caspar David Friedrich, E.A. Poe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Bruckner, Schoenberg, Scriabin, Karl Hartmann, Salvador Dali, Marcel Pagnol

Philosophers in paint, stone, stories, and in ink blotches on bestaved paper!   

[karlhenning]

The Greatest Stinker of the Millennium is Karl Marx.

Not Bugs?

[karlhenning]

Oooh, ain't I a stinka?

[Homo Aestheticus]

The Greatest Stinker of the Millennium is Karl Marx.

without Hegel, Marx might still exist, but would have been bagging apples for a living and doing more good as a result.

Oh really ?   

I have to say that I've never understood why people admire capitalism  so  dogmatically...

[Florestan]

The Greatest Stinker of the Millennium is Karl Marx.

Post of the day. 

[ChamberNut]

My dog, Beatrice.

[drogulus]

     I'd give a prize to a group of thinkers, so I'll nominate Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Hamilton. They were inspired by another group including Locke, Hume, and Smith. Since there's a millennnnnium limit we can't do Greeks. 
     

[DavidRoss]

Yes, Marx depends heavily on Hegel: without Hegel, Marx might still exist, but would have been bagging apples for a living and doing more good as a result.

Hear, hear!  Post of the day!

I have to say that I've never understood why people admire capitalism  so  dogmatically...

Why does this not surprise me?  I've never understood how even the most slavish devotion to a bankrupt and discredited ideology can force someone's head so far up their fundament that they're unable to see that virtually all of the blessings of health, medicine, science, technology, public works, democratic institutions, and damned near every other modern good we take for granted are the fruits of capitalism.

I must admit that I'm not AT ALL conversant in either philosophy or political/economic theory....

We're all well aware of that, Eric.  Is there any subject that you are conversant in?  Inquiring minds want to know.  

I'd give a prize to a group of thinkers, so I'll nominate Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Hamilton. They were inspired by another group including Locke, Hume, and Smith.

I like your thinking here, Ernie!  (Though I'd include Franklin and Paine in this group as well.)

[Bulldog]

Oh really ?   

I have to say that I've never understood why people admire capitalism  so  dogmatically...

Because it's the best economic system available and is based on freedom of action.  Unfortunately, people have a tendency to fuck it up as they do with most things.

[DavidRoss]

Because it's the best economic system available and is based on freedom of action.  Unfortunately, people have a tendency to fuck it up as they do with most things.

Yeah...the problem is it's inherently democratic, its efficiency depends on informed participation, and when well-intentioned do-gooders fuck with it the corrections can be brutal.

[Haffner]

Hegel, Schopenhauer, Carl Jung.