re u s government and science and technolgy investment in article pgf srl cacs usl edu pgf srl cacs usl edu phil g fraering writes mccolm darwin math usf edu gregory mccolm writes in article c z sw as rice edu conor owlnet rice edu conor frederick prischmann writes in article srfii k suntan eng usf edu mccolm darwin math usf edu gregory mccolm writes huh please state your criteria for selecting the greatest philosopher title p s ever read any nietzsche greatest most likely to be remembered five hundred years hence i must admit that that makes many of my personal favorites not that great i make no comment on nietzche except to remark that he was no immanuel kant interpret that cryptic remark as you please some people have appended that remark that nietzche was no kant with thankfully i haven t read enough of either to comment although everyone tells me i should read nietzche i would have to say that the greatest philosopher title would have to go to plato since the whole enterprise of philosophy was essentially defined by him although he got most of his answers wrong he did definitively identify what the important questions are i think it was descartes who said that all philosophy is just a footnote to plato if i were to choose which philosopher made the most important advances in human knowledge over his lifetime that s simple it is aristotle this is so much the case that many simply refer to him as the philosopher regarding nietzsche he s one of the most entertaining although since his ideas were so fragmented and since his life was cut short it is doubtful that his influence as a philosopher is likely to be very extensive years from now they ll probably still be reading him in years though as for modern philosophers i would have to say that kant was the most influential since he had such a strong influence on almost everyone who came after him and unfortunately they maintained his errors and amplified them over time i would say that the most influential american philosopher would have to be dewey but as to the question of what philosopher will be most highly regarded in years it may very well be ayn rand who in every important respect was american but was born in russia but i guess that remains to be seen brian
