Anyone know any cool/interesting Philosophers?

[brokensmilexx]

I thought I might as well see if anyone replies to this lol
So I have a project to do, in Philosophy, and I have to pick a philosopher and learn about their theories/ideas. All the people I've searched up aren't that interesting.
We've learned about Plato, Descartes, Karl Marx, and others..I can't really remember them all haha
Does anyone know any philosophers with interesting theories?
Thanks!

[Beetbox]

I absolutely love Friedrich Nietzsche. The father of nihilism, his ideas are still agreed with today. The books I love the most are beyond good and evil and thus spoke Zarathustra.

Can we align what is good upon what is true?
And then can we reevaluate our ideas of the world and ourselves so that we align what is good upon what is true? For the alternative is to attempt to warp our values toward what is false, what is misunderstood or pretended, trustingly assumed or piously lied about. Indeed, such irrational or mendacious false values have powered so much of the history of the world to date that we may despair of ever finding an exit from the labyrinth of millennia, a way into sunlit clarity. It may require a bravery, or a toughness, that we do not have. Many, many leaders in the world, time out of mind, have presumed that we are not brave enough, or tough enough, to live in the true world as it is, this world, our world. Yet this is a lover's problem, we abandon it only at our utter cost.

Nietzsche's title and subtitle, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, requires that our interpreter have an ear and a sense of humor for wicked subtleties; and be able to cast a cold eye upon life and death, deep into past and future — while retaining a lover's appreciation and hope for humanity. For a real future for humanity that is in the long run livable must be based on the true, not a paradisal utopia based on promises of something else.

A Nietzschean complementary style
Yet if there are glimmers of light dawning, a Nietzschean Enlightenment on our horizon, how might a commentator on Beyond Good and Evil usefully re-present these thunder-and-lightning ideas, that Christianity is Platonism for the people and so forth? Our interpreter need not attempt to imitate Nietzsche's playful and shocking, experimenting and tempting style; rather to complement it. A Nietzschean complementary style might be clear, straightforward, helpfully annotative without distractions, above all insightful and sympathetic.

All easier said than done. To do his own task properly, our interpreter must know his audience and how to appeal to them, be able artfully to re-present esoteric Nietzschean ideas in a manner as compulsively readable as the original but with his own clarifying perspective, to create a riveting narrative worthy of its focus: a great book of philosophy and a noble work of humanity. For Beyond Good and Evil is a noble work, vastly repaying our time to understand it properly; an excellent interpretation of such a book truly must be a noble work in itself, as surprisingly beautiful as an offering of philosophy may be. To be given such a commentary, gratitude could be too small a word.

His ideas are very interesting and I love his writing style.

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Danger of our culture. We belong to a time in which culture is in danger of being destroyed by the means of culture.

[John 6:29]

Define what you'd find interesting.

[dr2005]

Nietzsche is certainly interesting, although it can also be hard going at times working out what he's talking about (which when you realise he wrote while suffering from diptheria, dysentery and possibly syphilis is perhaps understandable) and his reputation took a knock after his philosophy was linked to Nazism, a link which has only recently been reconciled. Depending on which field of philosophy you're interested in, Thomas Kuhn can be an interesting (if again potentially controversial) read and Ludwig Wittgenstein might be an interesting one as well. As Michael says, though, it depends entirely on what you find interesting.

[Smitten]

I agree that Friedrich Nietzsche is interesting - but for other options...

Marcus Tullius Cicero - One of my favorites, He is getting tattooed on my chest. (well, a quote of his.)
Here is a link to all the info you will need for a project on him - LINK

Also... Marcus Aurelius is good.
Link to his BIO. <CLICK>
Link to his works <CLICK>

Lao Tzu is another favorite - <CLICK>



The above might be too "heavy" for you as they are typically analyzed in 300 - 400 level university courses, so if you find it painstaking to make sense of the text, try...

The Hagakure (The book of the samurai) by: Yamamoto Tsunetomo (translation by William Scott Wilson)
This will probably require you to purchase the book.


Lastly...

Confucius is probably relatively easy (by comparison) to understand and get a paper out of. <CLICK>


If you want more - let me know. There are soooooooooo.... many.

[messed_up]

I personally like some of the old ones like Decartes, Plato, Pascal.

[Cosmo]

Nietzsche, Plato, Socrates, Immanuel Kant.

[Ess The Morgenstern *]

old ones hmm Locke or Ockham, specially their politics

[aranel05]

Sartre, Heidegger, Ricoeur, St. Augustine (Confessions), Derrida, Nietzsche, Kristeva, Camus. Camus is fairly easy to read for beginners--The Myth of Sisyphus, The Stranger. Sartre's Being and Nothingness is a little difficult to read, so I'd recommend also reading one of his novels (Nausea). For St. Augustine, at the end of Confessions it talks about Time and Memory, which relates to a lot of continental philosophers (Ricouer's Time and Narrative, Heidegger). Nietzsche, like everyone else has said, is really interesting. You just have to make sure you don't interpret him the wrong way. The Twilight Idols and The Anti Christ are good reads for him, but my favourite is Thus Spoke Zarathustra (I've always found it's better to read other works by Nietzsche before readings that one).

Oh, and if you are interested in ethics: Claudia Card's The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil and Susan Brison's Aftermath.

[brokensmilexx]

Alright thank you all! (: