Philosophical Influences in your Life

[Yahweh]

This is yet-another-survey thread: are there any philosophical influences which have profoundly shaped your way of thinking? Any philosophers who you've read and said to yourself, "this person really knows what they're talking about"?



At least for me, my major influences have been:

Peter Singer, in particular Animal Liberation, How are we to Live: Ethics in an Age of Self interest, and Numerous essays.

Singer is a very controversial figure. Among other things he denies the claim that humans are special creations of god, and his flavor of egalitarianism takes humans out of the center of the moral universe. Additionally, in the debate over sanctity of life vs quality of life, Singer falls heavily on the the site of quality of life, which gives his philosophy a very strong pro-euthanasia bent. He's also written at length his book Should the Baby Live and Rethinking Life and Death on the special moral problems introduced by terminally ill and severely handicapped infants where he argues that, in some cases, infant euthanasia can be justified. Finally, Singer is usually credited for jump-starting the animal liberation movement with his book Animal Liberation in the 1970s.

As you can imagine, Singer isn't very popular with conservatives, and he's widely misquoted by critics. However, I've read everything he's ever written, and I find it be well-argued and correct, even if his arguments deeply challege our contemporary ethics.

[edit] Oops, wrong forum. Mods, please move this thread to the R&P .

[Bluefinger]

Moved it for ya.

Also, I guess a major philosophical influence has been Sun Tzu, from the book The Art of War. Though that's more military minded and on matters of leadership and organisation.

[Vene]

The Principia Discordia was a big thing for me. Not that it's serious philosophy (actually, it's more or less a big joke). But, it was something that helped to tear my mind away from using Christian morality and trying to work out what I really believe is moral instead of accepting it at face value.

[deliciousdemon]

Clifford Geertz The Interpretation of Cultures

Simultaneously shook me from hibernation and destroyed a lot of romanticism I had about the world (from my narrow viewpoint)

Frans de Waal Primates and Philosophers

Great primatologists makes convincing arguments about the intelligence of apes. Business as usual.

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Not necessarily an intentionally philosophical or pedantic text, but I absorbed a lot from it and learned a lot about people based upon the choices in literature they make.

R.A. Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land

I grokk.

O.S. Card Ender's Game

More it successors than this particular novel, I learned about truly understanding something and the risks that are involved.

Armand Leroi Mutants

Intense look at human genetic variation and the influences it has had upon religion and culture. Far from just anecdotal, Leroi really conveys the difference a tiny change in genetic material can make upon the physical and mental aspects of someone. Really unified humanity for me great read even if you know next to nothing about genetics or molecular biology.

[Zabimaru]

My way of thinking wasn't really formed by any philosophers or great thinkers - it was much more shaped by cyberpunk and semi-classic hacker culture. My friends and I were very much into that during my formative years, and it has really shaped me as a person.

We used to use the 80's notion of cyberspace as a thought experiment, teaching us a lot about anti-bigotry. To us, only programming skill mattered, and over computer networks you couldn't see much else. You didn't know the color of someone's skin, their gender, religion, nationality, social status, what their parents do, and so on. This really taught me that when you can judge someone's work without knowing any of that, none of it really matters - and ever since then I've tried to fight racism, misogyny and other kinds of bigotry.

The hacker culture taught me a lot about the value of actual results and progress (a "put up or shut up"-mentality), about the power of information and importance of freedom of speech.

Since then I've read a lot of books that might have affected me in other ways, but nothing has been as influential to me as my very nerdy beginnings.

[Vene]

Apr 26, 2009 12:55:38 GMT -5 deliciousdemon said:

Armand Leroi Mutants

Intense look at human genetic variation and the influences it has had upon religion and culture. Far from just anecdotal, Leroi really conveys the difference a tiny change in genetic material can make upon the physical and mental aspects of someone. Really unified humanity for me great read even if you know next to nothing about genetics or molecular biology.

What if you do know genetics and molecular biology? Because that looks interesting to me.

[stormwarden]

Sun Tzu, Musashi Miyamoto, John Locke, and the person in my sig.

[wmdkitty]

I don't think they quite count as *philosophers*, but George Carlin, Douglas Adams, and H.P. Lovecraft have all had *very* strong influences on my personal philosophical leanings.

Desmond Morris (author of "The Naked Ape" and other fucking awesome books) showed me that humans, for all their sophistication and technology, are *still* animals at heart. Most of you just cloak yourselves in a thin veneer of "civilization", and come up with elaborate (and often nonsensical) "reasons" to justify your behaviors.

Observing my feline brethren has also taught me quite a bit -- there's nothing so grand as a nap in the sun. ^_^ They taught me that patience and a killer glare (or super-cute look) will get you damn near *anything* you want. (Yes, this *does* work on my human parents, they were trained well.)

That's the meat-and-potatoes of my philosophical life.

All the rest is gravy. (Or is that "groovy"?)

[vesper]

Epicurus -the Tetrapharmakos could be said to be the basis of my philosophy

Carl Sagan - his world view is such a positive example of naturalism

John Locke - If for nothing else than for his NRA- like views of gun ownership, ei, citizens should have guns because there is a state militia."

Milton Friedman-
www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html

[Lady Renae]

Now I feel like a plebeian because I haven't read anything by anyone big, important, or philosophical. *pout*

[chad sexington]

I'm not really into philosophy per se, but Machiavelli is one of my major influences.

[dantesvirgil]

I read a lot (part of the job ), so I like to think of myself as influenced by thinkers in general, as opposed to "philosophers" proper. Because honestly, I was "influenced" by every single philosopher I've ever read, and I think that holds for most people, because you're always actively processing their ideas, and judging them for a good fit, whether you agree with them or not.

That said, I agree with you about Peter Singer. His book The Ethics of What We Eat (I think that's right!) had a big impact on me. I think everyone should read it, whether you want to be a vegetarian/vegan or not. You need to know where our food comes from, etc.

I would also say that Thich Nhat Hanh has been a massive influence on me in recent years. I'm not a zen buddhist, by any stretch, but the philosophy as he orders it makes a lot of sense. I would recommend it completely.

I suppose, too, that I paid more than the usual attention to anarchist thought, specifically the life works of Alexander Berkman -- it's almost like getting a sourced "alternative history" reader. Very intriguing. Kropotkin influenced me. I like reading Anarchist shit, I guess.

[dantesvirgil]

Economically, I should add that I've been influenced a lot by writers on environmental economics, because they are radically reshaping how we look at nature. Briefly, traditional economic theories tend to view nature as a sort of subset of the overall econ environment -- a set of inputs in terms of raw materials, that sort of thing. Enviroeconomics (sometimes it's called Ecological Economics) points out the obvious -- that nature is the larger system, and our economic systems have to operate within its parameters, not the other way round. There are all kinds of good things about sustainable economics (or "steady-state economics"), the myth of perpetual growth, the overreliance on technology to "fix" everything, the politics of consumption. Good stuff, for those of you with an economics bent. Try anything by Herman Daly, for starters, but some of the writings trace all the way back to John Stuart Mill.

[deliciousdemon]

Apr 26, 2009 13:29:35 GMT -5 Vene said:

Apr 26, 2009 12:55:38 GMT -5 deliciousdemon said:

Armand Leroi Mutants

Intense look at human genetic variation and the influences it has had upon religion and culture. Far from just anecdotal, Leroi really conveys the difference a tiny change in genetic material can make upon the physical and mental aspects of someone. Really unified humanity for me great read even if you know next to nothing about genetics or molecular biology.

What if you do know genetics and molecular biology? Because that looks interesting to me.

Give it a go, it's a fantastic survey of humanity from several perspectives. The historical research is quite immaculate as well. I am quite familiar with genetics and molecular biology and I devoured it.

[Shano]

Ursula K. LeGuin - The Dispossed. A manual in anarchy.

The scientific method - The proof that doubting works.

COGITO ERGO SVM - I doubt even the fact that I doubt everything.