Why? How could anyone rank Marx as a great philosopher? What did he ever contribute to basic philosophy? I think he’s only ranked as a philosopher because his initial academic training was in that field. His important contributions were in political theory, economics and sociology. He could only have won on the strength of his importance as the intellectual father of modern socialism, and so far as that goes . . . The state of public opinion in Britain (at least, among those Brits who participate in such polls) apparently is very, very different from that in the U.S., even more so than in the U.S. (If an American media organization ran such a poll, the winner would probably be Jesus, even if they didn’t list him as an option.) And how much credibility does Marxism, as such, still have in the UK anyway? There are no Marxist parties in Parliament. The Labour Party has repudiated its socialist heritage, such as it was, and I’ve never heard of the LibDems even using the word.
Sorry, I meant, “The state of public opinion in Britain (at least, among those Brits who participate in such polls) apparently is very, very different from that in the U.S., even more so than I had believed.”
Perhaps because Marx is just so well known amongst those polled? And, it looks to me like they polled idiots. Sartre is not on the list, and David Hume is #2??? Dunno if Hume would make my own top 20 list. And why is Socrates on the list at all, and not Plato? Everything Socrates said was written down by, and presumably filtered through, Plato. Do we speak of “Socrate’s Republic”, or “Plato’s Republic”? I’ve always figured that the account of the trial of Socrates was heavily edited by Plato, given the vote was such that some men who voted to acquit him then decided to vote to execute him, rather than him paying a small fine.
I susspect some of those who replied were thinking of Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, Zeppo when they voted. Also Karl Marx is at least a very well known modern philosopher. I susspect many of those who replied to the poll simply hadn’t heard of any of the other philosophers listed.
Most Americans would likely think of Jesus as the “Son of God”, and not a philosopher. Only non-Christians (a definite minority of Americans) would tend to look at Jesus as a philosopher.
Dunno about England, but if I randomly polled Americans on the street, the vast majority couldn’t name one work almost all those on the list had written. Ludwig Wittgenwhat?
How are political theory, economics, and sociology NOT philosophy?
In any event, maybe this was like the Time Man of the Year thing; it’s not about quality, it’s about impact. You can certainly make an argument that Marx was the most important philosopher (and he was a philosopher) of all time, in terms of the IMPACT his ideas had - even if you disagree with those ideas.
Depends on how you define Greatest, I suppose. If your looking at the philosopher that had the most impact on history or even modern life, I’d think that you could argue for Marx. After all, while Kant may have been intellectully stimulating, the world after his philosophy was much the same as before. Marx, on the other hand, ennuncieted a philosopy which may have done more to shape modern history then any other.
Also, Communist Manifesto is a hell of a lot easier reading then Critique of Pure Reason or Beyond Good and Evil. It’s posible that most of Britan’s population is simply more familiar w/ Marxist writings then they are with Kantian ones.
There is a flaw in your analysis, or alternatively the poll was flawed. The poll didn’t just ask “Name the one person you consider the greatest philospher.” Instead, it gave the people polled a list of people, and said of these who is the greatest philosopher? Thus, as this was presented it defined “philosophy” as including political theory, economics, and sociology. Obviously, if you ran the poll Marx wouldn’t have been in the list of 10 people.
I presume this poll didn’t allow “write in” votes.
And Marx influence far more than just communist states. Without Marx would Europe have socialized medicine, or in the US the Social Security system or food stamps?
Point of order: This wasn’t a ‘man in the street’ poll. It was aimed at listeners of a highbrow radio programme, and so it’s more likely that many of the voters had a reasonable understanding of who the shortlisted names were.
:rolleyes: Because they’re not philosophy. In Plato’s day, and for a long time after, “philosophy” included all “love of wisdom” of whatever form or discipline. Eventually natural science came into its own, and then, inspired by the former, came economic “science” and political “science” and social “sciences” in general. And also theology, of which the less said the better. And now philosophy is left only with the essentially philosophical questions – “Trivial questions that are soluble, and crucial questions that are insoluble.” (A shiny new dime to the Doper who can place that quote! *)
:dubious: No, he didn’t. Materialism is inherent in the whole of the modern scientific world-view. Marx was an **anti-**materialist – and anti-scientific! – to the extent that he based his philosophy on Hegelian idealism.
Important insight, but it doesn’t answer the key question: Why did so many highly educated Brits pick Marx as the most important philosopher of all time, even when they had knowledge of the others?
Leaving aside the debate about whether he should have been included in the shortlist…I suspect many people applied the question “Without ______, how different would the world be today?” to each of the names. Marx surely ranks pretty high up when viewed that way.
*)