From the article:
“The remaining names on the shortlist are … Plato…”
Because the intellectual “elite” in Britain are very strongly leftist, and that is the pool that the program was drawing from. IOW the sample was biased. The people listening were already predominantly (probably exclusively) left leaning. Hardly surprising that they would rate Marx highly.
Please tell us more about that, Blake. Why are the intellectual elite in Britain “very strongly leftist”?
Yes, I’d like to hear about this, too.
It’s very hard to say precisely why and I suspect it’s very complex. It’s probably to some degree the result of the university system which tends to encourage a mob mentality where same attarcts same. Bristish universities have long had a reputation as breeding grounds for leftist thought. As a result those who get ‘taken in’ tend to share the philosophy of those already in power and so ad infinitum. The same was certainly true of the BBC at leatsuntil the early 90s though apparently the effect is waining a little now.
Note that I didn’t say that British intelluectuals are leftist, just that the self-proclaimed ‘elite’ tend to be leftist and they are the type catered for by that type of program. There are a great many educated and succesful people who are of course right wing but they are very rarely part of the elitist set, and certainly not well catered for by that type of program.
Interesting how leftist philosophy works as a mob that ‘breeds’ and ‘takes in’. Kind of Borg-like. Who’d have thought that supposedly intelligent people are so easily led.
Does rightest philosophy work the same way?
rightist.
That was not a subconscious slip. 
Popper called Marxism pseudoscience. Marx is on the level of Hubbard. Maybe the poll indicates that a plurality of BBC enthusiasts are extreme leftists. Surprise surprise.
Seems that the culture, philosophy and politics of Britain are generally to the left of the United States (or centred around a rather broader range, including what would be perceived in American terms as extreme left); I suppose therefore judging by USA standards, it might well appear true that the intellectual ‘elite’ leans to the left. By local standards, I think the leaning is probably far less pronounced.
As convenient mental shorthand, I tend to keep in mind that ‘Liberal’ in the UK represents middle-of-the-road politics. I know the term has a somewhat different meaning in the USA, but that doesn’t stop it being a useful, quick-and-dirty measurement.
rfgdxm writes:
Not entirely true. We also have an independent account from Xenophon, who didn’t do as catchy a set of dialogues. I’ve heard the opinion that, if we only had Xenophon’s Socrates and not Plato’s, he’df never have had as large a reputation as he does today.
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/x/xenophon.htm (Scroll to bottom of page)
I was surprised and vaguely annoyed at this result. On the other hand, I didn’t bother to vote.
There is a segment of UK society that is pro-marxist - google “socialist worker” with “UK” and you’ll find both a newspaper and political party. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that part of this segment treated the poll like a Big Brother popularity contest.
I’m sorry but this is just a rant and bears no resemblance at all to what universities are like now, or were like in the last few decades.
A new day a new thought…
It seems to me that there is a minority within UK with very socialist views. The majority non-socialists when given a list of philosophers to choose from would pick one pretty much at random (though avoiding Marx as he was a socialist extremist). The socialist minority would almost all choose Marx. It is simply that there is only one name to choose if you are very socialist, and that is Marx.
If you made a poll asking which of these is the best president
Eisenhower
Ford
Nixon
Carter
George Bush Senior
George Bush Junior
Carter might well win. But that is only because he was the only Democrat choice.
Actually, the current strain of evangelical protestantism that is culturally and politically dominant in the United States right now would encourage its adherents to answer “Jesus” when asked to name the greatest in almost any category.
During the 2000 election campaign, George W. Bush named Jesus as his favourite philosopher. It helped cement his ties to the conservative religionist movement.
One lesson that all intelligent English people know: all TV and radio polls are run by idiots for idiots, and BBC polls are the most idoitic of all.
Hmph, what a dumb poll. I mean, everyone knows the greatest philosopher of all time was Ayn Rand. Stupid Brits…
It depends on what you mean. Although they may differ about many things, most leftists have some common values. That is not neccessarily true on the right. The term can embrace everything from moderate liberals to Conservatives to Libertarians to Buchananites depending on how you use it. Some would include fascism, although even so fascism is still the sworn enemy of every other aspect fo the right.
Primarily, it refers to a values taught and learned as children and youths, which embraces a certain sense of honor and pride and way of looking at the world not in terms of ideology, but in terms of good and evil, alliances and enemies. But that[s way oversimplistic and barely scratches the surface of one small slice of the Right.
Many segments of leftism were inculcated as much in university settings as at home. Certainly, one can look back and English universities and see that several of them were breeding grounds for traitors - *leftist * traitors.
This is a very good point. And the fact that Marx was on the list, even though as a pure philosopher he tends not to be that well of, would lead those being polled to think in terms of economic philosophy.
Seems to me like Locke ended up getting quite a bit better mileage than Marx. Maybe the Brits don’t like to think about him.
Well, but Hobbes got on the list, so classical liberalism was at least represented. And, the list only had 20 names, so it was a short list. A nasty, brutish, short list.
At least Hegel wasn’t on it.