Of course, this may be impossible to answer, but anyway:
In your opinion, what is the most important philosophical text ever?
By philosophical text, I mean the broader definition, e.g. political texts like Machiavelli’s The Prince are also considered. So with this definition, I would probably vote for Darwin’s The Origin og Species as my candidate. No other book had the same impact on the anthropocentric Christian doctrine, the way I see it.
[quote=“also_sprach”]
Of course, this may be impossible to answer, but anyway:
In your opinion, what is the most important philosophical text ever?
By philosophical text, I mean the broader definition, e.g. political texts like Machiavelli’s The Prince are also considered. So with this definition, I would probably vote for Darwin’s The Origin og Species as my candidate. No other book had the same impact on the anthropocentric Christian doctrine, the way I see it.
Kristian
Why would “The Origin of the Species” be a philosophical text? The fact that it has been influential philosophically doesn’t make it a philosophical text. In the ancient world, Plato’s Dialogues, and Aristotle’s Metaphysics.
In modern philosophy, Descartes’ “Meditations On First Philosophy” And Hume’s “Treatise on Human Nature.” In recent philosophy, probably Bertrand Russell’s “The Theory of Descriptions” and his, “Principia Mathematica”. But very important, too, is Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations” and W.V. Quine’s “Word and Object.” You have to give a special mention, too, to the writings of C.S. Pierce: “The Fixation of Belief” for instance.
But a lot depends on whether you mean “important” for philosophers, or important in term of general influence on the culture.
Marx. Theres is no doubt Marx had the biggest influence on the whole globe. Descartes also was huge AKA in been the most influencal philosopher of the modern era (even if it was a few hundred years ago, and i dont agree with cogito in the sense he did)
But the king is still socrates who is still getting publicity from the likes of the Matrix. Know thy self
I’ve got to vote for Kant on this one, probably the first critique or the Groundwork. This is the root of the current analytic/continental division, and has the most influence on the philosophy that follows. In Kant, we have the full expression of modern individualistic liberalism. Furthermore, his metaphysics had a huge influence on 19th Century physicists, especially Maxwell and Einstein.
Of course, large proportions of the world’s population are, and have been, influenced by the Upanisads, the Koran, the Bible etc, so if you are referring to books that influence pop philosophy, scriptures would have to win hands down…Although, you have to pay Aristotle and Plato credit for influencing the philosophical content of the New T.
Ooooh, just a thought, what about A General Theory of Relativity by Einstein? In terms of a Darwinesque influence, this one certainly upset the Newtonian absolutist apple-cart.
Upon careful reflection, I declare this question unanswerable due to its inherent ambiguity. Every great philosopher (in the broad PhD sense) “stands on the shoulders of giants”. Is Kant more influential because contemporary philosophers address him more, or is Plato more influential because he influenced Kant so much? How do you measure the relative power of influence over different times when ancestors influence the descendents you compare them with? Furthermore, what is it that is being influenced? I value ethics above mathematics, therefore, I vote for Kant over Descartes, or Newton, or Pythagoras. You need to specify the sort of influence you want us to measure before you can get an accurate reply. Is it influence over as broad a range of subjects as possible, or as broad a range of minds as possible? Or is it a text that led to the greatest leap forward in the general pursuit of human knowledge. If so, what would constitute a move forward? Interesting question, specify the criteria of “influential”.
In terms of True Philosophy (and my own life) I would say either Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, or Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. In terms of Sophism and hatred of Truth, Rousseau’s Discourse on The Origin of Inequality and Marx’s Capital are clearly the most influential.
I think that talking about influence doesn’t really get me anywhere, I mean how can you measure that anyway. I guess the products of most of the great philosophers can be seen as miracles that came about quite unexpectedly, which is part of the reason that they were so great. The specialness of any given thing or person derives from its “suprisedness”. Who could have fathomed Socrates, the first true journalist to be born, as opposed to mere story tellers and relayers, with a hard nose for getting in people’s faces and getting the story out of them. All others that came after him were highly accredited bookworms, the likes of which history and especially the present day is so bloated from. In this light everyone was a copycat of Socrates and so he was the best. Apparently he never wrote down his thoughts and I attribute that to the fact that he truly understood life, more so than any of his predecessors.
Although I agree with you in the context of a philosopher just beginning, I don’t think Plato is enough to live the rest of your life with (some scholars do). More importantly, is the above a joke? I ask cause I just read another one of your posts where you say that Plato is mostly boring and you advise one of the posters to not waste their time with it. Shouldn’t someone spend time with something so important regardless of whether or not it is boring (side note: I don’t find Plato boring at all). Care to clear up the apparent contradiction?
that’s a very good point and i realized that i was contradicting myself. i think that plato is both important and boring, just like physics, working, and charles dickens. i suppose a person should expose themselves to these things, even if they are boring – but then they should run away as quickly as possible.