| | Just voted for Aristotle.
Descartes is way overrated in a poll like this. Heidegger? Yuck!
The vote should go to someone with the most comprehensive and rational world system. A "Greatest Philosopher" should at least be a world system builder (must have metaphysics). Many on the list are philosophers in circumscribed fields (Mill, Marx, Popper, Russell, Epicurus, etc). It's a wonder Marx is on the list but his intellectual father, Hegel, who was a world system builder, isn't. Not that his system is coherent. Darwin, were he a philosopher, would rate higher than many of these candidates.
Philosophy, with the capital 'P', should be able to encompass all of Science without contradiction, History without embarassment, Language without confusion, and Art without neuroses. Objectivism is a very good start, but still a start. It remains a very long way from what we have now to what ought to be. Perhaps the "Greatest Philosopher" is yet to be born; perhaps 'The One' is among us; perhaps it is you.
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