Monday, June 23, 2008

Who Is the Greatest Modern-Day Thinker?


From the Freakonomics blog, a great question. More from me below the post.
Who Is the Greatest Modern-Day Thinker?
By Stephen J. Dubner

The e-mail gods recently delivered this interesting query from a reader named Derek Wilhelm:

I go to the University of Richmond, which requires [us] to take a class called Core, where we read famous historical books. (Gandhi, Marx, Plato, Augustine, just to name a few). Anyway, my question for you is: Who do you think is the greatest modern-day thinker?

I love this question. It first requires you to define what a “thinker” is, and also raises the question of what incentives exist in the modern world to be a thinker. Also, is someone a great thinker if they’re never able to communicate their thoughts to a broad audience?

On a related note: The Times recently ran a piece about a rise in college philosophy majors; interestingly, the Wall Street Journal published a piece shortly thereafter (sorry, can’t find a link, but here’s a reprint of the pertinent info) ranking the first-year salaries for 16 selected college majors: engineers were first (at $48,707) and philosophers were dead last (at $28,234).

Once you’ve thought about what it means to be a thinker, then comes the hard part of thinking about who best fits the description.

So who are your nominees, and why?

Among the answers given so far: Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Alan Turing, Ron Paul, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Sowell, Edward Witten, Ayn Rand, Derek Parfit, Richard Dawkins, and the list goes on in the comments section.

So who do you think is the most important modern-day thinker?

I'm torn -- William James appeals to my sense of balance and inquiry into human nature. But if we are looking specifically at "thinkers," which to most people means philosophers, I like Richard Rorty (he was a multi-disciplinarian whose ideas continually evolved), Jurgen Habermas (a favorite of the integral crowd), or Michel Foucault (who I think has been badly misunderstood by the integral crowd).

I think I choose Rorty simply because, of the most recent philosophers, none have created as much discussion and turmoil as he did -- a sign that he was stirring the waters. Isn't that what we hope for from our thinkers, that they generate discussion that can lead to a wider and deeper understanding of ourselves?


No comments: