https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-clear-and-concise-summary-of-a-famous-philosophers-philosophy
What is a clear and concise summary of a famous philosopher's philosophy?
Feel free to provide summaries of the philosophies of more than one philosopher.
8 Answers
Warning: sarcastic content.
Feel free to suggest edits, I always appreciate those.
Socrates: "I know I don't know but neither do you."
Aristotle: "Well, I know the good is in the mean."
Epicurus: "Simplify and enjoy life."
Diogenes: "You're all idiots!" *masturbates in the town square*
Aquinas: "I agree with Aristotle except he's wrong about the number of gods,
there's actually only one and I can prove it."
Machiavelli: "Let's just be practical: the ends justify the means."
Hobbes: "A social contract is necessary because anarchy is more terrifying."
Locke: "God granted us the inalienable right to our property (which includes our own bodies) and the labor we put fourth has value to accumulate more property."
Rousseau: "We've got it all wrong, but since we can't go back to living as solitary primitive men we may as well try to combat the alienation by writing a social contract based on equality."
Descartes: "I think therefore God is more obvious than anything."
Hume: "Ya'll don't know."
Kant: "Holy shit, I really don't know, but now wait a sec, ok, now I do!"
Hegel: "We're all connected through spirit in an epic journey progressing towards some final conclusion."
Nietzsche: "Now that we've killed God, let's figure out what it's all about, and especially how to avoid the pitfall of nihilism."
Heidegger: "I'd tell you in simple terms what I think, but then I'd have to kill you."
Marx: "Capitalism sucks but it's laying the groundwork for the inevitable rise of communism."
Feel free to suggest edits, I always appreciate those.
Socrates: "I know I don't know but neither do you."
Aristotle: "Well, I know the good is in the mean."
Epicurus: "Simplify and enjoy life."
Diogenes: "You're all idiots!" *masturbates in the town square*
Aquinas: "I agree with Aristotle except he's wrong about the number of gods,
there's actually only one and I can prove it."
Machiavelli: "Let's just be practical: the ends justify the means."
Hobbes: "A social contract is necessary because anarchy is more terrifying."
Locke: "God granted us the inalienable right to our property (which includes our own bodies) and the labor we put fourth has value to accumulate more property."
Rousseau: "We've got it all wrong, but since we can't go back to living as solitary primitive men we may as well try to combat the alienation by writing a social contract based on equality."
Descartes: "I think therefore God is more obvious than anything."
Hume: "Ya'll don't know."
Kant: "Holy shit, I really don't know, but now wait a sec, ok, now I do!"
Hegel: "We're all connected through spirit in an epic journey progressing towards some final conclusion."
Nietzsche: "Now that we've killed God, let's figure out what it's all about, and especially how to avoid the pitfall of nihilism."
Heidegger: "I'd tell you in simple terms what I think, but then I'd have to kill you."
Marx: "Capitalism sucks but it's laying the groundwork for the inevitable rise of communism."
Sartre: "Myself and Camus are the first real hipster philosophers."
Camus. "^Yep."
Rawls: "If we take ourselves and all we know out of the equation to get an objective concept of justice, we would agree that a social contract would be very equal, although it would not give up on merit altogether."
Ayn Rand: "You're wrong. I'm right. Fuck off."
Marcus Aurelius (and many of the other Stoics)
"You're ok. No, seriously, no matter how much you hate yourself, you're ok."
"Don't get pissed off about other people's problems. Just do whatever you can today."
"Calm down."
"So what if other people are stupid. Fuck them. They don't own you. Also, you should feel sorry for them, because being stupid must be like living in Hell."
"The meaning of life is to help each other out."
"Everything has some kind of intrinsic beauty, and therefore, worth."
"You are the product, and creator, of your society."
"So what if it hurts. Walk it off."
"I wish I wasn't the Emperor of Rome. I wish I could be a philosopher."
"I'd like to thank my mother, father, stepfather, best friend, tutor..." (goes on for pages and pages in the Meditations)
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161–180 CE, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy.
Schopenhauer:
Existence is meaningless and absurd. You’re only still alive because of
your will to live, which deceives you into thinking your aims aren’t
fruitless. Also, love is your desire to reproduce tricking you into
thinking you like people you probably won’t get along with once you’ve
had babies. The best thing you can do is shut yourself away from the
world and others and dedicate yourself to negating your stupid, stupid
will. Also, why is everybody so damned loud?
Kierkegaard: Existence is pretty terrible, but God, though.
Nietzsche:
Existence is absurd, and we used to be pretty good at dealing with that
until Socrates ruined poetry with all his questions and tragic drama
became too cerebral. In order to avoid nihilism, you must find
affirmation outside the rational, especially in myth, and must give up
on religious morality and forge your own sense of meaning based on your
will.
Sartre: Existence is meaningless and
absurd, which is really awful. Like, so so bad. But you can be partially
redeemed by work. Also, socialism.
Camus:
Existence is meaningless and absurd, which is sort of OK. You can be
happy by giving in to it and existing in ways which are authentic to
your nature and to nature as a whole. Also, literature is better at
conveying philosophical ideas than academic philosophy.
Socrates and the Socratic Method (a slight elaboration on David McKerracher's answer ;-) .) which is an abnegation of the notion of an idea should or could come quickly:
-- And for this, he was made to drink hemlock (well, that and his generally intrusive manner -- Athenian life at the time was the Agora, which pretty much everyone passed through and could be approached -- his hygiene was questionable, and - shock and horror! - he generally refused to wear sandals.)
- Ask a person why they do or believe something in a relevant sphere of his or her life.
- Chip away at all assumtpions until there are none left.
- What is left is the truth of the matter.
-- And for this, he was made to drink hemlock (well, that and his generally intrusive manner -- Athenian life at the time was the Agora, which pretty much everyone passed through and could be approached -- his hygiene was questionable, and - shock and horror! - he generally refused to wear sandals.)
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard:
Growing up in a Christian community and attending church regularly does not make you a Christian. (Similar to Socrates' emphasis on realizing that we don't know what we think we know.)
You cannot read and understand the Bible unless you are able to accept paradox.
There are three stages along life's way:
Aesthetic stage - enjoyment of life's pleasures
Ethical stage - living a life of civic responsibility
Religious stage - doing whatever God says to do. (i.e. Abraham)
One can transition between the stages of life only by a leap. (Colloquialized as "a leap of faith". If you've seen the movie "Inception", then you get the idea.)
We should approach God with fear and trembling.
"Man is a synthesis of psyche and body, but he is also a synthesis of the temporal and the eternal."
You must risk everything to love unconditionally.
We all harbor deep anxiety.
(The above is merely a sip from a fire hydrant. SK wrote about nearly everything having to do with self, relationship to God and the existential crises we face throughout our lives.)
Growing up in a Christian community and attending church regularly does not make you a Christian. (Similar to Socrates' emphasis on realizing that we don't know what we think we know.)
You cannot read and understand the Bible unless you are able to accept paradox.
There are three stages along life's way:
Aesthetic stage - enjoyment of life's pleasures
Ethical stage - living a life of civic responsibility
Religious stage - doing whatever God says to do. (i.e. Abraham)
One can transition between the stages of life only by a leap. (Colloquialized as "a leap of faith". If you've seen the movie "Inception", then you get the idea.)
We should approach God with fear and trembling.
"Man is a synthesis of psyche and body, but he is also a synthesis of the temporal and the eternal."
You must risk everything to love unconditionally.
We all harbor deep anxiety.
(The above is merely a sip from a fire hydrant. SK wrote about nearly everything having to do with self, relationship to God and the existential crises we face throughout our lives.)
I'm going to do Nietzsche. I don't think he was a philosopher. More of a punk rocker of philosophy.
"People get impressed with themselves for not doing things they can't do. Then they make up a morality to prevent you from doing those things either."
"You have to learn to say 'no' before you can say 'yes.'"
"Humanity is going somewhere, but I don't know where. I hope it's better, because it kinda sucks now."
"Do your own thing."
"Germans are too damn serious."
"Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."
"Don't beat up on horses."
"People get impressed with themselves for not doing things they can't do. Then they make up a morality to prevent you from doing those things either."
"You have to learn to say 'no' before you can say 'yes.'"
"Humanity is going somewhere, but I don't know where. I hope it's better, because it kinda sucks now."
"Do your own thing."
"Germans are too damn serious."
"Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."
"Don't beat up on horses."
Immanuel Kant:
In order to learn anything about the world it must be assumed that something may be learned, that phenomena have underlying reasons.
Wittgenstein:
I'm not very clever but I fooled a lot of even less clever people into thinking I was a genius.
Heidegger:
Being is a lot more than merely the most abstract noun.
In order to learn anything about the world it must be assumed that something may be learned, that phenomena have underlying reasons.
Wittgenstein:
I'm not very clever but I fooled a lot of even less clever people into thinking I was a genius.
Heidegger:
Being is a lot more than merely the most abstract noun.
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