Name five philosophers from any time period that anyone who wants a well rounded education should read.?

Question

You can choose more than 5 if you want to...

Answer 1

Plato's "Parmenides" and "Philebus," and some key portions of "The Republic."  (Or, you can read "The Giver," Lois Lowry, for the latter.)

Confucius' "Analects," especially on jen, li, duty, and suchlike.

Jesus' life and teachings as given in Saint John's Gospel.

Gautama's teachings, particularly as given in the Theravada tradition.

Mohammad's and others' teachings, as given in Baha'u'llah's "Hidden Words."

Answer 2

I'm guessing that these need to be for the well-educated layman - which cuts out some of the harder philosophers, as well as those who are very dependent on you knowing some detail about what came before them. It is hard to choose just five, but I would suggest:

Plato: surprisingly fun to read, probably the most accessible of the ancients

St Augustine: As you really could do with something medieval and Aquinas, though influential, I find very hard going

Descartes: Rambles a bit, but in an entertaining way. Plus you need someone French, and the later ones are too much like hard work

* note - I've missed out the Germans. Plenty influential, but the best of them - Kant - is pretty obscure in the original and doesn't translate all that well

John Locke: the essential empiricist - a fairly dry read, but takes things at a sensible pace and does not assume too much

For more recent times I am a bit torn. On balance, I'd suggest G.E.Moore, as he covers quite a lot of ground in bite-sized essays.

On top of that lot, Russell's 'History of Western Philosophy' gives a trenchant summary of everybody and may point you to others of interest.

Answer 3

five picks from a not very well-rounded person:

Aristotle

Marcus Aurelius

Thomas Hobbes

Rene Descartes

Immanuel Kant

Answer 4

1. Socrates

2. Plato

3. Aristotle

4. Nietzsche

5. Locke

Answer 5

All of the answers thus far are great. I agree with everyone too. There's no way to narrow the list down to just five though...haha. That being said I would start with the pre-Socratics. Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Pythagoras, and Anaxagoras. Then you will be inclined to continue and will have to study Socrates and then Plato...etc etc. on to Aristotle and so on...

BUT IF I HAD TO CHOOSE FIVE from across the board... you've got to study Socrates and/or Plato, Aristotle and Kant. Is that 3 or 4?

I hate to leave out Eastern Philosophy though. So lets add Buddha and Confucious since you did say well rounded. Zoraster is good too and you could pick up some of that with Nietzche. "Thus Spake Zarathustra". haha..see what I mean. Start with Socrates/Plato and just go from there. How can you study modern phl. without Marx?  guess you could argue Nietzche gets a little of that too but not in depth. Yeah, you gotta have Marx. He's responsible for the last century. Then there's Jesus. ... oh h**l, I give up.

Answer 6

Plato

Aristotle

Descartes

Kant

Nietsche

Answer 7

buddha and confucius are my votes especially if you're looking for well rounded. as for the other ones, i'm not sure which ones are best to concentrate on as a whole, but i'm sure they all have good specific things. maybe if what you want is well rounded, you should try to look for the best arguments of philosophers. it by be a more efficient way to get well roundedness, as long as you don't have to find those things yourself.

Answer 8

Locke

Nietsche

Hobbs

Epicurious

Martin Luther and/or Ghandi