Most Overrated/Overemphasized Philosopher?

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Most Overrated:
Jean-Paul Sartre, Cornel West, Michael Foucault, John Rawls, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ayn Rand, Herbert Marcuse, James Mill, Peter Singer.
 
PoliSciProf said:
Most Overrated:
Jean-Paul Sartre, Cornel West, Michael Foucault, John Rawls, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ayn Rand, Herbert Marcuse, James Mill, Peter Singer.
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I’ll second Singer and Rand. In Spades. Rawls is Ok, but Ultimately too Left for me.

West is more of a Political and Social Commentator than a Philosopher. Wuld not call him a Philosopher. Personally.👍
 
MarkThompson said:
(Not to say that say that the “overrated” ones aren’t necessarily good, of course. There’s such a thing as being overrated in the sense that I consider The Beatles and The Usual Suspects overrated.)
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I’ve been saying the Beatles are overrated for twenty years now and this is the first time anyone’s agreed with me.

Nietzsche was a disappointment. My second year Existentialism class consisted of three groups: a few dupes like me, lesbians, neo-nazis.

Marx gets too much play because let’s be honest, most profs swing left.

Ayn Rand conversely gets talked up simply because most profs don’t. Her outlook is pretty straight forward which always made me wonder why her two best sellers are so lengthy.
 
OurLadyPerpHelp said:
I’ve been saying the Beatles are overrated for twenty years now and this is the first time anyone’s agreed with me.

Nietzsche was a disappointment. My second year Existentialism class consisted of three groups: a few dupes like me, lesbians, neo-nazis.

Marx gets too much play because let’s be honest, most profs swing left.

Ayn Rand conversely gets talked up simply because most profs don’t. Her outlook is pretty straight forward which always made me wonder why her two best sellers are so lengthy.
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I’m sorry, but I found your Post SO Funny. 😛

Sorry For your Bad Times at Existensialism Class. ⭕)
 
I see your Karl Marx, Frederich Nietzsche, and Peter Singer, and raise you a Jacques Derrida.
 
I’ve studied Nietzsche and found his work interesting but not particularly philosophically excellent. It’s usually those who have read one of his books and watched the Matrix that think he’s the king of Philosophy.

In terms of “pop philosophy” Richard Dawkins is at the top of the list. Barely a philosopher.

Otherwise, I am not sure what overrated even means especially in the context of philosophy.
 
OrdinaryMelkite said:
Which Philosopher’s Thought Do YOU Think Has Proven to Be “Overrated,” or “Overemphasized” over the Centuries?:confused:

As For me, I would say Descartes, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. Personally, of Course. 👍

What would some of the Poster’s Choices Be? 🙂
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Definitely the first two, along with Hume and Heigel. Hans Kung we also could have done without…
 
Interior_League said:
GK Chesterton. Many Catholics drool over him because he converted from Anglicanism, while conveniently ignoring his misogyny and anti-semitism. This guy’s conclusions are typically about as profound as “if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” I see him as more of an un-funny comedian than a philosopher; he is post-Victorian England’s Jeff Foxworthy.
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How was he misogynymic (I don’t even know what that means, can you explain?) and anti-semetic? Can you show this?
 
OrdinaryMelkite said:
I’ll second Singer and Rand. In Spades. Rawls is Ok, but Ultimately too Left for me.

West is more of a Political and Social Commentator than a Philosopher. Wuld not call him a Philosopher. Personally.👍
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His Ph.D. (from Princeton) was in Philosophy and he has published on pragmatism and Marxism. I agree that he has taken on the role of a public intellectual and spends a lot of time doing social criticism rather than doing academic (and, sadly, often boring) philosophy. He is not the only philosopher to do so.
 
PoliSciProf said:
His Ph.D. (from Princeton) was in Philosophy and he has published on pragmatism and Marxism. I agree that he has taken on the role of a public intellectual and spends a lot of time doing social criticism rather than doing academic (and, sadly, often boring) philosophy. He is not the only philosopher to do so.
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I agree.

He’s also a Wannabe “Rapper.” You Haven’t Lived Until You Hear Him Rapping On An Album Some Years Back About Figures from Black History.:rolleyes:

Tupac He Ain’t. 😃
 
UnusVeritas said:
How was he misogynymic (I don’t even know what that means, can you explain?) and anti-semetic? Can you show this?
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Mysogyny is the hate of women. Chesterton did not believe women should work outside the home or have the right vote. His writings about women generally make fun of them, not take them seriously and dismiss them in crude and dishonest fashion. This is why I call him a misogynist. I think this could be up to one’s own interpretation, but I believe he was a mysogynist.

Chesterton’s anti-semitism is not up to interpretation and is objectively demonstrable from his own views. I addressed this in a reply to another person in this thread, but I’ll repeat it here:
Chesterton, in a historical piece on England praised Edward I for expelling the Jews from England in 1290. He was fond of saying that he could tolerate Jews in England only if they wore “arab” clothing to show they were an alien nation. He wasn’t a murderously evil Nazi, just a garden variety anti-semite. Chesterton did criticize Hitler but then went on to say “I still think there is a Jewish problem.”
 
StrawberryJam said:
We can all hear the sound of a pin dropping about now.
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Not quite, StrawberryJam. For the charge of misogyny, I demand serious documentation from his works. To be honest, I don’t recall him mentioning women in isolation from men in what I’ve read from him (unlike Mr. Nietzsche, for instance, who wrote about how women required the whip). As for the anti-Semitism, I’ve read that he was a fervent Zionist, actually, although he disliked the rich who were coopting the group.
 
OrdinaryMelkite said:
Very “Deconstructive” of You, Fons Vitae. 👍
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Hehehe… well, I was in a Theory of Tech. Comm. class that was essentially a vast attempt to discredit Plato (representing the idea that truth can be known) in favor of the largely forgotten Sophists (representing a precursor, in our teacher’s mind, to postmodernism).
 
fons_vitae said:
Hehehe… well, I was in a Theory of Tech. Comm. class that was essentially a vast attempt to discredit Plato (representing the idea that truth can be known) in favor of the largely forgotten Sophists (representing a precursor, in our teacher’s mind, to postmodernism).
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That must Have Been An interesting experience, to Say the Least, Fons Vitae. 😛

The Sophists Cannot be REALLY be Classified as “PostModern” Anyways, Given that They Were Really More Like Atheistic Morally Relativistic Paid Teachers. 👍

They gave Little To Philosophy Of True Worth except the Pernicious, Vile Doctrine Of Moral Relativism and Protagoras’s Over-Quoted “Man Is The Measure Of All Things.” And Even THAT is Held In Debate As to Its True Validity. :rolleyes:

One Could Even Say The Sophists Themselves Are Great Examples Of Overrated/Overemphasized Philosophers.👍

Plato Is Quite Safe, I’m Happy To Say. 😃
 
fons_vitae said:
Not quite, StrawberryJam. For the charge of misogyny, I demand serious documentation from his works. To be honest, I don’t recall him mentioning women in isolation from men in what I’ve read from him (unlike Mr. Nietzsche, for instance, who wrote about how women required the whip). As for the anti-Semitism, I’ve read that he was a fervent Zionist, actually, although he disliked the rich who were coopting the group.
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Slightly OT, but I have to Say, Fons Vitae:

That Infamous Quote Of Nietzsche’s That Says “Do You Go To A Woman? Bring A Whip!” has been Wildly Taken out Of Context by Succeeding Generations with An “Axe To Grind” Of Various Persuasions.
  1. It Is From “Thus Spake Zarathustra,”
  2. It is Said (Most People Forget) to Zarathustra by AN OLD WOMAN.😃
Most True Interpreters/Commnetators Of Nietzsche Interpet the Quote NOT as a Mysoginistic Outburst by Friedrich Nietzsche but Instead As A More Subtle, Insightful Commentary on the Battle Of The Sexes, The Tug Of War/Eternal Conflict Between Men And Women. Nietzsche is saying that the Struggle between them for Understanding and Euqality is NOT as Clear Cut as One May Believe.

Not ALL Men are Aggressive, Macho Idiots and Not ALL Women are Passive, Weak Drips. 👍

Doubly Ironic Given That Nietzsche’s Great Lust Object (And Future Great Love Of Rilke) Lou Salome Had A Thing For Sadomasochism Involving Whips (In Fact, there is a Famous Photograph Of Salome, Nietzsche and Her Husband with Salome Wielding a Whip Over Them).😛

Perhaps Nietzsche was Accessing Personal Experience when He Came Up With that Quote? 🙂

Like I said, Wildly Misunderstood Quote. Maybe Old Syphillitic Friedrich was not AS GREAT A Woman Hater as Posterity has Made Him Out To Be. On That Sense.

My Two Cents.

Take It For What It’s Worth.👍
 
I would say Heideggar is the most overrated. Profound question but pathetic solutions
 
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