Sunday, June 22, 2008

Poll

Who is the world's greatest contemporary thinker? Why?

9 comments:

John said...

That's a tough question to answer. It's like when someone asks, "Who's your favorite band?" I'd almost be embarrassed to name anyone living.

Who do you think?

Troy Camplin said...

I definitely have someone in mind, but I wanted to see what others thought first.

John said...

Why wait?

Troy Camplin said...

Since the question does apparently need to have some name mentioned to get the ball rolling, here it is . . . Frederick Turner. Brilliant interdisciplinary scholar, philosopher, and poet.

John said...

I agree. I find it hard to get people into F.T.'s stuff, though. The leftists say he sets up straw men to knock them down. The scientists say he's too "new age." Other people say his stuff is too dense, or repetitive, or they complain that his books aren't footnoted. I'm always like, "Really? How is this not the coolest stuff you've ever seen?"

I'd also mention E.O. Wilson, although I don't agree with absolutely everything he says. He's an original thinker, a serious scientist, he's got a good heart, and he remained admirably cool and levelheaded through that whole sociobiology controversy.

Troy Camplin said...

Yeah, Fred's had that trouble himself. I'd also nominate Steven Pinker and Stuart Kauffman.

John said...

I'm familiar with Pinker. Kauffman I don't know much about.

Troy Camplin said...

Kauffman's a systems biologist. His most recent book is "Reinventing the Sacred"

Anonymous said...

Eliezer Yudkowsky.