4 ms·

Name me two. And I've read some Plato some years ago. I would not classify him as a clear thinker by any remotely modern standards.

ebruchez 5y ago
For amazing clarity, read Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper.
arolihas 5y ago
What of his work have you read that was so unclear?
- andagainagain 5y ago
  I read about half of "The Republic". I would pull out the book again to find a good example, but I think I donated the book a few months ago.
jfarmer 5y ago
You might like American Pragmatism: CS Peirce, FP Ramsey, CI Lewis, William James, John Dewey, etc. Peirce's "How to Make Our Ideas Clear": https://courses.media.mit.edu/2004spring/mas966/Peirce%201878%20Make%20Ideas%20Clear.pdf https://courses.media.mit.edu/2004spring/mas966/Peirce%20187...
- User23 5y ago
  Peirce also, along with Frege, independently discovered the existential and universal quantifiers, to name just one major contribution. His existential graphs[1] are extremely cool too. Peirce is grossly underappreciated largely due to the efforts of his less gifted but more politically astute childhood "friend" Simon Newcomb to obliterate his career and legacy. The Peirce gateway is full of great stuff[2][3]. This[4] is the companion paper to How To Make Our Ideas Clear. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_graph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_graph [2] https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/ https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/ [3] https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/bycsp.HTM https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/bycsp.HTM [4] https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/fixation/fx-frame.htm https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/fixation/f...
- yesenadam 5y ago
  Also Richard Rorty. I seem to never agree with anything he says—he always goes too far—but have all his books and find him very stimulating. Hilary Putnam talks in his books about their disagreements, and Putnam always seems to take the more sensible side. Putnam is a very clear and stimulating writer—his Realism with a Human Face is perhaps his best and a good place to start, filled with remarkably good essays. p.s. Dewey's Art as Experience changed my life. I'm a musician/artist and philosophy student, and it solved all my problems concerning art, which each further book of analytic philosophy of art had only multiplied.
- andagainagain 5y ago
  Thanks, I'll save that for later reading.
jolux 5y ago
Two what? I'm also curious what defines your standard for clear thinking. Philosophy is at a level of abstraction higher than any other intellectual discipline, and to a certain extent it's not possible to discuss philosophy in the way we discuss engineering, for example. It's the difference between relying on assumptions to communicate effectively and attempting to analyze the assumptions themselves.
bionhoward 5y ago
Marcus Aurelius and Seneca
keiferski 5y ago
I find Nietzsche to be an extremely clear writer, but only if you have an understanding of his background and the topics he’s engaging with. Kierkegaard plays a lot of games in his writings, but I think his ideas themselves are very straightforward.

ebruchez 5y ago

For amazing clarity, read Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper.

arolihas 5y ago

What of his work have you read that was so unclear?

andagainagain 5y ago
I read about half of "The Republic". I would pull out the book again to find a good example, but I think I donated the book a few months ago.

jfarmer 5y ago

You might like American Pragmatism: CS Peirce, FP Ramsey, CI Lewis, William James, John Dewey, etc. Peirce's "How to Make Our Ideas Clear": https://courses.media.mit.edu/2004spring/mas966/Peirce%201878%20Make%20Ideas%20Clear.pdf https://courses.media.mit.edu/2004spring/mas966/Peirce%20187...

User23 5y ago
Peirce also, along with Frege, independently discovered the existential and universal quantifiers, to name just one major contribution. His existential graphs[1] are extremely cool too. Peirce is grossly underappreciated largely due to the efforts of his less gifted but more politically astute childhood "friend" Simon Newcomb to obliterate his career and legacy. The Peirce gateway is full of great stuff[2][3]. This[4] is the companion paper to How To Make Our Ideas Clear. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_graph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_graph [2] https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/ https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/ [3] https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/bycsp.HTM https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/bycsp.HTM [4] https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/fixation/fx-frame.htm https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/menu/library/bycsp/fixation/f...
yesenadam 5y ago
Also Richard Rorty. I seem to never agree with anything he says—he always goes too far—but have all his books and find him very stimulating. Hilary Putnam talks in his books about their disagreements, and Putnam always seems to take the more sensible side. Putnam is a very clear and stimulating writer—his Realism with a Human Face is perhaps his best and a good place to start, filled with remarkably good essays. p.s. Dewey's Art as Experience changed my life. I'm a musician/artist and philosophy student, and it solved all my problems concerning art, which each further book of analytic philosophy of art had only multiplied.
andagainagain 5y ago
Thanks, I'll save that for later reading.

jolux 5y ago

Two what? I'm also curious what defines your standard for clear thinking. Philosophy is at a level of abstraction higher than any other intellectual discipline, and to a certain extent it's not possible to discuss philosophy in the way we discuss engineering, for example. It's the difference between relying on assumptions to communicate effectively and attempting to analyze the assumptions themselves.

bionhoward 5y ago

Marcus Aurelius and Seneca

keiferski 5y ago

I find Nietzsche to be an extremely clear writer, but only if you have an understanding of his background and the topics he’s engaging with. Kierkegaard plays a lot of games in his writings, but I think his ideas themselves are very straightforward.