who is greatest philosopher of 20th century?

[Graham]

“It is only in language that one can mean something by something.”—Ludwig Wittgenstein

i dont get it. please explain

Without reading ahead, his point is that Wittgenstein was an awful philosopher.

edit: er, guess not.

It's a positive statement about language with negative connotations.  Philosophers use language to talk about things ultimate and transcendent, and yet even language has its limits.  In language, one can mean something by a word, a symbol, or a concept.  But how do you simply mean something?  “Just do it,” I suppose, as Bo Jackson famously said.  Johnny Marr probably won’t be remembered as the 20th century’s greatest philosopher, but maybe his contribution was of a subtler, more beautiful sort:

C'mon, man. "mean something by something"? Is that really the best the 20th Century's got?

[Graham]

It helps that Heidegger was a Nazi.

The nazis and fascists had all the best philosophers, poets, sculptors, authors, etc. How to explain this?

[EcceQuamBonum]

This isn't even that bad.  You can still glean meaning from it.  More so than many modern theologians and philosophers.  Try reading Derrida...

"Needless to say, one more time, deconstruction, if there is such a thing, takes place as the experience of the impossible."

Hear, hear.  Try any deconstructionist. 

Yet even this passage is rather tame by Derridean standards.  Once he really gets into "writing under erasure" mode it gets a little crazy:

"Nevertheless, the center also closes off the freeplay it opens up and makes possible. Qua center, it is the point at which the substitution of contents, elements, or terms is no longer possible. At the center, the permutation or the transformation of elements (which may of course be structures enclosed within a structure) is forbidden. At least this permutation has always remained interdicted (I use this word deliberately)."

Yee-haw, boys.  Yee.  Haw.


Also, I nominate Michel Foucault rather than Wittgenstein for the hetero/homo philosofight.



Check out the duds.  Also, he's crafty:  there's evidence that, after learning that he was infected with AIDS, he went around the bath houses of California wittingly infecting others.  How's that for a little postmodern nihilism?

I still put my money on ol' J-P, though.  I think the eye is just to fool his opponents so he can come in and wallop them with a mean left jab.

It helps that Heidegger was a Nazi.

The nazis and fascists had all the best philosophers, poets, sculptors, authors, etc. How to explain this?

"The best"?  Like whom?  I mean, they had Ezra Pound, but I would hardly call him "the best" of the twentieth century.  Not as long as there's a T.S. Eliot around. 

[WhollyRoaminCatholic]

Foucault was a dick.  I can't think of any other word.

[EcceQuamBonum]

Foucault was a dick.  I can't think of any other word.

Definitely.  I mean, you can't wear a jacket like that unironically (or, actually, ironically) and not be a dick.

[Walty]

Foucault was a dick.  I can't think of any other word.

Definitely.  I mean, you can't wear a jacket like that unironically (or, actually, ironically) and not be a dick.

Not to mention the AIDS/murdering thing.  What a douche.

[Gilgamesh]

C'mon, man. "mean something by something"? Is that really the best the 20th Century's got?

I don't know.  Probably?

The best part of his philosophy might've been the line that says, "whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."  Pretty good—but who wants to shut up?  People have the urge to philosophize.  Keeping a reverent silence is, apparently, boring.

:blah:

[icecream]

It helps that Heidegger was a Nazi.

The nazis and fascists had all the best philosophers, poets, sculptors, authors, etc. How to explain this?

who was best non-nazi, non-homoseucal philopsher of 20th centurt?

[icecream]

derrida was pipe smoker

[icecream]

Foucault was a dick.  I can't think of any other word.

Definitely.  I mean, you can't wear a jacket like that unironically (or, actually, ironically) and not be a dick.

what is word you cant say without souding like a  . . . ?