Saul Kripke 1945 to present

Saul Kripke is a great logician and philosopher. He has done amazing work on some very interesting topics in philosophy. He is a real philosopher's philosopher. Born in Oberlin, Ohio, he came from an interesting family and they moved to New York. He was a very studious child, wanting to learn actual philosophy. His Dad (a famous rabbi), was saying to him once: I could get you a reference work on philosophy (or something of that kind - I don't know the exact quote - webmaster). The young child replied 'No, I want to read real philosophers!'. Thus began an illustrious and illuminating career.

Even as a teenager, Saul Kripke launched seminal investigations into modal logic. He took what was just a bare axiom system and gave it meanings. He told us of Liebniz's possible worlds, and that when you link them up with the formulas of modal logic, you get a marvellous formal tool which has been carried into many developments and usage today, even in fields outside philosophy.

But something was amiss in paradise. Not satisfied with the pictures of language of his forebears, Frege and Russell, the Kripke was hatching very important new insights about reference, modality, and related topics. Coming to a head in his Naming and Necessity lectures, these ideas shook the very foundations of modern philosopjhy. I still read this book whenever I need to get clear about something to do with the complex issues posed by naming and necessity. (In case the relation between these topics isn't clear - and I hope it is - I will illustrate it as follows: if you name something, and then you name something else, then that is a necessary fact if they are different or the same. So names aren't saying this and this is true of you when you are named, but that you are just this object. This powerful insight continues to exercise philosophers to this day.

There are a lot of great stories about Kripke, who knows if they are true. That he gave a lecture looking through a glass at everyone. That he was known to carry things in plastic bags. Once someone asked him something funny and he said ' Oh no you don't! That would be just another Kripke anecdote if I said anything' (or words to the effect).

He has a new paper out about 'and' and 'but'. He has worked on knowledge, fiction, truth, meaning, and mind. There is even a Saul Kripke Centre dedicated to his work in philosophy.

Kripke is not satisfied with mere ideas about philosophy. He won't just waffle on and try to sound smart. He understands far more than you will ever know.

Lost Figures: A Look at Some Truly Amazing Philosophers

Peter SInger wrote about animals and their rights. I cats are more my thing than dogs, but I definitely understand how Singer says that dogs and cats and other animals have rights. You  see it in their eyes s (this ismy own inspired bv Singerian philosophy. It is not the idea of the man himself.)

C.I. Lewis, not David Lewis, also did very interesting modal logic.

I was reading about the modal systems S1, S2, S4 all that, and then I was thinking Who is this?. C.I. Lewis created all these modal logic systems. Ironically it was another Lewis, David Lewis, who came on to the scene with modal realism.

I had a plan to ask a well known for comment on this But I have been told I have to keep it a secret. It's a really interesting set of facts and knowledge, and I am beginning to understand their poin of view. I want to authorize a volume published by Jonothan Bennete, Crispin Wright and L.A. paul.

Creams. There are different creams. Cream of chicken, ice cream, cream cakes, sour cream. I have distinguished only a few here. I could in principle go on and on. Creams are not inherently limited to a particular number of fixed creams.

Also working on modality, modal realism has given rise to many lost figures in analytic philosophy. I am waiting to see the future.

Sellars Myth of the Given (top ideas and tools in philosophy)

If I had to name one tool or idea in analytical philosophy to write about today, I would have to say, hands down, it is due to Sellars. The Myth of The Given earned Sellars a stellar place in the pantheon of technical analytic philosophy. And with the new conceptual tools of Frege-Russell logic and those after it (Jaako Hintikka comes to mind), we are in an unparalleled age. When you think about it, that's pretty exciting. Some of my top 20 ideas in philosophy include:

- Sellars myth of the given.
- Rorty's irony and truth theory.
- Wittgenstein's tool analogy, parallelled in Heidegger amazingly
- Husserlian phenomenology.

With these tools, I home to make a difference in my, and other people's, lives.