"The safest generalization that can be made about the history of western philosophy is that it is all a series of footnotes to Plato." (Alfred North Whitehead)
Yet on the latest BBC Radio Four list the original man of the Matrix trails in fifth, polling just 5.65% of the vote. Even combining him with Socrates (not an entirely unreasonable thing to do) would secure the joint-offering only a bronze medal.
Nice to see that super-sceptic David Hume did so well though. At both school and university it was strongly suggested to me that he might well be the greatest of the great, but both his historical situation and his lasting off-the-page persona have been awkward and unfashionable. Maybe a beard would have helped?
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