The wise intellectuals in history

Philosophy intellectuals hah.

The only philosophers i consider worth praising are the ones whom's philosophy does something significant in benefiting human kind eg john locke, karl marx.

My favorite thinkers are

Issac Newton


Pierre-Simon Laplace


Joseph Fourier


George Stokes


There were a bunch of other people I could mention (Reynolds, Einstein, Schrodinger) but these are the people that gave us the ability to accurate describe any macroscopic physical (not chemical or biological) phenomena on the Earth.

Too much philosophy in this thread.

Oh. I'm sure Nietzsche'll be fine. He's dead, so it's not like Bertrand Russell talkin' smack's gonna make him feel worse, amirite?

But yea, I didn't choose Nietzsche because I thought his philosophy was right or I admire him and stuff. I chose him because he's an interesting man with an interesting story. All the things your Russell fellow pointed out is a facet of what made Nietzsche who he was, so I commend you for quoting him.

He came off as being a little bit of a dick, though. A very eloquent dick.

I had to read this in my philosophy class.

But I have to say John Locke. One of the better philosophers in my book.

For philosophy, I gotta go with Nietzsche. His stuff is a playground for the mind. Beyond that, I have always taken an extreme liking to the creative genius of Nikola Tesla.

My favorites would be François-Marie Arouet aka Voltaire and Niccolò Machiavelli.

I love how Voltaire's style is always readable (easy to understand), provocative and laced with wit.
Meanwhile, Machiavelli's The Prince, no matter how you look at it (satire or not) aside from being well written, will really make you think if what he says is really the right thing to do if you are a leader.

Charles Sanders Peirce, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Rorty.
Nuff said.

Currently it's John Milton from early 15th centuary England. I'm reading the Aeropigitica written by him about free speech.

I approve of this selection. The only people I'd pick for "wise intellectuals" are those in the field of science and mathematics (partially because of personal bias) but they are often involved in philosophical works as well.

I admire the people you have mentioned because I've studied and used their work in some aspect of my life.

Calculus - understanding of drug distribution and elimination.
- modeling physiological changes in the body.
- differential equations

Laplace's Law - understanding the pathology of respiratory distress
- pathology of diverticulosis
- pathology of aneurysms

Stoke's Theorem - maybe not explicit usage but for theoretical understanding of
the circulatory system

Fourier Transform - signal analysis in regards to understanding how ICU equipments
function


Another intellectual I admire is Rudolf Virchow also known as the Father of Modern Pathology. Most people do not realise the fact that the majority of the diagnosis made in medicine has to go through "the lab" (i.e. pathology) in order to be definitive. When you draw blood, when you take urine samples, sputum samples, cancer biopsy etc. Everything needs to be prepared, analysed and interpreted by a pathologist.

Prior to Virchow, pathology was more like an art than a science. This man developed the modern method of autopsy and showed us that gross pathology is mirrored in microscopic changes.