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Reason, Egoism, Capitalism—spreading underground

The Top Five! (and why)

  • Ayn Rand. The source of the contemporary movement to reason, egoism and capitalism. If you're new to philosophy start with Rand. There is no one better at explaining what all the fuss is about.
  • Aristotle. "The Philosopher." "Teacher of them that know." All things considered, he's still the best, 2300 years later.
  • Thomas Aquinas. "The Angelic Doctor." By making Aristotle respectable in Christendom, Thomas fathered the Renaissance!
  • Francis Bacon. "Knowledge is power." We're all confirmed Baconians, but still we under-rate him.
  • John Locke. Locke is the philosophic father of modern freedom.

Why a Top Five

The traditional "Big Three" of philosophy are Plato, Aristotle and Kant. The standard of admission is theoretical power. The list is often expanded to the "Big Four" by fans of Ayn Rand. But it's not only insulting to lump in Aristotle and Rand with history's top philosophic villains, it is misleading, for it suggests that all four are of similar nature and value.
I propose a Top Five list. The standards of admission are theoretical power and historical power, i.e., a great contribution to the prosperity and happiness of individual men. The standard of historical power not only deletes the villains and brings in Thomas (the father of the Renaissance), it also brings in two men who are usually ignored as minor minds: Bacon and Locke.
We cannot ignore Bacon and Locke, for they are the source of most of what is both distinctively modern and distinctly good in our world. Bacon is the philosophic father of modern science and technology, and of habits of mind among the British which produced, among others, Isaac Newton, Adam Smith—and John Locke! Locke is the philosophic father of modern freedom. Such proven power deserves our closest attention. How did they do that? What did they have going for them?
The Top Five are too important to be studied solely through second-hand accounts. Do you know that Aristotle called leisure the first principle of all action? Do you know that Bacon was a vigorous foe of skepticism? You don't if you've only read about them! Get in direct contact with first class minds, watch how they work, mine them for the gems that others have overlooked.

Read the masters, not their pupils!

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