I just got a copy of 12 Modern Philosophers, ed. by Belshaw & Kemp (Wiley-Blackwell), containing illuminating essays (based on the three I've read so far) about Davidson, Quine, Kripke, Rawls, Singer, Parfit, Williams, Nozick, Nagel, Rorty, McDowell, and Fodor. As the editors explain: "There are 12 philosophers represented here, all writing in English, and all of them active in the last third of the twentieth century.....They are all highly important figures in philosophy now: widely read, initiators of debate. Are they the top 12 philosophers of our time? Of course we make no such claim. But were someone to give a list of, say, the 20 key players, then, probably, the 12 here would be among them." A plausible hypothesis, I would say, even if there are others (Searle? Lewis? Nussbaum? Brandom? Wright? Williamson? Habermas?) who might be added.
But how many of these folks are likely to survive the proverbial "test of time"? It is, admittedly, hard to predict, but give it a try. Remember Nagel's observation (I forget where) that in the late 19th-century, no one would have guessed that a century later, Frege and Nietzsche would loom so large. Of course, this was before the total professionalization of all disciplines, including philosophy. This will no doubt change, in some measure, the long-term reception of philosophers. Of course, the universities may themselves change in ways that affect the nature and reception of philosophy. But even conceding that this is guesswork, I am curious to see which philosophers current readers think will be read and taken seriously a century hence: so have fun with the poll.
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