MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--MORE DISCUSSION WELCOME
With over 300 votes on our latest poll, here's the top 20:
| 1. Saul Kripke (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) |
| 2. W.V.O. Quine loses to Saul Kripke by 141–74 |
| 3. H. Paul Grice loses to Saul Kripke by 161–51, loses to W.V.O. Quine by 114–88 |
| 4. J.L. Austin loses to Saul Kripke by 159–62, loses to H. Paul Grice by 104–91 |
| 5. Donald Davidson loses to Saul Kripke by 168–50, loses to J.L. Austin by 104–101 |
| 6. David K. Lewis loses to Saul Kripke by 160–42, loses to Donald Davidson by 104–90 |
| 7. Noam Chomsky loses to Saul Kripke by 154–60, loses to David K. Lewis by 96–92 |
| 8. Hilary Putnam loses to Saul Kripke by 174–41, loses to Noam Chomsky by 100–92 |
| 9. Rudolf Carnap loses to Saul Kripke by 162–47, loses to Hilary Putnam by 100–86 |
| 10. David Kaplan loses to Saul Kripke by 176–23, loses to Rudolf Carnap by 88–83 |
| 11. Michael Dummett loses to Saul Kripke by 175–41, loses to David Kaplan by 89–82 |
| 12. P.F. (Peter) Strawson loses to Saul Kripke by 179–37, loses to Michael Dummett by 96–77 |
| 13. Alfred Tarski loses to Saul Kripke by 180–21, loses to P.F. (Peter) Strawson by 90–71 |
| 14. Tied: Gareth Evans loses to Saul Kripke by 189–23, loses to Alfred Tarski by 80–75 Robert Stalnaker loses to Saul Kripke by 183–16, loses to Alfred Tarski by 80–68 |
| 16. John Searle loses to Saul Kripke by 193–17, loses to Gareth Evans by 87–76 |
| 17. Tyler Burge loses to Saul Kripke by 192–12, loses to John Searle by 81–65 |
| 18. Keith Donnellan loses to Saul Kripke by 192–10, loses to Tyler Burge by 68–57 |
| 19. Peter Geach loses to Saul Kripke by 192–10, loses to Keith Donnellan by 62–57 |
| 20. Robert Brandom loses to Saul Kripke by 178–32, loses to Peter Geach by 76–62 |
Just outside the top 20 were Ruth Marcus, John Perry, and Wilfrid Sellars.
The "top ten" living philosophers of language were Kripke, Chomsky, Putnam, Kaplan, Stalnaker, Searle, Burge, Brandom, John Perry, and Hans Kamp.
This poll had a somewhat larger number of errors of omission, including Dennis Stampe, Frank Veltman, Jeroen Groenendijk Martin Stokhof, Richard Montague, Max Cresswell, Irene Heim, Terence Parsons, Richard Heck, Jeff King, Robert Harnish, and Howard Wettstein. I imagine one or two of these folks might have been competitive for the "top 20," but I welcome reader thoughts. Wittgenstein was not an error of omission; he was left out on purpose given that he did not write in English; we know from earlier polls that he, in any case, tends to dominate all other philosophers of the past two hundred years.
