There are 37 thinkers on this list, and before I start, I gotta mention some things.

1.

This list is purely subjective.

I'm ranking these philosophers based on the impression they made on me, as measured

by this point in time.

And to be honest with you, on different days, some might move up, some might move down.

This is just for fun.

2.

Some of these guys are not exactly philosophers.

I'm using the term 'philosopher' loosely here.

There are some literary figures in here as well.

3.

All of these thinkers are great in their own way.

They all taught me something important, and I can easily see how someone that I rank in

the 'F tier', someone else might put in the 'S tier'.

So with all of that out of the way, let's get right into it.

Socrates:

To me, Socrates lived a life devoted to truth—no matter what the cost was.

He teaches me the importance of living a life of authenticity and honesty, as opposed to

one where you cling to security.

He demonstrates that philosophy is not about what you read or write.

It's not simply an intellectual pursuit.

It's about how you live and relate to the world around you.

S-tier.

Friedrich Nietzsche:

If you just look at the videos on my channel, you already know the impact Nietzsche had

on me.

From him, I learned the importance of constantly overcoming myself, of challenging myself to

constantly grow and expand.

He taught me to conceptualize suffering as something that brings greatness, and the lack

of suffering as something that causes one to decay and degenerate.

His formula for greatness is 'amor fati', which means to love your fate.

And by trying to apply this to my life, by trying to accept and love everything that's

necessary, I feel like I've grown a lot as a person.

He also taught me how people use morality to try and control you, the importance of

authenticity, and the value of not being resentful.

On top of that, I find his writings to be very beautiful and concise.

A-Tier.

Fyodor Dostoevsky:

So this one will probably be controversial.

I think there are a lot of people who would probably put Dostoevsky in A-Tier, but he

just hasn't been as influential as Nietzsche to me, so I had to put him down one tier.

Out of all his books, the one most impactful to me is The Brothers Karamazov.

From it, I learned the importance of never lying to yourself, faith, and love.

He taught me that, because we are all connected, we are all responsible for all the evils in

the world, and through love, we can lessen suffering in the world.

And by becoming someone who plants good seeds in others, we can be a force for good in this

world.

B-Tier.

Seneca:

Seneca is probably one of the first stoics I read.

His writings are simple, beautiful, and helped me get more into philosophy, but they're

not super impactful to me these days.

Somethings he taught me are: - anger is never a good thing as it's just

not effective - a good life is one in which you are present

and making memories you won't regret, not fearing the future

- and that a mind that learns to desire only what is necessary can lead a life of peace,

but a mind that desires excess will never be satisfied.

C-Tier.

George Orwell:

So Orwell wrote one of my favourite novels: 1984.

In it, he shows what a totalitarian state looks and feels like.

He taught me a few things: 1.

totalitarianism is what happens when people give up responsibility for their own thoughts,

abandon truth, and value security and comfort over their own authenticity.

2.

The totalitarian's main weapons are violence and indoctrination, but mainly indoctrination.

3.

Indoctrination happens when someone positions themselves as the source of truth in your

life, isolates you from others, and then feeds you propaganda.

D-Tier.

Niccolo Machiavelli:

So I've only read The Prince by Machiavelli.

I think he overvalues rationality and the things he knows, as opposed to living a life

in relation to what he doesn't know.

To me, he is the archetype of a cold-calculating, overly-rational man.

But to be honest, this could be completely wrong as I don't have that much experience

with, nor interest in, Machiavelli.

E-Tier.

Sun-Tzu:

Honestly, I've only read The Art of War.

I enjoyed it and even made a video on it, but I honestly just don't think about it

that much.

That's the only reason I'm putting Sun Tzu in F-Tier for me, and I fully acknowledge

that someone else might put him in S-Tier.

He just didn't leave that big of an impression on me.

F-Tier.

Diogenes:

To me, Diogenes was the living embodiment of minimalism.

He demonstrated a life devoted to just the necessities.

He showed me that we can achieve greatness through simplicity and that we could survive

with so much less than we think we need.

He motivates me to cut out all the extra bs from my life and to focus only on what's

necessary.

S-Tier.

Aristotle:

Aristotle's ideas of deductive and inductive reasoning, making art and speaking effectively,

walking 'the middle path' or in accordance with 'the golden mean', and his ideas

on God as the “unmoved-mover” are all things I think about on a daily basis.

A-Tier.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

In 1945, after writing a letter criticizing Joseph Stalin, Solzhenitsyn was arrested and

spent eight years in Russian prison and labour camps.

And after that, he was forced to spend three more years in exile.

Through his work The Gulag Archipelago, he taught my the importance of taking full responsibility

for your life and its outcomes, figuring out and correcting your own errors, and the danger

of valuing comfort over truth.

B-Tier.

Thomas Kuhn:

So Thomas Kuhn is probably not as well-known as some of the other philosophers on here,

but he was a philosopher of science.

His book 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' is about exactly what is sounds like: the

structure of scientific revolutions.

But don't let the boring title confuse you.

To me, it's more like a description of how our minds learn and evolve, and for that reason,

it's been pretty impactful on me.

If you want to improve yourself, you have to know how to change your mind, and if you

wanna know how to change your mind, I definitely recommend reading that book.

C-Tier.

Jordan Peterson:

So Jordan Peterson was a gateway thinker for me.

There are many people on this list who I'm not sure I would have ever read if it weren't

for him.

So he kind of holds a special place in my heart.

Although I know some might rank him higher or lower—or maybe not even put him on the

list at all.

Personally, I do think he's one of the most influential thinkers alive right now, and

I've enjoyed his body of working from the 12 rules books, to maps of meaning, to his

lectures on genesis.

I don't think I would have ever read the bible if it wasn't for him, and I do hope

he does his lectures on exodus at some point.

Unfortunately, unlike other thinkers on this list, I don't think Dr. Peterson has formulated

many original concepts, like Freud, Nietzsche or Jung, but I don't necessarily know if

he's even trying to do that either.

Overall, I really enjoy his stuff and hope to see him do more in the future.

D-Tier.

Carl Jung:

So this one will probably be controversial.

I've read a few of Jung's books now, and none of them have really spoken to me.

I just don't think he writes as well as Freud or Nietzsche, and I just haven't found

his concepts that compelling personally.

I don't think about them that often.

I think because I read Nietzsche before Jung, a lot of the things people find compelling

in Jung, such as individuation and the shadow, were not as groundbreaking to me as they might

have been to others.

I feel like I got variations of those ideas through Nietzsche.

But it's possible that I just haven't been moved by Jung yet, or maybe the time

for me to read him just hasn't arrive yet, so maybe I'll change my mind on him in the

future.

E-Tier.

Voltaire:

I don't have much to say about Voltaire.

I thought Candide was an OK book, but other than that, I'm not too familiar with his

works.

Candide was not good enough or compelling enough for me to want to explore him further.

But I'm open to any recommendations you guys might have that could change my mind.

F-Tier.

Marcus Aurelius:

So to me, Marcus Aurelius is the living embodiment of a good leader.

He achieved the heights of power and remained just, humble, and devoted to truth and the

good life.

He reminds me that power doesn't have to corrupt you, and that a truly great man keeps

his feet firmly on the ground, regardless of how powerful he gets.

If anything, he reminds me of the importance of keeping yourself grounded.

His Meditations is one of those books I can read anytime I need to ground my mind and

nourish my spirit.

S-Tier.

Jiddu Krishnamurti:

Krishnamurti is probably lesser known than other philosophers on this list, but he had

a huge effect on me personally.

His teachings taught me to know and examine myself seriously.

He taught me that books and other people's ideas don't matter as much as knowing myself,

knowing how my own actions have an effect in the world, understanding what I'm feeling,

and why I'm feeling that way.

I feel like he pushed me away from philosophy as an intellectual pursuit towards a true

pursuit of wisdom and self-knowledge.

Plus, he has many insightful talks available online for anyone to listen to.

He speaks in a calm, concise, and incredibly logical way.

His mind is truly sharp, and I think he will be a true catalyst for change for those who

really take him seriously.

A-Tier.

Sigmund Freud:

So I feel like Freud is largely misunderstood and caricatured as this weird guy due to his

massive popularity.

But he taught me things that have really made an impression on me such as:

- a lot of our behaviours our driven by unconscious drive

- we use defence mechanisms in order to protect but also deceive ourselves

- through a specific kind of relationship, such as the one formed in psychoanalysis,

someone can learn to see and let go of their own defence mechanisms, overcome their own

self-deceptions, and have a better vision of reality

- that their is a tension between us and society, and that tension has a profound and often

negative consequences on our psychology

B-Tier.

Nassim Taleb:

So out of all the living thinkers on this list, I rated Nassim Taleb the highest.

His Incerto series is all about understanding and living in a world that is fundamentally

uncertain.

It's one of my favourite series to return to each year, and I think he's highly underrated

as thinker.

Most of his books are based on one central concept such as black swans, anti-fragility,

and skin in the game, and each of them are concepts that I think about all the time.

C-Tier.

Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm just gonna lump these two thinkers together, because I feel the same way about them.

I feel like their writings are incredibly beautiful and a pleasure to read, but conceptually,

they haven't had much of an impact on my thought when compared to other thinkers on

this list.

D-Tier.

Alfred Adler:

While I enjoy his concepts of superiority and inferiority complexes, he's just not

someone who's work I think about much.

E-Tier.

Sam Harris:

So Sam was a thinker I listened to when I was a lot younger, and I found his views on

free will compelling at the time.

He was a step for me to get deeper into philosophy through his online videos and podcasts, but

I don't really find his works or views as interesting anymore.

F-Tier.

Epicurus:

Like Diogenes, Epicurus showed me that a happy life is achievable through just the necessities.

And if anything, it's our desire for things other than what's necessary that keep us

unhappy.