Some of my main intellectual influences
The nice thing about the history of thought is that there have been so many brilliant people who have written so many brilliant works. The bad thing of course is that there have been vastly more people who have produced works that are, shall we say, less worthwhile. So an important part of doing philosophy and science is to find the right people to read, study and be inspired by.
Below I list some of the people who have been most influential in my intellectual outlook. The attentive reader will notice a certain Austro-Hungarian bias which is not that surprising given the hotbed of intellectual activity that was late nineteenth and early twentieth century Vienna.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Just about when I wanted to give up on philosophy in my second year of study, I encountered Wittgenstein's work. The unique and terribly attractive feature of Wittgenstein's work is his idea that philosophical problems stem from a misunderstanding of how our ordinary language works. The goal of philosophy then should not be to try to solvephilosophical problems, but to dissolve them instead. Other than in philosophy proper I have tried to use this perspective in the philosophy of (cognitive) psychology, the nature of religious belief, the nature of logic, and the question of realism. I'm not sure how far exactly this perspective goes, but so far I've found it immensely fruitful.
Murray Rothbard
One of Mises's most brilliant students. Homo Universalis: economist; social scientist; ethical theorist; historian. Built upon Mises's work, added to it and improved upon it where needed. An absurdly productive, brilliant and joyous intellectual who never failed to see the humorous side of the statist propaganda surrounding him. Both a serious scholar and an excellent writer for a lay audience.
Thomas Kuhn
Wrote the twentieth century's most influential book in the philosophy of science "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in which he showed how science actually progresses and how that is very different from the logical positivist view on it. Wrote about scientific revolutions, paradigm shifts, incommensurability, the structure of the scientific community, about tacit rather than explicit knowledge; and much much more. Inspired by both Polanyi and Wittgenstein.
Ludwig von Mises
Founder of the modern Austrian School of economics. Showed in the 1920s (!) that socialism is impossible because of the calculation problem; predicted the Great Depression; explained the causes and nature of business cycles; showed what the detrimental effects of government intervention in the economy are; and much much more. In his personal life a heroic figure who battled statism and promoted liberty in the face of fierce opposition.
Michael Polanyi
"Philosopher of Knowledge". That may be the best description of Michael Polanyi who wrote about the philosophy of science, economics, art, culture and society. While his work is by no means flawless and without its problems, his scope, depth and originality of thought more than make up for that.
Anticipated and influenced Thomas Kuhn in the philosophy of science, Hayek in his work on spontaneous order, spoke out for freedom in difficult times, emphasized the role of the transcendental values of Truth, Beauty and Justice in holding society together. Lastly and unlike many of his colleagues Polanyi never wavered in stressing the experiential aspects of the philosophy of knowledge: the process and evaluations of creation and discovery, the community of scientists, the values that inspire people. All this made him into one of the most human philosophers.
Monty Python
Opened my eyes to the role of absurdity in comedy, to what is possible by breaking through or simply ignoring the well-established boundaries. Others that did something similar are Andy Kaufman, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Hans Teeuwen, South Park, and Larry David. Through them I also became interested in the 'technical analysis' of comedy: what the intrinsic and contextual structure of jokes is and why and how they work or don't work.