New Britain herald., 1927-02-23
NO AMERICAN 0N
 PHILOSOPHY LIST
Durant'S Selections Also EX.
 Clude Classical Rome

New York, Feb. 23 (UP) - Not one American appears on a list ot the ten greatest thinkers of all time which has been prepared by Will c. Durant, author of the Story of Philosophy. Here is Durants list, published today by the American Magazine: Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Copernicus, Francis Bacon. Newton, Noltaire, Kant and Darwin.
 As to nationalities. England is re- presented by three names and Greece by two, with one each for China, Italy, Poland. France and Germany.
 A list of ten ''runners-up", con- stituting a second team of world thinkers, still has no American re- presentative: Democratus, Epicurus' Marcus Aurelius, Abelard Galilee, Spinoza, LiebnitZ, Schopenhauer. Spencer and Nietzschs.
 Durant explained why neither list included such familiar names as olluktS I)tttlt ol iSiitoill.
 How shall we define a thinker ?" he asked, Presumably the word will embrace philosophers and scientists. Shall we include men like Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe? No, we shall bow humbly to such great names and class them, despite the reach and fathom of their thought as only secondarily thinkers as artists first and above all. Shall we include such immensely religious figures as Jesus, Buddha, Augustine or Luther? No; these great founders and renew CTS of religion would overlap our term: it was not only thought and reason. but also feeling, noble pas sion, mystic vision and unyielding faith that made them move the world.
 Shall we admit into our council great men of action like Caesar, Ma poleon or Lincoln? No; if we spread the word thinker to catch such heroes in it's net, we shall de- prive it of it's distinctive meaning, and shall fail 10 catch the signiti- canoe of thought"
 Durant discussed his ten thinkers in turn showing how each won an enduring place "by the originality. scope. veracity and depth of his thought, and by the extent and per- sistcncesof his influence.'
 He admitted that the selection of- fered considerable difficulties. Study showed whole civilizations which dominant name or powerful secular voicing and forming it's people. It was so, he observed with India and the Jews,-even with Egypt, perhaps the most lasting and civilization ever known" Among the nomad races of Asia Minor, he found an Isaiah, a Jesus and Mohammcd, but no world scientist, no world philosopher.
 Old Rome Excluded
 Classical Rome also failed to get q place in the list. Lucretius, first and finest of the Latin thinkers, was dis missed "because his philosophy was not his own, and because his influ- ance was esoteric and sporadic, ouching only the topmost minds" Other Roman philosophers were re- iected "because they were echoes of he Creeks"
 After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Durant found the re-birth 1f pure thinking in Thomas Aquinas, | monk of the Catholic Church Tt $ true" he said that the world does not follow Aquinas now, ,preferring !oubting Thomas to dogmatic one, put there was a time when every took his work as its premises. Even today, in thous- md colleges, his thought is reverence d as sounder than science, and his philosophy is the official system of ho largest church in Christendom. We may not love him as we love the 'ebels and martyrs of philosophy. but because of his vast influence upon and millions of mankind, we must place him on our rosary of gen. us"
 Noltaire was included by Durant the supreme thinkers of all ime, although many believe that his