Historical Figures You Have Platonic Respect For

[AnarchistCatalan]

Which Historical figures do you have Platonic respect for?

My Shorthand List:

Cicero
Agrippa
George Washington
Alexander Hamilton
Benjamin Franklin
James K. Polk
Abraham Lincoln
Anne Frank

[9 Fanged Hummingbird]

Does Jimi Hendrix count?

[Jaded_Railman]

Platonic respect? Is that like the kind of respect you can hold and hit idiots over the head with?

[Dure]

Not sure what Platonic respect is but here are 10 historical personages andI learned something from each of them

• Passionaria – Spanish Republican, dismissed the International Brigades
• Daniel Mendoza – Prize fighter
• Paul Robeson – Singer/political activist
• Helen Keller – IWW activist
• James Connolly – Officer commanding forces of the Irish Provisional Govt. Easter 1916
• James Clerk Maxwell – Physicist and mathematician
• Simon Frazer – Explorer
• Marcus Garvey - Political activist, shipping magnate
• Henry Dunant – Founder Red Cross
• Karl Marx – Journalist and political philosopher

[Citizen]

Why does it have to be platonic respect? I would totally go with Joan of Ark, in a totally non-platonic sense.

[catboy637]

Originally Posted by Dure

Not sure what Platonic respect is but here are 10 historical personages andI learned something from each of them

• Passionaria – Spanish Republican, dismissed the International Brigades
• Daniel Mendoza – Prize fighter
• Paul Robeson – Singer/political activist
• Helen Keller – IWW activist
• James Connolly – Officer commanding forces of the Irish Provisional Govt. Easter 1916
• James Clerk Maxwell – Physicist and mathematician
• Simon Frazer – Explorer
• Marcus Garvey - Political activist, shipping magnate
• Henry Dunant – Founder Red Cross
• Karl Marx – Journalist and political philosopher

You know Keller was a deep Communist, right? Then again, you have Marx on there...

[Basileus Giorgios]

Marcus Tulius Cicero
Augustus Caesar
Flavius Belisarius
Constantine XI Palaiologos
Henry VII Tudor
Thomas Cromwell
Margaret Thatcher

[Rush Tarquin]

Originally Posted by Citizen

Why does it have to be platonic respect? I would totally go with Joan of Ark, in a totally non-platonic sense.

Seconded. Then again she might not be having it if you put any stock in the asexual/lesbian theories.

[Cornwall]

This is quite tough and obviously very subjective, but here goes:

Clement Atlee: post-war British Prime Minister
Mary Wollstoncraft: Author of the A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Michael Collins: charismatic Irish leader.
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet
Oscar Wilde: Author, Playright.
Gustave Dore: French artist.
Chateaubriand: French writer, politician etc.
Richard Burton: Explorer
Field Marshal Viscount Slim: Commander, 14th Army, Burma WWII

[Snowman23]

Winston Churchill

[9 Fanged Hummingbird]

Originally Posted by catboy637

You know Keller was a deep Communist, right? Then again, you have Marx on there...

Who gives a damn if she was a commie? Oh wait, you think McArthy was a decent person...

[RandomIdeaGuy]

Churchill, Lincoln, and Franklin.

[Nekromans]

Adams and Jefferson - they were both obnoxious arseholes, but they had to work with being the Presidents after GEORGE GODDAMN WASHINGTON (his official middle name, btw), and had to handle Aaron Burr as well. That's worth major respect, IMO.

While we're on early American figures, let's go for Franklin and Abigail Adams, too.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, of course - the man was brilliant.

Alan Turing, who protected a world that hated and feared him - the original X-Man, I guess. A gay nerd who achieved something.

[LightInfa]

Originally Posted by catboy637

You know Keller was a deep Communist, right? Then again, you have Marx on there...

Considering he put IWW activist beside her name I'm sure he's well aware of that.

[MNP]

Originally Posted by Hresvelgr

Who gives a damn if she was a commie? Oh wait, you think McArthy was a decent person...

Socialist girls are better lovers. Platonically, probably Alexander and Genghis Khan, I'd get all caught up in their deeds and probably worship them as gods on Earth.

Originally Posted by Rush Tarquin

Seconded. Then again she might not be having it if you put any stock in the asexual/lesbian theories.

Thirded Joan of Arc. She wasn't a lesbian she just needed to find the right guy.

Also Eleanor of Aquitaine.

[Jaded_Railman]

Originally Posted by Hresvelgr

Who gives a damn if she was a commie? Oh wait, you think McArthy was a decent person...

He wasn't?

McCarthy, btw.

[Dure]

To the best of my knowledge Helen Keller was a radical Socialist and IWW activist, as was James Connolly, she was never a Communist. Passionaria on the other hand was a grade A fire breathing Red.

[Cornwall]

I agree, Helen Keller could never be defined as a Communist. She was a Socialist and an Internationalist.

[Dure]

Yay! Way to go Cornwall some one that can tell the difference between a Communist and Socialist. Well done Sir!

If Richard Burton why not Sidi Bombay?

[Cornwall]

Originally Posted by Dure

Yay! Way to go Cornwall some one that can tell the difference between a Communist and Socialist. Well done Sir!

If Richard Burton why not Sidi Bombay?

Yes, definatley Sidi Bombay is another that could join the list. He has often failed to gain the attention of historians as an independent figure, unlike Burton or Hanning Speke, although both Burton and Speke held him in high regard. Also, he doesn't seem to be regarded as an explorer in his own right, more as a 'guide'.

As far as I'm aware there isn't an independent biography of him, although there are several about both Burton and Speke. If there is one, it must be old. I'm not sure why this is, maybe it's because he was African, I don't know. He was a very interesting figure though, and led a colourful life..he walked across Africa apparently.