The way this philosopher thing worked was that I don't know this stuff off the top of my head. You sent what I figured was a request for some more information that would help you to get to know me, seemed reasonable, for sure, so I thought about it some. Long time ago I wondered about philosophers and so I started to read about them over a long period. I had trouble keeping them straight, so I went back and re-read stuff about them, and also by them, somewhat. Many were almost meaningless to me, but some of them connected, in some fashion. So when you asked, I thought, "OK, who is on my list of guys who made sense?" I went to wikipedia for a list of western philosophers (most eastern thought is difficult for me) and just cruised down the list for names I remembered. I then looked at them enough to remember if I liked them, and why, then put them into the post. I can't carry stuff like that around in my head, nope.
Hah! So now you know that I'll try to answer as thoroughly and *honestly* as I can. You know, we're bound to disagree on some stuff, right? But there'll always be maximum honesty and minimum snark. I'm old enough to not care if *I* am right, I just want to get *it* right. It may mean I need to modify my initial position if it's shown to be flawed.
I like debate's. And win some lose some, either way I learn something, not that it will improve my life but it is entertaining.
I tried reading a number of philosophers and got kind of turned off by the whole experience. Probably just me but a lot of it struck me as verbal masturbation. Then I stumbled upon Bertrand Russell. Finally, someone who made sense to me. I read many of his works and was amused in one to find that he did not have a very high opinion of the writings of some of the major philosophers either. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed his writings and recommend him as a refreshing respite from most of the other writers on philosophy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell
A lot of it *is* a sort of verbal masturbation. A lot of razzmatazz and noise. It can become a game of emperor's new clothes real easy. But *parts* of a lot of them are OK. To me, Machievelli is extremely direct and readable.