The Four Horsemen

No, not the ones of Revelation, nor the four musketeers, nor the four fool atheists of modern times (Dawkins, Hitchins, Dennet, Harris).

No, its the four horsemen of philosophy-fiction. You've heard of most of them.

Karl Marx
Adolph Hitler
Charles Darwin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

There are a couple of close contenders: Freud and Jung spring to mind; but there are a million hangers-on. Just too many to name. But the fault lies at the feet of the four above.

Here's why:

Karl Marx - invented the non-invention of economic materialism, absorbed the passingly interesting idealism of Hegel reduced all human history and relations to one thing: production. Paved the way for the modern version of oligarchic power and exploitation of the governed.

Adolph Hitler - also influenced by Hegel. Probably. Some sort of idealist determinist. Liked murdering people, but a dab hand at designing uniforms.

Charles Darwin - another type of materialist, invented his Victorian gross-morphology fantasy and expected it to mean something in the non-material world of our minds. Nevertheless, wrote 'The Descent of Man'.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - merely a class 1 philosophy-fiction writer...according to Peter Medawar. He also inaugurated the genre of theology-fiction, based on the prior fantasy of Mr Darwin and his 'could have might have' stories.