Which notable philosopher IYO had the best grasp of how the world/universe works?

[RenaRyuguu]

Hard to say, but I enjoyed Plato's republic.

Plato is the best

[Aldaris]

I don't know anything about Plato's insights about philosophy of society and similar things, he may have some good points there, but the idea of Platonism is completely wrong.

[shewantsthephd]

Hegel, whose work has generally been said to represent the last great systematic Western philosophy and subsumes plus accounts for all previous philosophy ranging from Plato and Aristotle through Augustine and Aquinas, onto the rationalist systems of Descartes, Spinoza, and Liebnez (dualism and psychophysical parallelism), the empiricists, and Kant's transcendental idealism. Hegel's Science of Logic is generally called the densest but arguably greatest work of Western philosophy for this reason. His epistemology and ontology are part of a whole, which is essential for any great perspective of how the universe works.

Nietszche ala schopenhauer was just writing the exact opposite of hegel - if hegel is wrong, then logic is bullshit, the world is reduced to will power, and we get the third Reiche; or we get the existentialists/pragmatists Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and James, who cling to the value of logic/logos/christianity as it is the truth in story form...thus this leads to Carl Jung's great work....Which really is subsumed in Hegel from the beginning. Kierkegaard too is now thought to be commenting on rather than contra Hegel's system.

[Gwydion]

Plotinus (and hence Plato), the Vedic rishis/Upanishadic philosophers, Buddha, Laozi, Hermes Trismegistus, John Scotus Eriugena, Kukai, Meister Eckhart, etc. Throw in Julius Evola and Rene Guenon for more contemporary philosophers.

In short those who recognize the basic reality of monism/panentheism, emanationism, a timeless Absolute reality, a divine element and purpose to man and society, the ability to attain spiritual transcendence and go beyond the merely human, etc. This core was usually found at the higher and especially more esoteric centers of most traditional religions in one form or another.

[shewantsthephd]

Plotinus (and hence Plato), the Vedic rishis/Upanishadic philosophers, Buddha, Laozi, Hermes Trismegistus, John Scotus Eriugena, Kukai, Meister Eckhart, etc. Throw in Julius Evola and Rene Guenon for more contemporary philosophers.

In short those who recognize the basic reality of monism/panentheism, emanationism, a timeless Absolute reality, a divine element and purpose to man and society, the ability to attain spiritual transcendence and go beyond the merely human, etc. This core was usually found at the higher and especially more esoteric centers of most traditional religions in one form or another.

Spinoza?