On those criteria, I would say Plato. Because Plato came up with a whole mess of ideas that were… well, compelling but obviously mistaken. Much of Western Philosophy can be put in terms of people wrestling with Plato and trying to show just why he is wrong. (Much of the rest is wrestling with Aristotle and trying to show why HE is wrong… but then, one can put Aristotle into the camp of “people trying to show why Plato is wrong.”)
There’s a certain sort of person who is most easily aroused from inertia when someone else says something so blatantly, utterly false that they want to pull their hair out. Plato helped motivate these people a lot.
On those criteria, I would say Plato. Because Plato came up with a whole mess of ideas that were… well, compelling but obviously mistaken. Much of Western Philosophy can be put in terms of people wrestling with Plato and trying to show just why he is wrong. (Much of the rest is wrestling with Aristotle and trying to show why HE is wrong… but then, one can put Aristotle into the camp of “people trying to show why Plato is wrong.”)
There’s a certain sort of person who is most easily aroused from inertia when someone else says something so blatantly, utterly false that they want to pull their hair out. Plato helped motivate these people a lot.