[casebash]

As someone who majored in philosophy, it's kind of embarrassing that I would struggle to name names as to who might be likely to be seen as the most brilliant by future generations.

I suppose if I'm allowed to name someone who only died recently, I suspect that Derek Parfit will be remembered as someone who was simply brilliant. His teletransportation problem will remain a classic thought experiment and he'll be remembered for his work on population ethics, though it's less clear to me what the future will make of his main project: working out a unified moral theory.

On the other hand, I can name some^ names as to which philosophers are most likely to be seen as influential:

Currently, it's looking like Peter Singer, Toby Ord and Will MacAskill will all have had significant influence through the Effective Altruism movement. Similarly, Nick Bostrom has had significant influence through his book Superintelligence.

Dan Dennet had significant influence by being one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism. His direct influence peaked a long time ago, but it remains to be seen how responsible he will ultimately be seen for the West's decline in religion (or whether this will just be seen as as trend that was happening anyway).

^ Possibly biased