An email:

I would guess that the general sentiment about the greatest living philosopher would be that it is Saul Kripke, who has exerted an outsized influence on Anglo-American analytical philosophy, and through some clever arguments, made interesting points about issues such as mind-body dualism. Saw Strawson speak once. He smoked a cigarette with great panache as he delivered his talk. I had friends who were taught by Strawson and loved the experience. As for Kripke, I could never get past his symbolic logic, but the reader is right that he should be included. This reminds me of a tale about AJ Ayer, who in the late 80s was at a celebrity party. From what I recall, Mike Tyson, then at the height of his powers, was behaving rather menacingly towards a supermodel while all the men in the room looked at their feet. All except Freddie Ayer, who bawled out “Unhand that woman!”. Tyson looked at the elderly gentleman and asked, “Who the hell are you?”. The Wykeham Professor of Logic responded, “I’m the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century, let us solve this problem like rational men.” There’s a slightly different version of the story here.