It was Epicurus who said: ''The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it." And there can be no greater difficulty than surmounting the list of the top 10 pop philosophers, which was released last week.Research by Bath Spa University shows that Stephen Fry, who has 11.3million Twitter followers, heads a list of celebrities who have an increasing influence on the way we think.Fry was once described as ''a stupid person's idea of what an intelligent person is like" but other names on the list should be of more concern, if they really are informing our way of thinking.Homer Simpson, Star Wars' Yoda and even Ricky Gervais's character from sitcom The Office make the cut.The list, which was published to illustrate the ''merging of pop culture and philosophy", was compiled using ''criteria based on social media followers, number of books published, media appearances, catch-phrase creation, amount of viral memes and fan-base nicknames".Professor Steve May, dean of the school of humanities at Bath Spa University, said:''Philosophy is more relevant and important to society than ever.As pop culture and philosophy unite, we have a chance to bring together modern-day thinkers and traditional philosophers to help provide solutions to worldwide situations.''Admittedly Homer Simpson may not have all the answers, but encouraging a younger generation to discuss, debate and understand the big issues is absolutely vital for the future of our society."So when the world is debating the big topics of the day, these are the names we turn to for guidance:Stephen FryRussell BrandCaitlin MoranJosé MourinhoHo mer SimpsonStephen HawkingDavid BrentYodaTaylor SwiftSlavoj Zizek ..