[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Rousseau is one that actually turned me off of philosophy for a long time. What a jerk! However his work is the foundation for much that came later so I think that plowing through his stuff is necessary. Many theories on modern education come from his works and so does Marxism.

For philosophers I enjoy Locke, Smith and Hume, to list the top three. But one of the things I found important is not to hero worship. They were a bunch of very clever guys with interesting ideas some which I even agree with. :)

But perfect they were not nor do the best of them claim to be.

[ansel12]

I'm clearly not the guy to discuss philosophy with, but here is a link on Reid, I would be surprised if he doesn't at least get some agreement from you (since you hate Romanticism).
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reid/