Whatever do you mean? The man´s conquests and achievements have made him the most famous leader in the art of war. You asked wich author, artist, writer, etc etc, had contributed more for society, and he was one of the most important names to have helped shape the world as it is now.
But if you mean only artists in the more traditional way, then i would choose Karl Marx. His writings started a revolution, still active today. His teachings changed the entire planet, either by direct action or indirect influence.
However, i must say i have a tremendous ammount of admiration for the classic greek world. If Europe hadn´t dive into the dark age period, chances are mankind could have colonized the planets by now. Instead, we had to re-learn everything all over again. All that knowledge kept in the Alexandria library, burnt into ashes... Imagine what we could be doing now, if that fire hadn´t started.

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"Quincitilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
Emperor Augustus of Rome.

A con artist perhaps, but I would not call Jesus an artist.

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Wow. Uh, I was going for the "philosopher" part of the question. What, exactly, makes Jesus a con-artist?

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

Oh, I didn't remember that Startup's question included philosophers.

Didn't Jesus make all kinds of "miracles"? Such as water to wine and other nice tricks? And people believed all that. Not to mention the fact that he was the "son of God", and people believed that too.

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Jesus never claimed to be the son of God, he never claimed to perform miracles. These claims were made about him, by others, after his death. For all intents and purposes, Jesus was just a wandering Jew teaching as many people as he could about "the one God" and to love each other.

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

This is your interpretation of him. I'm referring to the Jesus of the Bible.

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No, this is pretty much historical fact; there's nothing to interpret. Jesus was a Jew; he lived in Judea during Roman occupation and the Pax Romana; he traveled around teaching people about "the one God" and his philosophy was that this one God wanted everyone to get along and be good to each other; he was crucified by the Romans. The movement that he began, and the followers which still ascribe to his teachings, changed the world in so many innumerable ways over the past 2000 years that I think he deserves my vote for "Most Influential Philosopher". You could argue with this, and since I wasn't there I would have to defer to the fact that every historian to ever study the man agrees on these facts.

If you dispute these facts, I would like some reference material if you have it.

I didn't offer up a mythical interpretation of Jesus the Christ, I offered up Jesus the man. If you want to argue with my choice of Jesus the man then I'm all ears. If you want to talk about a different Jesus then you'll have to wait until someone picks him.

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

I would say Aristotle or Da Vinci.

Although I am an agnostic, it's hard to argue against Jesus given the original question. Whoever he was or whatever he did, proof that he (directly or indirectly) affected our society is in the billions of followers around the world.

@ Startup:

I meant unanswerable in the sense that whoever you choose cannot be responisble for the greatest advances in mankind, that would be personal choice. My choice is Da Vinci, and in no way do I believe he is the greatest, he simply is my choice.

The problem is that this question was intellectually bankrupt in its inception. It was both too narrow and too vague to make any sense. That some people have tried to make sense of it is surprising to me.

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