Curated playlist
École normale supérieure (Paris) alumni
- Jean BeaufretJean Beaufret's 1946 challenge to Heidegger produced the Letter on Humanism.
- Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre asked to be dropped as a Nobel nominee, then won anyway. His 1964 letter went unread.
- Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault's surgeon father expected him to become a surgeon too. He became a leading thinker on power instead.
- Émile DurkheimÉmile Durkheim came from eight generations of rabbis, yet argued religion was social, not divine.
- Esther DufloEsther Duflo was 46 when she became the youngest Nobel economics winner ever. She shared it in 2019.
- Louis PasteurIn 1885, Louis Pasteur treated a boy mauled by a rabid dog despite holding no medical license.
- Jean GiraudouxPlaywright Jean Giraudoux died in Paris in 1944, and some suspect poison. His death has never been fully explained.
- Louis AlthusserLouis Althusser used a police officer's shout on the street to explain how ideology shapes every person.
- Georges DumézilGeorges Dumézil was shut out of French academic jobs after his thesis. His teacher told him to go abroad, to Istanbul.
- Victor DuruyAt twenty-four, factory worker's son Victor Duruy taught a famous historian's class.
- Claude RibbeClaude Ribbe wrote a 2005 book accusing Napoleon of ordering mass killings of enslaved Black people.
- Hippolyte TaineHippolyte Taine failed his philosophy exam in 1851 after examiners rejected his essay on sensation.