Curated playlist

20th-century American philosophers

Steven CrowellWhat makes something count as a reason? Philosopher Steven Crowell built a career around that question.
Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
Bruce LeeBruce Lee appeared in his first film as a baby. By 18, he had been in 20 films in Hong Kong.
John CageJohn Cage once had a pianist play nothing for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Audience noise became the music.
Philip K. DickPhilip K. Dick died four months before Blade Runner opened. He never saw the film that made his name famous.
Herbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse analyzed Nazi ideology for American spies before students made him a hero.
Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky wrote his first article at age 10, about the fall of Barcelona.
Ayn RandWhen Ayn Rand died in New York City on the 6th of March 1982, her funeral included a six-foot floral arrangement shaped like a dollar sign. The tribute suited a woman who had turned self-interest into a moral code. She was born Alisa…
William JamesWilliam James argued we do not run from a bear because we are afraid. We are afraid because we run.
Rudolf CarnapRudolf Carnap argued that most deep philosophical questions were meaningless.
Lewis GordonPhilosopher Lewis Gordon argues that racists are not irrational but hyper-rational.
Larry SangerLarry Sanger is an American philosopher who helped start Wikipedia, and in April 2007 he announced that the site had become broken beyond repair. Few founders speak that way about their own creation. Sanger spent his early career on…
Paul TillichTheologian Paul Tillich argued that the God most people debate is not God at all.
William Barrett (philosopher)William Barrett started college at City College of New York at fifteen. He later wrote philosophy for general readers.
Ludwig von MisesNazi troops raided Ludwig von Mises's Vienna apartment and took his papers. He was already in Geneva.
W. E. B. Du BoisW. E. B. Du Bois died in Ghana the day before the March on Washington. He was 95 and had renounced his U.S. citizenship.
Jerry FodorPhilosopher Jerry Fodor argued that thinking works like a language inside the brain. He called it Mentalese.
George SorosAt 14, George Soros posed as the Christian godson of a government official to survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
Ted KaczynskiTed Kaczynski wrote a letter to The New York Times in 1995 and attached a promise to it. If the Times or The Washington Post printed his essay in full, he would "desist from terrorism." The essay ran to roughly 35,000 words and carried the…
Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt's name is printed on journals, schools, scholarly prizes, humanitarian prizes, think-tanks and street signs. It also appears on stamps and monuments. She was born Johanna Arendt, and she grew into one of the most influential…
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner proposed steering missiles with pigeons. The birds pecked at a screen showing the target.
Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)At eleven, Walter Kaufmann converted from Lutheranism to Judaism. He later learned all four grandparents were Jewish.
Hilary PutnamHilary Putnam invented a leading theory of the mind, then spent years taking it apart.
Hubert DreyfusIn 1964, the RAND Corporation hired philosopher Hubert Dreyfus to review artificial intelligence.
Edward FredkinEdward Fredkin never finished college, yet MIT made him a full professor in 1968. Marvin Minsky recruited him.
Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North Whitehead walked into his Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1927 and lost his audience within a week. The astronomer Arthur Eddington had given the series the year before, and he had held a crowd of 600 people…
Robert ReichRobert Reich stands 4 feet 11 inches tall, and he has spent his working life arguing with people who hold far more power than he does. Born on the 24th of June 1946, he became an American lawyer, professor, author and political…
John RawlsJohn Rawls, an American philosopher, wrote a book of roughly 600 pages that protesters held up in front of government officials at Tiananmen Square in 1989. It was a dense academic treatise called A Theory of Justice. More than 300,000…
Kurt GödelIn 1931, Kurt Gödel proved that any sufficiently powerful math system contains true statements it cannot prove.
Angela DavisAngela Davis was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, then acquitted by an all-white jury.
Cornel WestYale punished Cornel West for a protest arrest by canceling his 1987 spring leave. He then commuted to Paris to teach.
I. J. GoodAlan Turing once stopped speaking to a codebreaker for napping on the floor.
Lewis MumfordLewis Mumford argued the clock, not the steam engine, drove the Industrial Revolution. He never finished college.
George SteinerGeorge Steiner was born Francis George Steiner on the 23rd of April 1929. He was a literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator, and he is described as both French and American. Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature…
John DeweyJohn Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, and over his lifetime he published more than 700 articles in 140 journals and roughly 40 books. In 1888, while still at the University of Michigan, he wrote a line that would organize all that…