Curated playlist
Existentialists
- Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche's sister edited his writings to fit her own ultranationalist views.
- Martin HeideggerPhilosopher Martin Heidegger joined the Nazi Party in May 1933. He did so while admired as a leading thinker of being.
- Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre asked to be dropped as a Nobel nominee, then won anyway. His 1964 letter went unread.
- Albert CamusAlbert Camus thanked his old schoolteacher right after his mother when he won the Nobel Prize.
- Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard dropped his script and wrote dialogue day by day for the film Breathless.
- Samuel BeckettSamuel Beckett once drove a young André the Giant to school. The future wrestler was a boy in rural France then.
- William JamesWilliam James argued we do not run from a bear because we are afraid. We are afraid because we run.
- Ralph EllisonA 1967 fire destroyed more than 300 pages of Ralph Ellison's second novel. He never finished it.
- Lewis GordonPhilosopher Lewis Gordon argues that racists are not irrational but hyper-rational.
- Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir's partnership with Sartre began on a bench outside the Louvre.
- Frantz FanonAt 17, Frantz Fanon slipped out of Martinique during a family wedding to join the Allies.
- Joss WhedonJoss Whedon earned more from a web musical than from directing The Avengers.
- Karl JaspersKarl Jaspers hid in Heidelberg through the Nazi years because his wife was Jewish.
- Alexandre KojèveAlexandre Kojève wrote a 900-page manuscript for Stalin. Whether it ever reached Moscow remains unknown.
- Hans JonasHans Jonas walked back into Germany as a British Army soldier. The Jewish philosopher had fled the country in 1933.
- Hubert DreyfusIn 1964, the RAND Corporation hired philosopher Hubert Dreyfus to review artificial intelligence.
- Mulla SadraMulla Sadra turned down governing Fars to live as a hermit. He was the only child of a wealthy ruler.
- José Ortega y GassetJosé Ortega y Gasset answered Descartes with "I live therefore I think." He put lived experience before abstract reason.
- Lev ShestovLev Shestov's dissertation was rejected, which blocked him from becoming a doctor of law.
- Colin WilsonColin Wilson finished his book The Outsider while sleeping rough on Hampstead Heath.
- Jean WahlPhilosopher Jean Wahl escaped the Drancy internment camp and crossed the Atlantic.