Curated playlist
Metaphysicians
- Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas's family held him prisoner for nearly a year. At nineteen he chose to join the Dominican preachers.
- Augustine of HippoAugustine of Hippo once prayed, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
- Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy spent his last hours on a train, preaching non-violence to strangers.
- Karl MarxKarl Marx left an estate valued at just 250 pounds when he died in 1883. He died stateless in London at 64.
- John LockeJohn Locke's phrase "long train of abuses" appears word for word in the Declaration of Independence.
- Baruch SpinozaBaruch Spinoza was expelled from his Jewish community at twenty-three, and it still refuses him back.
- Shen KuoIn 1088, Chinese official Shen Kuo explained why compass needles point slightly east of south.
- Edmund HusserlA Franciscan priest smuggled approximately 40,000 pages of Edmund Husserl's notes out of Nazi Germany.
- LaoziLaozi's name is not a name at all, but a title meaning old teacher. Tradition credits him with the Tao Te Ching.
- LucretiusA Roman poem on atoms sat forgotten in a German monastery for over a thousand years.
- 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.
- Michel WeberMichel Weber opened Belgium's first philosophical counseling service. He champions process philosophy.