Curated playlist
Ontologists
- VoltaireThe line Voltaire is most quoted for was written in 1906, long after he died.
- Immanuel KantA Prussian king's censors forbade Immanuel Kant to speak publicly about religion. The philosopher answered in 1798.
- AristotleOnly around a third of Aristotle's original writings survive, and none was meant to be published.
- Martin HeideggerPhilosopher Martin Heidegger joined the Nazi Party in May 1933. He did so while admired as a leading thinker of being.
- Denis DiderotJailed writer Denis Diderot annotated Paradise Lost with a toothpick and ink made from slate and wine.
- Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre asked to be dropped as a Nobel nominee, then won anyway. His 1964 letter went unread.
- AvicennaIn a fortress prison, Avicenna imagined a man falling through air. It became known as the Floating Man.
- René DescartesRené Descartes had three dreams in a heated room in 1619. He believed they revealed a new philosophy to him.
- 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.
- Philip K. DickPhilip K. Dick died four months before Blade Runner opened. He never saw the film that made his name famous.
- Baruch SpinozaBaruch Spinoza was expelled from his Jewish community at twenty-three, and it still refuses him back.
- Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky wrote his first article at age 10, about the fall of Barcelona.
- 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.
- Francis BaconFrancis Bacon may have died after stuffing a hen with snow. He wanted to test if cold could preserve meat like salt.
- MenciusMencius said a tyrant king was no longer a ruler at all. The Chinese philosopher put common citizens above rulers.
- Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss died in 2009, and for four days the world did not know.
- Edmund HusserlA Franciscan priest smuggled approximately 40,000 pages of Edmund Husserl's notes out of Nazi Germany.
- AverroesIn 1169, a caliph asked the philosopher Averroes if the heavens had a beginning.
- 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.
- NagarjunaAlmost nothing certain is known about Nagarjuna, yet Tibetan Buddhists call him the "second Buddha."
- Adi ShankaraAdi Shankara, now called India's most important philosopher, was probably unknown in his own time.
- Kurt GödelIn 1931, Kurt Gödel proved that any sufficiently powerful math system contains true statements it cannot prove.
- Gabriel MarcelGabriel Marcel wrote at least thirty plays, but readers kept turning to his philosophy.
- 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.