a work in progress
Later known as Peter Waldo, Pierre de Vaudes (or Valdes) began a movement that some, including myself, consider the practice run for the Protestant Reformation - three and a half centuries earlier. Tradition has it that de Vaudes made his monetary fortune through usury; historically, we know that he was wealthy merchant of some type. […]
I am in good company when I say that I don't even pretend to understand a fraction of Hegel's works; philosopher Bertrand Russell exclaims in the "History of Western Philosophy" that Hegel is the most difficult philosopher to comprehend. Yet Hegel's emphasis (or obsession?) on historical scholarship and his philosophy of dichotomies, dialectics, and […]
So why did I pick the number 26 to start my list of the most influential thinkers in my life? Why not 25? Well, because I considered this 26th person as sort of a bonus, mainly because this man has had so much influence in the development as a critical thinker despite the fact that […]
Several years ago I watched a special on, I believe, A & E, documenting who they believed to be the 100 most influential people of the millennium. Lists like those are always controversial - are Spielberg (#91) and Jane Austen (#63) really worthy to be one of the top 100? - and their methods are […]