Simply Charly's Culture Insight

German philosopher of the late 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) boldly and daringly challenged the foundations of Christianity, traditional morality, and other prevalent social mores. He was at the forefront of the existentialism, perspectivism, and nihilism movements that emphasized the importance of human individuality and freedom; discovery of truth only in the context of our own perceptions and interpretations; and rejection of religious and moral doctrines. Paul Katsafanas is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, where he teaches courses on nineteenth-century philosophy and ethics. His research centers on topics at the interface of ethics and philosophy of mind, including the way in which normative claims might be justified; the nature of self-consciousness; the nature of agency; the notion of drive; and the concepts of free agency and unified agency. Katsafanas’ recent book Agency and the Foundations of Ethics: Nietzschean Constitutivism was recently published by Oxford University Press. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) laid the foundations of evolutionary biology through the process of natural selection, which he outlined in his seminal work, On the Origin of Species. John Darnton is a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter and best-selling novelist who has worked for The New York Times for over 40 years. His many books include Neanderthal, The Experiment, Mind Catcher, The Darwin Conspiracy, and most recently Black & White and Dead All Over Again. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Charles Darwin.

Paul Dirac (1902–1984) was an English theoretical physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. In 1933, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Sir Michael Atiyah is one of the world's greatest living mathematicians and is well known throughout the mathematical world. He is a recipient of the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, as well as the Abel Prize—two of mathematics' highest honors—and is still at the peak of his career. Atiyah received a knighthood in 1983 and the Order of Merit in 1992. He also served as president of the Royal Society from 1990–1995. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of British physicist Paul Dirac. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of British physicist Paul Dirac. SUGGESTED READING

The Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) was one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. His career spanned from the early twentieth century, when he composed ballets inspired by Russian myth and the era's revived interest in distinctly Russian culture, to the experimentation in compositional styles that followed the Second World War. Though born in the nineteenth century, he lived and worked long enough to see his works inspire progressive rock music, just as he himself had been inspired by earlier masters like Bach and Tchaikovsky. His importance in the history of music is unquestionable. John Heiss is an active composer, conductor, flutist, and teacher. He is the Director of the Contemporary Ensemble at New England Conservatory, where he teaches in the flute, chamber music, composition, music history, and music theory departments. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Igor Stravinsky. RECOMMENDED

Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer, William Butler (W. B.) Yeats (1865–1939), is considered to this day as one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Singer, scholar, stage director, producer, lecturer, teacher, and cultural activist, James Flannery is the Winship Professor of Arts and Humanities at Emory University. A specialist in the dramatic work of W. B. Yeats, he is the founder of the W. B. Yeats Foundation. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of W. B. Yeats.

Pulitzer and Nobel-winning writer, Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, whose simple, clear, and distinctive style revolutionized literature. American author Gay Talese is the bestselling author of eleven books. He was a reporter for the New York Times from 1956 to 1965, and since then he has written for the Times, Esquire, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and other national publications. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Ernest Hemingway.

Considered to be the most influential physicist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein (1879–1955) developed the theory of relativity and laid foundations for modern quantum mechanics. Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Frank Wilczek is a theoretical physicist who won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for a discovery in the world of quarks, the building blocks of the atomic nucleus. His latest book is The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether and the Unification of Forces. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Albert Einstein.

Austrian-born English philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) is considered as one of the most influential although controversial thinkers of the 20th century. His work touched on topics such as ethics, logic, and language. Rom Harré is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University and Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College at the University of Oxford. He has published over 30 books in the Philosophy of Science and the foundations of Social Psychology. His 1972 book, The Explanation of Social Behavior, co-authored with P.F. Secord, is considered a landmark in modern social psychology. Harré shares his insight into the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. RECOMMENDED

Thanks to his groundbreaking work in logic, the philosophy of mind, mathematics, and language, as well as two published works, Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) played a leading role in the 20th-century analytic philosophy. Jaakko Hintikka was Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. Author of over 30 books, he was the main architect of game-theoretical semantics and of the interrogative approach to inquiry, and also one of the architects of distributive normal forms, possible-worlds semantics, tree methods, infinitely deep logics, and the present-day theory of inductive generalization. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The author of such literary classics as Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, James Joyce (1882 – 1941) was one of Ireland's most celebrated novelists known for his avant-garde and often experimental style of writing. Michael Patrick Gillespie is Professor of English at Florida International University and the Director of the Center for the Humanities in an Urban Environment. He has written eleven books and numerous articles on the works of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, William Kennedy, Chaos Theory, and Irish Film. His anthology of early Joyce criticism was published in the spring of 2011 as part of the University Press of Florida Joyce Series. He is currently at work on an oral history of early Joyce studies and on a book on Joyce and the experience of exile. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of James Joyce.

The third and final member of a chain of Athenian philosophers who would shape the foundation of Western philosophy, Aristotle (384 B.C.E.–322 B.C.E.) was a student of Plato, who would eventually go on to mentor Alexander the Great. Nicknamed “The Reader” by Plato, Aristotle’s writings on science, ethics, and politics dominated Western society for centuries and had a profound impact on the development of Western culture. With his subjects ranging from natural science to metaphysical and ethical philosophy, Aristotle formalized logic and devised the scientific method as we know it today. David Roochnik is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He is the author of numerous articles on Greek philosophy, Greek literature, rhetoric (ancient and modern), post-modernism, and the nature of philosophy. He has been awarded both the Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching at the College of Arts and Sciences and the Outstanding Teaching Award by the Honors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Greek philosopher Aristotle.

Widely considered as one of the top musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis (1926–1991) was a major force in jazz. He was not only a gifted trumpeter and composer, but also an innovator who created a nine-member band called the “nonet,” in which unconventional (in jazz) instruments like French horn and tuba were used. He also invented a style known as “cool jazz,” characterized by softer and more subdued tempos than traditional jazz rhythms. Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of ten volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works. In 2010 Troupe received the American Book Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. Among Troupe's best-selling works are Miles: The Autobiography of Miles Davis and his memoir, Miles & Me soon to become a major motion picture. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Miles Davis.

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) was an influential British economist whose ideas on government intervention in the economy were considered to be both revolutionary and controversial. Nicholas Wapshott, author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics, shares his insight on why John Maynard Keynes Was “Ahead of His Time.” He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of John Maynard Keynes.

Alan Turing (1912–1954) was an English mathematician, logician, pioneer of computer science, and wartime code-breaker. He is credited with creating a design for the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE), the early electronic stored-program computer, as well as the Bombe—a decryption device that the British government used during WWII to crack the German “Enigma,” machine, which encrypted secret messages. Jack Copeland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he is Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing. His recent biography Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age draws on many years of conversations with Turing's closest friends and colleagues, and he explores the complex character of this shy genius as well as describing the breadth and importance of Turing's legacy. Copeland's other books include The Essential Turing; Artificial Intelligence; Colossus—The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers; and Alan Turing’s Electronic Brain. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Alan Turing.

Austrian-born economist Friedrich Hayek was noted for his criticisms of the Keynesian welfare state and of totalitarian socialism which was laid out in his popular book The Road to Serfdom (1944). In 1974, he shared the Nobel Prize for Economics with Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal. Nicholas Wapshott is the author of Keynes/Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. A former senior editor at the London Times and the New York Sun, he is now international editor at Newsweek, and lives in New York City. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Friedrich A. Hayek.

Considered by many to be the greatest composer of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) composed hundreds of pieces of music. Among his most famous works are Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music, 1787), and the operas Don Giovanni (1787) and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute, 1791). He died of a mysterious fever at age 35. One of the greatest violin virtuosos of our time, German-born Anne-Sophie Mutter has performed concerts in all the major music centers of Europe, the USA, and Asia. She celebrated her 30th stage anniversary in 2006—which coincided with Mozart’s 250th anniversary—with a series of new recordings of all his major works for violin. About Mozart, she said: “He has always been present in my life. I’ve never stopped thinking about him, and I’ve always been trying out new ways to get closer to him. He’s the composer I have grown up with, who was always there waiting for me at every juncture of my career.” She joins us on Culture Insight to share her insight into the life and work of Mozart.

Best known as the wife of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill served as one of her husband's closest confidantes, aiding him during his brightest moments as well as his darkest hours. During World War II, she led the Young Women's Christian Association's wartime efforts and also assisted in the Red Cross's efforts to provide relief in Russia. Sonia Purnell is a political reporter who has worked for a number of high-profile newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Independent on Sunday, and the London Evening Standard. She is the author of Just Boris, an acclaimed biography of Boris Johnson, London’s exuberant mayor. Her latest book, Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill, explores the peculiar dynamics of the fascinating union between Clementine and Winston Churchill. She joins us on Culture Insight to share her insight into the life and work of Clementine Churchill.

Although some of his theories are still hotly debated, Sigmund Freud, (May 6, 1856–September 23, 1939) is widely regarded as a trailblazer in the realm of psychiatry and psychology. The Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist, who was allegedly the first to offer a comprehensive explanation of how human behavior is determined by the conscious and unconscious forces, is regarded as the founder of psychoanalysis. Along with the “talk therapy” that remains the staple of psychiatric treatment to this day, Freud popularized, among other notions, such concepts as the psychosexual stages of development; Oedipus complex; transference; dream symbolism; Ego, Id and Super-Ego; and the one that has become part of colloquial English more than any other psychiatric term—the Freudian slip. Edward Erwin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami at Coral Gables. He is the author of several books as well as numerous articles in philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of psychology. He is also editor-in-chief of The Freud Encyclopedia: Theory, Therapy, and Culture—the first in-depth Encyclopedia on the life, work, and theories of Sigmund Freud. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Sigmund Freud.

Arguably the most influential architect, designer, and urban planner of the 20th century, Swiss-born Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, 1887–1965), played a decisive role in the development of modern architecture representative of the industrial age. Kenneth Frampton is the Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, and the author of several books including Modern Architecture: A Critical History, Labour, Work and Architecture, and a book about the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier who became a French citizen in his 30s. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Le Corbusier.

Best known for his Incompleteness Theorem, Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) is considered one of the most important mathematicians and logicians of the 20th century. By showing that the establishment of a set of axioms encompassing all of mathematics would never succeed, he revolutionized the world of mathematics, logic, and philosophy. Rebecca Goldstein is the author of Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel and, most recently, Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received many awards for her fiction and scholarship, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She shares her insight into the life and work of Kurt Gödel. SUGGESTED READING