Februarians

This month we're featuring thinkers who were born in February, beginning with a recent episode in our Wise Women series about French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil (born February 3, 1909). Born almost exactly a century earlier on February 12, 1809, Charles Darwin was the subject of a bicentennial episode with late Daniel Dennett in 2009. A year before that, John and Ken explored the life and thought of one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century, John Rawls (born February 21, 1921). Nearly sharing a birthday with Rawls is Arthur Schopenhauer (born February 22, 1788), subject of a 2005 episode with novelist-psychiatrist Irv Yalom. A central figure in the establishment of Black History Month itself, scholar-activist W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868. And rounding out the list of February babies is the inventor of the philosophical essay, Michel de Montaigne (born February 28, 1588).

Februarians

Episode Title Guest Related Content

Simone Weil

Rebecca Rozelle-Stone, Professor of Philosophy & Ethics, University of North Dakota Looking, Listening, Liberating

The Philosophical Legacy of Darwin

Daniel Dennett, Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University.

The Philosophical Legacy of Charles Darwin

John Rawls

Joshua Cohen, Professor of Political Science, Philosophy, and Law, Stanford University

Rawls on Justice

Schopenhauer

Irv Yalom, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Stanford University

The Only Mattering Worth Caring About

W.E.B. Du Bois

Lucius Outlaw, Professor of Philosophy and Associate Provost of Undergraduate Education, Vanderbilt University

Thoughts on the Doubling of Consciousness

Montaigne and the Art of the Essay

Cécile Alduy, Professor of French Literature and Culture, Stanford University What Montaigne Knew