Intellectual figures are the mothers and fathers of all ideas. The most important function of these profiles is to catalogue the contributions of these figures to the modern landscape of Concepts. But through them, I also explore and refine my approach to understanding historical figures as players in the game of ideas, how the psychological biography of academic ideation contributes to our understanding and use of ideas, and how best to classify and approach our acquaintance with the personal aspect of the evolution of knowledge.

Ideas are always products of people.

As someone deeply invested in the meaning and content of ideas, I can’t imagine building a personal knowledge base without segmenting a column for the people who generate the concepts. Even code, originating from Leibniz’s binary formulations, is personal. Leibniz conceived of binary after reading the I-Ching, or Book of Changes. Knowing this gives you one more (of an infinite number of) access point to approaching the nature and ethics of modern programming and its relationship to religion. When we understand the genealogy of ideas, we acquaint ourselves with their distinct musculature, their character.