Home > Positioning > Persons

Persons A–Z

Individual thinkers referenced across the positioning section. Each page collects a thinker’s key concepts, works, and links back to where they appear in the seed trajectories, close affinity, wider landscape, and on-the-fence pieces.

B

• Brandom, Robert (1950–) · philosopherinferentialism, deontic scorekeeping, commitment over representation, expressive rationality
• Bateson, Gregory (1904–1980) · anthropologist, cyberneticistecology of mind, difference that makes a difference, schismogenesis, the pattern which connects
• Bergson, Henri (1859–1941) · philosopherduration, creative evolution, intuition, the élan vital

C

• Connolly, William E. (1938–) · political theoristdeep pluralism, pluralisation, agonistic respect, politics of becoming, resonance machines

D

• Descartes, René (1596–1650) · philosopher, mathematicianthe cogito, the mirror, the mind-body split, method
• Dewey, John (1859–1952) · philosopherpragmatism, democracy, inquiry as community problem-solving, experience as transaction

F

• Feyerabend, Paul (1924–1994) · philosopher of scienceagainst method, theoretical pluralism, incommensurability
• Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1762–1814) · philosopherself-positing I, the not-I, differentiation as origin
• Frege, Gottlob (1848–1925) · logician, philosophermodern logic, sense and reference, the concept-script, anti-psychologism

G

• Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1900–2002) · philosopherphilosophical hermeneutics, prejudice, effective history, fusion of horizons
• Goodman, Nelson (1906–1998) · philosopherways of worldmaking, symbol systems, rightness over truth, irrealism

H

• Habermas, Jürgen (1929–2025) · philosopher, social theoristcommunicative action, discourse ethics, lifeworld and system
• Heraclitus (c. 535–c. 475 BCE) · philosopherflux and constancy, unity of opposites, logos, fire
• Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831) · philosopherdialectic, sublation, determinate negation, historical development
• Heidegger, Martin (1889–1976) · philosopherbeing-in-the-world, disclosure, Dasein, readiness-to-hand
• Hume, David (1711–1776) · philosopherempiricism, causation as habit, the bundle self, the is-ought problem
• Husserl, Edmund (1859–1938) · philosopherphenomenology, intentionality, time-consciousness, the lifeworld

J

• James, William (1842–1910) · philosopher, psychologistpragmatism, radical empiricism, stream of consciousness, pluralism
• Jonas, Hans (1903–1993) · philosopherthe phenomenon of life, metabolism as selfhood, inwardness, responsibility

K

• Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804) · philosopherthe Copernican revolution, phenomena and noumena, the categories, the moral law
• Kuhn, Thomas (1922–1996) · philosopher of science, historianparadigms, normal science, revolutions, incommensurability

L

• Luhmann, Niklas (1927–1998) · sociologistsocial systems, functional differentiation, communication, autopoiesis, structural coupling
• Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716) · philosopher, mathematicianrelational space, monads, pre-established harmony, the universal characteristic
• Lyotard, Jean-François (1924–1998) · philosopherthe postmodern condition, the differend, language games, metanarratives

M

• Maturana, Humberto (1928–2021) · biologist, philosopherautopoiesis, biology of cognition, the observer, structural determinism
• Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1908–1961) · philosopherphenomenology of the body, perception, the habitual body, intercorporeality

N

• Nagel, Thomas (1937–) · philosophersubjectivity, the view from nowhere, against reductionism

O

• Ostrom, Elinor (1933–2012) · political economistgoverning the commons, polycentric governance, institutional diversity

P

• Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839–1914) · philosopher, logicianpragmatism, semiotics, the community of inquirers, fallibilism
• Polanyi, Michael (1891–1976) · chemist, philosophertacit knowledge, personal knowledge, indwelling, the republic of science
• Popper, Karl (1902–1994) · philosopher of sciencefalsificationism, conjecture and refutation, the open society

R

• Rorty, Richard (1931–2007) · philosopherpragmatism, conversation over correspondence, contingency, solidarity
• Rovelli, Carlo (1956–) · theoretical physicist, philosopherloop quantum gravity, relational QM, time, Nagarjuna
• Russell, Bertrand (1872–1970) · logician, philosopherPrincipia Mathematica, logical atomism, the theory of descriptions, Russell’s paradox

S

• Sapolsky, Robert (1957–) · neuroscientisthuman behavioural biology, integrative across layers
• Sellars, Wilfrid (1912–1989) · philosopherthe myth of the given, the space of reasons, psychological nominalism, the manifest and scientific images
• Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905–1980) · philosopherexistentialism, radical freedom, consciousness as nothingness, engagement
• Saussure, Ferdinand de (1857–1913) · linguiststructural linguistics, the differential sign, langue and parole
• Solé, Ricard (1962–) · complex systems scientistliquid brains, solid brains, criticality, phase transitions
• Spinoza, Baruch (1632–1677) · philosophersubstance monism, determination as negation, conatus

V

• Varela, Francisco (1946–2001) · biologist, cognitive scientistautopoiesis, enactivism, neurophenomenology, the embodied mind

W

• Whitehead, Alfred North (1861–1947) · philosopher, mathematicianprocess, actual occasions, creativity, prehension
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1889–1951) · philosopherlanguage games, forms of life, meaning as use