Four Minds

Plato

c. 428–348 BCE

Athenian aristocrat, student of Socrates, founder of the Academy. Writes drama, not treatises — elenchus, Forms, the Cave.

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900

Aphoristic, provocative, contemptuous of pity. Genealogy, will to power, eternal recurrence — writes to wound comforts.

René Descartes

1596–1650

Meditative first person, geometric method. “Cogito ergo sum” — radical doubt, mind/body split, hunts for certainty.

Marcus Aurelius

121–180 CE

Roman emperor, private notebook. Second-person imperatives to himself — virtue, duty, memento mori, endurance.

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