Simply Charly's Culture Insight

Austrian-born economist Friedrich A. 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.

  Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) was an iconic film director and producer of over 50 movies, including Dial M for Murder, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. The techniques he pioneered inspired a new generation of filmmakers and revolutionized the "thriller" genre. Jack Sullivan is a literary scholar and professor of English at Rider University. He has published several books including New World Symphonies: How American Culture Changed European Music and most recently Hitchcock's Music. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Alfred Hitchcock.

One of the most singularly talented pianists of all time, Franz Liszt (1811—1886) dominated the musical world of the 19th century. An unrivaled virtuoso who also composed his own music, Liszt laid the bedrock for the Late Romantic and Impressionistic schools that would follow after him. To this day he is considered a musical genius who ranks alongside his contemporaries Chopin and Schumann as one of history’s most influential musicians. Now in the fifth decade of an illustrious international career, Misha Dichter has performed with virtually all of the world's great orchestras. His critically-praised classical recordings display a passionate and nuanced interpretation of Brahms, Liszt, Gershwin, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, and other master composers and has received the "Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt" for his recording of Liszt's piano transcriptions. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Franz Liszt.

  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.

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.

  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.

  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. Frank Sulloway is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of two highly acclaimed books, Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend and Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. Sulloway's research interests include evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, and the history of science. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of Sigmund Freud.

  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.

  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. Paul Muldoon is the author of numerous books of poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Moy Sand and Gravel. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches creative writing at Princeton University and was formerly professor of poetry at Oxford University. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of W.B. Yeats.

  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. Philip Kitcher has taught at several American Universities and is currently John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia. He is the author of over a dozen books including Advancement of Science, Science, Truth and Democracy, The Ethical Project and Joyce's Kaleidoscope. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was also the first recipient of the Prometheus Prize, awarded by the American Philosophical Association for work in expanding the frontiers of Science and Philosophy. He joins us on Culture Insight to share his insight into the life and work of James Joyce.

  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.

  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.

  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. Janna Levin is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her scientific research concerns the Early Universe, Chaos, and Black Holes. Her recent book, the novel A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (Knopf, 2006), won the PEN/Bingham Fellowship for Writers, which “honors an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work . . . represents distinguished literary achievement.” She is also the author of the popular science book How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space. She joins us on Culture Insight to share her insight into the life and work of Kurt Gödel.

  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.

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.