Category: Today’s Birthday

Along with Max Weber, Durkheim is considered one of the chief founders of modern sociology. His view that the methods of natural science can be applied to the study of society was influenced by the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte. Durkheim held that the collective mind of society was the source of religion and morality and that the common values developed in society, particularly in primitive societies, are the cohesive bonds of social order. What was Durkheim’s view on crime? Discuss

Ortelius was a Flemish geographer and cartographer who, while traveling with his contemporary Gerardus Mercator, was inspired to compile the first modern world atlas. The first edition of Theatrum orbis terrarium, issued in 1570, contained 53 maps compiled, in part, from the maps of 87 cartographers. A leading member of the 16th-century Flemish school of geography, Ortelius is thought to have been the first to posit what theory about the positioning of the continents? Discuss

In the 1930s, Butts, an unemployed architect, invented a game called Lexiko, in which players drew lettered tiles from a pool and then attempted to form words. After unsuccessful attempts to sell the game to board-game makers, Butts sold the rights to entrepreneur James Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments and renamed the game Scrabble. More than 150 million sets have been sold in multiple languages since. How did Butts determine how many tiles of each letter should be included in the game? Discuss

A member of the French de Jussieu family of distinguished botanists, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu categorized plants into families and developed a system of plant classification. He elaborated on the system of classification of his uncle, Bernard de Jussieu, in Genera plantarum, a work which influenced later systems of classification. He was professor at the Museum of Natural History, Paris, and organized its botanical collection. What other members of the de Jussieu family were botanists? Discuss

Severus became emperor of Rome in 193 CE, also known as the “Year of the Five Emperors.” In the months before he ascended the throne, two emperors were assassinated and a third—Didius Julianus—earned the position by buying it from the Praetorian Guard. With the empire in disarray, Severus marched on Rome, ousted Julianus, and was proclaimed emperor. He then built himself a strong army that would protect both him and his empire. It is said that he gave what advice to his sons before his death? Discuss

Born in Hungary, Pulitzer immigrated to the US during the Civil War and served in the Union Army. He later became a reporter and purchased and founded several newspapers, establishing the pattern of the modern newspaper by combining investigative reporting with publicity stunts, self-advertising, and sensationalism. In his will, he established the Pulitzer Prizes, annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, and music. What famous saying about journalism is attributed to him? Discuss

Utzon was a Danish architect who, in 1957, won a competition to design Australia’s Sydney Opera House, which was completed in 1973 and was declared a World Heritage Site in 2007. Utzon is only the second architect in history to see his work assigned this status during his lifetime. In 1966, after designing the opera house’s distinctive roof—a series of glittering white shell-shaped vaults—and spending nearly a decade on the project, Utzon was forced to resign mid-project. Why? Discuss

Husserl was a German philosopher and the founder of the phenomenological movement. His philosophy is a descriptive study of consciousness for the purpose of discovering the structure of experience—the laws by which experiences are had. Husserl concluded that consciousness has no life apart from the objects it considers and, in his later work, moved toward idealism and denied that objects exist outside consciousness. Husserl had a major influence on what German philosopher? Discuss

Born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, Mistral was a Chilean poet who combined writing with a career as a cultural minister, diplomat, and professor. She established her reputation as a poet in 1914, when she won a prize for “Sonetos de la Muerte”—”Sonnets of Death.” Her passionate lyrics, with love of children and of the downtrodden as principal themes, are collected in many volumes. In 1945, Mistral became the first Latin American to be honored in what way? Discuss

An English naturalist, Gosse built the first marine aquarium and was an innovator in the field of marine biology. He was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian group that rejected the theory of evolution, and wrote many books on zoology, including Omphalos, an attempt to reconcile geological theories with the biblical account of creation. After his death, Gosse was caricatured as a despotic father in Father and Son, written by his son Edmund, who was also his what? Discuss