Thinking differently: ten maverick philosophers

Down through the centuries, there have been philosophers who didn’t march to the regular beat of academia and weren’t afraid to take on the philosophical heavyweights of their times; who went off at a tangent but nevertheless came to influence the hierarchy in various ways.

Liberal arts lecturer Dr Lawrence Harvey has selected ten such unorthodox individuals in his evocative and thought-stirring Offbeat Philosophers: Thinkers who played a different tune (Iff Books, September, 2024).

‘Often labouring on the margins of mainstream philosophy, each thinker herein offers a new perspective unhindered by the accepted norms or conventions of their day,’ says Dr Harvey.

His ten edifying portraits are taken from a period spanning more than 700 years, from the Persian-born poet-philosopher, theologian and Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207–73) to Donna Haraway (b1944), the American professor emerita in the history of consciousness and feminist studies.

Dr Harvey’s choices arise from his own ‘interests, preoccupations and biases’, and reflect ‘a diverse and thematically interwoven tapestry of offbeat thinkers who provoke us to…