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Apr 25, 2024 15 tweets 6 min read Read on X
The Greatest Minds to Have Ever Lived (A Four-Part Series) - Part 4

Here are luminaries who have laid the foundations for the arts, philosophy, and the sciences that continue to shape our world.

Let's look at how they were immortalized in art.🧵⤵️ Image
Hippocrates

Known as the "Father of Medicine," Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician who established a systematic approach to clinical medicine and set ethical standards for medical practice, as encapsulated in the Hippocratic Oath. Statue of Hippocrates in front of the Mayne Medical School in Brisbane. By Kgbo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103636989
Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun was a North African Arab historiographer and historian who is often regarded as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology, and economics. His best-known work, the "Muqaddimah" (Introduction to History), is admired for its insightful analysis of historical processes and for laying the foundations of several social science disciplines.Ibn Khaldun (on the right end) along with other philosophers Part of Time's Treasures Mural by Sadequain
Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach was a German composer and musician whose mastery of counterpoint and harmony in works like the "Brandenburg Concertos" and "St. Matthew Passion" has profoundly shaped classical music, leaving an indelible mark on music theory and composition. Johann Sebastian Bach by 'Gebel'
Charles Darwin

Darwin was an English naturalist whose theory of evolution through natural selection, detailed in his book "On the Origin of Species," radically transformed biological sciences by providing a unifying explanation for the diversity of life. While still a young man, Darwin joined the scientific elite; portrait by George Richmond By George Richmond - From Origins, Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22092879
Simone de Beauvoir

De Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher whose seminal work "The Second Sex" offered a profound analysis of women's oppression, laying the intellectual foundation for the modern feminist movement. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre in Beijing, 1955 By 刘东鳌(Liu Dong'ao) - Xinhua News Agency; Larger 1024 x 1199, 183.3 KB version from https://www.delo.si/images/slike/2018/12/17/o_416925_1024.jpg as displayed by https://www.delo.si/kultura/knjiga/ko-se-je-sartre-spogledoval-z-jastogi-124490.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47073115
Thomas Edison

An American inventor and businessman, Edison's creation of the first practical incandescent light bulb and development of electric power generation and distribution systems revolutionized everyday life. Edison's Menlo Park Lab in 1880
Alexander Graham Bell

Bell was a Scottish-born inventor whose invention of the telephone transformed global communication and he also made significant contributions to the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago in 1892 By Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. - http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_telephone_1_e.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1389089
Benjamin Franklin

Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and his inventions, such as the lightning rod, and his experiments with electricity have had lasting impacts on science and technology. Franklin in London in 1767, wearing a blue suit with elaborate gold braid and buttons, a far cry from the simple dress he affected at the French court in later years, depicted in a portrait by David Martin that is now on display in the White House. By David Martin - The White House Historical Association, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9390044
Rabindranath Tagore

Tagore was a Bengali polymath who reshaped literature and music in India, and as a Nobel laureate in Literature, he brought Indian culture to a global audience. Young Tagore in London, 1879
Wangari Maathai

Maathai was a Kenyan environmental activist and the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an environmental organization that has planted over 50 million trees. She was also the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.Maathai and then U.S. Senator Barack Obama in Nairobi in 2006 By Fredrick Onyango from Nairobi, Kenya - https://www.flickr.com/photos/44222307@N00/269107766/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2267930
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

A self-taught scholar and poet of the Baroque school, Sor Juana was a nun in New Spain (now Mexico) who advocated for women’s rights and education, becoming one of the first published feminist writers. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Miguel Cabrera
Akira Kurosawa

Kurosawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, whose storytelling prowess and cinematic techniques in films such as "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon" have influenced filmmakers worldwide and are regarded as some of the greatest and most influential films ever made.Kurosawa on the set of Seven Samurai in December 1953 Credit: By 映画の友 (Eiga no tomo) - Scan from the original work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29019594
Elon Musk

As a technology entrepreneur and industrial designer, Musk has made pivotal contributions to the advancement of electric vehicles and renewable energy with Tesla, Inc., and has challenged space exploration frontiers with his aerospace company SpaceX.

He also owns Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain-computer interfaces, and has acquired Twitter, a major social media platform challenging the future of legacy media platforms.Musk discussing a Neuralink device during a live demonstration in 2020 By Steve Jurvetson - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/50280652497/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93666208
If you enjoyed this thread, please share with others and do take a look at the earlier parts in this series of four threads starting with Part 1 linked below.

Additionally check out Parts 2 and 3.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Anyone we missed that should have been on the list?

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More from @CultureExploreX

Sep 13
Why do we stare at faces painted centuries ago?

Because portraits aren’t just about how someone looked. They show us who mattered. What power meant. What beauty was.

Here are 22 portraits that shaped how we see the world — and ourselves. 🧵 Portrait Of Lady Agnew Of Lochnaw by John Singer Sargent at the 	Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh Year (completed): 1892
This isn’t just a pretty girl.

Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) is quiet, almost plain.

But her gaze follows you. Her lips are parted. She’s thinking something.

We just don’t know what.
Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands Image
Not seductive. Not smiling.
But absolutely unforgettable.

John Singer Sargent’s Madame X (1884) shocked Paris.
He had to repaint the strap to stop the scandal.
She became the most famous woman nobody knew.

Met, NYC Image
Read 23 tweets
Sep 12
In 2004, Navy Cmdr. David Fravor chased a white “Tic Tac” that dropped 50,000 feet in seconds, hovered, and darted off faster than a missile.

Radar and infrared confirmed it.

Physics can't explain it.

What if this sighting and others like it connect to visions in scripture? 🧵
Ezekiel, 6th century BC.

He described “wheels within wheels” of fire, full of eyes, rising and darting across the sky.

Scholars call it prophecy.

Yet the imagery—rotating forms, luminous movement—matches reports from pilots millennia later.

Were they both seeing the same reality?Ezekiel's Vision by Raphael, c. 1518 AD
Fatima, 1917.

Seventy thousand people in a Portuguese field claimed the sun spun, plunged, and threw rainbow colors across the sky.

Eyewitnesses included skeptics and reporters.

Miracle? Mass hallucination?

Or the same luminous disc phenomenon tracked today by pilots and radar?
Read 16 tweets
Sep 11
9/11 didn’t just collapse towers, it collapsed belief.

In Institutions and In purpose.

24 years later, what’s rising in its place isn’t chaos.

It’s something more seductive and far more dangerous. 👇 9/11 Never Forget ...  Credit: Hannah Funderburk
Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe called it The Saeculum — a four-phase cycle of human history:

• The High
• The Awakening
• The Unraveling
• The Crisis

We are now deep inside the last one. The Crisis. The Four Turnings of the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory
Every few generations, society hits a Fourth Turning, a total crisis that tears through its myths and rebuilds from the ashes.

• Revolution
• Civil war
• Depression
• Global war

Each cycle ends the same way: something must be reborn. Image
Read 15 tweets
Sep 7
What if the greatest British export isn’t the language or the empire…

…but a sense of timeless beauty etched in stone and paint?

Most people don’t realize how bold British art and architecture really is.

Let me show you the masterpieces they never taught you about: 🧵👇 Piccadilly Circus, London Credit: Pamela Lowrance
Most cities hide their secrets underground.

London built its greatest secret above ground.

The Royal Naval College in Greenwich looks like something out of ancient Rome yet it was designed by Christopher Wren to be “the Versailles of the sea.”

Its twin domes once trained the world's most powerful navy.
How do you immortalize love, sorrow, and empire… with one sculpture?

Answer: the Albert Memorial.

Critics mocked it when it was built. Now they quietly admit it’s one of the most emotionally overwhelming monuments in Europe.

Gothic, golden, and unapologetically romantic. Image
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Sep 5
Poland just became a $1 trillion economy without open borders, without giving up religion, and without tearing down its traditions.

What did Poland do that the West won’t? (a thread) 🧵👇 Gdansk, Poland Credit: Elif Odabaş
Back in 1990, Poland was broke and gray.
Fresh out of Soviet control, it had crumbling factories, dull housing blocks, and a weak economy.

No one expected it to become the EU’s quiet success story.

Image: Warsaw (Then and Now) Image
Today, Poland has become a vibrant society.

Old towns have been rebuilt with care.
Churches restored.

Soviet scars replaced with colorful facades and cobbled streets.

Poland proved something no one talks about:
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Sep 3
Civilizations don’t begin with kings or armies — they begin with stories.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Iliad, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings — separated by thousands of years, they’re all asking the same question:

How do you turn chaos into meaning? 🧵 Upper left: Epic of Gilgamesh Upper right: Iliad Lower left: Hamlet Lower right: Lord of the Rings
The oldest epic we know is about Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who lost his closest friend and went searching for immortality, only to learn that no man escapes death.

He learned that meaning lies in what we build and leave behind.

Across time, stories help us face death and make sense of a broken world.The Epic of Gilgamesh stands as one of humanity's oldest literary masterpieces, dating back to the early third millennium BCE. This ancient Mesopotamian poem originates from the Sumerian city of Uruk, located in present-day Iraq. Credit: Archaeo - Histories
That was 4,000 years ago. But the pattern never changed.

Every epic since has wrestled with the same truth: chaos comes for all of us.

And every culture turned to stories to tame it. Dante and Virgil in Hell is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau
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