7 Philosopher-Kings that Changed History @ThinkingWest

7 Philosopher-Kings that Changed History @ThinkingWest

Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

A few rulers throughout history may be candidates for the title philosopher-king. These leaders have either enlightened those around them with their own wisdom or have promoted education and learning broadly throughout their realms. The list is ordered chronologically so we can explore important developments in education as they unfolded. Let’s take a look at some of the greatest philosopher-kings to have graced the history books.

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ThinkingWest aims to revive the “Great Conversation” in our digital age through promoting the study of the great books of the western world, classical approaches to education, and through thoughtful commentary on current events, history, philosophy, culture, education, and religion.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren: amzn.to/3NOLCrm
How to Read and Why, Harold Bloom: amzn.to/3J69V0y
The Well-Educated Mind, Susan Wise Bauer: amzn.to/3LB5Djq

LINKS
Website: thinkingwest.com
Donate to support this work: thinkingwest.com/donate
Classic book lists: thinkingwest.com/book-lists
Relevant articles: thinkingwest.com/2022/04/29/7-great-philosopher-kings

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7 Philosopher-Kings that Changed History

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$Chesterton and Orthodoxy: Christian Mysticism Chesterton is one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. This episode of the ThinkingWest Podcast (formerly Coffee Break Philosophy) breaks down G.K. Chestertons idea in his book Orthodoxy that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. Christian talks about reason, religion, Christianity, and symbolism recognized by Chesterton, particularly with regard to Christian mysticism. VISIT US https://thinkingwest.com/ PURCHASE Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton: https://www.amazon.com/Orthodoxy-G-K-Chesterton/dp/1515241394/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=orthodoxy&qid=1559994708&s=gateway&sr=8-1 MUSIC CREDIT Golden Alley by Nicolai Heidlas and Francesco Rea | https://www.nicolai-heidlas.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ So how to understand the world around us? Do we construct a purely logical framework with which to overlay our experiences on? Or do we also partly rely on the supernatural, religion, and that which we dont fully understand to better grasp the world around us? According to philosopher and writer G.K. Chesterton, it is almost certainly the latter. In this series of videos, well be exploring some of the great ideas he had to share with the world, but for this video were going to be talking all about how we understand through the unknown - coming up. G. K. Chesterton, also known as the Prince of Paradox, was a master of wit and turning an argument on its head. He wrote his book Orthodoxy in response to criticism to his previous book called Heretics in that it criticized his contemporaries without providing any overarching philosophy of his own; thus, he responded to the challenge to write the book about his own beliefs, and a great book called Orthodoxy was born. Now, in it he wrote man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand and this he claimed was the secret of mysticism. Now, mysticism, in all honesty, is kind of a tricky thing to define, because its very definition has been debated by scholars for quite some time. But, here were talking specifically about Christian mysticism as opposed to a secular mysticism that we hear about more today. In Christian mysticism its more about a way of thinking with God behind all things, or a consciousness of God in all things. In the secular view, its kind of an occult or supernatural existence: for example in fortune-telling or generally taboo practices of that sort. So, Chestertons quote summarizes the idea that we can better understand the world around us by accepting the few things that we dont fully understand, namely that Christianity in all of its mysteries give us the understanding of why were here, our purpose on earth, and ultimately our destination: the things that the secular world alone does not give you, the purely logical view of the world doesnt answer for us, the science alone wont ever tell us. Its about purpose and meaning. Our belief in a God and a Christian God in particular answers those deep questions about why were here and where were going. An analogy that Chesterton gave was the Sun, and he gave a great many examples throughout his book Orthodoxy and in his writings elsewhere. Now, the Sun is so bright that you cant look directly upon it. Its brightness and intensity of light illuminates the entirety of the Earth along with providing warmth for the Earth, and its this clarity that allows us to function throughout our everyday life. Now, contrast the Sun with the moon. The moon is a very weak light when its there at all and in truth is reflecting only a fraction of the light which originally comes from the Sun in the first place. So, the moon is a weak light; its not actually a source of light, while the Sun is a source of light and a very intense source of light at that. Now, an additional point that Chesterton makes is that the moon - you can you can break out a telescope out at night and stare at the moon all you want and observe its its features throughout the entirety of the night. The Sun - you cant do that - youll go blind. But this - but the moon - you can stare at. You can focus on. You can learn everything there is to know about it, and you can see a circular shape, for example, at night. And, the circular shape was what Chesterton was connecting to his second chapter called The Maniac, and in The Maniac he details the circular logic that defines their mode of thinking. Now, Chesterton also said that mysticism keeps men sane and he connected this with twilight. Now, twilight is a period of time where the Sun is still just below the horizon was just before sunrise and just after sunset. The Sun still illuminates the lower sky with those red, yellow, and orange hues, and the twilight has always had an association in lore and fantasy writings with the magical and the mysterious... #chesterton #orthodoxy #chestertonsociety$

7 Philosopher-Kings that Changed History