GROẞE DENKER UND MACHER - COMPENDIUM

Der Denker/Le Penseur (Auguste Rodin)

Wir haben in diesem Blog schon mehrere Listen über Große Denker aus verschiedenen Wissensbereichen aufgeführt.

 

Darüber hinaus haben wir über viele dieser Denker und ihr Werk Artikel geschrieben und weitere Verweise angegeben, damit man sich intensiver mit ihnen beschäftigen kann.

 

Was wir weniger gemacht haben, ist, eine knackige Zusammenfassung ("Kompendium") der unserer Ansicht nach wichtigsten und prägnantesten Denker aufzustellen.

 

Man denke dabei an das LSR-Projekt von Holger Laska über die Denker LaMettrie - Stirner - Reich. Dieses existiert schon seit den Anfängen des WWW, als es hier noch nicht so voll war und wir haben dessen Seite immer wieder besucht.

 

 

Louis Althusser (1918 - 1990):

• in seiner Autobiographie "L'avenir dure longtemps" (dt.: Die Zukunft hat Zeit), die mit dem Erwürgen seiner Frau im November 1980 beginnt, versucht Althusser rückblickend seine Autobiographie entlang von Pathologien in der eigenen Familie und Zeitströmungen des 20. Jhd.s zu entwickeln
• zynisch, aber in einigen Punkten auch erhellend 
  
  

Julian Jaynes (1920 - 1997):

• Jaynes verbindet Psychologie und Geschichte (mindestens diese beiden Fächer)
• in seiner Theorie, dass das moderne (Ich-)Bewusstsein erst mit der Zeit entstanden ist - und zwar durch den Zusammenbruch der "bikameralen Psyche", versucht er zu zeigen, dass die Menschen vorher ein Zwei-Kammern-Bewusstsein mit einem göttlichen und einem menschlichen Anteil hatten
• Jaynes wurde für diesen Ansatz leider gemobbt und früh krank

LaMettrie, Julien Offray (1709 - 1751):

• LaMettrie gilt als Radikalaufklärer, für einige auch als Stiefkind der Aufklärung
• LaMettrie war (biologischer) Materialist und Atheist und stützte sich als Arzt auf die medizinischen Erkenntnisse seiner Zeit
• LaMettrie floh ähnlich wie Voltaire aus Frankreich nach Preußen, beide konnten sich aber nicht besonders leiden
  

Theodore Roszak (1933 - 2011):

• Roszak war Historiker und beschäftigte sich mit vielen wichtigen Themen, wie z. B. der Gegenkultur/Counter Culture der 1960er-Jahre (der Begriff soll von ihm stammen), den Nebenwirkungen des Computerzeitalters, der amerikanischen Rechten (und ihrer Fraktionen) und der Ökopsychologie
• daneben schrieb er auch Romane

 

Immanuel Wallerstein (1930 - 2019):

• Marxist und Weltsystemtheoretiker
• er versuchte sich in seiner Weltsystemtheorie an einer Makrotheorie zu einer Zeit, in der diesen zunehmend mit Skepsis betrachtet wurden
• der Dependenztheoretiker Andre Frank schloss sich spät auch den Weltsystemtheoretikern an
• Wallerstein hat zu Lebzeiten in seinen "Commentaries" auch aufsatzartig das aktuelle Zeitgeschehen kommentiert 

 

Weitere große Denker:

• Buddha
• Chomsky, Noam
  
• Epikur
• Sokrates
  
• Themistokles
• Thukydides
• Webb, Gary (1955 - 2004)

 

 

JEFFREY EDWARD EPSTEIN (ENGLISH)

Jeffrey Epstein (2006, mugshot)

* 1953-01-20
+ 2019-08-10

Jeffrey Edward Epstein was an American financier and child sex offender.

-

Epstein was born and raised in New York City in a Jewish family. He grew up in Sea Gate, a gated community at the western brink of Coney Island, Brooklyn. He had one brother, Mark.
His parents pushed him and his brother for high academic standards. There is speculation that for that reason parts of his personality were overdeveloped while others were underdeveloped.
At school Epstein was good at mathematics and science, but also at arts. He visited Lafayette High School at Brooklyn and could skip two classes.

Sea Gate, Brooklyn

From 1969 to 1971 Epstein visited courses at Cooper Union college in Manhattan without getting a degree. in 1971 he was enrolled at New York University at Courant Institute of mathemetics. Epstein was intelligent but seemed to have problems with institutionalized education. He joint and left training programs.

From 1973 to 1975 Epstein began his professional life as a teacher for mathematics and physics at the famous Dalton School, even without a degree.

Epstein was quite popular at Dalton School but lived a liberal "70s" lifestyle.
He was looking for social contacts with students and also for social contacts with parents - escpecially if they were wealthy and good for his later professional life.
For some reason he had to leave this school.

But Epstein didn't fall far. Around 1976 he entered the banking and finance sector.
He worked at Bear Stearns and later started his own firm. The bosses of Bear Stearns wanted young people with intelligence and hunger for success, but not necessarily with high degrees or rich parents.
It is not quite clear why Epstein left Bear Stearns and if there was trouble because of his business conduct.
In his own firm, he could cultivate an elite social circle based on his business. But he also developed a lifestyle where he procured many woman - some of them underage - for himself and his associates. It is not completely clear when these semi-secret networks started.

Jeffrey Epstein, 1980

In the 1980s or 1990s Jeffrey Epstein got to know Ghislaine Maxwell. It is not exactly clear when. Ghislaine (Noelle Marion) Maxwell was the youngest daughter of media mogul (Ian) Robert Maxwell, born Ján (Ludvík Hyman Binyamin) Hoch (1923-06-10 - 1991-11-05)
Robert Maxwell lost almost his entire family at the holocaust and later started his media business from the British army. Robert Maxwell became super rich but was not accepted in some traditional elite circles.
Robert Maxwell was kind of an antagonist to famous media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The were not only competitors in business but also in politics. Maxwell was the "socialist/Labour guy" and Murdoch the "conservative capitalist guy" - even if Maxwell was en entrepreneur and Murdoch a former communist student!

Robert Maxwell, 1989

Robert Maxwell (born 10.06.1923) came from a region that was at first part Czechoslovakia and then of Ukraine (then part of Soviet union). For that he had strong ties to former communist Eastern Europe. Around 1989 to 1991 when the Eastern Bloc was collapsing he wanted to rescue the falling system. From his perspective it was suspicious that many vendors and banks all at once wanted their money back they had borrowed/loaned to Eastern Europe.
Maxwell saw a conspiracy he wanted to counter.

But Maxwell couldn't counter.
He fell from his yacht "Ghislaine" (named like his daughter) and died on 1991-11-05. It is not clear how that happened and if it was an accident, suicide or murder.
During this time it became known he had taken large sums of his Corporate empire. He also took a lot of money of his employees pension reserves.
It is not completely clear what role his sons played in it.
And it is not clear if Ghislaine Maxwell then went to Jeffrey Epstein because she needed a new interlocutor or if some of the Maxwell money also went to Epstein like Eric Weinstein suspects.

What is clear is that Jeffrey Epstein expanded his business empire and his political and economic influence. There are also signs of shady dealings, but details are not known.
Parallel to his business empire Epsteins prostitution networks grew, too. It is widely believed that at an early stage of this erotic business he also had the idea of using this for blackmail purposes. Many of his guest rooms were wired.

Investigators and investigative journalists later asked themselves if he did this only for himself or also for intelligence/secret services. There were rumors about contacts to Mossad.
As a matter of fact Epstein could amass a large amount of money. He could afford several luxury mansions and even a private island.

Epstein's island of Little St. James (U. S. Virgin Islands)

Epstein with Ghislaine Maxwell at the White House with Pres. Clinton (1993)

Epstein used his contacts in the upscale milieu to hide his business. For some years victims who wanted to report him, were ignored. But at some point Epstein's crimes came to public.

In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported

that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter. Federal officials identified 36 girls whom Epstein had allegedly abused.
Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He was only convicted of these two crimes. This plea deal was very controversial. It was even more controversial Epstein only had to serve almost 13 months in custody and over and beyond could benefit from extensive "work release" (which was not real work release).

For about ten years Epstein got off the hook again.
On 2019-07-06 Epstein was arrested again on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. But there was no further trial.
On 2019-08-10 Epstein died in his jail cell. The medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide by hanging. But there were other theories.

It could have been a suicide or murder:
Epstein's bone fractures and the "red circle" around his neck could also point to murder. It is also suspicious that on the day of Epstein's death as well as on the day of a previous alleged suicide attempt the cameras were down!
Epstein's lawyers have disputed the ruling, and there has been significant public skepticism about the true cause of his death. The internet was full of conspiracy theories.

Metropolitan Correctional Center (place where Epstein died)

Since Epstein's death precluded the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against him, a judge dismissed all criminal charges on 2019-08-29.

Epsteins worth was over $500 million. He owned many luxury properties and even islands.

Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited young girls for him, was arrested, charged and convicted  in 2021 on federal charge of sex trafficking and conspiracy for helping Epstein procure girls for child sexual abuse and prostitution.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia
-
Brown, Julie K.: Perversion of Justice. The Jeffrey Epstein Story; New York 2021
Chaudry, Tahir: Wem diente Jeffrey Epstein? Das System aus Macht, Kontrolle und Erpressung; Neu-Isenburg 2024
Howard, Dylan/Melissa Dylan/James Robertson: Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales; New York 2019
Patterson, James/John Connolly/Tim Molloy: Filthy Rich. The true story behind the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal; 2016
Ransome, Sarah: Silenced No More. Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back; New York 2021
Webb, Whitney: One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Organized Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein; 2022

FILMS:

Stern, Ricki/Anne Sundberg: Surviving Jeffrey Epstein; USA 2020
Lisa Bryant: Filthy Rich; USA 2020

(THE) BATTLE FOR WESNOTH

The Battle for Wesnoth (= Der Kampf um Wesnoth) ist ein freies rundenbasiertes Computer-Stategiespiel, dass im Jahre 2005 unter der GNU GPL veröffentlicht worden ist. Es ist auf fast allen bekannten und weniger bekannten Betriebssystemen außer Android (bisher) verfügbar.

Dem Spieler erscheint eine isometrische Karte mit Sechseckraster. Isometrisch bedeutet 2D/3D bzw. "Dreiviertel-Ansicht", also eine dreidimensional wirkende Ansicht aus der Überblicksperspektive.
Auf der Karte sieht man - ähnlich früher Warcraft-Versionen - eine Landschaft aus Dörfern, Wiesen, Bäumen, Höhlen und Wüstenflächen. Hierauf bewegen sich die Krieger als Pixelanimationen.
Die Akteure sind Menschen, Elfen, Orks usw. (diverse Völker), wie es aus Fantasywelten à la Das Schwarze Auge (DSA), AD&D, Warcraft oder Herr der Ringe bekannt ist.

Das Spiel enthält mehrere epische Kampagnen. Neben den Hauptkampagnen kann man sich auch weitere Kampagnen herunterladen oder selber im Editor entwerfen.

Das Spiel war ursprünglich auf den Einzelspielermodus ausgelegt, besitzt aber auch Mehrspieleroptionen über LAN, Hot-Seat-Modus oder Internet.

The Battle for Wesnoth liegt in vielen Sprachen - auch auf Deutsch - vor.

Unter den Open-Source-Spielen ragt es mit seiner ausgewogenen Spielgestaltung und seiner großen weltweiten Community heraus.

SPIEL

In The Battle of Wesnoth geht es um das Bekämpfen von Gegnern und das Besetzen von Dörfern.
Dadurch erhält man Gold, das gleichzeitig die einzige Ressource im Spiel ist.
Durch Gold kann man sich seine Einheiten ausrüsten oder Reserveeinheiten wieder einberufen (innerhalb einer Kampagne).
Sieger ist man, wenn man eine angegebene Spielmission erfüllt: Sieg über einen oder mehrere Gegner oder andere Runden- oder Kampagnenziele.


KAMPF

Beim Kampf muss man die Vor- und Nachteile der jeweiligen eigenen Einheiten in bezug auf gegnerische Einheiten, Terrain und Tageszeit kennen.

Einheiten gewinnen im Laufe der Zeit Erfahrung und steigen in einem Levelsystem auf.
Die Einheiten besitzen Lebenspunkte (angezeigt), Angriffs- und Trefferwahrscheinlichkeiten. So kann man mögliche Ausgänge der Kampfhandlungen mit Hilfe der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung berechnen.

Die Bewegungspunkte (BP) geben an, um wie viele Felder sich eine Einheit in einer Runde bewegen kann. Alle Werte werden in einer Spielsituation durch Faktoren wie Terrain, Resistenzen und Nachbareinheiten beeinflusst.

Für Anfänger gibt es einen Tutorial.

SUPERTUXKART - PLATZHALTER

GUILDWARS - PLATZHALTER

24.12.2013 -

GuildWars 1