Biographies S

 

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) French existential philosopher, dramatist, novelist, and political journalist, author of such works as Being and Nothingness (1943; trans. 1953).

 

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) Swiss linguist, co-founder (with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics/semiology, and author of Course in General Linguistics, a watershed book that inspired the development of structuralism and poststructuralism.

 

Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) British writer and Christian apologist, best known for her Lord Peter Whimsey detective novels.

 

Joseph Scaliger (1484-1558) Italian-born French Renaissance classical scholar.

 

Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) German Romantic idealist philosopher.

 

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) German poet, dramatist, philosopher, and historian.

 

Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829) German Romantic man of letters and critic.

 

Erwin Schrödinger  (1887-1961) Austrian quantum physicist and Nobel Laureate.

 

Fritjof Schuon (1907-1998) German-Swiss writer, perhaps the greatest spokesman of the century for the philosophia perennis.

 

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) German theologian, missionary, musician, and physician. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.

 

Theodore Schwenk Anthroposophist, author of Sensitive Chaos: The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and Air. He was the director of Director of the Institut für Strömungsforschung at Herrischried, Germany.

 

Ridley Scott (1937- ) British film director of movies like Alien, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down.

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Controversial Irish-born British playwright, socialist, and wit, author of such works as Pygmalion, Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, and The Devil's Disciple.

 

Rupert Sheldrake (1942- ) Independent British "new scientist," who proposed the controversial theory of "morphogenetic fields" in A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation (1981).

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Major English Romantic poet, author of such works as Prometheus Unbound (1820).

 

Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) British neurophysiologist, the author of Man on His Nature (1940), which had been delivered as the Gifford Lecture at Cambridge.

 

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) British poet, statesman, and soldier, most famous for his "Defense of Poetry."

 

Simplicius (6th century A.D.) Philosopher, a prominent commentator on Aristotlle.

 

George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) Prominent American biologist, author of The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and Its Significance for Man and other books.

 

Huston Smith (1919- ) Chinese-born American historian of religion, author of The Religions of Man, Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition, and other works.

 

Bruno Snell (1896-1998) Author of The Discovery of the Mind in Greek Philosophy and Literature.

 

C. P. Snow (1905-1980) British novelist, scientists, and administrator, best known for his formulation of the idea of the "two cultures."

 

Socrates (470?-399? BC) Seminal Greek philosopher, the teacher of Plato and the chief character in Plato's Socratic dialogues.

 

Susan Sontag (1933- ) Influential, controversial American critic and novelist, author of such books as Against Interpretation, On Photography, and The Volcano Lover.

 

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) British social philosopher, a key influence on the development of Social Darwinism.

 

G. Spencer-Brown British mathematician, author of Laws of Form (1979).

 

Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) German historian, author of The Decline of the West (1928).

 

Edmund Spenser (1552-99) English Renaissance poet, author of The Faerie Queene.

 

Charlene Spretnak (1946- ) American writer and ecofeminist, author of States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age and other works.

 

Albert Steffen (1884-1963) Swiss playwright, novelist, essayist, and philosopher, who because the leader of anthroposophy after Steiner's death.

 

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) American expatriate (in France) writer and literary patron, author of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and other books.

 

George Steiner (1929- ) British literary critic, author of such books as Silences, After Babel, and Heidegger.

 

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) American insurance executive and poet.

 

\ James Stewart (1908-97) American movie actor, known for his work with Alfred Hitchcock. One of the major stars of his generation.

 

Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) Swedish mystical thinker.