Contrarian

Question the given. Doubt the obvious.
every era has had one
everywhere, always
A brief history

Contrarian is our own category, and we'll admit it: it isn't a school you'll find in a textbook. It's the thread of doubt that runs through all the others — the temperament of the questioner who pokes at received wisdom and refuses to take consensus on faith. Socrates played the gadfly of Athens; Diogenes mocked the powerful; Montaigne questioned everything, including himself; and later voices like Voltaire and Nietzsche made an art of it. Every era has had one — and every school was started by one.

Key voices
  • Socratesthe gadfly of Athens
  • Diogenes of Sinopec. 412–323 BCE
  • Michel de Montaigne1533–1592
  • Voltaire1694–1778
  • Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900
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