philosopher

Throughout, the characters routinely name-drop philosophers and authors they've obviously never read while indulging bizarre fantasies of living forever and ruling the universe as benevolent dictators.

This concept is not new: The Greek philosopher Socrates was afraid that the invention of writing would make humans dumber because we wouldn’t exercise our memory as much.

Randall name-checks philosophers — Hegel, Kant, Nietzsche, Plato, Marcus Aurelius — he misunderstands to his advantage and drops references to the Catiline Conspiracy and the Battle of Actium to make base actions sound important and dignified.

Whether we have a “self,” has been debated between philosophers for centuries.

Terence, a previously enslaved Roman playwright who wrote “I consider nothing human alien to me,” grasped that concept, as have the myriad artists and philosophers who have expanded on that thought.