Plato, one of the first philosophers to discuss ideas in detail.

An idea is a concept or mental impression. ^[1] Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images.^[2] Many philosophers consider ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being. The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings. In a popular sense, an idea arises in a reflex, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the idea of a person or a place.

Innate and adventitious ideas[link]

One view on the nature of ideas is that there exist some ideas (called innate ideas) which are so general and abstract, that they could not have arisen as a representation of any object of our perception, but rather were, in some sense, always in the mind before we could learn them. These are distinguished from adventitious ideas which are images or concepts which are accompanied by the judgment that they are caused by some object outside of the mind.^[2]

Another view holds that we only discover ideas in the same way that we discover the real world, from personal experiences. The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from nurture (life experiences) is known as tabula rasa ("blank slate"). Most of the confusions in the way of ideas arise at least in part from the use of the term "idea" to cover both the representation percept and the object of conceptual thought. This can be illustrated in terms of the doctrines of innate ideas, "concrete ideas versus abstract ideas", as well as "simple ideas versus complex ideas".^[3]

Philosophy[link]

Plato[link]

Plato was one of the earliest philosophers to provide a detailed discussion of ideas. He considered the concept of idea in the realm of metaphysics and its implications for epistemology. He asserted that there is a realm of Forms or Ideas, which exist independently of anyone who may have thought of these ideas. Material things are then imperfect and transient reflections or instantiations of the perfect and unchanging ideas. From this it follows that these Ideas are the principal reality (see also idealism). In contrast to the individual objects of sense experience, which undergo constant change and flux, Plato held that ideas are perfect, eternal, and immutable. Consequently, Plato considered that knowledge of material things is not really knowledge; real knowledge can only be had of unchanging ideas.

René Descartes[link]

Descartes often wrote of the meaning of idea as an image or representation, often but not necessarily "in the mind", which was well known in the vernacular. Despite that Descartes is usually credited with the invention of the non-Platonic use of the term, he at first followed this vernacular use.^b In his Meditations on First Philosophy he says, "Some of my thoughts are like images of things, and it is to these alone that the name 'idea' properly belongs." He sometimes maintained that ideas were innate^[4] and uses of the term idea diverge from the original primary scholastic use. He provides multiple non-equivalent definitions of the term, uses it to refer to as many as six distinct kinds of entities, and divides ideas inconsistently into various genetic categories. [1] For him knowledge took the form of ideas and philosophical investigation is the deep consideration of these entities. Many times however his thoughts of knowledge and ideas were like those of Plotinus and the Neoplatonists. In Neoplatonism, the Intelligence (Nous) is the true first principle—the determinate, referential "foundation" (arkhe)—of all existents; for it is not a self-sufficient entity like the One, but rather possesses the ability or capacity to contemplate both the One, as its prior, as well as its own thoughts, which Plotinus identifies with the Platonic Ideas or Forms (eide)[2]. A non-philosophical definition of Nous is good sense (a.k.a. "common sense"). Descartes is quoted as saying, "Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have."q:René Descartes

John Locke[link]

In striking contrast to Plato's use of idea^[5] is that of John Locke. In his Introduction to An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke defines idea as "that term which, I think, serves best to stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking; and I could not avoid frequently using it." He said he regarded the book necessary to examine our own abilities and see what objects our understandings were, or were not, fitted to deal with. In his philosophy other outstanding figures followed in his footsteps—Hume and Kant in the 18th century, Arthur Schopenhauer in the 19th century, and Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Karl Popper in the 20th century. Locke always believed in good sense—not pushing things to extremes and on taking fully into account the plain facts of the matter. He considered his common sense ideas "good-tempered, moderate, and down-to-earth."^c

David Hume[link]

Hume differs from Locke by limiting idea to the more or less vague mental reconstructions of perceptions, the perceptual process being described as an "impression."^[6] Hume shared with Locke the basic empiricist premise that it is only from life experiences (whether their own or others') that humans' knowledge of the existence of anything outside of themselves can be ultimately derived, that they shall carry on doing what they are prompted to do by their emotional drives of varying kinds. In choosing the means to those ends, they shall follow their accustomed associations of ideas.^d Hume has contended and defended the notion that "reason alone is merely the 'slave of the passions'."^[7][8]

Immanuel Kant[link]

"Modern Book Printing" from the Walk of Ideas

Immanuel Kant defines an idea as opposed to a concept. "Regulator ideas" are ideals that one must tend towards, but by definition may not be completely realized. Liberty, according to Kant, is an idea. The autonomy of the rational and universal subject is opposed to the determinism of the empirical subject.^[9] Kant felt that it is precisely in knowing its limits that philosophy exists. The business of philosophy he thought was not to give rules, but to analyze the private judgements of good common sense.^e

Rudolf Steiner[link]

Whereas Kant declares limits to knowledge ("we can never know the thing in itself"), in his epistemological work, Rudolf Steiner sees ideas as "objects of experience" which the mind apprehends, much as the eye apprehends light. In Goethean Science (1883), he declares, "Thinking ... is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colors and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." He holds this to be the premise upon which Goethe made his natural-scientific observations.

Wilhelm Wundt[link]

Wundt widens the term from Kant's usage to include conscious representation of some object or process of the external world. In so doing, he includes not only ideas of memory and imagination, but also perceptual processes, whereas other psychologists confine the term to the first two groups. One of Wundt's main concerns was to investigate conscious processes in their own context by experiment and introspection. He regarded both of these as exact methods, interrelated in that experimentation created optimal conditions for introspection. Where the experimental method failed, he turned to other objectively valuable aids, specifically to those products of cultural communal life which lead one to infer particular mental motives. Outstanding among these are speech, myth, and social custom. Wundt designed the basic mental activity apperception—a unifying function which should be understood as an activity of the will. Many aspects of his empirical physiological psychology are used today. One is his principles of mutually enhanced contrasts and of assimilation and dissimilation (i.e. in color and form perception and his advocacy of objective methods of expression and of recording results, especially in language. Another is the principle of heterogony of ends—that multiply motivated acts lead to unintended side effects which in turn become motives for new actions.^[10]

Charles Sanders Peirce[link]

C.S. Peirce published the first full statement of pragmatism in his important works "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878) and "The Fixation of Belief" (1877).^[11] In "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" he proposed that a clear idea (in his study he uses concept and idea as synonymic) is defined as one, when it is apprehended such as it will be recognized wherever it is met, and no other will be mistaken for it. If it fails of this clearness, it is said to be obscure. He argued that to understand an idea clearly we should ask ourselves what difference its application would make to our evaluation of a proposed solution to the problem at hand. Pragmatism (a term he appropriated for use in this context), he defended, was a method for ascertaining the meaning of terms (as a theory of meaning). The originality of his ideas is in their rejection of what was accepted as a view and understanding of knowledge by scientists for some 250 years, i.e. that, he pointed, knowledge was an impersonal fact. Peirce contended that we acquire knowledge as participants, not as spectators. He felt "the real" is which, sooner or later, information acquired through ideas and knowledge with the application of logical reasoning would finally result in. He also published many papers on logic in relation to ideas.

G.F. Stout and J.M. Baldwin[link]

G.F. Stout and J.M. Baldwin, in the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology [3], define idea as "the reproduction with a more or less adequate image, of an object not actually present to the senses." They point out that an idea and a perception are by various authorities contrasted in various ways. "Difference in degree of intensity", "comparative absence of bodily movement on the part of the subject", "comparative dependence on mental activity", are suggested by psychologists as characteristic of an idea as compared with a perception.

It should be observed that an idea, in the narrower and generally accepted sense of a mental reproduction, is frequently composite. That is, as in the example given above of the idea of chair, a great many objects, differing materially in detail, all call a single idea. When a man, for example, has obtained an idea of chairs in general by comparison with which he can say "This is a chair, that is a stool", he has what is known as an "abstract idea" distinct from the reproduction in his mind of any particular chair (see abstraction). Furthermore a complex idea may not have any corresponding physical object, though its particular constituent elements may severally be the reproductions of actual perceptions. Thus the idea of a centaur is a complex mental picture composed of the ideas of man and horse, that of a mermaid of a woman and a fish.

In anthropology and the social sciences[link]

Diffusion studies explore the spread of ideas from culture to culture. Some anthropological theories hold that all cultures imitate ideas from one or a few original cultures, the Adam of the Bible or several cultural circles that overlap. Evolutionary diffusion theory holds that cultures are influenced by one another, but that similar ideas can be developed in isolation.

In mid-20th century, social scientists began to study how and why ideas spread from one person or culture to another. Everett Rogers pioneered diffusion of innovations studies, using research to prove factors in adoption and profiles of adopters of ideas. In 1976, in his book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins suggested applying biological evolutionary theories to the spread of ideas. He coined the term meme to dibe an abstract unit of selection, equivalent to the gene in evolutionary biology.

Semantics[link]

Dr. Samuel Johnson[link]

James Boswell recorded Dr.Samuel Johnson's opinion about ideas. Johnson claimed that they are mental images or internal visual pictures. As such, they have no relation to words or the concepts which are designated by verbal names.

He was particularly indignant against the almost universal use of the word idea in the sense of notion or opinion, when it is clear that idea can only signify something of which an image can be formed in the mind. We may have an idea or image of a mountain, a tree, a building; but we cannot surely have an idea or image of an argument or proposition. Yet we hear the sages of the law 'delivering their ideas upon the question under consideration;' and the first speakers in parliament 'entirely coinciding in the idea which has been ably stated by an honourable member;' — or 'reprobating an idea unconstitutional, and fraught with the most dangerous consequences to a great and free country.' Johnson called this 'modern cant.'

— Boswell's Life of Johnson, Tuesday, 23 September 1777

Relationship of ideas to modern legal time- and scope-limited monopolies[link]

Relationship between ideas and patents[link]

On Susceptibility to Exclusive Property[link]

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Isaac McPherson, 13 August 1813

It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions, and not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. But while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural and even an hereditary right to inventors. It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance.

By a universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property.

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.

Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices.

To protect the cause of invention and innovation, the legal constructions of Copyrights and Patents was established. Patent law regulates various aspects related to the functional manifestation of inventions based on new ideas or incremental improvements to existing ones. Thus, patents have a direct relationship to ideas.

Relationship between ideas and copyrights[link]

A picture of a lightbulb is often used to represent a person having a bright idea

In some cases, authors can be granted limited legal monopolies on the manner in which certain works are expressed. This is known colloquially as copyright, although the term intellectual property is used mistakenly in place of copyright. Copyright law regulating the aforementioned monopolies generally does not cover the actual ideas. The law does not bestow the legal status of property upon ideas per se. Instead, laws purport to regulate events related to the usage, copying, production, sale and other forms of exploitation of the fundamental expression of a work, that may or may not carry ideas. Copyright law is fundamentally different to patent law in this respect: patents do grant monopolies on ideas (more on this below).

A copyright is meant to regulate some aspects of the usage of expressions of a work, not an idea. Thus, copyrights have a negative relationship to ideas.

Work means a tangible medium of expression. It may be an original or derivative work of art, be it literary, dramatic, musical recitation, artistic, related to sound recording, etc. In (at least) countries adhering to the Berne Convention, copyright automatically starts covering the work upon the original creation and fixation thereof, without any extra steps. While creation usually involves an idea, the idea in itself does not suffice for the purposes of claiming copyright.

Relationship of ideas to confidentiality agreements[link]

Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements are legal instruments that assist corporations and individuals in keeping ideas from escaping to the general public. Generally, these instruments are covered by contract law.

See also[link]

	Thinking portal
	Philosophy portal
	Religion portal

Look up idea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: ideas

• Idealism
• Brainstorming
• Creativity techniques
• Diffusion of innovations
• Form
• Ideology
• List of perception-related topics
• Notion (philosophy)
• Object of the mind
• Think tank
• Thought experiment

Publications[link]

• Paul Natorp, Platons Ideenlehre (Leipzig 1930)
• W.D. Ross, Plato's Theory of Ideas (Oxford 1951)
• M.H. Carre, Realists and Nominalists (Oxford 1946)
• Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas (New York 2001)
• J.W. Yolton, John Lock and the Way of Ideas (Oxford 1956)
• Eugenio Garin, La Theorie de I'idee suivant I'ecole thomiste (Paris 1932)
• Peter Watson, Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London 2005).
• A.G. Balz, Idea and Essence in the Philosophy of Hobbes and Spinoza (New York 1918)
• William Rose Benet, The Reader's Encyclopedia 1965, Library of Congress Card No. 65-12510
• Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-19-517510-7. 

Notes[link]

References[link]

• The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, MacMillian Publishing Company, New York, 1973 ISBN 0-02-894950-1 ISBN 978-0-02-894950-5
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1973-74, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-7943 ISBN 684-16425-6

- Nous

¹ Volume IV 1a, 3a

² Volume IV 4a, 5a

³ Volume IV 32 - 37

Ideas

Ideology

Authority

Education

Liberalism

Idea of God

Pragmatism

Chain of Being

• The Story of Thought, DK Publishing, Bryan Magee, London, 1998, ISBN 0-7894-4455-0

aka The Story of Philosophy, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7894-7994-X

(subtitled on cover: The Essential Guide to the History of Western Philosophy)

^a Plato, pages 11 - 17, 24 - 31, 42, 50, 59, 77, 142, 144, 150

^b Descartes, pages 78, 84 - 89, 91, 95, 102, 136 - 137, 190, 191

^c Locke, pages 59 - 61, 102 - 109, 122 - 124, 142, 185

^d Hume, pages 61, 103, 112 - 117, 142 - 143, 155, 185

^e Kant, pages 9, 38, 57, 87, 103, 119, 131 - 137, 149, 182

^f Peirce, pages 61, How to Make Our Ideas Clear 186 - 187 and 189

^g Saint Augustine, pages 30, 144; City of God 51, 52, 53 and The Confessions 50, 51, 52

- additional in the Dictionary of the History of Ideas for Saint Augustine and Neo-Platonism

^h Stoics, pages 22, 40, 44; The governing philosophy of the Roman Empire on pages 46 - 47.

- additional in Dictionary of the History of Ideas for Stoics, also here, and here, and here.

• The Reader's Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition 1965, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Library of Congress No. 65-12510

An Encyclopedia of World Literature

^¹apage 774 Plato (c.427-348 BC)

^²apage 779 Francesco Petrarca

^³apage 770 Charles Sanders Peirce

^¹bpage 849 the Renaissance

• This article incorporates text from the old Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, a publication now in the public domain.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Adam Savage
Savage in July 2011
Born	Adam Whitney Savage[1] (1967-07-15) July 15, 1967 (age 44) New York City, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Tisch School of the Arts
Occupation	MythBusters co-host, designer/fabricator, actor, educator
Height	6'0"
Religion	None (Atheist)
Spouse	Julia Savage (2002-present)
Children	Two
Website
adamsavage.com

Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967)^[2] is an American industrial design and special effects designer/fabricator, actor, educator, and co-host of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters.^[1] His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded. He is a prominent member of the skeptic community. He lives in San Francisco with his twin sons and wife, Julia.

Early life and education[link]

Born in New York City, Savage was raised in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County New York.^[3] He graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School in 1985.^[4] His father, Whitney Lee Savage (1928-1998), was a painter, filmmaker and animator known for his work on Sesame Street, and has a permanent exhibit in the Avampato Discovery Museum.^[5] His mother is a psychotherapist. His sister Kate Savage is also an artist. As a teenager in Sleepy Hollow, he routinely visited the local bike shop to have flat tires fixed. The shop showed him how to do the repairs himself. From this experience, Savage said, "I realized you could take a bike apart and put it back together and it wasn't that hard...I've been building and putting bicycles together since then."^[4]

Adam Savage began acting as a child, and has had five years of acting school.^[1] His early credits include voicing animated characters that his father produced for Sesame Street, Mr. Whipple's stock boy "Jimmy" in a Charmin commercial, a helper in the special effects of Star Wars, and a drowning young man saved by a lifeguard in the 1985 Billy Joel music video "You're Only Human (Second Wind)."^[6] He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for acting for six months before dropping out.^[7]

Describing the early abandonment of his acting career, Savage said "...by the time I was, I guess probably nineteen, I had passed on that in favor of doing stuff with my hands – graphic design, assistant animation in New York, and then eventually working in theater in San Francisco, and film special effects. Then MythBusters came along and it was the perfect marriage of two things, performance and special effects."^[8] On November 25, 2011, Savage received an honorary doctorate from the University of Twente (Enschede, Netherlands) for his role in the popularization of science and technology.^[9][10]

Career[link]

Savage in July 2008

Savage has worked as an animator, graphic designer, carpenter, projectionist, film developer, television presenter, set designer, toy designer, and gallery owner. He worked as a model maker on the films Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, The Matrix Reloaded, and Space Cowboys, among others.

Savage played the role of a helpful engineer in the 2001 film Ever Since the World Ended^[11] and the role of an army surplus store owner who sells a man a rocket engine for his pickup truck in 2006 in The Darwin Awards, which also featured MythBusters co-star Jamie Hyneman.^[12] He made a cameo appearance along with Jamie Hyneman on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the May 1, 2008, episode "The Theory of Everything." In the "making of" material for The Matrix Revolutions, he appears in his role as a special effects artist and discusses some of the miniature effects used and the difficulties involved.

He previously taught advanced model making in the department of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.^[1]

Savage has become a regular presenter at magician James Randi's annual skeptics' conference, The Amaz!ng Meeting, since first appearing in January 2006.^[13] He also appeared in the UK, giving a talk at the first Amazing Meeting London from October 3–4, 2009, hosted at the Mermaid Conference Centre, Blackfriars.^[14]

Savage was a featured performer at the three w00tstock v1.x shows in 2009, and appeared in four w00tstock v2.x shows in 2010. He also appeared as a guest on Diggnation's 220th show.^[15]

Savage has also been a regular guest speaker at the annual Maker Faire since 2008, speaking on different topics such as his obsession with the dodo bird and problem solving, and also taking questions from the audience members about the Mythbusters and other things.

Savage hosted an episode of the Discovery Channel series Curiosity, in which he speculated as to whether or not it is possible for humans to live forever. During the program various topics such as limb regeneration, organ printers, and even age reversal are discussed.

Savage and Hyneman are judges on the game show Unchained Reaction which premiered in March 2012.^[16]

[edit] MythBusters

Savage has been involved in MythBusters since its creation. His role in the show (that he shares with all the other talent) is to either disprove ("bust") myths or confirm them through testing and experiments done at different scales. If the myth is about a one-time occurrence and not about whether or not something can happen at all, it is often deemed "plausible" instead.

Savage's demeanour on MythBusters is animated and energetic, providing a foil to Jamie Hyneman's more reserved straight man persona.^[17]

Savage and Hyneman were the only hosts of the show for the first season of MythBusters, but starting with the second season, members of Hyneman's staff were introduced and began to appear regularly in episodes; Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and welder Scottie Chapman appeared in the second season. In the third season, Chapman was replaced by Grant Imahara, a robot builder and model maker. In an interview Savage gave during The Amaz!ng Meeting 5, he expressed an interest in proving natural selection over creationism on MythBusters.

Savage also stated that such an episode is unlikely because MythBusters has a policy against trying to disprove supernatural phenomena.^[19]

Personal life[link]

At Reason Rally Washington D.C. March 23, 2012

Savage and his wife Julia were married in 2002. He has twin sons from a previous relationship.^[20] He wears a hearing aid on his left ear due to a congenital condition.^[21] He is a practiced juggler, as seen on Mythbusters. He is also an atheist.^[22] He has a lifelong interest in costume making. He said, "I remember my mom getting me a 'Jaws' costume when 'Jaws' came out...and wearing a Batman costume. Back then, everyone dressed up as hobos." He strives for authenticity with his costumes. While in high school, he and his father made a suit of armor out of aluminum roof flashing that had 700 rivets. He said, "I wore it to school and passed out from heat exhaustion in math class. I woke up in the nurse's office and the first thing I said was 'Where's my armor'?" In 2011, he built a costume based on the character No-Face from the film Spirited Away.^[4] In early 2012, it was announced that he would be the commencement speaker at Sarah Lawrence College.^[23]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adam Savage

• Adam Savage's personal website
• Adam Savage at the Internet Movie Database
• Adam Savage on Twitter
• Adam Savage's biography from the Discovery Channel
• Interview with The Sneeze
• Interview with Reddit.com
• Adam Savage interviewed on Penn Radio
• Discovery
• Savage Presentation at The Entertainment Gathering (December 2008)
• Adam Savage on Diggnation (September 2009)
• Adam Savage interviewed on Geek a Week

Styles of Angelo Mai
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Roman Curia

Angelo Mai.

Angelo Mai (March 7, 1782 – September 8, 1854) was an Italian Cardinal and philologist.^[1] He won a European reputation for publishing for the first time a series of previously unknown ancient texts. These he was able to discover and publish, first while in charge of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan and then in the same role at the Vatican Library. The texts were often in parchment palimpsests; he was able to read the lower text using chemicals such as Gallic acid. In particular he was able to locate a substantial portion of the long known of and much sought-after De re publica of Cicero.

Biography[link]

He was born of humble parents at Schilpario in what is now the province of Bergamo, Lombardy.

In 1799 he entered the Society of Jesus, and in 1804 he became a teacher of classics in the Jesuit college of Naples. After completing his studies at the Collegium Romanum, he lived for some time at Orvieto, where he was engaged in teaching and palaeographical studies. Though he returned to Rome, the deteriorating papal relations with Napoleon and the city's subsequent occupation by General Miollis in 1808 necessitated Mai's withdrawal to Milan, where in 1813 he was made custodian of the Ambrosian library.

He now threw himself with characteristic energy and zeal into the task of examining the numerous manuscripts committed to his charge, and in the course of the next six years was able to restore to the world a considerable number of long-lost works. Having withdrawn from the Society of Jesus, he was invited to Rome in 1819 as chief keeper of the Vatican Library. In 1833 he was transferred to the office of secretary of the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide; on February 12, 1838 he was raised to the dignity of Cardinal. He died at Castel Gandolfo, near Albano Laziale, on 8 September 1854.

Works[link]

It is on his skill as a reader of palimpsests that Mai's fame chiefly rests. To the period of his residence at Milan belong:

• fragments of Cicero's judicial orations Pro Scauro, Pro Tullio, Pro Flacco, and his In Clodium et Curionem, De aere alieno Milonis, and De rege Alexandrino (1814)
• M. Corn. Frontonis opera inedita, cum epistolis item ineditis, Antonini Pii, Marci Aurelii, Lucii Veri et Appiani (1815; new ed., 1823, with more than 100 additional letters found in the Vatican library)
• portions of eight speeches of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
• fragments of Plautus
• the oration of Isaeus' De hereditate Cleonymi
• the last nine books of the Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and a number of other works.
• Cicero's De Re Publica, published as M Tullii Ciceronis de republica quae supersunt, Rome, 1822
• Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, e Vaticanis codicibus edita in 1825-1838
• Classici scriptores e Vaticanis codicibus editi in 1828-1838
• Spicilegium Romanum in 1839-1844 (Tomus III, Tomus IX)
• Patrum nova bibliotheca in 1845-1853

His edition of the celebrated Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, completed in 1838, but not published (ostensibly the ground of inaccuracies) till four years after his death (1858), is the least satisfactory of his labours and was superseded by the edition of Vercellone and Cozza (1868), which itself leaves much to be desired.

Although Mai was not as successful in textual criticism as in the decipherment of manuscripts, he will always be remembered as a laborious and persevering pioneer, by whose efforts many ancient writings have been rescued from oblivion.

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an American investor, businessman, self-help author, motivational speaker, financial literacy activist, and occasional financial commentator. Kiyosaki is perhaps best known for his Rich Dad Poor Dad series of motivational books and other material published under the Rich Dad brand. He has written over 15 books which have combined sales of over 26 million copies.^[1] Although beginning as a self-publisher, he was subsequently published by Warner Books, a division of Hachette Book Group USA. His new books appear under the Rich Dad Press imprint. Three of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant, and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing, have been on number one on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously on The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times. Rich Kid Smart Kid was published in 2001, with the intent to help parents teach their children financial concepts. He has created three "Cashflow" board and software games for adults and children and has a series of "Rich Dad" CDs and disks.

As a devout global financial literacy advocate, Kiyosaki has been a staunch proponent of entrepreneurship, business education, investing, and that comprehensive financial literacy concepts should be taught in schools around the world.^[2] Kiyosaki also operates his own blog and maintains a monthly column on Yahoo Finance writing about his latest thoughts on global economics, investing, business, world financial markets, and personal finance.^[3][4]

Life and career[link]

A fourth-generation Japanese American, Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii. He is the son of educator Ralph H. Kiyosaki (1919–1991). After graduating from Hilo High School, he attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, graduating with the class of 1969 as a deck officer. He later served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War in 1972, where he was awarded the Air Medal.^[5]

Kiyosaki left the Marine Corps in 1975 and got a job selling copy machines for the Xerox Corporation as a salesperson. In 1977, Kiyosaki started a company that brought to market the first nylon and Velcro "surfer" wallets. The company was moderately successful at first but eventually went bankrupt. In the early 1980s, Kiyosaki started a business that licensed T-shirts for Heavy metal rock bands, which was later sold in 1985.^[6]

In 1994, after becoming financially independent through various real estate investments and private business operations, Kiyosaki retired at the age of 47. In 1997, after his short lived retirement, he launched Cashflow Technologies, Inc.^[7] which owns and operates the Rich Dad^[8] and Cashflow^[9] brands.

Personal life[link]

He has been married to wife, Kim, who is an entrepreneur, investor, author, and a motivational speaker. They have been married since 1985. He and Kim have settled in the Scottsdale area in Phoenix, Arizona since 1994. Kiyosaki also has one sister, Emi Kiyosaki, a Tibetan Buddhist nun known by the name Ven. Tenzin Kacho. He has co-authored one book with her called "Rich Brother, Rich Sister".

Business ventures and investments[link]

Aside from operating the Rich Dad Company and Cashflow Technologies, Inc., Kiyosaki continues to operate external business ventures and has continued engaging with various investments since he came out of retirement in 1997.^[10][10]

Mining ventures[link]

Kiyosaki bought a silver mine in South America in 2002, took a gold mining company in China public back in 2002, and took public additional mines from IPOs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange during the early 2000s. In 2009, Kiyosaki revealed in his book Conspiracy of the Rich that he is currently working on a copper mine that is yet to be taken public once copper prices begin to rise in value.^[11]

Precious metals and coin dealing[link]

Through his teenage years, Kiyosaki dabbled with silver and gold coins as a starting investment during the 1960s. In a July 2005 Yahoo Finance article Kiyosaki states that

If you only have a few dollars, you may want to go to your local coin dealer and buy silver and gold coins as close to the price of gold or silver as possible. I would not invest in 'collectible' precious metal coins unless you really know a good collectible coin from a bad one. For as little as $20 you can buy a few precious metal coins and begin to take steps to prepare for one of the biggest crashes in world history.^[12]

In addition, Kiyosaki states that he is a "gold bug", meaning is that he holds various commodities such as gold and silver to hedge against government misprinting of the U.S. dollar as a fiat currency since the early 1970s when President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard.^[10]

Real estate acquisitions[link]

Kiyosaki is also an active real estate investor. A large portion of his wealth is concentrated within real estate investing. He has various real estate investments, real estate development ventures, and property management ventures operating around the United States, such as Texas and Oklahoma, particularly in his home state of Arizona, where he lives. Many of his holdings include hotels, golf courses, and large apartment complexes as stated in an interview with The Alex Jones Show back in late 2010.^[13]

Starting with small residential real estate investments back in 1973, Kiyosaki began investing in small condos on the island of Maui, making a small profit from capital gains by the mid 1970's. Kiyosaki starting his own real estate holding company in the 1980s during his tenure with Xerox and continued on with smaller real estate investments after the Savings and loan crisis and the 1986 Tax Reform Act hit the United States in the early 1990s where much foreclosure investment real estate was sold for pennies on the dollar. After progressing with smaller real estate investments, Kiyosaki moved into the commercial real estate business, branching off into semi-large apartment complexes, with a large portion concentrated in Arizona and the Southwestern United States and retired in 1994. Since coming out of retirement in 1997, Kiyosaki still remains involved with the apartment business and stated in an interview with Jason Hartman in 2011 that he owns over 1400 units of apartment houses.^[14][15]

Kiyosaki has been involved with commercial real estate sector such as investing in warehouses, Triple net lease and real estate development ventures around the United States.^[16][17]

Oil wells and natural gas investments[link]

Kiyosaki has stated in a Rich Dad video, several interviews, and a on number of Yahoo Finance articles that he owns oil drilling operations and oil wells around the United States but does not invest in oil company shares such as ExxonMobil or BP.^{[18][19][19][20]}

Solar company[link]

In a 2010 Rich Dad Insiders video, Kiyosaki stated that he also invested in a startup solar company.^[18]

Financial market investments[link]

In his debut book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Kiyosaki mentioned achieving consistent 16% ROI through tax lien certificates.^[21]

Written in a chapter of Rich Dad's Prophecy, Kiyosaki states of having invested in various government tax free bonds such as municipal bonds and municipal mortgage REIT's offered by real estate development companies paying over 12% tax free dividend interest.^[22]

Kiyosaki has also stated in numerous interviews that he does not invest or play the stock market much like the fact that he does not invest in oil company stocks. Instead, Kiyosaki trades stock options, Forex currencies, and other derivatives in the financial markets as stated in a chapter written in his book, Rich Dad's Prophecy and in a 2009 interview with real estate investor John Hartman.^[15]

Kiyosaki has frequently mentioned himself of investing in hedge funds, private placements, and other various funds such as private equity funds typically investments reserved by SEC law only for millionaires or high-income individuals.

Kiyosaki is also involved in the commodity market where he invests in gold and silver commodities as well as gold and silver ETF's, as written in chapter of his 2008 book, "Rich Dads, Increase Your Financial IQ". He stated this for the reason that he uses commodities as a hedge against uncertain economic forces such as inflation and hyperinflation as well as government's mismanagement via printing of the nations currency.^[21]

Teachings[link]

A large part of Kiyosaki's teachings focus on what he calls "financial education" generating passive income by means of investment opportunities, such as real estate investments and businesses, with the ultimate goal of being able to support oneself by such investments alone and thus achieving true financial independence WITHOUT working for a paycheck. In tandem with this, Kiyosaki defines the term "assets" as things that generate cash inflow, such as stock dividends, rental properties, or businesses, and the term "liabilities" as things that use cash, such as houses, cars, and so on. Kiyosaki continuously argues that financial leverage is critically important in becoming rich, despite the inherent financial risks, repercussions, and pitfalls that come with it.

Originally self-published before being picked up commercially to become a best seller, the central concept of the book is an anecdotal comparison of his "two fathers." His "poor dad" was his biological father, who was highly educated and became Superintendent of the Hawaii State Department of Education but was poor. Contrasted with this is his (arguably fictitious, see "Criticism and controversy" section of this article) "rich dad," his best friend's father who became "the richest man in Hawaii" by investing his smaller income into income-producing investments, and was a high school dropout. Its main purpose as a self-help book is to help people rethink their idea of money and especially their concept of themselves as employees who will gain financial rewards from conformity and education.

Kiyosaki uses the "rich dad, poor dad" comparison to illustrate his view that the majority of people are stuck in what he refers to as "the rat race"—living paycheck to paycheck and spending all of their time working to pay bills and other expenses. In his books, Kiyosaki advocates tax-advantaged investment vehicles, such as real estate or businesses, rather than ownership of securities such as stocks. This idea is further developed in his later books and "Rich Dad" became Kiyosaki's personal brand for various publishing ventures.

Kiyosaki continuously stresses financial literacy through the acquisition of he calls "assets" as the means to obtaining wealth. He says that life skills are often best learned through experience and that there are important lessons not taught in school. He says that formal education is primarily for those seeking to be employees or self-employed individuals, and that this is an "Industrial Age idea." And according to Kiyosaki, in order to obtain financial freedom, one must be either a business owner, an investor, or both generating passive income, particularly on a monthly basis.

Kiyosaki often refers to The CASHFLOW Quadrant, a conceptual tool which he developed to categorize the four major ways income is earned. Depicted in a diagram, this concept entails four groupings, split with two crossed lines (one vertical and one horizontal). In each of the four groups there is a letter representing a way in which an individual may earn income. The letters are as follows.

• E: Employee — Working for someone else.
• S: Self-employed or Small business owner — Where a person owns his own job and is his own boss.
• B: Business owner — A person who owns a business to make money; typically where the owner's physical presence is not required.
• I: Investor — Investing money in order to receive a larger income in the future.

For those on the left side of the divide (E and S), Kiyosaki says that they may never obtain true wealth. Conversely, those on the right side of the divide (B and I) are supposedly following the only road to true wealth.

Kiyosaki also classifies the four main "asset" classes as means of gaining wealth.^[23]:

• Businesses: Businesses that generate monthly cash flow that don't require the owners physical presence.
• Real Estate: Real estate such as owning warehouses, small family homes, or apartment houses that generate monthly cash flow.
• Paper Assets: Investments such as stocks, bonds, hedge funds etc.
• Commodities: Gold, silver, iron ore, or copper that are used to hedge government's mismanagement printing of the nations currency.

Games[link]

Kiyosaki also stresses the value of games, particularly Monopoly, as tools for learning basic financial strategies such as "trade four green houses for one red hotel." Kiyosaki has created several games such as Cashflow 101 and Cashflow 202 to reinforce the information in his book.

Media appearances[link]

Several local stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), including WTTW of Chicago, KAET of Phoenix, KOCE of Orange County, California, WLIW of the New York/New Jersey area, and WGBH of Boston, have featured Kiyosaki with his now cancelled Rich Dad TV series. His latest TV special was a fund-raising drive. During this television special, Rich Dad's Guide to Wealth with Robert Kiyosaki, he provides viewers with financial education, opposing the common notion of getting a college degree and downplaying the importance of attaining academic or professional education.

Kiyosaki has been seen giving financial advice on various network television news channels such as on CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg. He has appeared on various programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show,^[24] Fox and Friends,^[25][26][27] Larry King Live,^[28] The O'reilly Factor, The Alex Jones Show,^[13] Glenn Beck,^[29] and Your World with Neil Cavuto.^{[25][30][31][32]}

In 2002, a speech given by Kiyosaki became the subject of a CNN story.^[33]

In 2006, Kiyosaki appeared on CNBC, discussing financial issues, answering questions from the audience, and comments by the financial experts werere also invited. In particular, Kiyosaki also filled in a few episodes under the title The Millionaire Inside Debt-Free and The Millionaire Inside: Get Inspired. Other financial experts accompanied Kiyosaki, including David Bach, Jennifer Openshaw, Larry Winget, Keith Ferrazi, and Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts have also been invited to the event.^[34][35]

In 2009, Kiyosaki was featured in a 10 Questions session in Time Magazine.^[36]

Over a number of years, Kiyosaki has repeatedly criticized other financial gurus, particularly the financial teachings of Suze Orman and Jean Chatzky, calling it “bad advice”. Because of this, Orman responded to Kiyosaki's attacks via Twitter and the two engaged in a Twitter war back in March 2010.^[37]

In September 2011, Kiyosaki along with wife Kim were featured on the front cover of JETSET magazine.^[38]

Financial advice[link]

Mutual funds[link]

Kiyosaki wrote in one column that investors in any mutual fund with a 2.5% annual fee would, over a long time period, surrender 80% of the earnings to the fund.^[39] Kiyosaki expanded on his criticism of mutual funds in another column by stating they are for "losers."^[40] Despite the fact that most mutual funds actually charged less than 1.1%.^[41] He has drawn much criticism for comparing investing in mutual funds to playing the lottery, and for discouraging 401(k) investing, contrary to the advice of most professional financial advisers.^[42] In contrast to these statements, Kiyosaki wrote in his book Prophecy that while mutual funds are not great investments, they remain one of the few acceptable investment vehicles available to those who will not educate themselves financially.

Kiyosaki's criticisms are supported by the founder of the mutual fund Vanguard, John C. Bogle. In a Frontline episode titled "401(k)s: The New Retirement Plan, For Better or Worse", Bogle stated that management fees and trading costs gobble up approximately 2.5% of an investor's annual returns and approximately 80% of an investor's long term gains. He says management costs reduce the value of a $1,000 investment over 65 years from approximately $140,000 at 8% compounded annually to a mere $30,000 at 5.5% compounded annually. Bogle's solution is to utilize index funds, which charge as little as 0.09%, to substantially reduce or eliminate management fees.^[43]

Criticism and controversy[link]

Kiyosaki's books and teachings have been criticized for focusing on anecdotes and containing little in the way of concrete advice on how readers should proceed.^[44] Kiyosaki responds that his material is meant to be more of a motivational tool to get readers thinking about money rather than a step-by-step guide to wealth. He also says the books are supposed to be "interesting" to people, which precludes involving a lot of technical material.^[45]

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation consumer affairs program Marketplace ran an investigative piece on Kiyosaki's questionable business practices on Jan 29, 2010. It includes interviews with Kiyosaki.^[46]

Bibliography[link]

Kiyosaki is best known for his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Kiyosaki followed with Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing. He has now had at least a dozen books published, including:

• If You Want to Be Rich & Happy: Don't Go to School? : Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself and Your Children (1992). ISBN 0-944031-38-2.
• Rich Dad Poor Dad - What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! (first published in 1997) Warner Business Books. ISBN 0-446-67745-0.
• CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom (2000). ISBN 0-446-67747-7.
• Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! (2000). ISBN 0-446-67746-9.
• The Business School for People Who Like Helping People (March, 2001). ISBN 99922-67-42-9 - endorses multi-level marketing
• Rich Dad's Rich Kid, Smart Kid: Giving Your Children a Financial Headstart (2001). ISBN 0-446-67748-5.
• Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich (2002). ISBN 0-446-67843-0.
• Rich Dad's Prophecy: Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History Is Still Coming… and How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit from It! (2002). Warner Books, Incorporated. ISBN 0-641-62241-4.
• Rich Dad's The Business School: For People Who Like Helping People (2003) ISBN 979-686-729-X.
• Rich Dad’s Success Stories (2003)
• You Can Choose to be Rich (2003) 12-CD Audio series with three books.
• Rich Dad's Who Took My Money?: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins! (2004)ISBN 0-446-69182-8.
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens: The Secrets About Money—That You Don't Learn in School! (2004) ISBN 0-446-69321-9.
• Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job : 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business (2005). ISBN 0-446-69637-4.
• Rich Dad's Escape from the Rat Race - Comic for children (2005)
• Why We Want You to Be Rich: Two Men, One Message (2006) co-written with Donald J. Trump ISBN 1-933914-02-5.
• Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money (2008). ISBN 0-446-50936-1.
• Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money (2009). ISBN 0-446-55980-6
• Rich Dad's Rich Brother Rich Sister (2009) co-written with Emi Kiyosaki
• The Real Book of Real Estate: Real Experts. Real Stories. Real Life. (2010). ISBN 1-4587-7250-0.
• An Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education (2011). ISBN 1-61268-010-0.
• Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich And Why Most Don't (2011), co-written with Donald J. Trump ISBN 1-61268-095-X.

Notes[link]