- Lived:
- c. 1355–1452 · Constantinople and Mistra (Byzantine Greece), with one world-changing trip to Italy
- Tradition:
- Byzantine Platonism — the last philosopher of a dying empire, and the first spark of the Renaissance
- The Big Idea:
- A civilization stands or falls on its beliefs the way a building stands on its foundations — and if the foundations have failed, a philosopher's job may be to design new ones.
- In their words:
- "Aristotle nowhere calls God the creator of anything at all, but only the mover of the universe."
- If you remember one thing:
- An old Greek scholar came to Italy for a church council in 1438, gave some lectures on Plato on the side, and lit a fire that became the Florentine Renaissance — while secretly writing a book that replaced Christianity with a religion of his own design.