Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre

by Jonathan Rée, Thomas Jones (Narrator)

In Becoming a Philosopher Jonathan Rée describes the extraordinary lives of some of most influential thinkers of the past four hundred years and the radical and sometimes bizarre ideas that emerged from them. In so doing he challenges the notion of philosophy as a set of fixed ideas to be arranged and catalogued like botanical specimens. Rather, the philosophical life is revealed, as Kierkegaard has described, as one of relentless struggle, a never-ending 'dance in the service of thought' which might, with luck, result in a single fresh idea.





This collection of ten biographical pieces, originally published as book reviews in the London Review of Books, begins with Spinoza, the excommunicated lens grinder who sought as little attention as possible for his anonymously published work; and ends with Sartre, the most public of public intellectuals whose funeral was marked by thousands on the streets of Paris. In between we find Newton working tirelessly to establish a chronology of the ancient world; Hegel gazing on Napoleon as he marches through Jena in 1806; and Wittgenstein drawing up plans for a new kind of propeller before writing his landmark Tractatus in the trenches of the First World War. Alongside them we also meet Leibniz, Hume, Lessing, Kierkegaard and Collingwood.





This audiobook also features an introductory conversation between Jonathan Rée and Thomas Jones, an editor at the LRB and presenter of the LRB Podcast.





Subjects Spinoza, Newton, Leibniz, Hume, Lessing, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, Collingwood, Sartre.





These pieces have been amended in places from the original for the purposes of recording.

Audible Audio

Published July 29, 2025

About the author

Jonathan Rée is a freelance philosopher who used to teach at Middlesex University in London, but gave up lecturing in order to "have more time to think," and was for many years associated with the magazine Radical Philosophy. His work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books and elsewhere.