The case of Kurt Gödel (already on the list) is really unfortunate — he starved himself to death apparently out of fear of being poisoned — but I think many folks would classify it as one of mental illness rather than merely “odd beliefs”. Mixing mental illness in with odd beliefs held by otherwise mentally healthy people seems problematic. (The other example I’m thinking of here, not currently on your list, is John Nash.)
On the other hand, consider Isaac Newton — groundbreaking scientist and mathematician … who wrote more pages of occult Biblical interpretation than he ever did of physics or math. There’s supposition by some historians that he was mentally ill as well, of course.
EDIT: After seeing Vladimir_M’s comment, I agree: This list is a bad idea. Please put it away or keep it on your own site.
Remember that Newton lived before Darwin. The Bible was the history of the world and nature was obviously the work of an intelligent designer. It may be supposed that Newton’s occult investigations were performed rationally, given those premises.
Darwin lived before Darwin too. Or before Darwinism, at any rate. An epistemic rationalist should explore and be prepared to question even the most established premises.
The case of Kurt Gödel (already on the list) is really unfortunate — he starved himself to death apparently out of fear of being poisoned — but I think many folks would classify it as one of mental illness rather than merely “odd beliefs”. Mixing mental illness in with odd beliefs held by otherwise mentally healthy people seems problematic. (The other example I’m thinking of here, not currently on your list, is John Nash.)
On the other hand, consider Isaac Newton — groundbreaking scientist and mathematician … who wrote more pages of occult Biblical interpretation than he ever did of physics or math. There’s supposition by some historians that he was mentally ill as well, of course.
EDIT: After seeing Vladimir_M’s comment, I agree: This list is a bad idea. Please put it away or keep it on your own site.
Remember that Newton lived before Darwin. The Bible was the history of the world and nature was obviously the work of an intelligent designer. It may be supposed that Newton’s occult investigations were performed rationally, given those premises.
Darwin lived before Darwin too. Or before Darwinism, at any rate. An epistemic rationalist should explore and be prepared to question even the most established premises.
Newton experimented extensively with alchemy. If he wasn’t already mentally unstable, he may have been driven mad by prolonged mercury exposure.