Thales, Socrates, Zeno and Empedocles ’Naximander, ’Naximenes, Anaxagoras Logos eros ontos noos, square of the hypotenuse Echecrates, Archelaus, and Protagoras Gorgias, Parmenides, Strato and Diogenes Euclid writes his Elements, Pyrrho says he’s not convinced Aristotle, Plato, Cicero and Cato Plotinus, Apollodorus, come on baby sing the chorus
[Chorus:
We didn’t start the fire! It was always burning since the dawn of learning! We didn’t start the fire! Each new sage and writer makes it even brighter! ]
Augustine, Boethius, Erigena Scotus Avicenna, Avicebron, Al-Ghalazi Gregory, St. Bernard, Heloise and Abelard Terms exist, Eucharist, Christ’s divinity Necessary entities, Moses ben Maimonides Anselm’s ontological, Summa Theologica Occam, Buridan, Aristotle’s back again Angels, free will, origin of evil!
[Chorus]
Renaissance, The Prince, Luther founds the Protestants Earth goes round the sun, Calvin and Melancthon Telescopes, More’s high hopes, mystics and reformist popes Galileo, Giordano Bruno
Cogito ergo sum, Francis Bacon, deism Jesuits, Mersenne, Sweden has a Catholic queen Hobbes, Locke, Cherbury, tangents, probability Natural law, pumping air, Newton lays the heavens bare!
[Chorus]
Bishop Berkeley, Leibnitz, who discovered calculus? Voltaire, David Hume, Malthus fears impending doom Adam Smith, dogmatic slumber, greatest good for greatest number Mill, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Darwin hits religion hard Comte, James, Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, will to power Here’s a hand, plain as day, what else do I have to say!
[Chorus]
Freud, Jung, morning star, Russell’s new Principia Carnap wants concreteness, Godel’s incompleteness Tarski, Popper, dasein, late and early Wittgenstein Ryle, Turing, Sartre thinks life is boring Ayer, Quine, rights for blacks, trolley car is off its tracks ’Pologetics, new aesthetics, Rawls, Searle, cybernetics Chomsky, Rorty, Nagel’s bats, modal logic, brains in vats Virtue ethics redux—preach it baby all is flux!
We didn’t start the fire! It was always burning, since the dawn of learning! We didn’t start the fire! But the more we know, the brighter it will glow... ...and grow...and grow...and grow…
WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE (GRAND FINALE)
Thales, Socrates, Zeno and Empedocles
’Naximander, ’Naximenes, Anaxagoras
Logos eros ontos noos, square of the hypotenuse
Echecrates, Archelaus, and Protagoras
Gorgias, Parmenides, Strato and Diogenes
Euclid writes his Elements, Pyrrho says he’s not convinced
Aristotle, Plato, Cicero and Cato
Plotinus, Apollodorus, come on baby sing the chorus
[Chorus: We didn’t start the fire!
It was always burning since the dawn of learning!
We didn’t start the fire!
Each new sage and writer makes it even brighter! ]
Augustine, Boethius, Erigena Scotus
Avicenna, Avicebron, Al-Ghalazi
Gregory, St. Bernard, Heloise and Abelard
Terms exist, Eucharist, Christ’s divinity
Necessary entities, Moses ben Maimonides
Anselm’s ontological, Summa Theologica
Occam, Buridan, Aristotle’s back again
Angels, free will, origin of evil!
[Chorus]
Renaissance, The Prince, Luther founds the Protestants
Earth goes round the sun, Calvin and Melancthon
Telescopes, More’s high hopes, mystics and reformist popes
Galileo, Giordano Bruno
Cogito ergo sum, Francis Bacon, deism
Jesuits, Mersenne, Sweden has a Catholic queen
Hobbes, Locke, Cherbury, tangents, probability
Natural law, pumping air, Newton lays the heavens bare!
[Chorus]
Bishop Berkeley, Leibnitz, who discovered calculus?
Voltaire, David Hume, Malthus fears impending doom
Adam Smith, dogmatic slumber, greatest good for greatest number
Mill, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Darwin hits religion hard
Comte, James, Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, will to power
Here’s a hand, plain as day, what else do I have to say!
[Chorus]
Freud, Jung, morning star, Russell’s new Principia
Carnap wants concreteness, Godel’s incompleteness
Tarski, Popper, dasein, late and early Wittgenstein
Ryle, Turing, Sartre thinks life is boring
Ayer, Quine, rights for blacks, trolley car is off its tracks
’Pologetics, new aesthetics, Rawls, Searle, cybernetics
Chomsky, Rorty, Nagel’s bats, modal logic, brains in vats
Virtue ethics redux—preach it baby all is flux!
We didn’t start the fire!
It was always burning, since the dawn of learning!
We didn’t start the fire!
But the more we know, the brighter it will glow...
...and grow...and grow...and grow…
[Chorus]
Also, the lines
Are all mixed up.