Unpopular Theories/Views/Opinions and People (Questions!)

I am curious about how, throughout history, people viewed unpopular or abnormal views.

How did people treat those with different perceptions, opinions, and views, from the classrooms to the science communities to the religious-based societies to modern social networking sites...?

Were these people ignored, threatened, killed, rejected, shunned, censored, or punished? What unpopular opinions prevailed despite the hostility from the others? How did that opinion/view prevail? Were there any supporters of the unpopular views? Do these relations still occur today? Why?

Some contexts for these questions come from great thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Socrates, Democritus, Darwin, and so on.. How did these types survive and put forth their strange ideas? How did they relate to the world? How did the world relate to their ideas and thoughts at that time? Was there an eventual acceptance or an overall aggression? What great minds of the past are still ignored today?

I'm sorry that I can't be any more helpful. Have you checked Paradigm Shift in Wikipedia? It gives some example how strange, unusual ideas ends up changing how we view the world.

Depends on milieu. Socrates and Democritus were part of the classical learning environment of Ancient Greece and didn't deviate too radically from the philosophy tradition, whereas Darwin lived in a time of religious revival and dissemination--which resulted in his postponing the publishing of his evolutionary theories. Galileo is a great case study relating to this thread.

Viewed as sacrilegious usually unless they were lucky enough to be in centers of learning at the time. Otherwise they faced exile, death, or imprisonment until they submitted to standing dogma.


You have many good questions here which may generate long answers worth-reading! I'll just leave it at this, but will return to this thread assuredly!

Originally Posted by PseudoSenator

Depends on milieu. Socrates and Democritus were part of the classical learning environment of Ancient Greece and didn't deviate too radically from the philosophy tradition

When I mentioned Socrates, I was alluding to the dialectic method, his persecution for "corrupting the youth," his questioning of high-ranking officials, and the trial/hemlock death.

Democritus interests me for his theory of Atomism, how people (mainly religions and other philosophers) advocated or opposed this theory, and how the theory developed and gained more supporters over time.

YouTube - Unsung Philosophers: Diogenes

I love Diogenes; he's the ultimate anti-philosopher and wise-ass, described by Plato as "Socrates gone mad."

He's one of the most entertaining and underrated philosophers, for his highly controversial actions and views, not to mention, his relations with Plato, Aristotle and Alexander the Great.