Psychologist Dr. David Weeks mentions people with a mental illness "suffer" from their behavior while eccentrics are quite happy. He even states eccentrics are less prone to mental illness than everyone else.
According to studies, there are eighteen distinctive characteristics that differentiate a healthy eccentric person from a regular person or someone who has a mental illness (although some may not always apply). The first five are in most people regarded as eccentric:
- Nonconforming attitude
- Idealistic
- Intense curiosity
- Happy obsession with a hobby or hobbies
- Knew very early in his or her childhood they were different from others
- Highly intelligent
- Opinionated and outspoken
- Unusual living or eating habits
- Not interested in the opinions or company of others
- Mischievous sense of humor
- The eldest, only child, or youngest boy.
Richard Laming (c. 1798–May 3, 1879): A British Eccentric, Richard tested and was accepted as a surgeon by the Royal College of Surgeons. He established a practice in London and worked until 1842. Surgeons of the 1800's were sometimes a little sketchy. Known more for how fast they worked (no anesthesia) the surgeon was an iffy profession. Richard appeared to try to do his best, and studied in Paris, France for several years.
More importantly, Richard fancied himself as a natural philosopher. During his leisure moments, Richard developed an interest in the theory of electricity. Between 1838 and 1851 he published a series of papers speculating about the electrical makeup of atoms. He hypothesized that there existed sub-atomic particles of unit charge; perhaps one of the first persons ever to do so. He suggested that the atom was made up of a core of material surrounded by concentric shells of these electrical 'atoms', or particles. He also believed that these particles could be added or subtracted to an atom, changing its charge.
It wasn't until 1909-1913 that Richard was proven correct by Ernest Rutherford and Neils Bohr.
Henri Poincaré (29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912): A well respected mathematician and scientist at the time, Henri Poincaré developed and published the Theory of Relativity in 1904, the year before Einstein published his paper. Einstein, later in life, acknowledged that Poincaré as the pioneer of Relativity. While not the best example of the Eccentric, Poincaré's views and responses to Einstein's theft of the Relativity Theory give him honorable mention in the roles of Eccentrics.
William Gilbert (24 May 1544 – 30 November 1603): After playing around with his toy model earth, he concluded that the Earth was itself magnetic and that this was the reason compasses point north (previously, some believed that it was the pole star (Polaris) or a large magnetic island on the north pole that attracted the compass). He was the first to argue, correctly, that the centre of the Earth was iron, and he considered an important and related property of magnets was that they can be cut, each forming a new magnet with north and south poles.
Isaak Yudovich Ozimov (1920 – 6 April 1992): There is no telling what the power of science fiction has been on the actual progress in science fact. We do know that after 500 books and numerous other short writings, Isaac Asimov has helped to shape our world view of science. The Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing the words positronic brain (an entirely fictional technology), psychohistory, and robotics into the English language. I would personally be insulted if the "Three Laws of Robotics" were not required for the first sentient robots.
Isaac Asimov may also have given us the answer to the heat death of the universe and a way to reverse entropy in the "The Last Question".
David Joseph Bohm (20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992): David Bohm obtained his doctorate degree while with the theoretical physics group under Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley. David actually was not allowed to defend his thesis, because it was used by the Manhattan Project and immediately classified by the FBI. To satisfy the university, Oppenheimer certified that Bohm had successfully completed the research. As a post-graduate at Berkeley, he developed a theory of plasmas, discovering the electron phenomenon now known as Bohm-diffusion. After the war, Bohm became an assistant professor at Princeton University, where he worked closely with Albert Einstein. In May, 1949, at the beginning of the McCarthyism period, the House Un-American Activities Committee called upon Bohm to testify before it— because of his previous ties to suspected Communists. Bohm, however, pleaded the Fifth amendment right to decline to testify, and refused to give evidence against his colleagues. Princeton suspended him and he eventually left the United States in the early 1950's.
Bohm became dissatisfied with the orthodox approach to quantum theory and began to develop his own approach (De Broglie–Bohm theory) - a non-local hidden variable deterministic theory whose predictions agree perfectly with the nondeterministic quantum theory. Before an understanding of decoherence was developed, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics treated wavefunction collapse as a fundamental, a priori process. Bohm's theory provides an explanatory mechanism for the appearance of wavefunction collapse.
Any Pure Mathematician (You can find them anytime); Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics which studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of navigation, astronomy, physics, and engineering - the applied sciences. “There are three kinds of mathematicians; those who can count and those who can't.”
“Relations between pure and applied mathematicians are based on trust and understanding. Namely, pure mathematicians do not trust applied mathematicians, and applied mathematicians do not understand pure mathematicians. Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more." -- Albert Einstein.
"Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 495 BC); Now here was a nut job. He founded a religion worshiping math.
Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947); Hardy felt only pure mathematics to be worthy, he once said that general relativity and quantum mechanics were "useless", and only fit for engineers.
Ramanujan (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920); Mostly self-taught, during his short lifetime, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations). Although a small number of these results were actually false and some were already known, most of his claims have now been proven correct.
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705[1]] – April 17, 1790); Ben Franklin was referred to in his day as a 'polymath'. You can read that as 'eccentric'. Franklin was a leading author and printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania.
Isaak Yudovich Ozimov (1920 – 6 April 1992): There is no telling what the power of science fiction has been on the actual progress in science fact. We do know that after 500 books and numerous other short writings, Isaac Asimov has helped to shape our world view of science. The Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing the words positronic brain (an entirely fictional technology), psychohistory, and robotics into the English language. I would personally be insulted if the "Three Laws of Robotics" were not required for the first sentient robots.
Isaac Asimov may also have given us the answer to the heat death of the universe and a way to reverse entropy in the "The Last Question".
David Joseph Bohm (20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992): David Bohm obtained his doctorate degree while with the theoretical physics group under Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley. David actually was not allowed to defend his thesis, because it was used by the Manhattan Project and immediately classified by the FBI. To satisfy the university, Oppenheimer certified that Bohm had successfully completed the research. As a post-graduate at Berkeley, he developed a theory of plasmas, discovering the electron phenomenon now known as Bohm-diffusion. After the war, Bohm became an assistant professor at Princeton University, where he worked closely with Albert Einstein. In May, 1949, at the beginning of the McCarthyism period, the House Un-American Activities Committee called upon Bohm to testify before it— because of his previous ties to suspected Communists. Bohm, however, pleaded the Fifth amendment right to decline to testify, and refused to give evidence against his colleagues. Princeton suspended him and he eventually left the United States in the early 1950's.
Bohm became dissatisfied with the orthodox approach to quantum theory and began to develop his own approach (De Broglie–Bohm theory) - a non-local hidden variable deterministic theory whose predictions agree perfectly with the nondeterministic quantum theory. Before an understanding of decoherence was developed, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics treated wavefunction collapse as a fundamental, a priori process. Bohm's theory provides an explanatory mechanism for the appearance of wavefunction collapse.
Any Pure Mathematician (You can find them anytime); Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics which studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of navigation, astronomy, physics, and engineering - the applied sciences. “There are three kinds of mathematicians; those who can count and those who can't.”
“Relations between pure and applied mathematicians are based on trust and understanding. Namely, pure mathematicians do not trust applied mathematicians, and applied mathematicians do not understand pure mathematicians. Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more." -- Albert Einstein.
"Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 495 BC); Now here was a nut job. He founded a religion worshiping math.
Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947); Hardy felt only pure mathematics to be worthy, he once said that general relativity and quantum mechanics were "useless", and only fit for engineers.
Ramanujan (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920); Mostly self-taught, during his short lifetime, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations). Although a small number of these results were actually false and some were already known, most of his claims have now been proven correct.
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705[1]] – April 17, 1790); Ben Franklin was referred to in his day as a 'polymath'. You can read that as 'eccentric'. Franklin was a leading author and printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania.
