Brought to You by The Unemployed Philosophers Guild
The origins of the Unemployed Philosophers Guild are shrouded in mystery. Some accounts trace the Guild's birth to Athens in the latter half of the 4th century BCE. Allegedly, several lesser philosophers grew weary of the endless Socratic dialogue endemic in their trade and turned to crafting household implements and playthings. (Hence the assertions that Socrates quaffed his hemlock poison from a Guild-designed chalice, though vigorous debate surrounds the question of whether it was a "disappearing" chalice.)
Others argue that the UPG dates from the High Middle Ages, when the Philosophers Guild entered the world of commerce by selling bawdy pamphlets to pilgrims facing long lines for the restroom. Business boomed until 1211 when Pope Innocent III condemned the publications. Not surprisingly, this led to increased sales, even as half our membership was burned at the stake.
More recently, revisionist historians have pinpointed the birth of the Guild to the time it was still cool to live in New York City's Lower East Side. Two brothers turned their inner creativity and love of paying rent towards fulfilling the people's needs for finger puppets, warm slippers, coffee cups, and cracking up at stuff.
- As the prescient Countess of Lovelace was first to observe, "a computer can do anything that can be noted logically." Augusta Ada King, Countess of Loveless proved herself the daughter of a hard-headed realist and a poet of ill repute when she struck upon that romantic notion now known as the first computer algorithm.
- If you spend long days and longer nights writing code or studying topology, who better to keep you company in a cubicle than Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers? This delightful Little Thinker is approximately 11" tall and resplendently dressed for a Victorian salon.
- Little Thinkers are not stuffy intellectuals - they're stuffed intellectuals. Let our Little Thinker dolls add a dollop of culture and humor to your shelves. Collect them all and surround yourself with the greatest minds – in plush form! Why collect books when you can collect the authors, and more? These dolls of famous figures, politicians, artists, theorists, scientists, and rebels make smart and clever gifts.
- From the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. Don't worry. We are employed, just not as philosophers. UPG is a small, Brooklyn based company specializing in gifts for the sophisticated gift giver. We have presents of mind.
- As the prescient Countess of Lovelace was first to observe, "a computer can do anything that can be noted logically." Augusta Ada King, Countess of Loveless proved herself the daughter of a hard-headed realist and a poet of ill repute when she struck upon that romantic notion now known as the first computer algorithm.
- If you spend long days and longer nights writing code or studying topology, who better to keep you company in a cubicle than Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers? This delightful Little Thinker is approximately 11" tall and resplendently dressed for a Victorian salon.
- Little Thinkers are not stuffy intellectuals - they're stuffed intellectuals. Let our Little Thinker dolls add a dollop of culture and humor to your shelves. Collect them all and surround yourself with the greatest minds – in plush form! Why collect books when you can collect the authors, and more? These dolls of famous figures, politicians, artists, theorists, scientists, and rebels make smart and clever gifts.
- From the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. Don't worry. We are employed, just not as philosophers. UPG is a small, Brooklyn based company specializing in gifts for the sophisticated gift giver. We have presents of mind.
