Whoa, while the state paving roads might be socialist under Marx's definition, doing so with a workforce of slaves who would be systematically murdered shortly thereafter is not.
It's true many western enlightenment thinkers wrote wholeheartedly against slavery. However, they rarely, if ever, were actually referring to the actual slaves in their midst. Instead most of the intellectual discourse surrounding slavery concentrated on rights for those who could vote (often a small section of the population). Was European morality at work when Leopold II destroyed half the population of Congo?
Agreed. It sounds a bit like the rhetoric that emerges whenever a group of people who see themselves as "naturally" dominating another group become threatened by that group. For instance, a great deal of "scientific" evidence for the subjugation of blacks developed thoughout Europe after the Haitian revolution in the 18th century. The more those dominated show themselves to be equals, the more necessary talk like this becomes for the masters to reassure themselves that their place is justified.
Marcel Duchamp for his consideration that "art" is something socially constructed i.e. not immanent within the thing itself.
Raphael, seeing his paintings in person renewed my love of art.
Many others.
As far as composed music is concerned there are many as well but at this moment I'll say Webern for mystery and Xenakis for energy. Also Helmut Lachenmann is good.
Field looks interesting but I'm a bit skeptical about its usability after downloading it and poking around for a few minutes. One thing that seems incontestable is that the GUI is in need of a serious redesign to make it usable. I have 20/20 vision and the lack of contrast renders text very difficult to read. This problem seems to exist throughout the application (and on the website btw).