Vordenker - Mastermind

I'm a great admirer of the English language. While learning it, I always detect new words and expressions. That is new words not in the sense I have not known German translation yet, but in the sense of a new meaning, a new idea, an entirely new concept to understand aspects of the world.

However sometimes I encounter German words for which I cannot find a proper English translation. Vordenker is such a word. The dictionary offers mastermind which comes close to some aspects of the word, but vordenker is more. It is a thinker who already conceptualized ideas that became involved in new theories or discoveries. Vordenker is a forebear not in the sense of biological traits but human mind. Whereas a forebear's inheritance is connected to genes, a vordenker's transmission is connected to ideas an concepts. Forethinker could be proposed as an English equivalent.

Many people can be listed as forethinkers of fauceir theory and by every research I encounter new names. Some of them will be listed on these web pages. Following the principle of a stack in computer programming—last in first out—I will mention the article I got access to today first [1].

Marc Ereshefsky defines units of evolution. Fauceirs are such units. However fauceirs are defined differently to meet all purpose needs such as inheritance of ideas and genes as in forebear and forethinker.

1. Marc Ereshefsky, „Species, Higher Taxa, and the Units of Evolution“, Philosophy of Science 58, Nr. 1 (März 1, 1991): 84-101.