Names

Life / Dates

Accomplishments

Francis Bacon

1561-1626

English thinker who advocated the inductive or experimental method (observation of natural phenomena; accumulating data; experimenting to refine the data; drawing conclusions; formulating principles that are subject to continuing observation and experimentation).

Rene Descartes

1596-1650

French philosopher whose Discourse on Method (1637) argued that everything that is not validated by observation should be doubted, but that his own existence is proven by the proposition that " I think therefore, I am " (cogito ergo sum). God exists because a perfect being would have existence as part of its nature. Cartesian Dualism divided all existence into the spiritual and the material – the former can be examined through deductive reasoning, the latter by the experimental method. Descartes goal was to "reconcile religion with science" but was never achieved because of his method of skepticism.

Nicolaus Copernicus

1473-1543

Polish astronomer , who upset the assumptions of the geocentric universe of Ptolemy with his heliocentric conceptions of the universe. His work Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies was not published until after his death and he died before proving his theories.

Johann Kepler

1571-1630

German who plotted the elliptical orbits of the planets, thereby predicting their movements. He also helped prove Copernicus’ theories.

Galileo Galilei

1564-1642

His telescopic observations validated Copernican theory and because of his spirited advocacy, he earned condemnation by the Inquisition. The Roman Catholic Church tried to suppress the Copernican revolution by banning writings and by trying Galileo but he was exonerated 350 years later by the papacy.

Isaac Newton

1642-1727

Tested the notion of God’s intervention in human affairs and established the ascendancy of science in the modern world. He demonstrated that natural laws of motion –gravitation- account for the movement of heavenly bodies and earthly objects. These laws are unchangeable and predictable so God’s active participation is not needed to explain the operations of the forces of nature. Deism and rationalism grew out of Newton’s natural law theories.

John Locke

1632-1704

Englishman who provided a philosophical apology for the supremacy of Parliament during the Glorious Revolution with his Two Treaties on Civil Government. Locke’s political writings translated the natural law assumption into a conception of government.

Voltaire

1694-1778

Born Francios Marie Arouet in Paris, Voltaire personified the Age of Reason. Although he was more writer than philosopher (poet, essayist, dramatist, satirist), his genius for social criticism helped inflame desire for change and set the stage for the Age of Revolution. He preached against injustice and bigotry and for human rights and science. "Ecrasez l’infame" ("Crush the infamous") was his rallying cry against rigid religion, governmental abuse, and vestiges of medievalism.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

1712-1778

Considered a philosophe but was more accurately the founder of the Romantic Movement. He developed the idea of the noble savage: that civilization corrupted humankind and that life in the state of nature was purer, freer, and more virtuous. In The Social Contract, he said, " Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains," meaning that property causes social injustice.

Baron de Montesquieu

1689-1755

In his work Spirit of the Laws, he argued that the powers of government- legislative, executive, and judicial- must be separated in order to avoid depotism. His theories served as a blueprint for the governmental structure outlined in the U.S. constitution.

Denis Diderot

1713-1784

Published the writings and popularized the ideas of many of the philosophes in his Encyclopedia, a collection of political and social critiques rather than a compilation of facts

Francios Quensay

1694-1774

He led the physiocrats whose motto was laissez-faire and who believed that government should remove restraints to free trade-such as tariffs- so that the natural laws of economics were free to operate for the good of society.

Adam Smith

1727-1790

An Englishman who refined and expanded laissez-faire philosophy of the physiocrats in his Wealth of Nations (1776). This work is considered the "Bible of capitalism": the economy is governed by natural laws, such as supply and demand.

Frederick William

Frederick I

Frederick William I

1640-1688

1688-1713

1713-1740

Centralized the Prussian government and encouraged industry in order to support the state’s relatively large standing army.

Frederick the Great

(Frederick II)

1740-1786

He was a military genius who made Prussia a major power in Europe, an urbane and educated man who patronized the great Voltaire, a domestic reformer who improved education, codified laws, fostered industry, invited immigration, and extended religious toleration

Ivan the Great

1462-1505

It was under his rule in Russia that the Duchy of Muscovy overcame subjugation by the Central Asian Tartars.

Basil III &

Ivan the Terrible

1505-1533

1533-1584

Under these two czars, expansion and consolidation of the new empire continued.

Peter the Great

1689-1725

A Romanov and contemporary of Louis XIV of France, he gained vast territories to the Baltic Sea in the north, to the Black Sea in the south, and to the Far East. His greatest contribution was the westernization of Russia, recruiting hundreds of Western artisans, building a new capital on the Gulf of Finland, St Petersburg ("his window to the west").

Catherine the Great

1762-1796

German who was a patron of many of the French philosophes and who was considered an Enlightened Despot. She continued Peter the Great’s work of territorial expansion by annexing both Poland and Ottoman land.

Maria Theresa

1740-1780

Inherited the throne of Austria under a cloud of counterclaims, and was determined to strengthen the realm by centralizing the government, promoting commerce, and limiting the power of the nobles. Considered an Enlightened Despot.

Joseph II

1780-1790

Furthered his mother’s reforms by guaranteeing freedom of the press and religion, reforming the judicial system towards greater equality for all classes, making German the official language for the empire’s many ethnic minorities in order to foster centralization, and especially abolishing serfdom.