JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564)
John Calvin was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-1592)
Michel de Montaigne was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight.
WILLIAM GILBERT (1540-1603)
William Gilbert was an English physician, physicist and natural philosopher. He passionately rejected both the prevailing Aristotelian philosophy and the Scholastic method of university teaching. He is remembered today largely for his book De Magnete (1600).
FRANCIS BACON (1533-1592)
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon led the advancement of both natural philosophy and the scientific method and his works remained influential even in the late stages of the Scientific Revolution.
(1564-1616)
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.
THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679)
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.
RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650)
René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathematics was central to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)
John Milton was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden.
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.
René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathematics was central to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.
MOLIERE (1622-1673)
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more.
BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)
Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer.
CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS (1629-1695)
JOHN LOCKE (1629-1695)
Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, FRS, was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution. In physics, Huygens made seminal contributions to optics and mechanics, while as an astronomer he studied the rings of Saturn and discovered its largest moon, Titan.
Michel de Montaigne was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight.
BARUCH SPINOZA (1632-1677)
One of the foremost and seminal thinkers of the Enlightenment, modern biblical criticism, and 17th-century Rationalism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, Spinoza came to be considered "one of the most important philosophers—and certainly the most radical—of the early modern period".
ISSAC NEWTON (1643-1727)
Issac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author who was described in his time as a natural philosopher. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed.
JEAN RACINE (1639-1699)
GEORGE BERKELEY (1685-1753)
Jean Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Tragedies include such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie.
George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the mind and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived.
JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)
was an Anglo-Irish[1] satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language.
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.
René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathematics was central to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.