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Jan 1, 1000
Ptolemy
- Alive during the second century
- He was the greatest astonomer of antiquity. The Ptolemaic system, which is geocentric, was named after him. It was constructed by philosophers in the Middles Ages using his ideas, along with the ideas of Aristotle and of Christianity.
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Dec 31, 1514
Andreas Vesalius
The new anatomy of the sixteenth century was based on his works.In one of his books, he discussed what he had found when he disecting human bodies while he was a professor at the University of Padua. -
Jan 22, 1561
Francis Bacon
Video2!!He was an English Philospher who developed the scientifuic method. He believed that instead of relying on the ideas of ancient authorities, scientists should use inductive reasoning to learn about nature. -
René Descartes
Video!!
He was a french philosopher who emphasized the importance of his own mind and asserted that he would accept only those things that his reason said were true. He also came up with the principle of the separation of mind and matter (and of mind and body). He has been called the father of modern rationalism. -
Margaret Cavendish
She was one of the most prominant female scientists of the seventeeth century. She wrote a number of works on scientific matter, including Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy. She was especially critical of the growing belief that humans, through science, were masters of nature. -
Isaac Newton
Newton defined the three laws of motion that govern the planetary bodies, as well as the objects on Earth. The most important part of his argument was the universal law of gravitation (explains why the planetary bodies do not go off in straight lines but instead continue in elliptical orbits about the sun). His laws created a new picture of the universe. -
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
One of the best-known literary figures in seventeeth century Latin America. She urged woman to be educated. -
Robert Walpole
Video 5The head of the cabinet in Great Britain. Considered the first Prime Minister. -
Johann Sebastian Bach
A renowened organist as well as a composer. -
Balthasar Neumann
He was one of the greatest architects of the eighteenth century. -
Baron de Montesquieu
In his book, The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu tried to use the scientific method to find the natural laws that govern the social and political relationship of human beings. -
John Wesley
An Anglican minister who founded Methodism. His religion gave the lower and middle classes in English society a sense of purpose and community. The religion stressed the importance of hard work and spirtiual contentment rather than demands for politicial equality. -
Henry Fielding
An English novelist who wrote novels about people without morals who survived by their wits. His characters reflect real types in eighteenth-century English society. -
Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia)
One of the best educated and most cultured monarchs of the eighteenth century. While making enlightenment reforms he: aboloished the use of torture except in treason and murder cases, granted limited freedom of speech and press, as wellas greater religious toleration. But he kept Prussia's serfdom and rigid social structure intact- that being it for reformations. -
Jean- Jacques Rousseau
He believed that people had adopted laws and government in order to preserve their private property. He also came up with the social contract, in which an entire society agrees to be governed by it's general will, and for those who want to do their own thing are forced to abide by the general will. -
Empress Maria Theresa
She worked to centralize the Austrian Empire and strengthen the power of the state. Even though she wasn't open to reformation, she worked hard to ease the conditions of the serfs. -
Adam Smith
He believed that the state should not interfere in economic matters. He gave the government only three basic roles: protecting society from invasions (the army) defending citizens from injustice (the police); keeping up certain public works that private indiviuals could not afford. -
Catherine the Great (Catherine II of Russia)
Video 4She was open to the idea of enlightenment reforms, but when philosophe Denis Diderot from France told her about the plans for a political and financial reform she became skeptical. However, she did consider the idea of a new law code that would recognize the principle of the equality of all people in the eyes of the law. In the end, she reformed nothing because she knew that her success depended on the support of the Russian nobility. -
George Washington
When the Continental Army was formed in 1775, George Washington was made the Commander in Chief during the American Revolutionary War. -
Cesare Beccaria
He wrote Crimes and Punishment. He argued that punishments should not be exercises in brutality. He also opposed capital punishment. He didn't believe that it stopped others from committing crimes, and that it set an example of barbarianism. -
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
He believed that he needed to get rid of anything standing in the way of reason. He abolished serfdom, got rid of the death penalty, established the principle of equality of all before the law, and religious toleration- to name a few reformations. In the end, unfortunately, his reform program failed because he alienated so many groups. -
Thomas Jefferson
He wrote the Declaration of Independance that was approved on July 4,1776 by the Second Continental Congress. Approving this declared the colonies to be "free and independent states absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown". -
Mary Wollstonecraft
Video 3An English writer who was an advocate for women's rights. She pointed out that the same people who argued that women must obey men aslso said that the goverment abused their given power over their subjects. She also pointed out that the Enlightenment was based on an ideal of reason in all human beings, and that because women have reason, they are entitled to the same rights as men.
