A list of some of the people from the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
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| 758543 | Hobbes | Wrote Leviathan. Thought human nature was nasty, brutal, & short. He said government was needed to provide jurisdiction for the people and that all rebellions must be quashed. | |
| 758544 | Locke | Wrote Two Treatises of Government. Said human nature lived free and had the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. He said government was created in order to protect these rights and if the government failed to do so it was the duty of the people to rebel. | |
| 758545 | Copernicus | Wrote On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. First to cause doubt about the Geocentric theory but was still wrong. | |
| 758546 | Brahe | Amassed nearly 20 years worth of astrological data that eventually led to the disproval of the geocentric theory. | |
| 758547 | Kepler | Smashed the geocentric theory to pieces. Had three laws of planetary motion: 1) Planets did not rotate in perfect circles 2) The closer the planet is to the sun the faster it moves 3) The larger the planet the slower it moves | |
| 760532 | Galileo | Wrote The Starry Messenger and Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems. He proved the heliocentric theory but was attacked by the Inquisition. | |
| 760533 | Newton | Wrote Principia. Founded the law of gravitation based on the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. He had three laws: 1) An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force 2) The rate of change of motion of an object is proportional to the force acting on it 3) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. | |
| 760534 | Paracelsus | Advanced the treatment and diagnosis of disease. Thought that diseases were caused by chemical imbalances. | |
| 760535 | Vesalius | Wrote On the Fabric of the Human Body. Dissected human bodies to better understand them. He disproved Galen's theory of the Liver being the center of the circulatory system. | |
| 760536 | Harvey | Wrote On the Motion of the Heart and Blood. Made lots of discoveries about the circulation of blood including that he found the heart is the center of the circulatory system. | |
| 760537 | Cavendish | Wrote Observations upon Expiremental Philosophy & Grounds of Natural Philosophy. Didn't popularize woman science but merely wanted to participate in scientific debates. | |
| 760538 | Merian | Wrote Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam. Just wanted to study science. | |
| 760539 | Winklemann | A woman who was a studied astronomy, but was bared from the Berlin Academy. | |
| 760540 | Descartes | Wrote Discourse on Method. Believed in Cartesian Dualism where the body can be doubted, but the mind can't so the two must be radically different. Used deductive reasoning (reasoning through previously know facts) to come to conclusions. | |
| 760541 | Bacon | Wrote Novum Organum & The Great Instauration. Father of the modern scientific method. Used inductive reasoning (reasoning through expirements). Thought the goal of science was to conquere nature. | |
| 760542 | Spinoza | Wrote Ethics Demonstrated in the Geometric Manner. Rejected Cartesian Dualism and suported Pantheism where "god" is a singular self-subsistent substance. | |
| 760543 | Pascal | Wrote Pensees. Said that Christianity was the only religion to recognized humanity's true state of being vulnerable and great. | |
| 760544 | Fontenelle | Wrote Plurality of Worlds. He paved the way for the Enlightenment by easily communicating complex scientific ideas to other people. | |
| 760545 | Bayle | Wrote Dictionary. A religous skeptic who attacked superstition, religous attitudes, and dogmatism. | |
| 760546 | Cook | Wrote Travels. He showed that humans who were uncivilized lived happy lives and labelled them "noble savages" | |
| 760547 | Montesquieu | Wrote The Spirit of the Laws. He proposed 3 government types for differently sized nations. A small nation should have a republican government relying on citizen involvement. A medium sized country should have a monarchy that must follow a set of laws. Large nations need despotism in which fear is used to inspire obedience. He also liked the idea of checks and balances within the government. | |
| 760548 | Voltaire | Wrote Philosophic Letters on the English & Treatise on Toleration. He admired the English freedom of the press, and religous toleration. He criticized France because of its royal absolutism and lack of freedom of thought. | |
| 760549 | Diderot | Wrote Encyclopedia. Vicously attacked Christianity calling it "dogmatic" and the "most fanatical religion of all". His Encyclopedia spread Enlightened ideas very far. | |
| 760550 | Quesnay | Leader of the Physiocrats who thought that land was the source of all wealth and supported laissez-faire economies. | |
| 760551 | Hume | Wrote Treatise on Human Nature. Said that observation made possible the study of man. | |
| 760552 | Smith | Wrote Wealth of Nations. Supported laissez-faire economies but thought that the source of all wealth was labor. | |
| 760553 | Holbach | Wrote System of Nature. A materialist who said that everything in the universe was simply matter. He strictly supported atheism. | |
| 760554 | Condorcet | Wrote The Progress of the Human Mind. He identified humans will go through 10 stages of progress. They were about to enter the tenth where humans will be perfect in understanding. | |
| 760555 | Rousseau | Wrote Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind, The Social Contract, & Emile. He identified the human nature was originally happy but was corrupted when man claimed that they owned land. Said the government must rule at the general will of the people so that the most people are benefited. Hated Parlaiment because the delegates made laws not the people. | |
| 760556 | Astell | Wrote A Serious Proposal to the Ladies & Some Reflections Upon Marriage. She wanted women to be educated and argued for equality in marriage. | |
| 760557 | Wollstonecraft | Wrote Vindication of the Rights. Compared the male domination over women to slavery. She also said that since the goals ofEnlightenment were to advance all human beings then why were women excluded. Declared that women should have equal rights with man. |
