Thinkers of the XVIIIth and XIXth century-Culture and Civilization II

References (material provided by the teacher)

2000 BCE

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/18th-century-intellectuals-academics.php Video: Thinkers 18th century (presentation)
Video: 7 Billion How Did We Get So Big So Fast PDFs about Thinkers of the XIXth century

References (material that I looked for)

1900 BCE

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PPuQWQM9LbDgrxsQHDE8UtZ0GZ9JBxpShXsfcXbTN0o/edit?usp=sharing Here I share a Google Doc with the links I used to take the information about the authors.
I did it this way since the comments here have limited word numbers.

Al-Shawkani

1759 BCE

(Islamic jurist, Theologian)
He was one of the most influential proponents of Athari theology. Influenced by the teachings of the medieval Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, Al-Shawkani became noteworthy for his staunch stances against the practice of Taqlid (imitation to legal schools)

Salomon Maimon

1753 BCE

He was a Kantian philosopher, of German origin and Jewish religion He studied modern philosophy at various German universities.He also studied the Critique of Pure Reason in Berlin,writing a commentary on the work that earned praise from Kant himself.Kant seemed to have claimed that Maimon was the only one who really understood his system, a compliment for which Solomon Maimon is remembered

Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite

1749 BCE

(Monk)
He was influential in reviving the practice of Hesychasm, a Byzantine method of contemplative prayer.
Forced to flee Turkish persecution in the midst of his studies at Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey), Nicodemus entered a monastery on Mount Athos. He was inspired to theological scholarship by a contemporary, Macarius of Corinth, whose collection of old Eastern prayer texts Nicodemus edited and published as Philokalia in 1782.

Ahmad al-Tijani

1735 BCE

(Theologian)
Tijani was born in 1735 in Ain Madi, the son of Muhammad al-Mukhtar.He traced his descent according to the Berber custom, to his mother's tribe, Tijania.
In 1757, Tijani left his village for Fez.In Fez, he met a seer who told him he would achieve spiritual revelation (fath).

Étienne-Gabriel Morelly

1717 BCE

(Novelist)
He was an enlightened French philosopher and writer,whose works include the utopian poem "Shipwreck of the Floating Islands" or "Basiliad of the famous Pilpai" (1753),which almost went unnoticed, and the controversial "Code of Nature" (1755)which until the beginning of the 19th century was attributed to Diderot. According to Albert Soboul,"Morelly, more than any other,deserves,around the middle of the 18th century, to be placed first in the history of the origins of socialist thought"

Eugene Aram

1704 BCE

(Philologist)
He was an English philologist, but also infamous as the murderer celebrated by Thomas Hood in his ballad The Dream of Eugene Aram, and by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1832 novel Eugene Aram.
He had a "fair school education": reading and arithmetic. At 13 he started working with his father on the Newby estate. Sir Edward allowed him to make use of his library and he taught himself Latin and Greek

Anton Wilhelm Amo

1703 BCE

(Philosopher) His investigations and theories are positioned in radical difference with respect to the thinkers presented, assumed by the Western philosophical canon in all the universities of the world.

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

1703 BCE

(Theologian)
He was a Sunni cleric of the Hanbali school, from the Banu Tamim tribe. His ideals were a return to "pure" Islam, to the principles of salaf. He belonged to the Musharraf family, from the Banu Tamim branch and known as the Wahaba, who were considered a high-class family in the Néyed area.

Thomas Bayes

1701 BCE

(Former Statistician who is known for formulating a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem) Bayes was a pioneer in using probability inductively and building a mathematical foundation for probabilistic inference. His main finding was to calculate the probability of a future event based on both previous events and current conditions and any other related factors.

Henry Home, Lord Kames

1696 BCE

(Scottish Writer, Philosopher, Advocate, Judge, and Agricultural Improver Known for His Elements of Criticism) Henry Home, Lord Kames was a Scottish philosopher, writer, agricultural improver, advocate, and judge. One of the most influential personalities in the Scottish Enlightenment, Home took an active part in an intellectual society of the 18th century known as the Select Society. A founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Home acted as a patron to personalities like David Hume.

Count of St. Germain

1691 BCE

(European Adventurer and Philosopher) Known as The Wonderman, 18th-century French adventurer Comte de Saint-Germain was also a talented musician, especially skilled in the violin, and a well-known chemist. Not only was he proficient in almost all European languages, he had traveled to places such as Russia, the Dutch Republic, and Germany.

Johann Ernst Hanxleden

1681 BCE

(Priest, Philologist)
He was a Jesuit priest, missionary in India, philologist, grammarian and lexicographer of and German known as Arnos Paathiri (or Arnos Father). Hanxleden was the first to make a dictionary from Malayalam to Sanskrit and Portuguese, at the time the predominant European language in India; and he came to compose poetry in Sanskrit.

İbrahim Müteferrika

1674 BCE

(Diplomat)
He was a Hungarian-born Ottoman diplomat, publisher, economist, historian, Islamic theologian, sociologist,1 and the first Muslim to run a printing press with a movable Arabic typeface.At a young age, Ibrahim Muteferrika entered the Ottoman diplomatic services. He was an active figure in promoting the Ottoman-French alliance against Austria and Russia. Muteferrika was also acclaimed for his role in the Ottoman-Swedish action against Russia.

Thomas Rymer

1641 BCE

(Antiquary)
He was an English literary critic who introduced into England the principles of French formalist Neoclassical criticism. As historiographer royal, he also compiled a collection of treaties of considerable value to the medievalist.

Fabius Cunctator (Fabius the Delayer)

203 BCE

Fabian Socialism was so-called because the members of
the Fabian Society admired the tactics of the Roman general Fabius Cunctator (Fabius the Delayer), who avoided pitched battles and gradually wore down Hannibal’s forces.
Instead of revolution, the Fabians favoured “gradualism” as the way to bring about socialism. Their notion of socialism, like Saint-Simon’s, entailed social control of
property through an effectively and impartially administered state and a government of enlightened experts.

Thomas Hobbes

1588

Thomas Hobbes was a state theoretician, but he also worked in other fields such as mathematics and physics. His philosophy is the materialist doctrine of the 17th century, although his fame is mainly due to his political and social theories. Representative of mechanistic materialism, Hobbes defends that reality is mechanical and says that the material causes are those that determine the actions of the human being.

Gerrard Winstanley

1609

Winstanley was not only the pioneer theorist of
anarchism but also the forerunner of anarchist activism.
He laid down what later became basic principles among anarchists: that power corrupts; that property is incompatible with freedom; that authority and property are between them the begetters of crime; and that only in a society without rulers, where work and its products are
shared, can men be free and happy, acting not according to laws imposed from above but according to their consciences.

Thomas Corneille

1625

Thomas Corneille, 19 years younger than his brother Pierre, dedicates his life to following the path marked out by his older brother. Like Pierre, he is also a lawyer to later become a playwright. His work "Timocratus", among others, met with immense success in 1656. Thomas married the sister of Pierre's wife and moved to Paris at the same time as Pierre.His attention is then focused on philology, publishing in 1687 a new edition of the "Notes" of Vaugelas.

Kaibara Ekken

1630

(Japanese Philosopher and Botanist Who Translated the Intricate Writings of Neo-Confucianism into Colloquial Japanese) Kaibara Ekken was a Japanese philosopher and botanist. He is best remembered for translating the intricate writings of Neo-Confucianism into colloquial Japanese. A popular botanist, Kaibara Ekken is also credited with advancing the study of botany in Japan. One of his most influential works is Yamato honzō, a pioneering study of Japanese plants.

John Locke

1632

(English Philosopher and Physician, Popularly Known as the ‘Father of Liberalism’) Also known as The Father of Liberalism, was a prominent Enlightenment Age philosopher. A qualified physician, Locke postulated the theory of mind, empiricism, and the idea of tabula rasa. His ideas influenced the social contract theory, the works of Kant and Rousseau, and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Ken

1637

(British Cleric and Former Bishop of Bath and Wells) Anglican bishop and hymn writer Thomas Ken had also been King Charles II’s chaplain. He was one of the seven bishops who opposed King James II’s Declaration of Indulgence which was focused on promoting Roman Catholicism. He was eventually forced to retire due to his opposition to William and Mary.

Antoine Galland

1646

(Archaeologist)
Galland was born at Rollot in Picardy (now in the department of Somme). After completing school at Noyon, he studied Greek and Latin in Paris, where he also acquired some Arabic. In 1670 he was attached to the French embassy at Istanbul because of his excellent knowledge of Greek and, in 1673, he travelled in Syria and the Levant, where he copied a great number of inscriptions, sketched and—in some cases—removed historical monuments.

Gottfried W. Leibniz

1646

(German Mathematician Who Developed the Present Day Notation for the Differential and Integral Calculus) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a significant logician, mathematician, and philosopher of the Enlightenment era. He laid down his own concepts of differential and integral calculus. He was behind the invention of the mass-produced mechanical calculator and modified the binary number system. He also laid down a separate library cataloging system.

Maria Sibylla Merian

1647

(German-Born Dutch Naturalist and Scientific Illustrator Known for Her Contribution to 'Entomology') German-born Dutch naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is remembered for her drawings of insects and plants. She also contributed to the development of entomology through her detailed work on insects and her documentation of a butterfly’s metamorphosis. Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium is her best-known work.

Gregory King

1648

(British Statistician Known for His Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions Upon the State and Condition of 'England') Born to a surveyor father, Gregory King initially assisted his father and then began working for John Ogilby as an engraver. The economic statistician not only lent his name to the Gregory King's Law but also contributed to most of the street layouts for London’s Soho.

Jeremy Collier

1650

(British Theatre Critic, Non-juror Bishop and Theologian) A non-juror bishop, theologian, celebrated author and theatre critic, Jeremy Collier refused to take the oath of allegiance to King William III and was sent twice to prison for supporting James II. Despite that, he publicly gave absolution on the scaffold to King’s enemies and suffered reprisal for it. He published several works, some of which became quite controversial.

François Fénelon

1651

(Catholic Archbishop and the Author of 'The Adventures of Telemachus') François Fénelon was a French writer, poet, theologian, and Catholic archbishop. He is best remembered for his book The Adventures of Telemachus, which was published in 1699. François Fénelon also served as a tutor of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, guiding the character formation of Louis, Grand Dauphin's eldest son.

Engelbert Kaempfer

1651

(Naturalist) Seventeenth-century German physician and traveller Engelbert Kaempfer had been on trade missions across the world, including places such as Russia, Iran, Java, and Japan. His written experiences about his stay in Japan became a valuable source of information on the flora and fauna of the country.

Bernard de Montfaucon

1655

He was a French scholar; instructed by Pavillon, Bishop of Aleth, a friend of his father, and in 1672 he entered the Perpignan Cadet Academy to prepare for a military career. After the death of his father, he went with his relative, the Marquis d'Hautpol, a captain of the grenadiers in the Languedoc Regiment and served as a volunteer under Turenne (1673).

Christian Thomasius

1655

He was professor of natural law in Leipzig and at the University of Halle, founded by himself. He is considered one of the creators of German legal thought. His works include Introduction to the Doctrine of Reason (1691), Essay on the Essence of the Human Spirit (1699) and Fundamentals of Natural and Gentile Law (1705).

Henri de Boulainvilliers

1658

(French Historian and Political Writer Who Set Forth a Broad Cultural Conception of Philosophical History) Henri de Boulainvilliers was a French nobleman who was a noted writer and historian. He studied the exact sciences, history, and geography at the College of Juilly. He then went on to serve in the army until 1697. He published many works on science, history, and philosophy. He had a keen interest in astrology as well.

Georg Ernst Stahl

1659

He was professor of medicine in Jena, later taught medicine and chemistry at the University of Halle (1693-1716), where he devoted himself to chemical research. From there he went to Berlin, as a physician to King Frederick William I of Prussia.

William Wollaston

1659

Wollaston was born in East Dereham (Norfolk) and in 1793 obtained his doctorate in medicine from the University of Cambridge. During his studies there, he became interested in chemistry, crystallography, metallurgy, and physics. In 1800 he gave up medicine and concentrated on these interests instead of practising his own profession.
He became wealthy by developing a physicochemical method for processing platinum, and during tests of the device he discovered palladium in 1803 and rhodium in 1804.

Hans Sloane

1660

(Physician, Naturalist and 13th President of the Royal Society (1727 - 1741)) British doctor Hans Sloane travelled to Jamaica as a personal physician of the 2nd Duke of Albermarle and was soon engrossed in the natural species of the region. He documented his collections, and they eventually helped form the British Museum. He is also known as the inventor of drinking chocolate.

Johann Kuhnau

1660

The name of Johann Kuhnau (1660–1722) often evokes a shadowy figure who lives in the footnotes of Bach biographies, someone who forms part of the background musical culture against which Bach can ever more brightly shine. Indeed it was Kuhnau who inspired Bach in his choice of the title Clavier-Übung for four keyboard publications; it was he who collaborated with Bach in the examination of an organ at Halle in 1716; and he whom Bach succeeded as cantor of the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, in 1723.

Richard Bentley

1662

He was an English philologist, Hellenist, and chronologist. In 1690 Bentley was ordained a priest, and Stillingfleet was appointed Bishop of Worcester. Bentley had gone from Cambridge to Wadham College, Oxford, and there he especially enjoyed the treasures of the Bodleyan Library, but he had to leave Oxford to go with the new Bishop Stillingfleet to Worcester, not without first writing his Epistola ad Johannem Millium.

August Hermann Francke

1663

(German Theologian) Remembered as one of the chief figures of German Pietism, August Hermann Francke had also been a professor of theology at the University of Halle. Though criticized by radical Lutherans, his social activism saw him providing education and essentials for the poor at his Francke Foundations.

Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen

1663

(Philologist)
He received his master's degree from the University of Leipzig in 1685. His dissertation, titled Disputationem Moralem de Divortiis Secundum Jus Naturae (Moral Disputation on Divorce according to the Law of Nature), was written under the direction of his father-in-law and advisor Otto Mencke. He was from 1692 until the time of his death a professor of Near Eastern languages and university librarian at the University of Wittenberg, and gave courses there in Philosophy and Hebrew.

Árni Magnússon

1663

(Scholar) Árni Magnússon was a scholar best remembered for his collection of Icelandic manuscripts which were assembled by him to create the famous Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection. In 2009, the collection's historical value was honoured by making it a part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Árni Magnússon also served as a professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Jean Meslier

1664

(Priest)
He was a Catholic priest and philosopher of the French Enlightenment. Its existence became known from the publication made by Voltaire in 1762, under the title of Extrait des Sentiments de Jean Meslier,of a text that he presented as an extract from another more extensive one, in which this priest determinedly professed his atheism and he made a radical critique of the social and political injustices of his time.

Ogyū Sorai

1666

(Philosopher)
Ogyū Sorai, (born March 21, 1666, Edo, Japan—died February 28, 1728, Edo), one of the foremost Japanese scholars of Chinese culture and a leading Confucianist. Ogyū stressed the pragmatic application of Confucianism to promote social and political reforms by means of uniform, rational laws. He is also noted for his appreciative commentary on the revered shogunate ruler and administrative reformer Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616).

Giambattista Vico

1668

(Italian Philosopher Best Known for His 'Verum Factum' Principle) Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico is regarded as a pioneer of what is now known as cultural anthropology, or ethnology. He brought together history and the social sciences in his work Scienza nuova. A poor bookseller’s son, he studied by candlelight but grew up to be a major Counter-Enlightenment figure.

Bernard Mandeville

1670

(Dutch Philosopher, Political Economist and Satirist) Anglo-Dutch social philosopher Bernard Mandeville is best remembered for his satirical work The Fable of the Bees. A qualified physician just like his father, he later settled in London, where he gained fame with his writings. He believed that even the most negative actions are capable of producing positive outcomes.

Lodovico Antonio Muratori

1672

(Italian Historian Known for His Discovery of the 'Muratorian Fragment') Best known for discovering the Muratorian Fragment, Lodovico Antonio Muratori was a pioneer of Italian historiography. He began his career as a priest and joined the Ambrosian library of Milan. He is remembered for his works such as Anecdota and Annali d’Italia. He was also against orthodox religious beliefs.

Johann Konrad Dippel

1673

(Theologian) Remembered as the “mad scientist,” Johann Konrad Dippel is considered by many as the person who inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. He used the pseudonym Christianus Democritus to write various scientific texts and claimed his concoction Dippel's oil was the "elixir of life" that promised immortality

Isaac Watts

1674

(Theologian) A prolific and popular hymn writer, he was recognized as the "Father of English Hymnody", to whom some 750 hymns are attributed. Many of his hymns are still in use today and have been translated into many languages.

Samuel Clarke

1675

He was a British philosopher and theologian. He studied at Cambridge University and entered the Anglican clergy. His collected sermons on Demonstration of the Existence and Attributes of God were enormously successful; in them he affirms that the existence of God must be established by arguments of pure reason. He is also the author of Apology of Christianity (1705).

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

1678

(Politician)

Thomas Hearne

1678

He was an English diarist and prolific antiquary, particularly remembered for his published editions of many medieval English chronicles and other important historical texts. At the university, he attracted the attention of Dr John Mill (1645–1707), the principal of St Edmund Hall, who employed him to compare manuscripts and in other ways. Having taken the degree of B.A. in 1699 he was made assistant keeper of the Bodleian Library, where he worked on the catalog of books.

Christian Wolff

1679

(Philosopher) German philosopher, representative of the German rationalist tradition originated in Leibniz, and highest representative of the Aufklärung or German Enlightenment.

Arcadio Huang

1679

He was a Chinese Christian convert, brought to Paris by the Missions étrangères. He took a pioneering role in teaching the Chinese language in France around 1715. He was preceded in France by his compatriot Michael Shen Fu-Tsung.
His main works, made with the help of the young Nicolas Fréret, are the first Sino-French lexicon, the first Chinese grammar of Chinese, and the spread in France of the Kangxi system with two hundred and fourteen radicals.

Constanzo Beschi

1680

Constanzo Beschi, was an Italian Jesuit priest, missionary to South India, and renowned poet in the Tamil language. For the first six years, he worked as a missionary in Elakurichy, a town near Tiruvaiyaru. Other churches built by him are Vyagula Matha Church in Thanjavur and in Palliyeri village near Thanjavur. Inspired by what was done in China Beschi adopted an Indian lifestyle and introduced elements of Hindu aesthetics into Christian statuary.

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix

1682

(French Priest and Historian) Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix was a French Jesuit priest and historian, often considered the first historian of New France. He was ordained as a priest in 1713. He was a wide traveller with an eager curiosity to learn about his surroundings. He travelled to Canada and explored the region for a few years before returning to France.

Ludvig Holberg

1684

(Playwright and an Author) One of the forefathers of Norwegian and Danish literature, Ludvig Holberg was a legendary literary figure of the Dano-Norwegian dual monarchy era. Initially a French tutor, he later studied music, before devoting himself to writing. His comedies earned him the nickname of The Molière of the North.

George Berkeley

1685

(Philosopher) George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher who is credited with popularizing a theory called immaterialism, which claims that material substance like tables and chairs can't exist without being perceived by the mind. Berkeley influenced several philosophers like David Hume. Also remembered for his humanitarian work, George Berkeley worked towards creating homes for abandoned children in London.

Vasily Tatishchev

1686

(Statesman)
He was a Russian historian, geographer, director of mines and governor. He was attached to the Faculty of Mines, carried out various missions in the service of Siberia and Sweden, becoming Grand Master of Mines (1737). He was the first to establish the borders of Europe, which he said stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals.

William Stukeley

1687

(Physician)
He became the first secretary of the London Society of Antiquaries. A year later, he visited Stonehenge in England and fell in love with it.
Stukeley was fascinated with the druids, but he also wanted to be one of them. In 1730 he changed careers and was appointed Vicar of All Saints at Stamford.

Johann Albrecht Bengel

1687

(German Priest and Theologian Known for His Edition of the 'Greek New Testament') It is unfortunate that German Lutheran clergyman Johann Albrecht Bengel is only remembered for his work on the Greek New Testament. One of the greatest biblical scholars, he was also a devout Christian, who founded Swabian Pietism. He was also a pioneer in modern textual criticism, in scientific exegesis and in modern eschatological study.

Swedenborg

1688

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian philosopher, mystic, theologian, and scientist. Swedenborg started hogging the limelight after writing a book on the afterlife titled Heaven and Hell, which released in 1758. A prolific scientist and inventor, Swedenborg experienced spiritual awakening after which he started working on reforming Christianity. He even claimed that he could converse with angels and demons.

Montesquieu

1689

Montesquieu was a French Enlightenment political philosopher, historian, judge, and man of letters.His treatise The Spirit of the Laws on political theory greatly influenced work of many others, including drafting of the U.S. Constitution by the founding fathers of the United States.For him despotism could be prevented by a system of different governmental bodies exercising different powers,developing the separation of powers,legislative,executive and judicial branch;together by the rule of law

Joseph Butler

1692

He was an English philosopher, Bishop of Durham and chaplain to the Royal House, who defended the complementarity of nature and revelation, thus fighting radical deists who considered revealed religion superfluous. He tried to base morality on natural foundations, but to the optimism of deists and freethinkers, he opposed a pessimistic diagnosis of human nature. Conscience, at the same time that it makes man aware of his limits, also reveals to him his supernatural vocation.

François Quesnay

1694

(Former economist known for publishing the "Tableau économique" (Economic Table) in 1758) François Quesnay was a French economist and physician. He was a proponent of the Physiocratic school. He is best known for publishing the "Tableau économique" (Economic Table), in which he set forth the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats. He also wrote extensively on Chinese politics and society. He was married to a woman named Marianne Woodsen.

Francis Hutcheson

1694

(Scotch-Irish Philosopher and a Leading Figure of the Scottish Enlightenment) Scotch-Irish philosopher Francis Hutcheson is remembered as a pioneering figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. An Irish Presbyterian preacher, he also taught moral philosophy at Glasgow University. He believed in internal senses, apart from the 5 external senses. His 2-volume System of Moral Philosophy, one of his best-known works, was released posthumously.

Voltaire

1694

(French Historian and Philosopher Known for His Wit and His Pointed Social Critique) 18th-century historian, author, philosopher, and advocate of freedom of speech Voltaire was a leading figure of the French Age of Enlightenment. He often ran into trouble for his criticism of the French nobility and the Roman Catholic Church. He once went to Britain on voluntary exile, fearing imprisonment in France.

PHYSIOCRATS: Francois Quesnay

1694

Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) was a
French physician ennobled by Louis XV as "his thinker" and who, with Jean Gournay formed the French Economistes, called the Physiocrates, who became leading economic thinkers of France. The land is the only source of economic surplus (wealth), is a free gift from God and does not need to be maintained.Labor and capital only earn what is needed to maintain them so their earnings only replace the value used up in the act of production.

Voltaire

1694

He was one of the most famous philosopher,although he wrote plays,essays,poetry,philosophy and books.
He created the theory of ''Freedom of expression'' believing that people should have the rights to say,think or do whatever they wanted as long as it did not harm or involve anyone else. He attacked the Church,abandoning spiritual matters and defined himself as deist,rejecting organized religion and believing that morality could be achieved by following reason rather than the teachings of church

Hermann Samuel Reimarus

1694

(Philosopher)
Appointed professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages at the Hamburg Gymnasium, or preparatory school, in 1727, Reimarus made his house a cultural centre and meeting place for learned and artistic societies. His first important philosophical work was Abhandlungen von den vornehmsten Wahrheiten der natürlichen Religion (1754; “Treatises on the Principal Truths of Natural Religion”)

Pierre Louis Maupertuis

1698

(Mathematician Known for Formulating the Principle of Least Action) Pierre Louis Maupertuis was a French mathematician and man of letters. He is credited with having invented the principle of least action; his version is known as Maupertuis's principle. He was also a philosopher and his work in natural history touched upon a range of topics. He was the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science.

Johann Christoph Gottsched

1700

(German Philosopher, Author and Critic of the Age of Enlightenment) Johann Christoph Gottsched was a German author, philosopher, and critic. Although he exercised an undisputed literary dictatorship for about 30 years in Germany, Gottsched had become a personification of foolish pedantry during his later years. Nevertheless, Gottsched played a major role in the development of German literature. He also served as the editor of many journals dedicated to literary criticism.

XVIIIth century

1701

XVIIIth century

1701

It is known as the century of lights, the Enlightenment.
It appears as a critique of the ancient regime in Europe due to the existence of stronger monarchies.
In Europe this century saw changes in the political area (French Revolution) while in England these changes took place in the economic area (Industrial Revolution).
Enlightenment principles:
Religion,tradition and superstitions limited independent thought, logic and reason, not faith.

XVIIIth century

1701

Charles Marie de La Condamine

1701

(French Explorer, Geographer, and Mathematician Who Created the First Map of the Amazon Region) French naturalist, geographer, and mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine is remembered for completing the first known scientific exploration of the Amazon region and also created the first map of the region. He was also part of an expedition that measured a latitude at the equator.

Jonathan Edwards

1703

(Preacher, Theologian, Philosopher) Jonathan Edwards was an American philosopher, revivalist preacher, and Congregationalist Protestant theologian. Considered one of America's most prominent and influential philosophical theologians, Jonathan Edwards played a major role in shaping the Evangelical Revival of the 1730s and 1740s. His theological work is credited with paving the way for a new school of theology called the New England theology.

John Wesley

1703

(English Clergyman, Theologian, Evangelist and Co-Founder of the Methodist Movement in the Church of England) John Wesley was an English cleric, evangelist, and theologian. He is best remembered for leading a revival movement called Methodism within the Church of England. He is credited with founding societies that eventually became the dominant form of the Methodist movement, which remains relevant today. He continues to be the main theological influence on Methodists all over the world.

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens

1704

(Author)
He was a French rationalist, author and critic of the Catholic Church, who was a close friend of Voltaire and spent much of his life in exile at the court of Frederick the Great. While several generations of the de Boyer family held the position of Procureur general, they also had a background in the arts. Jean-Baptiste's great-uncle was the poet and dramatist Abbe Claude de Boyer (1618–1698), while his grandfather, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer (1640–1709), owned a famous art collection.

David Hartley

1705

(British physician and philosopher)
He was a British philosopher, born in Halifax. He studied at the University of Cambridge. He married twice. The first in 1730 with Alice Rowley, who died the following year giving birth to her son David (1731-1813). He is known above all for his work ''Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty and his Expectations'', in which he defends an associationist psychology and physiological mechanism.

Benjamin Franklin

1706

(One of the Founding Fathers of the United States) Benjamin Franklin is considered one of the founding fathers of the United States as he was a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He was a writer, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, an accomplished diplomat and much more. He is a key figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity.

Émilie du Châtelet

1706

(Philosopher) She was a French mathematician, physicist and philosopher, translator of Newton into French and disseminator of his theories.
She was a lady of the high aristocracy and she could easily have lived a life immersed in superficial pleasures, and yet she was an active participant in the scientific events that make her age the Age of Enlightenment.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

1707

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French mathematician, encyclopédiste, cosmologist, and naturalist. He is best known for authoring and publishing Histoire Naturelle, an encyclopaedic collection of 36 volumes, which he worked on for 50 years. His work had a strong influence on two subsequent generations of naturalists, including popular French scientists like Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Charles Wesley

1707

(Poet) One of the leaders of the Methodist revival movement, Charles Wesley is better known as the author numerous hymns and carols. Love Divine, All Loves Excelling and Christ the Lord Is Risen Today being some of his more popular works. Averaging ten poetic lines per day for fifty years, he published more than 4,500 hymns, leaving some 3,000 in manuscript.

Antiochus Kantemir

1708

Antiochus Kantemir was a distinguished Russian statesman who was his country’s first secular poet and one of the leading writers of the classical school. Between 1729 and 1731 he wrote several poems, the most important probably being two satires, “To His Own Mind: On Those Who Blame Education” and “On the Envy and Pride of Evil-Minded Courtiers.” These poems denounced the opposition to the reforms of the emperor Peter the Great and enjoyed great success when circulated in manuscript.

Julien Offroy de La Mettrie

1709

(Physician and Philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment)

Thomas Reid

1710

(Philosopher) Thomas Reid was a Scottish philosopher best remembered for founding the Scottish School of Common Sense. Reid, who played an important part in the Scottish Enlightenment, advocated common sense realism as opposed to his contemporary David Hume who advocated metaphysical naturalism. Thomas Reid is also credited with co-founding the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.

Thomas Hutchinson

1711

(Businessman)
Thomas Hutchinson was a successful merchant, a prominent politician and one of the most important loyalists in the Massachusetts Bay Colony before the American Revolution. He attended Harvard College and earned his degree at age 16. His political career began when he was elected as a selectman in 1737.

Roger Joseph Boscovich

1711

(Physicist, Astronomer, Philosopher and Founder of 'Brera Observatory') Italian astronomer and mathematician Roger Joseph Boscovich was one of the first European scientists to accept Newton’s gravitational theory. His contributions to astronomy include the application of geometry to compute the orbit of a planet and the equator of a rotating planet. He also laid the foundation of the atomic theory.

David Hume

1711

Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, and economist, David Hume, is considered one of the most important philosophers to write in English. His book, A Treatise of Human Nature, is counted among the most influential works in the history of philosophy. His works have influenced numerous thinkers, including German philosopher Immanuel Kant and Christian philosopher Joseph Butler.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, composer, and writer. His political philosophy influenced aspects of the French Revolution. He also helped develop modern economic, political, and educational thought. His writing inspired a transformation in French drama and poetry. His works also influenced such writers around the world as Tolstoy. His works as a composer were acknowledged by composers like Mozart.

James Steuart

1712

(Author) Credited with writing the first methodically written text on economics in English, James Steuart belonged to a noble family. His renowned work, An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, was the first in English and the first by a Scottish economist to have “political economy” as part of its title.

Francesco Algarotti

1712

Algarotti was born in Venice into a merchant family. After a first period of study in Rome, where he got acquainted with the ideas of Carlo Lodoli, he studied in Bologna and in Florence.
In 1735, at the age of 23, he began a journey through Europe that would take him, among other places, to Paris, where he met various personalities of the time. After France, Algarotti went to England and stayed for some time in London, where he was accepted into the Royal Society.

Denis Diderot

1713

(French Philosopher, Co-Founder and Chief Editor of the ‘Encyclopédie’) Denis Diderot revolutionized the Age of Enlightenment as the co-founder of Encyclopédie, which was banned for questioning religion. He had flirted with the idea of joining the theater and becoming a priest, and even studied law, but later devoted himself to languages, literature, and philosophy.

Antonio Genovesi

1713

(Italian Philosopher and Economist) Italian philosopher, political economist, and priest Antonio Genovesi initially taught metaphysics. However, his humanistic ideas and treatises were deemed heretical, which is why his Elements of Universal Christian Theology could only be published posthumously. He was one of the first to use Italian instead of Latin in his courses.

George Whitefield

1714

(Evangelist, Theologian) George Whitefield was an Anglican evangelist and cleric. He is credited with co-founding the evangelical movement and Methodism. Whitefield's teachings of a series of revivals in North America became an important component of the First Great Awakening. Thanks to his ability to captivate large audiences, George Whitefield preached to millions of listeners during his ministry.

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten

1714

He was a German philosopher who instituted aesthetics (or inferior epistemology) as a science distinct from philosophy. Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten studied in Halle, where he became an enthusiastic supporter of Christian Wolff's philosophy. In 1735 he presented his doctoral thesis, in which he demonstrated extraordinary philosophical precocity since he was then only twenty-one years old.

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo

1714

(Scottish Judge, Scholar of Linguistic Evolution, Philosopher and Deist) James Burnett, Lord Monboddo was a Scottish philosopher, judge, deist, and scholar of linguistic evolution. Best remembered for contributing to the development of the concepts of biological evolution, James Burnett is often credited with theorizing the idea of natural selection. His theories were read and acknowledged by Erasmus Darwin, whose works were in turn read by his grandson Charles Darwin.

Video:Age of Enlightment

1715

Video with explanations of the period and its important thinkers.
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ef0erm_KQI
European historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution.

Claude Adrien Helvétius

1715

(Philosopher, Writer, French moralists)
He was descended from a family of doctors and his original name was Schweitzer, Latinized as Helvétius. He studied with the Jesuits and was prepared for a financial career, but he occupied his time writing verses; past twenty he was already ferme générale, a magnificently paid position; and he married the Lorraine Anne-Catherine de Ligniville, hostess of the famous literary salon that the couple maintained, the so-called Auteuil Society.

Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau

1715

(French Economist) French political economist Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau belonged to the Physiocratic school. He is also remembered as the father of economist and French Revolution leader Comte de Mirabeau. He penned books such as Theory of Taxation. Going against tax farmers, he suggested direct tax collection on income and land.

Thomas Gray

1716

(Poet, Writer, Literary critic) Together with William Collins, Thomas Gray was the most significant poet of the transition period in English poetry between formal classicism and thematic romanticism. Grower of an elegant and melancholic poetry, Gray was inspired by the Icelandic and Celtic poems to compose some of his works. His Diary (1775) narrates a trip through the English lakes and his letters, spontaneous and spiritual, abound in aesthetic and literary judgments.

Antonio de Ulloa

1716

(Astronomer, Explorer, Meteorologist) Spanish mariner Antonio de Ulloa was sent by the government to explore America and ended up being captured by the British while returning. His scientific zeal made him a Fellow of the Royal Society there. He is remembered for his metallurgical, astronomical, and geographical discoveries and treatises.

Jean Francois de Saint-Lambert

1716

(Poet)
He studied at the university at Pont-à-Mousson, but then spent several years at home recovering from an unidentified illness.Saint-Lambert was born in Nancy and raised on his parent's estate at Affracourt, a village in Lorraine near Haroué, a seat of the Beauvau family, with whom he had close ties. He studied at the university at Pont-à-Mousson, but then spent several years at home recovering from an unidentified illness.

Jean-Jacques Barthélemy

1716

(Writer)
Barthélemy hizo contribuciones notables a la literatura, a la filología y a la arqueología. Escribió varios trabajos técnicos sobre esta última materia (por ejemplo, una Historia por medallas de los reyes de Tracia y del Bósforo), pero su fama se funda en la novela Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce, dans le milieu du quatrième siècle avant l'ère vulgaire / Viaje del joven Anacarsis a Grecia, a mediados del siglo cuarto antes de Cristo (1788)

Jean Le Rond d’Alembert

1717

(Mathematician, Philosopher) Jean le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He is credited with coming up with d'Alembert's formula, a solution to the one-dimensional wave equation, which is named after him. His life and work inspired Andrew Crumey's 1996 novel, D'Alembert's Principle.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

1717

(German Art Historian, Archaeologist and One of the Leading Proponents of Neoclassicism) German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann is often referred to as the father of modern archaeology. Born to a cobbler, he studied Greek, theology, and even medicine. He later specialized in Greek and Neoclassical art and had a prominent influence on Western painting, sculpture, and literature.

Horace Walpole

1717

(Writer, Novelist, Autobiographer, Politician) British writer who started the Gothic novel. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he travelled for a time in France and Italy in the company of the poet Thomas Gray. The son of Minister Robert Walpole, in 1741 he became a member of Parliament, a position he left in 1768 to retire to Strawberry Hill Castle, which he had rebuilt in the pseudo-Gothic style.

Elizabeth Carter

1717

(English Poet, Translator, and Linguist Who Was Part of the Bluestocking Society)
Born in Deal, Kent, Elizabeth Carter was the daughter of a clergyman whose parish was in the city – the family home can still be seen at the junction of South Street and Middle Street, close to the seafront. Encouraged by her father to study, she learned modern and ancient languages (including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic) and science.

Maria Gaetana Agnesi

1718

(First Woman to Write a Mathematics Handbook and the First Woman Appointed as a University Mathematics Professor) Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, daughter of an affluent silk trader, was well-versed in a number of languages as a child. Most of her work was regarding algebra, calculus, and the Witch of Agnesi. She was also the first female academic to write a math book and to teach math.

Jean Joseph Marie Amiot

1718

He was a Jesuit missionary whose writings made accessible to Europeans the thought and life of East Asia. Amiot entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent as a missionary to China in 1750. While in China, he helped verify certain geographical locations, therefore making a major contribution to the perfection of the Jesuits' project of mapping the empire. He soon won the confidence of Emperor Qianlong and spent the remainder of his life in Beijing.

Adam Frantisek Kollar

1718

(Jurist)
Adam F. Kollár began his career at the Imperial-Royal Library in 1748 as a scribe and eventually became its chief librarian and Councilor at the Court of the Habsburgs. Most of his appointments were readily approved by Empress Maria Theresa, with whom he curried favour, whose policies he underpinned with his scholarship and who became his only child's godmother.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

1720

(Italian Classical Archaeologist, Architect, and Artist) Italian architect, artist, and archaeologist Giovanni Battista Piranesi is best known for his 16-print series name The Prisons. His remarkable etchings of the famous landmarks of Rome exhibited his unique etching technique, which involved contrasts of light and shade. He made about 2,000 plates throughout his life.

Gilbert White

1720

He is regarded by many as England's first ecologist and one of those who shaped the modern attitude of respect for nature.Charles Darwin, when asked in 1870 about books that had deeply impressed him in his youth, mentioned White's writings.However, in Darwin's book, there is no acknowledgement of White's earlier work in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne on the significance of earthworms.

Samuel Hopkins

1721

(Theologian)
He was an American Congregationalist theologian of the late colonial era of the United States. Hopkinsian theology was named for him. Hopkins was an early abolitionist, saying that it was in the interest and duty of the U.S. to set free all of their slaves.

William Robertson

1721

(Historian)
He was one of the foremost Scottish historians. He was a staunch Presbyterian and supporter of the Whig party, volunteering to defend the city against the Jacobites led by Charles III of England and Scotland in 1745. In 1754 he was among the founding members of the short-lived Select Society (The Select Society), also called Edinburgh Select Society (1754-1764).

Samuel Adams

1722

(American Political Philosopher and 4th Governor of Massachusetts (1794–1797)) Samuel Adams, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, also served as the governor of Massachusetts. Samuel formed the Boston Tea Party and also played a major role in drafting the Articles of Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution. He was a second cousin of President John Adams.

Baron d'Holbach

1723

(Author) He spent most of his life in Paris. A contributor to the Encyclopedia directed by Diderot and D'Alembert, to which he contributed some four hundred articles on geology, mineralogy and metallurgy, he was an enemy of all religious doctrines, considered as instruments of despotism. Among his works, it is worth mentioning Christianity unmasked or Examination of the principles and effects of the Christian religion (1767), System of nature (1770) and Universal morality (1776).

Adam Smith

1723

(18th Century Scottish Economist Who is Considered the Father of Modern Economics) Widely considered The Father of Economics, Adam Smith was a Scottish philosopher and economist. A pioneer of political economy, Adam Smith played a major role during the Scottish Enlightenment. His book The Wealth of Nations is regarded as the first modern work of economics and a forerunner of today's academic discipline of economics.

Richard Price

1723

(Moral Philosopher and Mathematician Best Known for Editing, Publishing and Developing 'Bayes–Price Theorem') British moral philosopher Richard Price is best remembered for significantly editing Bayes–Price theorem. He edited An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances, a major work of his deceased friend Thomas Bayes. It appeared in Philosophical Transactions and included Bayes' Theorem. His work on legacy of Bayes led Price to get elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

John Witherspoon

1723

(Scottish-American Presbyterian Minister, Educator and a Founding Father of the United States) John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American slaveholder, Presbyterian minister, and Founding Father of the United States. A signatory to the Declaration of Independence, Witherspoon also signed the Articles of Confederation. He also played a crucial role in shaping public policy in the United States of America.

Jean-François Marmontel

1723

(French Historian and Writer Known for His Autobiographical Work 'Mémoires d'un père') Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian and writer. He was a prominent member of the Encyclopédistes movement. He studied with the Jesuits at Mauriac and taught in their colleges. He began a literary career at the advice of Voltaire and wrote a series of tragedies, including Cleopâtre and Heraclides. He was a member of Les Neuf Sœurs, a masonic lodge.

Adam Smith

1723

Adam Smith was an economist, philosopher, considered one of the greatest exponents of classical economics and the philosophy of economics.
For him, self-interest motivates people to make economic decisions that as if guided by an "invisible hand'' and natural laws of offer and demand.He provided the basis of capitalism. Concerning his economic philosophy, regulation of economic decisions, reduces the general welfare by thwarting incentives and preventing free choices benefit all.

Adam Ferguson

1723

Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) was a prestigious Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. His notable contributions to social and political thought have empowered him to occupy a prominent place in the famed Scottish Enlightenment. He was called both the "Modern Epictetus" and the "Scottish Montesquieu".

Mathurin Jacques Brisson

1723

Brisson was born in Fontenay-le-Comte. The early part of his life was spent in the study of natural history, his works at this stage include Le Règne Animal (1756) and Ornithologie (1760).
After the death of his assistant, he gave up the study of nature and was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Navarre and later at Paris. His most important work during this period was Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps (1787) although he published other books on the subject of physics.

Immanuel Kant

1724

(One of the Greatest Philosophers of All Time) Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher whose works in fields like aesthetics and metaphysics have made him an important and influential personality in Western philosophy. His views continue to influence contemporary philosophy. Kant has had a major influence on prominent philosophers like Hegel, Schelling, Reinhold, and Fichte. Kant's work on mathematics is cited by Albert Einstein as an early influence.

Johann Bernhard Basedow

1724

He was a German pedagogue, founder of the Dessau Philantropinum. He revalued the educational realism of Comenius and originated the reform of the school in his country.He attended the Hamburg gymnasium (Johanneum) and studied Theology in Leipzig. But he had little interest in classes and he dedicated himself to studying on his own, reading numerous works, among which those of Crusius, Wolff and Reimarus deserve to be remembered, which aroused in him his separation from orthodoxy.

Thomas Pennant

1726

(Welsh Naturalist, Traveller and Writer Known for Writings on Natural History, Geology and Geographical Expeditions) Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant is remembered for his extensive research on zoology, especially ornithology. Known for his books such as British Zoology and History of Quadrupeds, he travelled to Scotland and remote parts of Britain, writing about his expeditions in his travelogues and treatises.

William Roy

1726

(Cartographer, Engineer, Geographer) William Roy was a Scottish surveyor, military engineer, and antiquarian. An innovator, Roy was successful in applying newly emerging technologies and new scientific discoveries to the geodetic mapping of Great Britain, which is often called Roy's Map of Scotland. William Roy also played a major role in the establishment of the Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping agency.

Charles Burney

1726

(Musical Composer)
Among his friends were members of the Literary Club, such as David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith and Joshua Reynolds, who painted him in 1781. With a restless spirit, in 1769, after receiving the title of Bachelor and Doctor of Music, he gave the press An Essay Towards a History of Comets. His proverbial curiosity led him to travel across Europe to collect data for A General History of Music.

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

1727

(Former Chief minister of France and Economist) Anne Robert Jacques Turgot was a chief economist of 18th-century France. One of the pioneers of economic liberalism, he was previously clubbed with the economists of the Physiocratic school. Many of Adam Smith’s ideas in the pathbreaking book Wealth of Nations were hugely inspired by Turgot’s.

Johann Heinrich Lambert

1728

Johann Heinrich Lambert Johann Heinrich Lambert was a Swiss polymath whose contributions to the fields of physics, mathematics, map projections, astronomy, and philosophy are considered important by many scholars. He is credited with introducing hyperbolic functions into trigonometry. He is also credited with inventing a hygrometer, which is used to measure the quantity of water vapor in soil and air.

Thomas Warton

1728

(Literary historian)
He was the editor of John Milton's early poems and of the famous poetic miscellany The Oxford Sausage (1764). He wrote an influential History of English Poetry from the late 11th century (1774-1781) which provoked a reaction against classicism and a return to the old national poetry.

Ferdinando Galiani

1728

(Italian Economist Known for His Contributions to 'Value Theory', 'Interest Theory', and 'Economic Policy') Ferdinando Galiani had initially been trained to enter church services but later deviated to economics. He is best remembered for his work on value theory. A major figure of the Enlightenment, the economist and diplomat wrote in both Italian and French. His notable works include Della Moneta.

Pietro Verri

1728

(Italian Economists, Historian, Philosopher and Writer) Author of numerous literary, historical, and economic works, Pietro Verri was a leader of the Milanese academy and a moving force behind Società dei Pugni. Also a distinguished public administrator and political economist employed with the Milanese government, he has been credited with the abolition of tax farming. Some of his important works are Riflessioni sulle leggi vincolanti and Meditazioni sull’ economia politica.

Moses Mendelssohn

1729

(Philosopher) German philosopher and one of the representatives of the German Enlightenment. From a modest Jewish family, he received the support of a wealthy merchant. He advocated recognition of the specificity of Jewish practices in a Christian state, but opposed the return of the Jews to Palestine.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

1729

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a noted German dramatist, critic, and author, remembered especially for his contribution towards liberating German theatre from the influence of its classical and French counterpart. Known for such literary masterpieces like Miss Sara Sampson; Emilia Galotti; Minna von Barnhelm; Nathan the Wise; Laocoön; Hamburg Dramaturgy, he is now considered an outstanding representative of the Enlightenment era.

Edmund Burke

1729

(Statesman) Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke, was a member of parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Great Britain for several years. He supported Catholic emancipation and strongly opposed the French Revolution. He felt revolution destroyed the fabric of good society and traditional institutions of state and society. He is considered the philosophical founder of modern conservatism.

Johann Georg Hamann

1730

He was a German philosopher critical of the Enlightenment and a vindicator of sentiment and faith. Hamann did not finish his university studies due to the widespread of his interests. Attracted by the possibility of dedicating himself to finance and commerce, he went to London, where he experienced a strong spiritual crisis. From this moment his life was marked by the influence of faith and religion.

Motoori Norinaga

1730

Belonging to the wealthy bourgeoisie of his country (he was the son of a merchant from Matsusaka, in the province of Ise), he alternated his medical studies with varied and extensive humanistic training, in which he immediately stood out for his brilliance in the analysis of the literature - and, in particular, Japanese poetry.As of 1757, despite the fact that he already practised the medical profession in Marsusaka, his name began to shine due to the sharp literary talks that he used to give.

Philip Mazzei

1730

He was an Italian physician, merchant, and author, ardent supporter of the American Revolution, and correspondent of Thomas Jefferson. Mazzei studied medicine in Florence and practiced in Turkey before moving in 1755 to London, where he became a wine merchant.

Henry Cavendish

1731

(English Scientist Who Discovered Hydrogen) English natural philosopher, scientist, and a prominent experimental and theoretical physicist and chemist Henry Cavendish is best-remembered for his discovery of hydrogen and his Cavendish experiment. He first recognized that hydrogen, which he termed inflammable air, is a discrete substance which produces water on combustion. He conducted the Cavendish experiment to measure and produce a value for Earth’s density.

Catharine Macaulay

1731

(Historian)
Catharine Macaulay’s most substantial work was the eight-volume A History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line, the first volume of which was published in 1763.This history, which began with the accession of James 1, and told the history of the English Civil War as the outcome of the struggle of the Commons to retain their liberties against the absolutist tendencies of the Stuarts, affirmed the right of the people to depose their monarch.

Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron

1731

(French Scholar and Linguist) Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron was a French orientalist, considered to be the first professional French Indologist. He is credited to have created the blueprint for the new professional field. He developed an early interest in Oriental languages as a young man and travelled to India to study Indian languages. He also had a keen interest in the occult.

Johann Christoph Adelung

1732

(Scholar)
He was one of the most influential German-language scholars before Jacob Grimm. His grammar, dictionary, and works on style helped to standardize the language.
He engaged in private research from 1761 to 1787, when he became principal librarian to the elector of Saxony at Dresden, a post he retained to the end of his life.

Joseph Priestley

1733

(Discoverer of Oxygen) Best remembered for his contribution to the chemistry of gases, Joseph Priestley was an English scientist, clergyman, political theorist and educator, who has been credited with discovering oxygen independently, publishing his findings before Carl Wilhelm could. A prolific writer, he has authored 150 works on various subjects including electricity. He also contributed immensely to the advancement of political and religious thoughts.

Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski

1734

(Aristocrat)
He was an influential Polish aristocrat, writer, literary and theatre critic, linguist, traveller and statesman. He was a great patron of the arts and a candidate for the Polish crown. He was educated in England and after his return to Poland in 1758, he became a member of the Sejm (parliament), Crown General of Podolia and Marshal of General Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland.

Ueda Akinari

1734

(Author)
He was a Japanese artist, scholar, and waka poet, and perhaps the most prominent figure in 18th-century Japanese literature. He was one of the first writers of the yomihon genre and his two masterpieces, Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Ugetsu Monogatari) and Tales of Spring Rain (Harusame Monogatari), are central to the canon of Japanese literature.

James Beattie

1735

(Linguist, Poet, Translator, Philosopher, Writer) James Beattie was a Scottish philosopher, moralist, educator, and poet. His philosophical writings and poetry, which opposed slavery, are widely viewed as the primary source of Immanuel Kant's knowledge of David Hume. James Beattie, who was among the members that established the Royal Society of Edinburgh, is one of the 16 personalities depicted on the famous Scott Monument.

Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti

1735

(Zoologist, Herpetologist)
Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti (1735-1805) was an Austrian physician and naturalist. He is considered the first author of the Reptilia class for the definition of some 30 genera of these animals, in his work on the function of venom in reptiles and amphibians: "Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena", published in 1768. The first work on a cave-dwelling animal, Proteus anguinus, is also due to him.

Edward Gibbon

1737

(Historian) Eighteenth-century historian and author Edward Gibbon is best remembered for his 6-volume historical work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a narrative that charted events from the 2nd century to the Fall of Constantinople. He had also been an MP, representing Lymington and Liskeard.

Thomas Paine

1737

(Founding Father of the United States) English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary, Thomas Paine, is credited to have penned some of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution. His works inspired the common people of America and motivated them to fight for independence from British rule. He was ostracized for criticizing Christianity and died a lonely man.

Alexander Dalrymple

1737

(Geographer and hydrographer)
He was a Scottish geographer, first hydrographer of the British Admiralty and proponent of the existence of a vast, populous continent in the South Pacific, which he called the Great South Land.
Dalrymple spent most of the time between 1757 and 1764 in the East Indies trying to further trade for the East India Company and became the company’s hydrographer in 1779.

Ethan Allen

1738

(Revolutionary War Hero) As a child, Ethan Allen was fond of deciphering passages from the Bible. He grew up to co-establish Vermont and led the Green Mountain Boys during the American Revolutionary War. After failing to achieve Vermont’s separation from New York, he tried to unite Vermont with Canada.

Cesare Beccaria

1738

(One of the Greatest Thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment Known for His Treatise 'On Crimes and Punishments') Cesare Beccaria was an 18th-century Italian criminologist, philosopher, jurist, and politician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. He is still remembered for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764), a pioneering work in the field of penology. He is considered the father of modern criminal law.

Jonathan Boucher

1738

(Teacher)
Anglican minister Jonathan Boucher, one of the most prominent Loyalists in the South, was born in Cumberland, England in 1738. He came to live in the Chesapeake region as a young man, eventually attaining a position of prominence as rector of the Annapolis church in Maryland. He was a close friend of George Washington and a tutor to Washington's stepson John Parke Custis. However, Boucher returned to England in 1775 as a result of his adamant opposition to the American Revolution.

Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours

1739

(French-American Writer, Economist, Publisher and Government Official) Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours was a French-American writer and economist. An ambitious man, he served as French inspector general of commerce under Louis XVI. He moved to America during the French Revolution and was later elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. His son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.

John Cartwright

1740

(British politician) Known as the Father of Reform, John Cartwright made significant parliamentary reforms, which later became part of the People’s Charter. An English naval officer, he had also been part of the Seven Years’ War. He also worked for universal suffrage and, in his later life, invested in crop trials and agricultural improvement.

Peter Simon Pallas

1741

(German Naturalist Who Explored the Geology of Russia) German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas was born to a professor of surgery and had, by age 15, formulated classifications of several animal groups. He chiefly worked in and around Russia, and is remembered for his 3-volume geological study, Journey Through Various Provinces of the Russian Empire.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

1741

(Poet, Philosopher, Physiognomist and Theologian) Best known for his research on physiognomy, Johann Kaspar Lavater was also a theologian and an author. He had penned books such as Aussichten in die Ewigkeit and several epic and lyric poems. He died of a grenade wound during the French occupation of Switzerland.

Arthur Young

1741

(English writer) English agriculturist Arthur Young was a prolific English writer, particularly on agriculture. He earned repute for the views he expressed as an agricultural improver, social observer and political economist. Young was a prominent opponent of British reformers. Some of his notable books are Annals of Agriculture, Tour in Ireland and Travels in France. The latter includes descriptions of the French Revolution.

Edmund Malone

1741

(Scholar and editor)
Edmond Malone, (born October 4, 1741, Dublin, Ireland—died May 25, 1812, in London, England), was an Irish-born English scholar, editor, and pioneer in efforts to establish an authentic text and chronology of William Shakespeare’s works.
After practising in Ireland as a lawyer and journalist, Malone settled in London in 1777.

James Rennell

1742

(British Geographer, Historian and a Pioneer of Oceanography) James Rennell was an English historian and geographer. A pioneer of oceanography, Rennell is often referred to as the Father of Oceanography. Rennell, who served as a Surveyor General of Bengal, India, is credited with producing some of the earliest accurate maps of Bengal. James Rennell is also credited with co-founding the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1830.

Jean Senebier

1742

(Pastor)
He was a Swiss priest, meteorologist, chemist, and botanist who wrote many works on plant physiology.
He was born in Geneva and is remembered for his contributions to the understanding of the influence of light on vegetation.

William Paley

1743

(Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian) He studied at Cambridge, where he became a teacher of philosophy and theology at Christ's College. He was not an original thinker but a knowledgeable and clear communicator. He is well known for his argument from design to prove the existence of God. He expounds it in great detail in his Natural Theology (1802), where he introduces the most famous metaphor in science philosophy, the watchmaker's image.

Joseph Banks

1743

(British Explorer, Naturalist and Botanist) British naturalist Joseph Banks is remembered for accompanying Captain James Cook on his voyage across places such as Brazil and Tahiti. He had also been the president of the Royal Society for over 40 years. Both his herbarium and library now find a place at the British Museum.

Marquis de Condorcet

1743

(French Philosopher and Mathematician) French mathematician and philosopher Marquis de Condorcet was a champion for liberal economy and women’s rights. He was a significant contributor of the Encyclopédie and was part of the Academy of Sciences. He is also remembered for his political activities in the wake of the French Revolution.

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi

1743

Usually, he is cited in connection with the discussion on "the thing in itself" in Kant's philosophy and as a representative of a mystical philosophy that preludes romanticism. From this point of view, an essential theme of his thought can be appreciated: the opening of human experience to non-sensible reality. However, Jacobi understood it as that basic metaphysical experience that is present at the bottom of everything that man naturally knows and experiences.

Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

1743

He was born at Amboise, into a family from the lesser nobility of central France.He tried first law and then the army as a profession. While in the garrison at Bordeaux, he came under the influence of Martinez de Pasqually, usually called a Portuguese Jew (although later research has revealed the probability that he was a Spanish Catholic), who taught a species of mysticism drawn from cabbalistic sources, and endeavoured to found thereon a secret cult with magical or theurgical rites.

Johann Gottfried Herder

1744

(Philosopher, Theologian, Poet, and Literary Critic) German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder is best remembered as a significant figure of the Sturm und Drang literary movement. Born into poverty and largely self-educated till 17, he later became a disciple of Immanuel Kant and was associated with Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism. He was eventually ennobled.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

1744

(Naturalist and Biologist Best Known for Proposing that Acquired Characteristics can be Inherited.) French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck acquired his love for plants while serving as a soldier in the French army. Following an injury, he quit his military career but retained his love for botany. He later taught zoology, studied the classification of invertebrates, and also coined the term biology.

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

1744

An important figure of the Spanish Enlightenment, statesman author Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos began his career as a criminal judge before returning to his native province, where he completed his best-known work, arguing for agricultural reforms. As Minister of Justice, he argued against Inquisition and as an important member of the Supreme Central Junta, actively opposed the French invasion.

Francis Asbury

1745

(American Bishop) Francis Asbury was a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He played an important role during the Second Great Awakening, popularizing Methodism in British colonial America. He is credited with establishing many schools and his journal is deemed important by scholars due to its account of frontier society; his journal has descriptions of the functioning of towns in Colonial America.

Samuel Hearne

1745

Samuel Hearne was the first European to travel by land across the Arctic from the east coast to the Arctic Ocean. He took part in three expeditions to the Canadian Arctic to discover the Northwest Passage, greatly increasing European knowledge of the Arctic climate, and resident Inuit and Dene in the process. During his journeys, he became one of the first Europeans to document the conflict between the Inuit and Dene peoples.

Vivant Denon

1747

(Artist)
He was a French draftsman, graphic artist, writer, collector, archaeologist and diplomat born in 1747 and died in 1825. Due to his extraordinary ability as a draftsman, he was appointed a member of the Academy of Painting, he was one of the scientists who accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt. Dominique-Vivant was one of the most important figures in the artistic world at the end of the Old Regime.

Jeremy Bentham

1748

(British Philosopher, Social Activist and One of the Founders of 'Modern Utilitarianism') Philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham is remembered as the pioneer of modern utilitarianism. He believed in economic freedoms, women’s rights, animal rights, the separation of the church and the state, and freedom of expression. Bentham wished for his body to be dissected and then to be displayed as an auto-icon.

Adam Weishaupt

1748

(German Philosopher and Founder of Enlightenment-Era Secret Society 'Illuminati') On a night in 1776, deep within a forest near Ingolstadt, German law professor Adam Weishaupt and four others formed a secret society known as the Illuminati, which was supposed to be a parallel to religion. Since then, many conspiracy theories have held the society responsible for unexplained global events.

Elias Hicks

1748

(Quaker minister)
Elias Hicks, early advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States and a liberal Quaker preacher whose followers became known as Hicksites, one of two factions created by the schism of 1827–28 in American Quakerism.Hicks worked for general abolition. He urged a boycott of the products of slave labour, advocated the establishment of an area in the Southwest as a home for freed slaves, and helped secure legislation that brought an end to slavery in New York state.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749

(Novelist Best Known for 'The Sorrows of Young Werther', the First Novel of The Sturm Und Drang Movement) Regarded as the greatest literary figure in Germany's modern era, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a statesman and writer. Apart from writing poetry and prose, he also wrote treatises on colour, anatomy, and botany. Thanks to his literary genius, Goethe was made part of the Duke's privy council in Weimar and he implemented several reforms at the University of Jena.

Hugo Kołłątaj

1750

(Polish Roman Catholic Priest, Reformer, Politician and One of the Most Prominent Figures of the Polish Enlightenment) Hugo Kołłątaj was a Polish educationalist and constitutional reformer who played a major role during the Polish Enlightenment. An influential social and political activist, Kołłątaj was one of the authors of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, which aimed at implementing a constitutional monarchy. Hugo Kołłątaj's work also influenced many subsequent reformers.

Sylvain Maréchal

1750

(Essayist)
Sylvain Maréchal was a French essayist, poet, philosopher and political theorist, whose views presaged utopian socialism and communism. His views on a future golden age are occasionally described as utopian anarchism. He was the editor of the newspaper Révolutions de Paris.

Richard Payne Knight

1751

(Archaeologist)
Richard Payne Knight, an amateur archaeologist and advocate of esoteric Pagan philosophy as an alternative to orthodox Christianity, was the son of an Anglican clergyman from Herefordshire, England. He did not attend a university but was able to travel extensively. As he entered adulthood he inherited a large sum from his grandfather, which provided him the necessary funds to pursue his various independent intellectual pursuits.

Nathaniel Brassey Halhed

1751

(Philologist)
Halhed was born at Westminster, and was educated at Harrow School, where he began a close friendship with Richard Brinsley Sheridan. While at Oxford he undertook oriental studies under the influence of William Jones. Accepting a writership in the service of the East India Company, he went out to India, and there, at the suggestion of Warren Hastings, translated the Hindu legal code from a Persian version of the original Sanskrit.

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

1752

(German Physician & Naturalist Considered to be a Main Founder of 'Zoology' and 'Anthropology' as Comparative, Scientific Disciplines) A pioneer of physical anthropology, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach laid down one of the first racial classification systems for humans after studying human skulls, dividing mankind into five racial groups. Born into a family of academics, he was a prodigy. He was against scientific racism, though his theory promoted the degenerative hypothesis.

Timothy Dwight IV

1752

Timothy Dwight was an American academic and educator,a Congregationalist minister,theologian,and author.Dwight first came to public attention with his Yale College commencement address when he received his M.A. degree and later his "Valedictory Address" of 1776, in which he described Americans as having a unique national identity as a new "people, who have the same religion, the same manners, the same interests, the same language, and the same essential forms and principles of civic government."

Joseph de Maistre

1753

(Philosopher Who Advocated Social Hierarchy & Monarchy in the Period Immediately Following the French Revolution) A qualified lawyer, Joseph de Maistre was also a skilled diplomat, moralist, and author. Part of the Savoy Senate, he was exiled in Switzerland after Napoleon’s invasion and later also served in Russia and an envoy of the Sardinian king. A staunch Roman Catholic, he was against liberal and scientific beliefs.

Dugald Stewart

1753

(Philosopher) Dugald Stewart was a Scottish mathematician and philosopher best remembered for his efforts to popularize the works of Adam Smith and Francis Hutcheson. Considered one of the most prominent personalities of the Scottish Enlightenment, Stewart played a major role in explaining the Scottish Common Sense Realism. Among his students were Sir Walter Scott, Sir Archibald Alison, and Sir James Mackintosh.

Josef Dobrovský

1753

(Philologist)
Josef Dobrovský was a scholar of the Czech language, antiquary, and a principal founder of comparative Slavic linguistics.
He was educated in the Roman Catholic priesthood, Dobrovský devoted himself to scholarship after the temporary dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773.

Shaykh Ahmad

1753

(Religious leader)
He was a native of the Al-Ahsa region (Eastern Arabian Peninsula), educated in Bahrain and the theological centres of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq. Spending the last twenty years of his life in Iran, he received the protection and patronage of princes of the Qajar dynasty. His ancestors were nomadic Sunnis.

Gaetano Filangieri

1753

(Italian Jurist and Philosopher) Gaetano Filangieri was an Italian philosopher and jurist whose works had a strong influence on several prominent personalities including Benjamin Franklin; Franklin was one of his ardent admirers and the two exchanged several letters from 1780 until Gaetano Filangieri's demise in 1788.

Georg Forster

1754

(German Explorer Who Established Travel Literature as a Genre in Germany) German ethnologist, explorer, and travel writer Georg Forster established travel literature as a prominent genre in the German literary circle. Both he and his naturalist father, Johann Reinhold Forster, accompanied Capt. James Cook on his second voyage around the world. He also taught at several universities, before becoming a librarian.

Antoine Destutt de Tracy

1754

(Philosopher)
The son of a distinguished soldier, Claude Destutt, he was born in Paris. His family was of Scottish descent, tracing its origin to Walter Stutt, who had accompanied the Earls of Buchan and Douglas to the court of France in 1420 and whose family afterwards rose to be counts of Tracy. He was educated at home and at the University of Strasbourg, where he was noted for his athletic skill. He went into the army and when the French Revolution broke out.

Joseph Joubert

1754

(Philosopher, Essayist, Writer)
He attended a religious school in Toulouse from the age of 14, where he later taught until 1776. In 1778 he went to Paris where he met d'Alembert and Diderot, among others. Later he became friends with the young writer and diplomat Chateaubriand. He collaborated, at first, with the Revolution; sooner, due to the excesses of that stage, he lost all illusion for the revolutionary ideal.

Louis de Bonald

1754

(Philosopher)
He was part of the Constituent Assembly in 1790 but had to leave it when he did not want to sign the civil Constitution of the clergy. Exiled in Germany and Switzerland, he returned to France and adhered to Napoleonic despotism, seeing in it the return to order and an effective political force in the repression of the democratic spirit.

Stanisław Staszic

1755

(Polish Priest, Philosopher, Geologist, Scholar, Poet and Writer) Stanisław Staszic was a Polish philosopher who played a leading role in the Polish Enlightenment. He was also a Catholic priest, geologist, writer, and translator. He supported many reforms in Poland and was the co-founder of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning. He later served as the minister of trade and industry in Congress Poland.

William Godwin

1756

(Journalist) William Godwin was the father of philosophical anarchism, and was also a prominent a novelist and journalist. He is best-remembered for two of his works, ‘An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice’ and ‘Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams’, which received great acclamation from all around the world. Owing to the success of both of his novels, soon he became a known face in the radical circles of London.

Bernard Germain de Lacépède

1756

(French Naturalist Known for Continuing Comte de Buffon's Encyclopaedic Collection 'Histoire Naturelle') French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède is best known for his contribution to fellow French naturalist Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle. He enriched the world’s knowledge of fish and reptiles. Following the rise of Napoleon, Lacépède joined the French Senate and later became a minister of the Bourbon state.

Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney

1757

(Philosopher) Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney was a French abolitionist, philosopher, orientalist, writer, and politician. Volney was one of the first modern writers to champion the Christ myth theory, which suggests that Jesus Christ had no historical existence. Volney argued that Jesus was a mythical character and that Christianity was an amalgam of numerous ancient mythologies.

Franz Joseph Gall

1758

Franz Joseph Gall German neuroanatomist and physiologist Franz Joseph Gall was the founding father of cranioscopy, or the determination of intelligence and personality traits from the shape of a person’s skull, now known as phrenology. He was also the first to separate the gray matter of the brain from the white matter.

Noah Webster

1758

(Lexicographer) Noah Webster was an American textbook pioneer, lexicographer, political writer, English-language spelling reformer, author, and editor. Dubbed the Father of American Scholarship and Education, Webster's books have been credited with teaching the art of spelling and reading to five generations of American children. Thanks to his work as a spelling reformer, his name became synonymous with dictionary in the US.

William Playfair

1759

(Economist, Mathematician, Engineer, Statistician) Scottish engineer and political economist William Playfair is best-remembered as the inventor of statistical graphs and secret agent for Great Britain during its war with France. He published the first data graphs in his book The Commercial and Political Atlas. He used line, area and bar charts to represent the economy of 18th Century England and introduced the pie chart.

Mary Wollstonecraft

1759

(Novelist) Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer, advocate of women's rights, and philosopher. Wollstonecraft, who attracted a lot of attention for her unconventional personal relationships, is widely considered a founding feminist philosopher. Although her unorthodoxy initially attracted criticisms, her advocacy of women's equality became increasingly important during the 20th century. Modern-day feminists cite her works and her life as important influences.

Friedrich Schiller

1759

(Playwright and Poet Known for His Works'The Robbers','Don Carlos' and 'Mary Stuart')
Friedrich Schiller was a German poet,physician,philosopher,playwright,and historian. Schiller is best remembered for his friendship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the two discussed issues concerning aesthetics.Schiller's discussions with Goethe paved the way for a period, which came to be known as Weimar Classicism.Friedrich Schiller is also widely regarded as Germany's most prominent classical playwright.

Ferenc Kazinczy

1759

(Former author, poet, translator, neologist, the most indefatigable agent in the regeneration of the Hungarian language and literature at the turn of the 19th century) One of the best-known figures of Hungarian literature, poet, author, and translator Ferenc Kazinczy made a significant contribution to the development of the Hungarian language. A qualified lawyer and a civil servant, he was once also imprisoned for political conspiracy. He also co-founded the Hungarian Academy.

Friedrich August Wolf

1759

Famous for his editions of the classics, Wolf defended the importance of these in the training of young people. His most important work is Prolegomena ad Homerum (1795), in which he argues that both the Iliad and the Odyssey had been made up of epic fragments from different eras; he also completely denied the existence of Homer.

Richard Allen

1760

(American Clergyman Who was the First Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church) Born to slave parents, American clergyman Richard Allen became a Methodist convert at 22. He later founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church and served as its first bishop. Apart from establishing the first church for Blacks in the U.S., he worked on various aspects to improve the lives of Blacks.

Henry Thornton

1760

(Economist) Born to a well-known merchant and evangelist, Henry Thornton too followed in his father’s footsteps to become part of the evangelical Clapham Sect. A monetory theorist, he later became the first to explain the difference between nominal and real interest rates. The noted economist had also been a parliamentarian.

Henri de Saint-Simon

1760

(French Political, Economic and Socialist Theorist and one of the Chief Founders of Christian Socialism) Henri de Saint-Simon was a French political, economic, and socialist theorist and businessman. His ideology was the inspiration behind the political and economic movement known as Saint-Simonianism. He left a major influence in the fields of politics, economics, sociology, and philosophy of science. His ideas also inspired and influenced the concept of utopian socialism.

Jedidiah Morse

1761

(American Geographer Whose Textbooks Became Primary Study Materials for Students in the US) Jedidiah Morse was a geographer best remembered for his textbooks, which became primary study materials for students in the US. His textbooks earned him the nickname father of American geography. Jedidiah Morse also served as a teacher and pastor during his illustrious career.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

1762

(Former Philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism) In his famous work Foundation of Natural Law, Fichte states that self-consciousness is a social phenomenon. That is to say: he affirms that, although his existence depends on the objects of the external world, nevertheless, the mere perception of these external objects depends on self-consciousness.

José Bonifácio de Andrada

1763

(Brazilian Statesman Known for His Role in Brazil’s Attainment of Independence From Portugal) José Bonifácio de Andrada was a Brazilian statesman. He was also a naturalist, mineralist, and professor. He was a significant proponent of Brazilian independence and also spearheaded the abolition project in Brazil. He was of the opinion that a new national capital should be created in Brazil's underdeveloped interior. As a naturalist, he discovered four new minerals.

Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard

1763

(Statesman)
He was born in Sompuis (Champagne) on June 21, 1763, and died in Cháteauvieux (Lo'ir-et-Cher) on September 4, 1845. He belonged to a Jansenist family, was a professor in the provinces and, later, a lawyer in Paris. For some time he was attracted by the Revolution and was a member of the Commune; nevertheless, after the month of September 1792, he lived a prudent existence and tried to avoid the Terror. Chosen among the Five Hundred, he began to frequent the royalists.

Paolo Ruffini

1765

(Italian Mathematician and Philosopher) Paolo Ruffini was at the same time a mathematician and a physician. He was the first to claim that the general quintic equation had no algebraic solution. Ruffini was briefly banned from teaching when he refused to submit to the new republic following the rise of Napoleon.

Franz Xaver von Baader

1765

(German Philosopher and Theologian) Roman Catholic philosopher Franz Xaver von Baader followed in his doctor's father’s footsteps to study medicine initially but soon switched to mining engineering. He later deviated permanently to politics and religion. Rejecting Western philosophy, he propagated the Scholastic school and penned his thoughts in journals and short essays, using mystical symbols.

Germaine de Staël

1766

(Philosopher) Germaine de Staël was a French political theorist and woman of letters. She is best remembered for her collaboration with the popular Swiss-French political thinker Benjamin Constant. Germaine, who was way ahead of her time, is widely regarded as a precursor of feminism.

Thomas Robert Malthus

1766

(Political Economist) Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist and demographer, who viewed poverty as man’s unavoidable destiny. Author of An Essay on the Principle of Population; he believed that increase in national food production results in feeling of well-being, leading to population growth, which in turn results in poverty. Commonly referred as Malthusianism, it made immediate impact on British social policy.

Malthus

1766

He studied population and demographics and his reputed with a catastrophic vision of the world.
His main worry: how to feed all the people as with the changes in this century, the population increased considerably. Also, he was worried about food not increasing in the same way as the population.
Hobsbawm criticized Malthus by saying that the problem was not the lack of resources but they were not well distributed.

Maine de Biran

1766

(Philosopher)
He fought materialism and was the initiator of the French spiritualist, voluntarist and personalist current. He exerted a great influence on Victor Cousin and the defenders of modern eclecticism. His influence is also evident in some aspects of Bergson's thought.

Nikolay Karamzin

1766

(Writer)
He completed his higher studies in Moscow, but he did not immediately find his true path, and, in uncertainty, he settled in Simbirsk, where he stayed for about two years. Returning to the Moscow capital, he came into contact with the educated circles of the time and met personalities such as the publicist Novikov and the poet Dmitriev; however, he too this time he could not find a satisfactory occupation.

Wilhelm von Humboldt

1767

(Prussian Philosopher, Diplomat, Government Functionary, and Linguist) Philosopher, diplomat and German linguist, brother of the famous scientist and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, and who can be considered the founder of the modern science of language. He was born in Potsdam into an enlightened noble family. He received a first education based on the thought of Leibniz and on the ideals of the Aufklärung. He continued his studies in Göttingen and was greatly influenced by Kant.

Jean-Baptiste Say

1767

(French Economist and Businessman Best Known for 'Say’s Law' Which He Popularized) French economist Jean-Baptiste Say supported free trade and competition. Scholars of economics know him for his law of markets, which states that supply creates its own demand. He had experimented with many jobs, from being a journalist to owning a cotton mill, and eventually became an economics professor.

August Wilhelm Schlegel

1767

(Linguist, Translator, Sanskrit scholar, Philosopher, Poet, Literary critic, Literary historian, Romanist, Playwright, University teacher, Writer, Indologist)

Friedrich Schleiermacher

1768

(German Theologian, Philosopher and an Early Leader in Liberal Christianity) Hailed as an early leader of liberal Christianity, Lutheran philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher was also an eminent biblical scholar and theologian. Best remembered for his works on hermeneutics and theory of translation, he also had a great impact on the evolution of higher criticism and became known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity.

Alexander von Humboldt

1769

(Geographer) As a child, Alexander von Humboldt was sickly and a bad student. After failing to shine in economics and engineering, he grew up to revolutionize the domain of geography. He is remembered for his research on magnetic storms and his treatise on nature, Kosmos. He also spoke about climate change.

Georges Cuvier

1769

(French Naturalist and Zoologist Known for Establishing the Field of 'Comparative Anatomy' and 'Paleontology') Georges Cuvier was a French zoologist and naturalist. A major figure in the early 19th century's research of natural sciences, Cuvier played an important role in establishing the fields of comparative paleontology and anatomy by comparing fossils with living animals, for which he is sometimes regarded as the founding father of paleontology.

Ernst Moritz Arndt

1769

(Historian)
Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions. He is one of the main founders of German nationalism during the Napoleonic wars[1] and the 19th-century movement for German unification. After the Carlsbad Decrees, the forces of the restoration counted him as a demagogue.

Thomas Hope

1769

He was an English archaeologist, furniture designer and decorator of Dutch origin, famous for his designs based on classical forms; A great connoisseur of classical cultures -Egyptian, Greek, Roman-, he exerted a decisive influence on the development of the English Regency style. Born into a family of wealthy Flemish-Scottish bankers who liked to collect antiques, his father, a patron of the architect Piranesi, instilled in him his love for art.

Manuel Belgrano

1770

(Lawyer, Journalist, Economist, Politician, Soldier, Jurist) Manuel Belgrano was an Argentine lawyer, politician, economist, journalist, and military leader. Widely regarded as one of the most important Libertadores of Argentina, Belgrano played a prominent role in the Argentine Wars of Independence and is credited with creating the Flag of Argentina. Manuel Belgrano is regarded as one of the greatest heroes in the history of Argentina.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

1770

(One of the Most Important Figures in German Idealism) German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel worked on ideas such as absolute idealism; the philosophy of spirit, or Geist; and the master–slave dialectic. His views influenced later thinkers and intellectuals, such as Karl Popper and Karl Marx, with the latter using Hegel’s views on the civil society.

Friedrich Karl Forberg

1770

(Philosopher)
Born in 1770 in Thuringia, Forberg studied under Karl Leonhard Reinhold at Jena. In 1791 he travelled to Klagenfurt, writing to Reinhold that there was much sympathy for the French Revolution, and to the followers of Immanuel Kant that the young ladies of Klagenfurt substituted Kant's writings (modestly bound in black) for their prayer books.

Walter Scott

1771

(Novelist and Poet known for his Works Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and The Lady of the Lake) Walter Scott was a Scottish novelist, poet, historian, and playwright. Scott's ability as a writer and his knowledge of history made him a pioneering figure in the formation of the historical novel genre. An influential writer, many of his works remain classics of Scottish as well as English-language literature. Scott was admired by other prominent writers like Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

Hosea Ballou

1771

(Former Universalist clergyman, theological writer)
Hosea Ballou was an American Universalist clergyman, as well as a theological writer. He became the pastor of the Second Universalist Church in Boston, becoming known by his followers as one of the founders of American Universalism.

Charles Brockden Brown

1771

(Novelist)
Charles Brockden Brown studied law, but gave up law in 1793 and earned his living exclusively by writing, first in Philadelphia and then in New York. After having read the novel Caleb Williams (1794), by William Godwin, he was inspired by this work to compose a dialogue on the rights of women: Alcuin (1797), only partially published.

Robert Owen

1771

Another early socialist, Robert Owen, was himself
an industrialist. Owen first attracted attention by
operating textile mills in New Lanark, Scot., that
were both highly profitable and, by the standards of
the day, remarkably humane: no children under age
10 were employed. Owen’s fundamental belief was
that human nature is not fixed but formed. If
people are selfish, depraved, or vicious, it is
because social conditions have made them so.

Samuel Coleridge

1772

(Poet) Samuel Coleridge was an English poet, philosopher, theologian, and literary critic. He is credited with co-founding the Romantic Movement in England along with his friend William Wordsworth. Despite struggling from bouts of depression and anxiety throughout his adult life, Samuel Coleridge had a major influence on American transcendentalism and writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

1772

(Socio-religious Reformer) Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian social and religious reformer. He is credited with co-founding the Brahmo Sabha, a social-religious reform movement. Often referred to as the Father of the Bengal Renaissance, Roy has had an influential role in fields like politics, education, and religion. In 2004, he was ranked 10th in BBC's Greatest Bengali of all time poll.

David Ricardo

1772

(Economist) One of the greatest classical economists ever, David Ricardo had started working with his stockbroker father at age 14. His laissez-faire policies revolutionized 19th-century economics and its various concepts, such as the distribution theory and the wage theory. He had also been an MP from Portarlington.For him commodities depend upon scarcity and the quantity of labour required to obtain them.

Charles Fourier

1772

(French Philosopher Who was One of the Founders of Utopian Socialism) French social theorist Charles Fourier is regarded as one of the pioneers of utopian socialism. Apart from advocating social reconstruction based on phalanges, or Fourierism, he is also credited with coining the term feminism with respect to women’s rights. The Social Destiny of Man remains one of his notable works.
Accordingly, he envisioned a form of society that would be more in keeping with human needs and desires.

Novalis

1772

(German Romantic Poet and Philosopher Known for His Poems ‘Hymns to the Night’ and ‘Spiritual Songs’) Poet and philosopher Friedrich Leopold, better known as Novalis, was a significant figure of German Romanticism. He narrated the loss of his 15-year-old fiancé to tuberculosis in his Hymns to the Night. He himself died of the disease a few years later. He was also well-versed in natural sciences.

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

1772

(French Naturalist Who Is Known for Establishing the Principle of 'Unity of Composition') French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is best remembered for his principle of unity of composition. He also laid down the idea of teratology, or the study of animal abnormalities. He was also part of Napoleon’s scientific expedition in Egypt and later taught zoology at the University of Paris.

Friedrich Schlegel

1772

(Poet)
Born into a fervently Protestant family, Schlegel rejected religion as a young man in favour of atheism and individualism. He entered university to study law but instead focused on classical literature. He began a career as a writer and lecturer and founded journals such as Athenaeum. In 1808, Schlegel returned to Christianity as a married man with both him and his wife being baptized into the Catholic Church.

Archibald Alexander

1772

(American Presbyterian Theologian and Professor)
He converted in the 1789 revival and studied theology under the tutelage of William Graham (1745-1799), one of the ideological disciples of the Scottish Presbyterian pastor John Witherspoon (1723-1794), one of the signatories (as a representative of New Jersey) of the United States Declaration of Independence.

James Mill

1773

(Historian) James Mill was a Scottish economist, historian, philosopher, and political theorist. Mill is credited with co-founding the Ricardian school of economics. He is also credited with writing The History of British India, which classifies Indian history into three parts: British, Muslim, and Hindu. The classification has played an influential role in the field of Indian historical studies.

Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi

1773

Initially, he was a popularizer of Adam Smith's thought but, after observing the harsh working conditions of the working class on several trips, he became a critic of orthodox liberal economic doctrine, developing his own economic theses. He is thus considered the first of the "Ricardian socialists" and the direct precursor of Karl Marx. He criticizes the excessive abstraction of classical economics and denies harmony, the coincidence of individual interest with collective interest.

Jakob Friedrich Fries

1773

(Philosopher)
Although his philosophical ideas are considered to be an exponent of psychologism, he spoke out against Friedrich Eduard Beneke's psychologism, which maintains that the validity of knowledge is based not on logic, but on its psychological origin. His liberal political thought and the publication of an Ethics (1818) in which, following Kant, he stressed the dignity and freedom of the individual, was the cause of his having to temporarily abandon his teaching in Jena.

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

1775

(Philosopher) According to Schelling, the basis of development, both of Nature and of reason, is one and the same spiritual force, the "Absolute". Nature, or matter, is the "unconscious" product of this active, diligent spiritual force, and a preparatory phase for reason (for the spirit).

Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach

1775

(Legal scholar)
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach was a German criminalist and philosopher. He studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Jena, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

William Thompson

1775

(Irish Philosopher and Social Reformer Who Believed in Utilitarianism)
In 1934, at just ten years old, William entered the same institution. He excelled early in mathematics and physics. He later studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge (England), where he graduated four later with the highest honours.

Georg Friedrich Grotefend

1775

(Philologist)
He studied Philology at the University of Göttingen and in 1797 he began to teach as an assistant teacher at the Lyceum in the same city; in 1803, thanks to the publication of excellent work, he was appointed pro-rector of the Frankfurt Lyceum and later co-rector; in 1817 he founded a philological society dedicated to the study of his language, German; in 1821 he was appointed director of the Hannover High school.

Joseph von Görres

1776

(Writer)
Görres was sympathetic to the ideals of the French Revolution and published a republican journal, Das rote Blatt (“The Red Page”; renamed Rübezahl), in 1799. After an unsuccessful visit to Paris in 1799 as a political negotiator for the Rhenish provinces, he became disillusioned and withdrew from active politics. He taught natural science in Koblenz and then lectured at Heidelberg (1806–07), where he became acquainted with the leaders of the second phase of German Romanticism.

Johann Friedrich Herbart

1776

(Philosopher, psychologist and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline)
Johann Friedrich Herbart fue un filósofo, psicólogo y pedagogo alemán. Herbart figuró como uno de los personajes constituyentes de la agitación intelectual de Alemania, esencialmente en lo que respecta a las primeras décadas del siglo XIX. Su filosofía se caracterizó por manifestar una sólida postura de crítica frente al idealismo romántico de Fichte, Schelling y Hegel.

Giovanni Battista Belzoni

1778

(Explorer, Antiquarian, Egyptologist, Archaeologist, Novelist, Travel writer) Giovanni Battista Belzoni was an Italian explorer and archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. A pioneer in the field of Egyptian archaeology, Belzoni was the first person to enter the famous Pyramid of Khafre. Belzoni is also credited with unblocking the entrance of the temple at Abu Simbel and discovering the tomb of Seti I, which is referred to as Belzoni's Tomb.

Thomas Brown

1778

(Philosopher) Thomas Brown was a Scottish poet and philosopher best remembered for his contribution to the development of the Scottish school of common sense. Among his most important work is a critique of the theory of transmutation by Erasmus Darwin. Titled Observations on the Zoonomia of Erasmus Darwin, his critique was praised as a mature work by several scholars and critics.

Carl Ritter

1779

(Co-founder of Modern Geography) Carl Ritter was a German geographer considered one of the founders of modern geography. He taught history at the University of Berlin and was one of the mentors of the explorer Heinrich Barth, who traveled in Northern and Western Africa. A prolific researcher and writer, Ritter produced a staggering amount of geographical literature in his lifetime.

Mountstuart Elphinstone

1779

(Statesman)
Elphinstone entered the civil service in Calcutta (now Kolkata) with the British East India Company in 1795. A few years later he barely escaped death when followers of the deposed prince of Oudh (Ayodhya), Wazir Ali, raided British offices at the Benares (Varanasi) residency and massacred all within their reach.

Lorenz Oken

1779

(One of the Most Prominent German Natural Philosophers of the 19th Century) German naturalist and botanist Lorenz Oken is remembered as one of the most significant German natural philosophers of the 19th century and a leader of the Naturphilosophie movement. His studies on Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory on the vertebrate skull helped prepare the ground for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Peter Mark Roget

1779

He was an English physician, physicist, mathematician, philologist, natural theologian, and lexicographer. In 1824 he took the first step towards the scientific explanation and technical realization of cartoons.

Friedrich Carl von Savigny

1779

(Jurist)
He was a prominent German jurist born in 1779. Founder of the German Historical School and first professor of Roman Law at the University of Berlin. From the year 1848, he devoted himself exclusively to scientific work.
Savigny is the most illustrious representative of the German historical school of Law and is considered one of the most famous jurists to this day. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Marburg, and at Göttingen for one semester.

Mary Somerville

1780

(Mathematician, Linguist, Translator, Astronomer, Scientist) One of the two pioneering female honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville was a 19th-century polymath and science writer. Though she specialized in math and astronomy, she was also well-versed in botany and geology. The Connection of the Physical Sciences remains her most notable work.

Jernej Kopitar

1780

(Linguist)
Kopitar was born in the small Carniolan village of Repnje near Vodice, in what was then the Habsburg monarchy and is now in Slovenia. After graduating from the lyceum in Ljubljana, he became a private teacher. Kopitar later became Zois' personal secretary and librarian. During this period, he became acquainted with the circle of Enlightenment intellectuals that gathered in Zois' mansion, such as the playwright and historian Anton Tomaž Linhart.

Bernard Bolzano

1781

(Mathematician) ras estudiar teología, filosofía y matemáticas, fue ordenado sacerdote en 1805. Profesor de religión en Praga y matemático aficionado, en 1820 las autoridades le prohibieron ejercer cualquier actividad académica a causa de su posicionamiento crítico con respecto a las condiciones sociales vigentes en el Imperio Austrohúngaro.

Andrés Bello

1781

(An Exemplary Figure in the History of Spanish American Culture Noted for His Work as a Naturalist) Regarded as the intellectual father of South America, Venezuelan-Chilean poet Andrés Bello one taught revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar and also inspired the struggle for Venezuelan independence. He established the University of Chile and also penned masterpieces such as Las Silvas Americanas. As a legislator, he inspired the Chilean Civil Code.

Karl Christian Friedrich Krause

1781

(Philosopher, University teacher)
Krausism, when considered in its totality as a complete, stand-alone philosophical system, had only a small following in Germany, France, and Belgium, in contradistinction to certain other philosophical systems (such as Hegelianism) that had a much larger following in Europe at that time. However, Krausism became very popular and influential in Restoration Spain not as a complete, comprehensive philosophical system per se, but as a broad cultural movement.

Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied

1782

(German Naturalist, Explorer, and Ethnologist, Known for His Expeditions to Brazil and North America) German naturalist, ethnologist, and explorer Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied is remembered for his pioneering expeditions to Brazil and to the American West. In the latter journey, he was accompanied by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who drew illustrations supporting Maximilian’s notes about the tribal culture and life there.

Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais

1782

(Philosopher)
Lamennais lost his mother at the age of five, and his father, who was a businessman and shipowner, took very little care of him, leaving his education in charge of his older brother Juan. In that library, he randomly discovers Plato, Tacitus, Cicero, Pascal, Malebranche, Voltaire and Rousseau, whom he has already read at the age of ten, but also the Bible. Self-taught, he gets fairly extensive training, although little directed.

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

1783

(Polymath)
Educated in Europe by private tutors, Rafinesque learned languages, read widely, and became deeply interested in natural history. Following a journey to the United States from 1802 to 1805, he lived as an exporter in Sicily, studying the natural history of plants and fish, until 1815.

Gabriele Rossetti

1783

(Poet)
Rossetti was the son of a blacksmith and was clever enough to be able to study at the University of Naples. In 1807 he was librettist at the San Carlo opera house in Naples and was later appointed curator of ancient marbles and bronzes in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.

Thomas Attwood

1783

British banker, economist, and political campaigner Thomas Attwood is best remembered as a leader in the electoral reform movement. He founded the Birmingham Political Union and emerged as a prominent figure in the underconsumption of Birmingham School and during the public campaign for the Great Reform Act of 1832. After the act was passed, Attwood and Joshua Scholefield became the first two Members of Parliament for Birmingham.

José de la Riva Agüero

1783

(1st President of Peru) José de la Riva Agüero was a Peruvian politician, soldier, and historian. He is best remembered for his service as the first President of Peru from 28 February 1823 to 23 June 1823. An important politician, José de la Riva Agüero also served as the second President of North Peru from 1 August 1838 to 24 January 1839.

Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantès

1784

(Writer)
After her father died in 1795, Laure lived with her mother, Madame Permon, who established a distinguished Parisian salon that was frequented by Napoleon Bonaparte. It was Napoleon who arranged the marriage in 1800 between Laure and his aide-de-camp Andoche Junot.

Adam Sedgwick

1785

(Geologist) Adam Sedgwick was a British Anglican priest and geologist. He is credited with guiding and mentoring Charles Darwin during his early years. However, Sedgwick went on to oppose Darwin's theory of evolution. The world's oldest student-run geological society, The Sedgwick Club, was established in his honour in 1880.

William Francis Patrick Napier

1785

(Soldier)
He became an ensign in the Royal Irish Artillery in 1800, but at once exchanged into the 62nd, and was put on half-pay in 1802. He was afterwards made a cornet in the Royal Horse Guards by the influence of his uncle the duke of Richmond, and for the first time did actual military duty in this regiment, but he soon fell in with Sir John Moore's suggestion that he should exchange into the 52nd, which was about to be trained at Shorncliffe Army Camp.

William Prout

1785

(Chemist)
He made numerous analyzes of secretions from living organisms, which he considered to be produced by the breakdown of body tissues. This led him to discover, in 1823, that gastric juices contain hydrochloric acid and that these can be separated by distillation and, in 1827, to propose the classification of food substances into carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Wilhelm Grimm

1786

(German Anthropologist, Author and One Half of the Popular Literary Duo, 'The Brothers Grimm') Wilhelm Grimm was a German anthropologist and author. He is best remembered as one half of the popular literary duo, the Brothers Grimm. Along with his elder brother Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm published a collection of fairy tales in 1812. It was later translated into English and came to be known as Grimms' Fairy Tales.

Wilhelm Gesenius

1786

(Biblical critic)
In 1803 he became a student of philosophy and theology at the University of Helmstedt,where Heinrich Henke was his most influential teacher; but the latter part of his university course was taken at Göttingen. In 1806, shortly after graduation, he became Repetent and Privatdozent (or Magister legends) at Göttingen; and, as he was later proud to say, had August Neander as his first pupil in the Hebrew language. On 8 February 1810, he became professor extraordinarius in theology.

James Cowles Prichard

1786

He was the eldest of the four children of Thomas and Mary Prichard. From his early studies at home and later in Bristol, where his family moved, he showed a great facility for languages, as well as for medicine, which he began to study in 1802.Thomas, from London. In 1806 he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. There he was able to attend not only medical conferences but also those of anthropology and natural philosophy, which addressed, among other things, the human races.

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić

1787

(Philologist, Anthropologist and Linguist) He dedicated himself to restoring the purity of the language and spreading Serbo-Croatian folklore. He is the author, among other works, of an important Serbian-German-Latin Dictionary, of The Serbian Revolution (1828) and of a translation of the New Testament (1847).

François Guizot

1787

(Politician, Diplomat, Historian, Translator, Writer, Literary critic, Carpenter) François Guizot was a French historian and statesman. He was a key figure in French politics in the years leading to the Revolution of 1848. After serving under the "citizen king" Louis Philippe in several roles, he was made the Prime Minister of France in 1847. He played a critical role in expanding public education.

Ludwig Uhland

1787

(Poet)
Uhland studied law and classical and medieval literature at the University of Tübingen. While in Tübingen he wrote his first poems, which were published in Vaterländische Gedichte (1815; “Fatherland Poems”). It was the first of some 50 editions of the work issued during his lifetime. The collection, which was inspired by the contemporary political situation in Germany, reflected both his serious study of folklore and his ability to create ballads in the folk style.

Mary Russell Mitford

1787

(Author)
She was the only daughter of George Mitford, a dashing, irresponsible character whose extravagance compelled the family, in 1820, to leave their house in Reading (built when Mary, at the age of 10, won £20,000 in a lottery) for a labourer’s cottage in the nearby village of Three Mile Cross. Thereafter, until his death in 1842, his daughter struggled to provide for him and to pay his gambling debts out of her literary earnings.

John Richardson

1787

(Surgeon and Explorer) Apart from being a naval surgeon, John Richardson also made a name for himself as an explorer of the Canadian Arctic coast. He was also a talented author of natural history. His accurate surveys eventually got him knighted. Various species of reptiles and mammals have been named in his honour.

Ninomiya Sontoku

1787

(Philosopher)
Born into a poor family, Ninomiya was completely self-educated. Through diligence and careful planning, he was able to develop and increase his family’s landholdings. His success came to the attention of local officials, and he was soon invited to join the government. There was nothing revolutionary in Ninomiya’s system. He taught peasant families how to budget their expenses and plan their work, and he advocated mutual aid and cooperation in farm communities.

Theodore Hook

1788

(Man of Letters)
Hook took to novel writing when bankrupted following his trial for mismanagement of public money: in 1817, when some £12,000 was found to have been stolen, Hook, although guilty only of negligence, was recalled, tried, and imprisoned. The success in 1824 of his Sayings and Doings, tales with a fashionable setting, each illustrating a proverb, was such that he extended their three volumes to nine in 1828. From 1824 to 1841 he wrote a series of fictional works in a similar style.

Étienne Cabet

1788

(Philosopher)
He was a French philosopher, political theorist, and utopian socialist. After the revolution of 1848, he went into exile in England, where he embraced socialist ideals and imbibed utopian ones. In Voyage to Icaria he formulated what would be his ideal society, and to put it into practice he organized expeditions to the US where he established his first Icarian colonies.

Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes

1788

(Archaeologist)
He was a civil servant by profession and from 1825 held the post of head of customs at Abbeville, near the mouth of the Somme River. It was there that he began to dedicate his spare time to archaeology, carrying out his research in the Somme valley. His first finds came in 1837: he discovered flint axes and other stone tools, some of them mixed with animal bones. extinct, in strata that he supposed were deposited during the Pleistocene (period ending about 10,000 years ago).

Étienne Cabet

1788

He was a French socialist.
After a career as a teacher, lawyer, revolutionist, and political exile, Cabet published a novel, Voyage en Icarie (1840), setting forth his theories on the ideal community.

Friedrich List

1789

(Economist, University teacher, Journalist) German-American economist Friedrich List is remembered as one of the pioneers of the historical school of economics. He supported tariffs on imported goods to help the domestic market. He is also known for his pamphlet Outlines of American Political Economy and his book The National System of Political Economy.

Jared Sparks

1789

(Historian)
Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, Sparks served as minister of the First Independent Church (Unitarian) from 1819 to 1823. From then until 1830, under his ownership and editorship, the North American Review became the arbiter of literature in New England. He was appointed the first professor of secular history at Harvard and served as president of the college from 1849 to 1853.

John Ramsay McCulloch

1789

(Economist) Scottish economist and statistician John Ramsay McCulloch was one of the main promoters of the principles of British economist David Ricardo. He also wrote for The Edinburgh Review and co-established and edited The Scotsman. Once a University College, London professor, he was also known for his works on economic history.

John Austin

1790

(jurist, philosopher) English legal theorist John Austin, who aimed at transforming law into a true science, is considered by many as the creator of the school of analytical jurisprudence. His book The Province of Jurisprudence Determined received significant attention posthumously, while his analytical approach to jurisprudence and theory of legal positivism also influenced American and British law following his death.

Thomas Edward Bowdich

1791

(Traveler)
After returning to England in 1818, Bowdich wrote and published The Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (1819), the earliest European account of the Asante at the height of their power and splendour; the work is still considered a classic in the field. His further criticism of the practices of the African Company led the British government to abolish the company and in 1821 to take over administration of the Gold Coast.

James Mayer de Rothschild

1792

(Banker, Art collector, Economist, Businessperson) German-French banker and the youngest child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, James Mayer de Rothschild. He took over the reins of his family banking firm after the death of his brother Nathan and headed the French Rothschild banking family. The Légion d'honneur winner later also invested in a vineyard.

John Keble

1792

(Poet)
Ordained in 1816, Keble was educated at the University of Oxford and served as a tutor there from 1818 to 1823, when he left to assist in his father’s parish. In 1827 he published The Christian Year, a volume of poems for Sundays and festivals of the church year. Widely circulated, the book did more than any other to promulgate the ideas of the High Church movement in Anglicanism.

Ferdinand Christian Baur

1792

(Theologian)
Educated at the seminary at Blaubeuren and at the University of Tübingen, Baur became a professor of theology in 1817 at the seminary and in 1826 at the university, where he remained until his death. Influenced by the thought of the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, Baur began to develop a new perspective on the history of Christianity.

John Bowring

1792

(Economist)
Bowring early became accomplished in many different languages while traveling abroad for commercial purposes. When the philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham started the Westminster Review in 1824 as a vehicle for the views of English radicals, Bowring became coeditor of the publication, and he subsequently took over its entire management.

Victor Cousin

1792

(Philosopher)
He was director of the Normal School, rector of the University of Paris and Minister of Public Instruction. His liberalism (which had already cost him an imprisonment in Berlin during one of his trips to Germany), was poorly adapted to the successive events in his country. He then devoted himself to the study of the history of philosophy (a discipline of which he was the initiator in France), to those of philology and literature.

William Hopkins

1793

(Mathematician, Geologist) William Hopkins was an English geologist and mathematician. He is remembered for serving as a private tutor of prospective undergraduate Cambridge mathematicians, which earned him the nickname senior-wrangler maker. Hopkins also played first-class cricket and was associated with Cambridge University Cricket Club. He had an unfortunate end to his life as he spent his final years in a lunatic asylum.

Karl Lachmann

1793

Driven from his early youth by a pronounced humanistic vocation, he pursued higher studies in Letters and dedicated all his professional efforts to the field of philology, already in his role as critic and researcher, and as a professor at the University of Berlin. The rigor and novelty of his methods of approaching the texts, made him one of the most notable figures of nineteenth-century European philology

Henry Charles Carey

1793

(Economist)
The son of Mathew Carey, an Irish-Catholic political refugee, writer, and publisher, the American-born Carey became a partner in and later president of Carey, Lea & Carey, a leading publishing house in Philadelphia. His broad but informal education gave Carey a cursory acquaintance with many fields of learning.

Simanas Daukantas

1793

He was a Lithuanian/Samogitian historian, writer, and ethnographer. One of the pioneers of the Lithuanian National Revival. Only a few of his works were published during his lifetime and he died in obscurity. However, his works were rediscovered during the later stages of the National Revival. His views reflected the three major trends of the 19th century: romanticism, nationalism, and liberalism.

Edward Everett

1794

(Former American senator) Edward Everett was an American politician, diplomat, educator, pastor, and orator. Widely regarded as one of the great orators of the Civil War and antebellum eras, Everett is remembered for his two-hour speech at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg in 1863, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his popular Gettysburg Address. Edward Everett also taught ancient Greek literature at Harvard University.

William Whewell

1794

(Economist, Physicist, Historian, Philosopher, Writer, University teacher, Mathematician)
William Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, philosopher, theologian,and historian of science. He worked in a wide range of fields, publishing works in the disciplines of physics, mechanics, geology,economics, and astronomy. He also wrote poetry, sermons, and theological tracts. He is credited with coining the terms linguistics, physicist, consilience, scientist, catastrophism, and uniformitarianism.

Pyotr Chaadayev

1794

(Russian author)
Lermontov was greatly shaken in January 1837 by the death of the great poet Aleksandr Pushkin in a duel. He wrote an elegy that expressed the nation’s love for the dead poet, denouncing not only his killer but also the court aristocracy, whom he saw as executioners of freedom and the true culprits of the tragedy. As soon as the verses became known to the court of Nicholas I, Lermontov was arrested and exiled to a regiment stationed in the Caucasus.

George Grote

1794

The English historian George Grote was born in 1794 in Clay Hill, near Beckenham (Kent); he died in London in 1871. The son of a banker and himself interested in the banking business until 1842, he attended no university after high school but never ceased to occupy himself with classical and historical studies. Like many other representatives of the world of business and finance of his time, he was drawn to the "philosophical" movement of Bentham and James Mill.

Wei Yuan

1794

(Scholar)
Wei was a leader in the Statecraft school, which attempted to combine traditional scholarly knowledge with practical experience to find workable solutions to the problems plaguing the Chinese government. In 1826 he published the Huangchao jingshi wenbian (“Collected Essays on Statecraft Under the Reigning Dynasty”), a study of political and economic issues. It inspired a series of similar anthologies aimed at making the ideas of officials on governmental problems readily accessible.

Leopold Zunz

1794

(Scholar)
Zunz studied classics and history at Berlin University, although he took his doctorate at the University of Halle (1821). Much of his life afterward was a precarious struggle with poverty. He served as a lay preacher for a congregation and worked as a newspaper editor (1824–31) and later as a teacher and principal at the Jewish teachers' seminary in Berlin (1840–50).

Thomas Carlyle

1795

(Philosopher) Initially a math teacher, Thomas Carlyle later abandoned the profession when a sudden spiritual awakening led him to writing. His parents wanted him to become a clergy, but he ended up becoming one of the greatest Victorian essayists and authors ever, known for works such as Sartor Resartus.

Ernst Heinrich Weber

1795

(Psychologist, Physician)
The eldest of three brothers, all of whom achieved scientific distinction, Weber was a professor at the University of Leipzig from 1818 until 1871. Though he conducted many anatomical investigations, he is known chiefly for his work on sensory response to weight, temperature, and pressure; he described a number of his experiments in this area in De Tactu (1834; “Concerning Touch”).

Thomas Arnold

1795

The son of British tax collector William Arnold and his wife Martha de la Field, he was born on the Isle of Wight and studied at Winchester School and at Corpus Christi College in Oxford, where he met the Lakist poet Coleridge. He excelled in classical languages and took first place in his class. After teaching for a time at Oriel College, he was ordained a Church of England deacon in 1818 at Laleham, on the Thames; and he spent nine years training students to enter the University.

Frances Wright

1795

(Writer, Philosopher)
Wright was the daughter of a well-to-do Scottish merchant and political radical who had circulated the works of Thomas Paine. Her parents died and left her and a sister a fortune when she was two, and they were reared in London and Devon by conservative relatives. At age 21 she returned to Scotland to live with a great-uncle, who was a professor of philosophy at Glasgow College.

Pavel Josef Šafařík

1795

(Poet)
Šafařík was director of the Serbian Orthodox grammar school at Novi Sad before settling in Prague in 1833. In 1841 he refused an invitation to occupy the chair of Slavonic philology at Berlin, preferring to remain a private scholar in his own country. Erudition and scholarly integrity characterize a series of influential works on the history and languages of the Slavs: “History of the Slavic Languages and Literature in All Dialects”, 1826.

Sir George Back

1796

(Artist)
He twice accompanied the British explorer John Franklin to Canada’s Northwest Territories (1819–22 and 1825–27) and later conducted two expeditions of his own to the same region.
The first of these expeditions, in 1833, was to search for another British explorer, John Ross, who had disappeared on an Arctic voyage in 1829.

William H. Prescott

1796

(Historian)
He was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian. Despite having a serious visual impairment, which at times prevented him from reading or writing for himself, Prescott became one of the most eminent historians of 19th-century America. He is also noted for his eidetic memory.

Philippe-Joseph-Benjamin Buchez

1796

Philippe-Joseph-Benjamin Buchez was a French historian, sociologist, and politician. He was the founder of the newspaper L'Atelier, and he served briefly, in 1848, as the president of the Constituent National Assembly, which was then meeting at the Palais Bourbon in Paris.

Charles Lyell

1797

(Lawyer) Charles Lyell was a Scottish geologist best remembered for his work Principles of Geology, which explains the origin of the earth. He is also remembered for his pioneering explanation of climate change. A close friend of Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell is also credited with influencing many of Darwin's works pertaining to the theories of evolution.

Pierre Leroux

1797

(Philosopher)
His education was interrupted by the death of his father, which compelled him to support his mother and family. Having worked first as a mason and then as a compositor, he joined P. Dubois in the foundation of Le Globe which became in 1831 the official organ of the Saint-Simonian community, of which he became a prominent member. In November of the same year, Leroux separated himself from the sect.

Albert Barnes

1798

(Theologian)
He attended Princeton Theological Seminary and became a pastor in Morristown,N.J. In 1830 he moved to the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.At that time he became involved in the controversy between Old School Presbyterians,who held to traditional doctrine,and those of the New School, who wished to relax it.For a year he was suspended from the ministry on charges that he departed from the doctrines of the Westminster Confession, but he was reinstated by the Assembly of 1836.

Samuel Simon Schmucker

1799

(Theologian) Samuel Simon Schmucker was a theologian and Lutheran pastor. He played a key role in the founding of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg as well as Gettysburg College. He also played a major role in the founding of the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States of America. He was also well-known for his efforts as an abolitionist.

Ignaz von Döllinger

1799

(Theologian)
Ordained in 1822, he became a professor of canon law and church history at Munich in 1826. From 1835 he was a member of the Bavarian Royal Academy of Sciences and served as its president from 1873. Though he lost his professorship in 1847 for protesting the dismissal of four colleagues by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, he was given posts that made him second to the archbishop of Munich and was reappointed professor of church history in 1849.

XIXth century

1801

Frederick Denison Maurice

1805

The term Christian Socialism was first appropriated by a group of British men including Frederick Denison Maurice.
He was one of the major English theologians of 19th-century Anglicanism and a prolific author, remembered chiefly as a founder of Christian Socialism.

Louis-Auguste Blanqui

1805

He was a revolutionary socialist, a legendary martyr-figure of French radicalism, imprisoned in all for more than 33 years. His disciples, the Blanquists, played an important role in the history of the workers’ movement even after his death.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

1809

Proudhon was from humble origins but had become a well-known French social theorist during the 1840s.
Proudhon’s ideal was a society in which everyone had an equal claim, either alone or as part of a small cooperative, to possess and use land and other resources as needed to make a living. Such a society would operate on the principle of mutualism, according to which individuals and groups would exchange products with one another on the basis of mutually satisfactory contracts.

Louis Blanc

1811

He was a French utopian socialist, noted for his theory of worker-controlled “social workshops.”
Blanc believed that the competitive capitalism then developing in France tended to stunt the human personality, pitting one man against another and driving the weaker to the wall. The first step toward a better society would be to guarantee work for everyone by establishing “social workshops” financed by the state. Blanc did not believe in human equality.

Elizabeth F. Ellet

1818

(Writer)
Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis, in New York, she published her first book, Poems, Translated and Original, in 1835. She married the chemist William Henry Ellet and the couple moved to South Carolina. She had published several books and contributed to multiple journals. In 1845, she moved back to New York and took her place in the literary scene there.She was involved in a public scandal involving Edgar Allan Poe and Frances Sargent Osgood and,later,another involving Rufus Wilmot Griswold.

Karl Marx

1818

Karl Marx was a revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist.
Karl Marx characterized religion as “the opiate for the people,” Kingsley(probably unaware of Marx’s phrase) asserted that the Bible had been wrongly used as “an opium dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded” and as a “mere book to keep the poor in order” (in Politics for the People, 1848).

Charles Kingsley

1819

The term Christian Socialism was first appropriated by a group of British men including the novelist Charles Kingsley.
He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men's college, and forming labour cooperatives, which failed, but encouraged later working reforms.

Gustave Courbet

1819

He was a French painter and leader of the Realist movement. Courbet rebelled against the Romantic painting of his day, turning to everyday events for his subject matter.
Artists were attracted by the individualist spirit of anarchism.

Friedrich Engels

1820

Socialists complain that capitalism necessarily leads to unfair and exploitative concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of the relative few who emerge victorious from free-market competition—people who then use their wealth and power to reinforce their dominance in society.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels made this point in Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848).

John Malcolm Ludlow

1821

The term Christian Socialism was first appropriated by a group of British men including John Malcolm Ludlow.
He promoted cooperation via friendly societies. He was secretary to the Royal Commission on Friendly Societies from 1870 to 1874, and served as England's chief registrar of friendly societies from 1875 to 1891.

Ferdinand Lassalle

1825

According to Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme (1891), Lassalle had “conceived the workers’ movement from the narrowest national standpoint”; that is, Lassalle had concentrated on converting Germany to socialism, whereas Marx thought that socialism had to be an international
movement. Even worse, Lassalle and his followers had sought to gain control of the state through elections in hopes of using “state aid” to establish producers’ cooperatives.

Wilhelm Liebknecht

1826

He was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Camille Pissarro

1830

He was a painter and printmaker who was a key figure in the history of Impressionism. Pissarro was the only artist to show his work in all eight Impressionist group exhibitions; throughout his career, he remained dedicated to the idea of such alternative forms of exhibition. He experimented with many styles, including a period when he adopted Georges Seurat’s “pointillist” approach.

Adolf Stoecker

1835

In Germany, the movement for Christian social action in the late 19th century became associated with violent anti-Semitic agitation. Adolf Stoecker, a court preacher
and a founder of the Christian Social Workers’ Party, took a leading role in the anti-Semitic drive.

August Bebel

1840

He was a German Socialist, cofounder of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany and its most influential and popular leader for more than 40 years. He is one of the leading figures in the history of western European socialism.

Peter Kropotkin

1842

Kropotkin used science and history to try to demonstrate that anarchism is not foolishly optimistic. In Mutual Aid (1897) he drew on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to argue that, contrary to popular notions of social Darwinism, the group that prospered in evolutionary terms were those that practised cooperation.

Octave Mirbeau

1848

Octave Mirbeau was a French journalist and writer of novels and plays who unsparingly satirized the clergy and social conditions of his time and was one of the 10 original members of the Académie Goncourt, founded in 1903.
His first work was as a journalist for Bonapartist and Royalist newspapers

Paul Adam

1852

Paul Adam was a French author whose early works exemplify the naturalist and Symbolist schools and who later won a considerable reputation for his historical and sociological novels.
Publication of his first naturalist novel, Chair molle (1885), led to his being prosecuted; his second, Le Thé chez Miranda (1886), written with Jean Moréas, is an early example of Symbolism.

The Working Men’s College in London

1854

In 1854, it was founded the Working Men’s College in London. The movement as such dissolved in the
late 1850s. Some members of the movement continued working for cooperative, however, and numerous Christian Socialist organizations were formed in the 1880s and ’90s in England

Laurent Tailhade

1854

Laurent Tailhade was a French satirical poet, anarchist polemicist, essayist, and translator, active in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s.

George Bernard Shaw

1856

He was an Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, and socialist propagandist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
He became the force behind the newly founded (1884) Fabian Society, a middle-class socialist group that aimed at the transformation of English society not through revolution but through “permeation” (in Sidney Webb’s term) of the country’s intellectual and political life.

Graham Wallas

1858

He was a British educator, public official, and political scientist known for his contributions to the development of an empirical approach to the study of human behaviour.
Growing dissatisfied with the anti-liberal views of many of the leading Fabians, however, he resigned from the executive committee in 1895 and from the society in 1904.

Sidney and Beatrice Webb

1859

Sidney and Beatrice Webb, in full respectively Sidney James Webb, Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner, and Martha Beatrice Webb, née Potter, English Socialist economists (husband and wife), early members of the Fabian Society, and co-founders of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Pioneers in social and economic reforms as well as distinguished historians, the Webbs deeply affected social thought and institutions in England.

Georges Pierre Seurat

1859

He was a painter and founder of the 19th-century French school of Neo-Impressionism whose technique for portraying the play of light using tiny brushstrokes of contrasting colours became known as Pointillism. Using this technique, he created huge compositions with tiny, detached strokes of pure colour too small to be distinguished when looking at the entire work but making his paintings shimmer with brilliance.

Felix Fénéon

1861

Felix Fénéon was a French art critic, gallery director, writer and anarchist during the late 19th century and early 20th century. He coined the term Neo-Impressionism in 1886 to identify a group of artists led by Georges Seurat, and ardently promoted them.
The Fénéon Prize was established in 1949 by his wife, Fanny Goubaux, from proceeds from the sale of his art collection.

Paul Signac

1863

Paul Signac was a French painter who, with Georges Seurat, developed the technique called pointillism.
When he was 18, Signac gave up the study of architecture for painting and, through Armand Guillaumin, became a convert to the colouristic principles of Impressionism.

H.G. Wells

1866

He was an English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds and such comic novels as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly.
About this time, too, he became an active socialist, and in 1903 joined the Fabian Society, though he soon began to criticize its methods.

Fernand Pelloutier

1867

He was a French anarchist and syndicalist.
Pelloutier's theories were exceptionally important to the Revolutionary Syndicalism movement in Italy that appeared towards the end of the nineteenth century, and he is a source of major influence in this regard for Georges Sorel. Both saw the socialist movement as divided between those supporting the political action of parties and those supporting direct action.

Emma Goldman

1869

Goldman, who came to prominence as “Red Emma” in the United States, campaigned against religion, capitalism, the state, and marriage, which she condemned in “Marriage and Love” (1910) as an institution that “makes a parasite of woman, an absolute dependent.” She also served a prison term for advocating birth control.

Arnold van Gennep

1873

(Dutch-German-French Folklorist and Ethnographer) Arnold van Gennep was a Dutch-German-French folklorist and ethnographer. He is best remembered for his 1909 work, The Rites of Passage, which influenced Joseph Campbell's 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Arnold van Gennep's work also influenced Victor Turner's research and his 1969 work, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

1875

By the time of Marx’s death in 1883, many socialists had begun to call themselves “Marxists.” His influence was particularly strong within the Social Democratic Party of
Germany (SPD), which was formed in 1875 by the merger of a Marxist party and a party created by Marx’s German rival, Ferdinand Lassalle.

Henry James, Sr.

1882

Henry James, Sr. was an American theologian, the father of the philosopher William James, the novelist Henry James, and the diarist Alice James.
In the United States, Henry James, Sr., the father of novelist Henry James and philosopher William James had argued the identity of the aims of socialism and
Christianity as early as 1849.

The Protestant Association for the Practical Study of Social Questions

1888

In addition to the French Roman Catholic social movement long in existence, movements similar to Ludlow’s took shape among French Protestants in the latter half of
the 19th century. The Protestant Association for the Practical Study of Social Questions, founded in 1888, opposed bourgeois Protestantism while rejecting strict, egalitarian
socialism.

During the 1890s......

1890

During the 1890s, especially in France, anarchism was adopted as a philosophy by many
avant-garde artistic and literary figures, including the painters Gustave Courbet (who
had been a disciple of Proudhon), Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac and
the writers Paul Adam, Octave Mirbeau, Laurent Tailhade, and Felix Fénéon.

Guild socialism

1901

Related to syndicalism but nearer to Fabianism in its reformist tactics, Guild Socialism was an English movement that attracted a modest following in the first two decades of the 20th century. Inspired by the medieval guild, an association of craftsmen who determined their own working conditions and activities, theorists such as Samuel G. Hobson and G.D.H. Cole advocated the public ownership of industries and their organization into guilds.

VIDEO:Philosophers in the 19th century

1901

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPghOvISclw

Philosopher Queens: Discovering forgotten female thinkers

1902