Adam Smith (1723-1790)

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author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth Of Nations (1776) Social harmony would emerge naturally as human beings struggled to find ways to live and work with each other. Freedom and self-interest need not produce chaos, but as if guided by an invisible hand order and concord.

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)

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Helped correct many beliefs held since ancient times about how the human body functioned Perform post mortem dissection Published a revolutionary book called De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body)

Aristotle
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Believed in the moderation of all things

Baron de Montesquieu
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Proposed the idea of a country ruled by three different branches made up of the e xecutive, judicial and legislative so that the power is equally distributed. Among the greatest philosophers of liberalism

Cesare Beccaria
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Condemned torture and the death penalty. Proposing fair trials for accused criminals. Wrote an essay called On Crime and Punishments (1764)

Denis Diderot
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He produced Encyclopedie, a history of what was known.

Francis Bacon
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One of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology. Developed the scientific method.

Galileo
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Believed in the theories of Copernicus Made an improved series of telescopes whose optical performance was much better than that of the Dutch Instrument

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Discovered the 4 moons of Jupiter Discovered Saturn Observed the force of gravity

Isaac Newton
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He found white light to be a mixture of infinitely varied colored rays (manifest in the rainbow and the spectrum), each ray definable by the angle through which it is refracted on entering or leaving a given transparent medium. Contributed to the development of calculus Developed the Law of Motion Demonstrated the consistency between Kepler s laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

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His political philosophy heavily influenced the French Revolution and the American Revolution. Rousseau's most important work is The Social Contract, which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order within a framework of classical republicanism. Sovereignty should be in the hands of people with the government enforcing the general will.

Johannes Kepler
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Developed the Law of Planetary Motion Explained how the tides are influenced by the Moon Determined the exact year of Jesus Christ s birth Derived logarithms based on mathematics

John Locke
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An Oxford scholar, medical researched and physician, political operative, economist and ideologue for a revolutionary movement. Aimed to determine the limits of human understanding Much of Locke s work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism

Louis XIV
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Personally controlled the French government by eliminating remnants of feudalism in parts of France The supreme example of type of government-absolutism He epitomized the ideal of kingship. Put great care to enhancement of ideal culture in France. From savage medieval ways to a more refined, exquisite living.

Maximilien Robespierre
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A French lawyer turned radical politician Popular for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms. In April 1790. He was elected president of the powerful Jacobin political club. After the downfall of the monarchy, he was elected first deputy for Paris to the National Convention. Robespierre insisted that the National Convention proclaim a new official religion for France the cult of the Supreme Being. The intensification of the Reign of Terror and his autocracy made him increasingly unpopular. In 1794 he was guillotined along with 21 of his closest supporters.

Napoleon Bonaparte
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A Corsican educated at military school where he was rapidly promoted and in 1796 was made commander of the French Army in Italy. He conquered Ottoman-ruled Egypt in an attempt to strike at British trade routes with India. In a coup d etat in 1799, Napoleon became first consul. In 1802 as consul for life and in 1804 as emperor. He oversaw the centralization of government, the creation of the Bank of France, the reinstatement of Roman Catholicism as the state religion and law reform with the Code Napoleon. Exiled to Mediterranean island of Elba. He escaped and marched in Paris. Imprisoned on the remote Atlantic Island of St Helena after he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo.

Nicholas Copernicus
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Copernicus major work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium was finished in 1530. Its central theory was that the Earth rotates daily on its axis and revolves yearly around the sun. He also argued that the planets circled the Sun. This challenged the long held view that the Earth was stationary at the centre of the universe with all the planets, the Moon and the Sun rotating around it.

Rene Descartes
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He was convinced that science and mathematics could be used to explain everything in nature, was the first to describe the physical universe in terms of matter and motion, seeing the universe a as giant mathematically designed engine. The Father of Modern Philosophy

Thomas Jefferson
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He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence He went to France where he served first as trade commissioner and later as American ambassador.

Thomas Paine
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His principal contributions were the powerful, widely read pamphlet Common Sense (1776), advocating colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis (1776 1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.

Voltaire
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A French Enlightenment philosopher famous for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade.

William Harvey
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An English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the he art.

Absolutism
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A historiographical term to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by other institutions, such as churches, legislatures or social elites. In an absolutist state, monarchs often required nobles to live in the royal palace, while state officials ruled the noble lands in their absence.

Clergy
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Formal religious leadership within a given religion

Continental System
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The foreign policy of Napoleon Bonaparte, a large scale embargo against British trade.

Deism
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Reject supernatural events such as prophecy and miracles, tending to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe that he does not alter by (regularly or ever) intervening in the affairs of human life.

Democracy
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A form of government in which all citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal (and more or less direct) participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law. Popular sovereignty is the founding principle of such a system.

Divine Right of Kings

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It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including (in the view of some, especially in Protestant countries) the Church.

Enlightenment
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the era in Western philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority.

Liberty
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a concept in political philosophy that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions.

Meritocracy
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the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration (such as business administration) wherein appointments are made and responsibilities assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education,[1] determined through evaluations or examinations.

Nationalism
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A political ideology which involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. It is usually the belief that a nation has a right to statehood. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity.

Natural Law
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Described as a law whose content is set by nature and is thus universal. As classically used, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior.

Philosophes
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The intellectuals of the 18th century Enlightenment. They were public intellectuals who applied reason to the study of many areas of learning, including philosophy, history, science, politics, economics and social issues.

Popular Sovereignty
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The belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated to the social contract philosophers, among whom are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Popular sovereignty expresses a concept and does not necessarily reflect or describe a political reality. It is often contrasted with the concept of parliamentary sovereignty, and with individual sovereignty.

Napoleonic Code
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The French civil code, established under Napolon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified.

Progress
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The idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc.

Rationalism
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Different degrees of emphasis on this method or theory lead to a range of rationalist standpoints, from the moderate position "that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge" to the more extreme position that reason is "the unique path to knowledge" (Audi 771).

Reason
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The faculty of reason, rationality, or the faculty of discursive reason (in opposition to "intuitive reason") is a mental ability found in human beings and normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature.

Reign of Terror
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A period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution." Estimates vary widely as to how many were killed, with numbers ranging from 16,000 to 40,000; in many cases, records were not kept or, if they were, they are considered likely to be inaccurate.

Rights
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Legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory. Rights are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology.

Scientific Method
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Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.

Scientific Revolution
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a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences led to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed starting in Ancient Greece and continuing through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science.

Tennis Court Oath

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A pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates on 20 June 1789 so they made a makeshift conference room inside a tennis court.