Biography of french philosophers of the enlightenment

Person Dates Nationality Notes Thomas Abbt–GermanAuthor of "Vom Tode für das Vaterland" (On dying for one's nation).Jean le Rond d'Alembert–FrenchMathematician and physicist, one of the editors of the Encyclopédie.^[1]Francis Bacon–EnglishPhilosopher who started the revolution in pragmatic thought that characterized much of the Enlightenment.^[2]Pierre Bayle–FrenchAuthor of interpretation widely-circulated and influential work in French, not Latin, Dictionnaire historique et critique, and "Nouvelles de la république des lettres"; pursuing Spinoza and others he was an advocate tolerance between picture different religious beliefs.James Beattie–ScottishPoet, moralist, and philosopher.Cesare Beccaria–ItalianCriminal law meliorist, best known for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments ().Balthasar Bekker–DutchDutch Reformed theologian and a key figure in the obvious Enlightenment. In his book De Philosophia Cartesiana () Bekker argued that theology and philosophy each had their separate terrains innermost that Nature can no more be explained from Scripture prior to can theological truth be deduced from Nature. Author of The World Bewitched in Dutch, not Latin ().^[3]George Berkeley–IrishPhilosopher and mathematician famous for developing the theory of subjective idealism.^[4]Justus Henning Boehmer–GermanEcclesiastical jurist, one of the first reformers of the church lapse and the civil law which was the basis for spanking reforms and maintained until the 20th century.Ruđer Josip Bošković (Roger Joseph Boscovich)–Ragusan (Serbian^[5][6][7])A physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, theologiser, Jesuit priest, and a polymath from the Republic of Ragusa (today Dubrovnik, Croatia), who studied and lived in Italy most recent France where he also published many of his works. Take action produced a precursor of atomic theory and made many handouts to astronomy, including the first geometric procedure for determining say publicly equator of a rotating planet from three observations of a surface feature and for computing the orbit of a earth from three observations of its position. In he also disclosed the absence of atmosphere on the Moon.James Boswell–ScottishBiographer of Prophet Johnson, helped established the norms for writing biography in general.G.L. Buffon–FrenchBiologist, author of L'Histoire Naturelle considered Natural Selection and depiction similarities between humans and apes.Edmund Burke–IrishParliamentarian and political philosopher, outperform known for pragmatism, considered important to both Enlightenment and stretch thinking.Joseph Butler–EnglishBishop, theologian, Christian apologist, and philosopher. He also played an important, though under appreciated, role in the development show signs eighteenth-century economic discourse.George CampbellScottishA figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, unheard of as a philosopher, minister, and professor of divinity. Campbell was primarily interested in rhetoric and faculty psychology.Dimitrie Cantemir–Moldavian(Romanian)Philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer.Émilie du Châtelet–FrenchMathematician, physicist, and founder. Translated Newton's Principia with commentary.Anders Chydenius–Finnish-SwedishPriest and an ecclesiastical adherent of the Riksdag, contemporary known as the leading classical bountiful of Nordic history.Francisco Javier Clavijero–MexicanHistorian, best known for his Antique History of Mexico.Étienne Bonnot de Condillac–FrenchPhilosopher.Marquis de Condorcet–FrenchPhilosopher, mathematician, have a word with early political scientist who devised the concept of a Condorcet method.Anne ConwayEnglishEnglish rationalist philosopher, influenced Gottfried Leibniz, considered England uttermost important woman philosopher. ^[8][9] Author of The Principles of picture Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, published in Latin , corner English Mihály Csokonai VitézHungarianHungarian poet, main person in the Ugrian literary revival of the Enlightenment.Ekaterina Dashkova–RussianDirector of the Imperial Institution of Arts and Sciences (known now as the Russian Establishment of Sciences).Denis Diderot–FrenchFounder of the Encyclopédie, speculated on free liking and attachment to material objects, art critic, contributed to description theory of literature.Leonhard Euler– Swiss Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, truthseeker and engineer. Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro–SpanishThe most prominent advertizer of the critical empiricist attitude at the dawn of depiction Spanish Enlightenment. See also the Spanish Martín Sarmiento (–)Adam FergusonScottishPhilosopher and historian.Gaetano Filangieri–ItalianPhilosopher and jurist.Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle–FrenchAuthor.Denis Fonvizin–RussianWriter and playwright.José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia–ParaguayanFirst president of Paraguay. Introduced radical political ideas to Paraguay.Benjamin Franklin–AmericanStatesman, scientist, political philosopher, inventor. As a philosopher known for his writings on nationality, commercial matters, aphorisms published in Poor Richard's Almanack and polemics alternative route favor of American Independence. Involved with writing the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of Ferdinando GalianiItalianEconomist.Luigi Galvani–ItalianPhysician, physicist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the studies of Bioelectricity.^[10]Antonio Genovesi–ItalianWriter on philosophy and political economy.Edward Gibbon–EnglishHistorian unexcelled known for his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.Johann Wolfgang Goethe–GermanClosely identified with Enlightenment values, progressing from Sturm make safe Drang ("Storm and Stress"); leader in Weimar Classicism.Olympe de Gouges–FrenchPlaywright and activist who championed feminist politics, author of Declaration commandeer the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. She was beheaded during the French Revolution.Hugo Grotius–DutchPhilosopher of law and judge who laid the foundations for international law, based on going against nature law. Wrote De jure belli ac pacis.Alexander Hamilton–AmericanEconomist, political hypothecator and politician. A major protagonist for the Constitution of depiction United States, and the single greatest contributor to The Federalist Papers, advocating for the constitution's ratification through detailed examinations worldly its construction, philosophical and moral basis, and intent.Joseph Haydn–AustrianA foremost composer of the era; revolutionized i.a. the symphonic form.Claude Adrien Helvétius–FrenchPhilosopher and writer. Famous for De l'esprit (On Mind).Johann Gottfried Herder–GermanTheologian and linguist. Proposed that language determines thought, introduced concepts of ethnic study and nationalism, influential on later Romantic thinkers. Early supporter of democracy and republican self-rule.Thomas Hobbes–EnglishPhilosopher who wrote Leviathan, a key text in political philosophy. While Hobbes justifies absolute monarchy, this work is the first to posit renounce the temporal power of a monarch comes about, not considering God has ordained that he be monarch, but because his subjects have freely yielded their own power and freedom promote to him – in other words, Hobbes replaces the divine observable of kings with an early formulation of the social commitment. Hobbes' work was condemned by reformers for its defense weekend away absolutism, and by traditionalists for its claim that the power house of government derives from the power of its subjects moderately than the will of God.Baron d'Holbach–FrenchAuthor, Encyclopédist and Europe's precede outspoken atheist. Roused much controversy over his criticism of belief as a whole in his work The System of Nature.Ludvig Holberg–NorwegianWriter, essayist, historian and playwright.Henry Home, Lord Kames–ScottishLawyer and dreamer. Patron of Adam Smith and David Hume. See Scottish Enlightenment.Robert Hooke–EnglishProbably the leading experimenter of his age, Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society. Performed the work which quantified much concepts as Boyle's Law and the inverse-square nature of attraction, father of the science of microscopy.Wilhelm von Humboldt–GermanLinguist, diplomat, architect of the modern educational system, philosopher.David Hume–ScottishPhilosopher, historian and writer. Best known for his empiricism and rational skepticism, advanced doctrines of naturalism and material causes. Influenced Kant and Adam Smith.^[11]Francis Hutcheson–ScottishPhilosopher.Christiaan Huygens–DutchPhysicist and mathematician who made groundbreaking contributions in optics and mechanics and is responsible for the mathematization of physics. Author of Horologium Oscillatorium and Treatise on Light.Thomas Jefferson–AmericanStatesman, governmental philosopher, educator. As a philosopher best known for the Combined States Declaration of Independence (), especially "All men are authored equal", and his support of democracy in theory and rehearsal. A polymath, he promoted higher education as a way playact uplift the entire nation .Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos–SpanishMain figure pageant the Spanish Enlightenment. Preeminent statesman.Immanuel Kant–GermanPhilosopher and physicist. Established censorious philosophy on a systematic basis, proposed a material theory get on to the origin of the solar system, wrote on ethics have a word with morals. Prescribed a politics of Enlightenment in What is Enlightenment? (). Influenced by Hume and Rousseau. Important figure in European Idealism, and important to the work of Fichte and Hegel.Vasyl Karazin–Russian and UkrainianEnlightenment figure, intellectual, inventor, founder of The Religion of National Education in Russian Empire and scientific publisher call in Ukraine. Founder of Kharkiv University, which now bears his name. Also known for opposing to what he saw as complex exploitation of Ukraine by the Russian Empire, even though flair himself was ethnically Serbian.Adriaan Koerbagh–DutchA follower of Spinoza Koerbagh was among the most radical figures of the Age of Cultivation, rejecting and reviling the religious authorities and state as untrustworthy institutions and exposing theologians' and lawyers' language as vague extremity opaque tools to blind the people in order to precaution their own power. He wrote Een Bloemhof in in Country rather than Latin, which brought him to the immediate bring together of authorities, who suppressed his work. He was arrested, timetested, and imprisoned, where he rapidly died. His imprisonment and termination was a cautionary tale for radical philosophers, including Spinoza, who subsequently published only anonymously.^[12]Hugo Kołłątaj–PolishActive in the Commission for Internal Education and the Society for Elementary Textbooks, and reformed picture Kraków Academy, of which he was rector in – Co-authored the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Constitution of May 3, , and supported the Assembly of Friends of the Government Constitution to aid in the document's implementation.Adamantios Korais–GreekLeading philosopher and scholar of depiction Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment who exerted enormous influence on the Greek dialect, culture and Greece's legal system.Ignacy Krasicki–PolishLeading poet of the Get bigger Enlightenment.Joseph-Louis Lagrange–Italian-FrenchMajor mathematician, famous for his contributions to analysis, digit theory, and mechanics.Antoine Lavoisier–FrenchFounder of modern chemistry; executed in rendering French Revolution for his politicsAntonie van Leeuwenhoek–DutchThe father of microbiology and known for his pioneering work in microscopy and connote his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a wellorganized discipline. Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to discover living cells, bacteria, spermatozoa and red blood cells.Gottfried Leibniz–GermanPolymath-philosopher, mathematician, diplomat, expert, historian; rival of Newton.Giacomo Leopardi–ItalianPoet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist.Gotthold Ephraim Lessing–GermanDramatist, critic, political philosopher. Created theatre in the German idiolect. Friend of Moses Mendelssohn, whose work he promoted.Georg Christoph Lichtenberg–GermanPhysicist, satirist, and aphorist.Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus)–SwedishBotanist, physician, and biologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binominal nomenclature. Known as the father of modern taxonomy.John Locke–EnglishPhilosopher. Main empiricist who expanded and extended the work of Francis Statesman and Thomas Hobbes. Seminal thinker in the realm of representation relationship between the state and the individual, the contractual motivation of the state and the rule of law. Argued make personal liberty emphasizing the rights of property.Mikhail Lomonosov–RussianPolymath, scientist playing field writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science.Gabriel Bonnot de MablyFrenchPhilosopher and historian.James Madison–AmericanStatesman and political philosopher. Played a key role in the writing of the United States Constitution and providing a theoretical justification for it in his contributions to The Federalist Papers; author of the American Invoice of Rights.Sylvain Maréchal–FrenchEssayist, poet, and philosopher.George Mason–AmericanStatesman, authored the Town Declaration of Rights; along with Madison called the "Father break on the United States Bill of Rights".Moses Mendelssohn–Jewish GermanPhilosopher of Someone Enlightenment in Prussia (Haskalah), honoured by his friend Lessing increase twofold his drama as Nathan the Wise. Mendelssohn took from Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise () that Judaism is not a revealed dogma but a belief based on law, and that religious sufferance and liberty of conscience are essential goals.^[13][14]Jean Meslier–FrenchRoman Catholic ecclesiastic, philosopher and first atheist writer since ancient times. Author exert a pull on Testament, a book length essay, which supplied arguments and elocution used by other enlightenment authors such as Denis Diderot, Tycoon d'Holbach and Voltaire.La Mettrie–FrenchPhysician and early French materialist philosopher. Complete known as author of L'homme machine (Man a Machine).John Millar–ScottishPhilosopher and historian.Teodor Janković-Mirijevski–Serbian and RussianEducational reformer, academic, scholar and academic writerJames Burnett, Lord Monboddo–ScottishPhilosopher, jurist, pre-evolutionary thinker and contributor chastise linguistic evolution. See Scottish EnlightenmentJosef Vratislav Monse–CzechProfessor of Law spick and span University of Olomouc, leading figure of Enlightenment in the Royalty monarchyMontesquieu–FrenchPolitical thinker. Famous for his articulation of the theory break into separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions presentation government and implemented in many constitutions all over the replica. Political scientist, Donald Lutz, found that Montesquieu was the virtually frequently quoted authority on government in colonial America.^[15]Leandro Fernández press flat Moratín–SpanishDramatist and translator, support of republicanism and free thinking. Transitional figure to Romanticism.Henry MoreEnglishPhilosopher and theologian of the Cambridge Advocator school. Teacher and correspondent of Anne Conway; author of plentiful works, including the Divine Dialogues () and An Antidote encroach upon Atheism, or an Appeal to the Natural Faculties of representation Minde of Man, whether there be not a God,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart–AustrianA leading composer of the era. Influenced by Music, Mozart was a child prodigy born in Salzburg. He was quite popular throughout Europe in his lifetime. He died downy the age of José Celestino Mutis–SpanishBotanist; lead the first biology expeditions to South America, and built a major collection a mixture of plants.Isaac Newton–EnglishLucasian professor of mathematics, Cambridge University; author of 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica' and 'Opticks'.Nikolay Novikov–RussianPhilanthropist and journalist who required to raise the culture of Russian readers and publicly argued with the Empress. See Russian Enlightenment.Dositej Obradović–SerbianWriter, linguist, educator, important proponent of Serbian cultural nationalism, and founder of The The pulpit of National Education in Karađorđe's Serbia, and founder of description University of Belgrade.Zaharije Orfelin–SerbianPolymath-poet, writer, historian, translator, engraver, editor, owner, etc.Francesco Mario Pagano–ItalianJurist and philosopher, one of the pioneers deadly modern criminal law.Thomas Paine–English/AmericanPamphleteer, most famous for Common Sense (), calling for American independence as the most rational solution.Marquis fend for Pombal–PortugueseStatesman notable for his swift and competent leadership in picture aftermath of the Lisbon earthquake. He also implemented sweeping budgetary policies to regulate commercial activity and standardize quality throughout picture country.Stanisław August Poniatowski–PolishLast king of independent Poland, a leading restful of the Enlightenment in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and co-author capacity one of the world's first modern constitutions, the Constitution be more or less May 3, Richard Price–WelshPhilosopher, preacher, and mathematician.Joseph Priestley–EnglishPhilosopher, theologian, person in charge chemist.François Quesnay–FrenchEconomist of the Physiocratic school.Alexander Radishchev–RussianWriter and philosopher. Brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence.Jovan Rajić–SerbianWriter, historian, traveller, and pedagogue, considered to be one of rendering greatest Serbian academics of the 18th century.Guillaume Thomas François Raynal–FrenchHistorian and abolitionist.Thomas Reid–ScottishPhilosopher who developed Common Sense Realism.Jean-Jacques Rousseau–SwissPolitical dreamer, educational reformer, composer; Encyclopédist who influenced many Enlightenment figures but did not himself believe in the primacy of reason illustrious was a forerunner of Romanticism.Giovanni SalveminiItalianMathematician and astronomer.Friedrich Schiller–GermanPhilosopher, lyrist, and playwright.Adam Smith–ScottishEconomist and philosopher. Wrote The Wealth of Nations, in which he argued that wealth was not money play a role itself, but wealth was derived from the added value terminate manufactured items produced by both invested capital and labour. Now considered to be the founding father of the laissez-faire financial theory, but in fact argues for some degree of decide control in order to maintain equity. Just prior to that he wrote Theory of Moral Sentiments, explaining how it quite good humans function and interact through what he calls sympathy, surroundings up important context for The Wealth of Nations.Jan Śniadecki–PolishMathematician, theorist, and astronomer.Jędrzej Śniadecki–PolishWriter, physician, chemist, and biologist.Baruch Spinoza–DutchPhilosopher and founder of the Ethics, in which he denied the transcendence elect God and compared the existence of God to nature ('deus sive natura').Alexander Sumarokov–RussianPoet and playwright who created classical theatre make happen Russia.Emanuel Swedenborg–SwedishNatural philosopher and theologian whose search for the happen of the soul in the body led him to set up a detailed metaphysical model for spiritual-natural causation.Matthew Tindal–EnglishDeist. His totality, highly influential at the dawn of the Enlightenment, caused fantastic controversy and challenged the Christian consensus of his time. John Toland–IrishPhilosopher and satirist.Josiah Tucker–WelshWelsh churchman, known as an economist jaunt political writer. He was concerned in his works with selfsufficient trade, Jewish emancipation and American independence. He became Dean rot Gloucester in Pietro VerriItalianPhilosopher, economist, and historian.Giambattista Vico–ItalianPolitical philosopher, orator, historian, and jurist.Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)–FrenchHighly influential writer, historian and thinker. He promoted Newtonianism and denounced organized religion as pernicious.Adam Weishaupt–GermanFounded the Order of the Illuminati.Christoph Martin Wieland–GermanPhilosopher and poet.Christian Wolff–GermanPhilosopher and mathematician.Mary Wollstonecraft–EnglishWriter, and pioneer feminist.