Notable People

This page just provides blurbs about people you most likely have read about and things/terms/events that have shaped history.


[+]Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz [1646 – 1716]: German Philosopher and mathematician. For more about him, visit Stanford University’s piece about him or Trinity College in Dublin’s blurb about him.[+]Immanuel Kant [1724 – 1804] A German philosopher who believed that there was something in nature that united the mechanistic and teleologic (natural design) views in biology, rather than their being opposed to each other. Visit this site for those who wish to dive into Kant’s world.
[+]Democritus [460 – 370 B.C.] A Greek philosopher who, like other early Greeks, enjoyed learning the true nature of things. He developed an atomic theory (atomism) that he applied to natural philosophy. He suggested that all phenomena are to be explained by the incessant movement of atoms, differing only in shape, order, and position. He did this without the benefit of the knowledge of atoms today. Stanford University has some more on him.

[+]Rene Descartes [1596 – 1650]: French Philosopher and founder of the Cartesian Plane. He was a pioneer in systematic philosophy who, because of his views, was forced to flee to Holland. he stated that analysis is the means of establishing the truth of the first principles of knowledge. He suggested that wisdom of dividing the problem to be solved into as many parts as possible in order better to solve it. He stated “the purpose of analysis is to find out by means of one single truth, or a particular fact, the principles from which it derives.” Oregon State Univ. has some interesting information on him.
[+]John Stuart Mill [1806 – 1873] An English philosopher who elaborated on the philosophy of induction still further, propounding as its basis the law of the Uniformity of Nature. Check out Spartacus Educational for more on J. S. Mill.
[+]Rabelais: French Satirist. Check out an article from Washington State University on Rabelais.
[+]Johann Goethe [1749 – 1832] A German philosopher who suggested that life is a constant self destruction and self recomposition of living matter and that “life is a flame.”visit this site for a detailed bio about Goethe or head over to American Institute of Physics for more about his work.
[+]Menippos (or Menippus): Greek satirist who invented Menippean satire according to Britannica. Read more about him from About.com
[+]Giovanni Alfonso Borelli [1608- 1679] An Italian philosopher, mathematician, and disciple of Galileo who applied the latter’s principle of physics to biology, thus suggesting an experimental approach to science. Visit this Britannica article on him and read more about his work at this Florida State University site.
[+]Leninism: the political, economic and social principles and practices of Russian revolutionary leader, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov [1870 – 1924] especially his theory of government by protoleriat.
[+]Lamarckism: theory of French naturalist, Jean-Baptiste P. A. de Menet de Lamarck [1744 – 1829] that species have deeloped by the efforts of the organism to adapt themselves to new conditions. His theories were controverted by Darwinist theory according to this Univ. of Oregon article.
[+]Johannes Scotus Erigena [815 – 877 A.D.] An Irish Scottish Philosopher in France who is thought to have begun a so-called Scholastic Philosophy (scholasticism), the core of which was the doctrine of the continuity and interdependence of the natural with respect to the supernatural order of the truth. Scholasticism included the methods and doctrines of the Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages, and its sources were the writings of the church fathers and Aristotle and his Arabian commentators. Stanford Univ. and Trinity College have more indepth articles about his work and life.
[+]Plato: Greek philosopher [427 – 347BC] who taught about love between the souls without sensual attractions. He was Aristotle’s teacher who interpreted natural phenomena by relying upon intuition or instinct rather than upon reasoning.
[+]Socrates [470 – 399 BC] Greek philosopher who was a midwife’s son and called himself a midwife to men’s thoughts. He taught revelation to his interlocutors was by asking simple questions.
[+]Epicurus [341 – 270 BC]: Greek philosopher who taught an atomic materialism in physics and hedonism. In ethics, misrepresented by opponents as brutish sensuality.
[+]Aristotle [384 – 322BC]: A 4th century philosopher. Peripatetism was his philosophy. He stressed the importance of accurate and direct observations in securing facts and data. He drew his conclusions from facts that he secured by direct observations, and thus he initiated the basis for a scientific method of solving problems. Earlier philosophers had a tendency to reach conclusions and then select data and facts that agreed with their conclusions.
[+]Siddharta or Gautama Buddha (5th and 6th century): Indian philosopher who was the founder of Buddhism.
[+]Niccolo Machiavelli: Statesman and writer of Florence, Italy [1469 – 1527]
[+]Trofim Denisovich Lysenko: Sovieet geneticist (from Ukrain) who taught that acquired characteristics were inheritable. [born 1898] Dublic City Univ. has details about his life’s work.
[+]Nikita Khruschev: dictator of USSR in 1955
[+]Nikolai Lenin: Founder of the USSR in 1917 and became the first dictator.
[+]Gaius Verres: Corrupt Roman quaestor and propaetor of Sicily [73 – 71BC] who was prosecuted by Cicero. He is an example of what Government leaders ought not to be. Visit this Britannica article on him. This site has excerpts of Cicero’s arguments in court.
[+]Tomas Torquemada: Spanish Dominican Friar and fanatic organizer of the Spanish Inquisition [1420 – 1498]. Visit this Drexel Univ. article about his life. On March 30, 1492, Inquisitor-General Tomas Torquemada recommended that all Jews be expelled from Spain (About.com).
[+]Abel Janszoon Tasman: Founder of discoverer of Tasmania in 1642. He was also the first European to discover New Zealand. Visit this site on Australian History for more about him.
[+]Laotsze (born 604 BC): Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism. Follow this site and check this one out for more information.
[+]Jacques Dubois: French anatomist according to Tektonics Apologetics [1478 – 1555]. Check out this Reference.com wiki article on him.
[+]Franz de la Boe: Dutch-German iatrochemist [1614 – 1672]. Third Millenium online has some interesting information on him. Visit Cuisine Net for an explanation of how he invented gin as a therapeutic tool (he re-distilled grain alcohol with juniper berry, a blood purifier)
[+]Euclid: Greek mathematician who was the originator of Euclidean geometry [300 BC]. He’s also called the teacher of antiquity and visit his work called the Elements on Clark Univ. website.
[+]Archimedes: Greek mathematician of Syracuse [287 – 212BC]. Visit this Drexel University site for Archimedean miscellanea. Make sure to check out Seton Hall University’s page on Archimedes.
[+]Thomas Robert Malthus: English economist who said that the growth of the world population would unless checked would lead to a world shortage of food [1766 -1834].
[+]Karl Marx: German economist and socialist [1818 – 1883]. Marxism is the political and economic theory that class struggle has been the major force behind historical change that the dominant class has exploited other classes and that capitalism will inevitably be superseded by socialism and a classless society.
[+]Sir Isaac Newton [1642 – 1727]: English philosopher and scientist who lay gravitational theories.
[+]Georg Ernest Stahl: German physicist [1660 – 1734]. Visit this library of Hungarian Sciences for more on him. Check out this site for more on his theories.
[+]Josef Stalin: Russiaan communist and dictator [1879 – 1953]. Stalinism is the rigorous rule of Josef Stalin especially in concentration of all power and authority in the communist world of Russia.
[+]Jan Bode Von Stapel: Dutch botanist who died in 1636. The Latin Stapelia, genus name, was named after J. B. Von Stapel and consists of the genus of African perennial herbs of the milkweed family with succulent typically leafless toothed stems like cactus joints and showy but usually putrid-smelling flowers (PsychT ests).
[+]John Calvin: French protestant and religious teacher [1509 – 1564]
[+]John Wesley: Religious teacher [1703 – 1791] who is the founder of Methodism
[+]Viking: Scandinavian pirate and raider of the 8th – 11th centuries. Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art article on the Vikings.
[+]Confucius: Chinese philosopher [551 – 479BC] and the founder of Confucianism. Visit Friesian.com for an analysis of Confucianism and check out Stanford university’s page on him.
[+]Zoroaster or Zarathustra: Persian founder of Zoroastrianism. Visit the Pantheon of the Great Brotherhood of Light for interesting details about this belief system. It won’t hurt to check out this page too.
[+]Tyrtaeus or Tyrtaios: Greek martial poet of the 7th century BC. He was from Laconia and is also called an elegiac poet by About.com. Visit Michigan State Univ. for a selection of his works. Check out the Wikipedia entries about him.
[+]Mao Zedong or Tsetung [born 1893]: Chairman of the communist party in China since 1943. Maoism is the political theory and practice of Mao Zedong. Read this Time Magazine article on him and check out site for extra tidbits about him.
[+]Pythagoras: Greek 6th century BC philosopher. Read this Hanover University article about Pythagoreans, check this site out for detailed works of his and visit Internet Encyclopedia on Philosophy blurb about him .
[+]Pyrrhus of Epirus who defeated the Romans in 279BC, but suffered heavy losses at Heraclea on the Siris. Read this article on the BBC website and check out About.com‘s article on him and what a Pyrrhic victory means. (280).
[+]George Bernard Shaw: Irish dramatic and critic [1850 – 1950]. Go indepth on him at this Univ. of Pennsylvania page and check out his Nobel prize biography.
[+]Sigmund Freud: Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalytic theories [1850 – 1939]. Visit this Shippensburg University article about him and his theories. Check out this user’s piece on Freud and this Time Magazine entry on him.
[+]Gregor Mendel: Austria-German monk and biologist. Best known for his work [1822 – 1884]. Visit this Minnesota State University page on Mendel and his works. Read about his basic principles of genetics on this Palomar College page.
[+]Johan Gottlieb Gahn: Swedish chemist and mineralogist [1745 – 1818]. He discovered the element (Mn) and a mineral called gahnite (which is also called a zinc spinel) (Arizona Univ. and Univ. of Delaware.)
[+]Adolf Hitler [1889 – 1945]
[+]Stanislavsky: Russian actor and director [1863 – 1938]. Visit this PBS.org page on him. He was born Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky in Moscow. Also check out this Modern Times page on his revolutionizing the acting world.
[+]Alfonsine, of Alfonso X [the Wise] King of Castile or his planetary tables completed in 1252. Visit this University of Kentucky page on him and see what Britannica has to write about him.
[+]Athanasian, relating to Athanasius (c. 296 – 373) or the creed erroneously attributed to him. He is noted for his opposition to Arianism. According to the Spurgeon Archives, Athanasius stood contra mundum (“against the world”) in defense of the biblical doctrine of Christ. He opposed Arius when it seemed all the world would follow Arius’s heresy. Athanasius’s work remains even today one of the definitive statements of orthodox Trinitarianism. Read this article on MB-soft.com for more on his beliefs.
[+]Claude Aubriet [c. 1665 – 1742] naturalist painter
[+]Avesta, Zoroastrian holy scriptures or the Zend. Also known as the most ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism.
[+]Averr(h)oism: the doctrine of Arab philosopher and physician, Ibn Roshd Averrhoes [1126 – 1198] that the soul is perishable, the only immortal soul being the world soul from individual souls went forth and to which they return. Visit Wisdom World for an explanation of the furor this theory caused. Read the Wikipedia entries on him.
[+]Ba(bi)(bee), member of a Persian sect; followers of Bab-ed-Din (Mirza Ali Mohammed [1821 – 1852]) who sought to combine the best in all religions. Also Baha’i – 1889, mystical, tolerant Iranian religion founded by a Mirza Ali Mohammed ibn Radhik, Shiraz merchant executed for heresy in 1850, and named for his leading disciple, Baha Allah (Pers. “splendor of God”). It also is sometimes called Babism, after the name taken by the founder, Bab-ed-Din, “gate of the faith.” (Online Etymology). Visit this page on Bab-ed-Din.
[+]Baconian, pertaining to Francis Bacon [1561 – 1626] or his inductile philosophy or to Roger Bacon [d. c. 1291] or his teaching or to the theory that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays. He was the originator of the expression, “Knowledge is power.” Visit this Oregon State University article on him and check out the Internet Encyclopedia on Philosophy‘s entry on his works.
[+]Francis Bacon [1561 – 1629] An English natural philosopher, who reached his conclusions through the process of induction from facts, thus breaking away from contemporary scholasticism. He stated (1620) that experiments are of fundamental importance in acquiring scientific knowledge, since experiments enable us to establish causes that determine an occurrence and enable us to bring about such occurrences when we wish.
[+]Roger Bacon [1214 – 1294] an English philosopher who was noted for his scholasticism; yet, his precocious explanation of various phenomena were not appreciated and he was imprisoned. See this Florida State University page on him and check out this entry on him.
[+]Sophy: The Shah of Persia (from cafi or Safawid Dynasty [1502 – 1736] ) descended from Cafi-ud-Din. Read about many allusions to the Sophy in literature. Get more Shah factbites and read about the Safawid dynasty.
[+]Stoic: disciple of philosopher, Zeno [d. c. 261 BC] who taught in the Stoa Poikile (“painted porch”) at Athens. It was founded by Athens about 310 by Zeno of Citium (in Cyprus). The prominent characteristic of Stoic philosophy is moral heroism, often verging on asceticism (IEP).
[+]Occanism: doctrine of nominalist schoolman, William Occam or Ockham who died about 1349 in Munich (supposedly of the Black Death). He is best known today for the methodological principle known as “Ockham’s Razor”. The rule, which said that plurality should not be assumed without necessity (or, in modern English, keep it simple, stupid).
[+]Hulsean: pertaining to John Hulse [1708 – 1790], the founder of Hulsean Divinity Lecturies at Cambridge. Visit Encyclopedia& lt; /a> at JRank.org and see what Christian Classics has to write about him.
[+]Hunterian: pertaining to Surgeon John Hunter [1728 – 1793] or to his anatomical collection, nucleus of the Hunterian Museum in London or to the annual Hunterian Oration at Royal College of Surgeons or William Hunter [1718 – 1783], an anatomist and obstetrician (his museum in Hasyo)
[+]Hussile, follower of Bohemian reformer, John Huss [1374 – 1415], martyred in 1415 (Religion Online). According to Reformation, John Huss, a Catholic priest and professor at the university of Prague was burned at the stake for preaching the Gospel of Christ.
[+]Hutchisonian: follower of John Hutchinson [1674 – 1737] who held that the Hebrew Scriptures contained typically the elements of all rational philosophy, natural history and true religion.
[+]Swedenborgian: follower of Emmanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish religious teacher [1688 – 1772], founder of New Jerusalem Church. Swedenborg died in London on March 29, 1772, at Prince’s Square, in the parish of St. George’s in East London, on the very day he had earlier predicted in a letter to Methodist leader John Wesley.
[+]Maccabean: relating to Judas Maccabaeus or his family, the Hasmonaeans or Maccabees who freed the Jewish nation from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria about 166Bc as in 2 books of the Maccabees of the Apocrypha.
[+]Macmillanite: a Cameroonian or reformed presbyterian (from Rev. John MacMillan [1670 – 1753] who helped reform the church.) Read about the Maccabean revolt and read about the Hasmonaeans.
[+]the First Empire, period of the reign of Napoleon I [1804 – 1815]
[+]the Second Empire, period of the reign of Napoleon III [1852 – 1870]
[+]Macintosh: From Charles Macintosh, a Scottish chemist and patentee of Macintosh (About.com. Visit this Britannica article on his inventions.
[+]Sputnik, the satellite launched by the Soviets in 1957 (NASA, Batnet and this Case Western Reserve University article).
[+]Armada, the fleet send by King Phillip II of Spain against England in 1588. Visit the National Maritime Museum, this Britannica article, and National Archives of the UK government.
[+]Benedictine: religious order founded in AD 529 by St. Benedict. Visit this site for more about religious orders and check out Channel4.com for more about this order.
[+]Jesuit: member of Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola [1491 – 1556] in 1534. Read about “The Company of Jesus” at New Advent or Encyclopaedia Britannica.
[+]Franciscan, religious order founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assissi. Read about the Franciscans or know more about St. Francis.
[+]Carthusians, Roman Catholic order founded by St. Bruno. The Carthusians are an order of hermit monks that live in perpetual silence and solitude. They were founded in Grenoble, France by St. Bruno in 1084 (OSA).
[+]Satrian, pertaining to French philosopher, dramatist and novelist Jean-Paul Satre [b. 1905]. He is considered the father of existentialist philosophy (Stanford University). Read his Nobel Prize biography.
[+]Spinozism, the pantheistic monism of Benedict or Baruch Spinoza [1632 – 1677]. According to Answers.com, his controversial pantheistic doctrine advocated an intellectual love of God. His best-known work is Ethics (1677).His philosophy was described by Hegel as the “philosophy of Substance”. Spinoza denied the possibility of a plurality of substances, and reserves the term for absolute reality (Dictionary of Philosophy).
[+]Sotadic, pertaining to Sotades, a lascivious and scurrilous Greek poet [fl. 276 BC]. Read a little brief blurb about him. Most sources credit Sotades with inventing palindromes in Greek-ruled Egypt, back in the 3rd century BC. In fact, palindromes were once known as “Sotadic verses.” (Source and this UGA webpage.
[+]Socinian, pertaining to or following Laelium [1525 – 1562] and Faustus [1539 – 1604] Socinus, uncle and neophew Italian unitarians. According to Encyclopedia.com, Fausto Sozzini, founder of Socinianism, left the Roman Catholic Church when, influenced by the writings of his uncle, Laelius Socinus, he came to deny the Trinity and other traditional doctrines. Read about Socianism at New Advent.org.