Personalities:

Galileo Galilei    He was born to a lesser noble family in Pisa, Italy. He was the first European to make systematic observations of the planets through a telescope. He discovered the principle of inertia, and explained some of the laws of motion. In 1610 he wrote The Starry Messenger and in 1632 he wrote Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems.

Sir Isaac Newton  He is considered a genius in modern day science. He discovered the universal Law of Gravity and explained all the laws of motion, which Galileo was unable to do. He wrote Principa Mathematica.

Nicolas Copernicus  Aristotle and Ptolmey were rejected my many other scientistsHe made a very important contribution to the world of astronomy. Through his discovery of the Heliocentric Theory, which states that the sun, not the earth, is the center of the universe, the ideas of .

Johann Keplar  He was supposed to become a Lutheran minister, but he loved freelance writing and astrology. Keplar accepted the Heliocentric Theory of Copernicus, but he rejected the principle that the planets moved in a circular path of orbit. He discovered that the planets move in an elliptical path around the sun.

Baron Montesquieu   He has also been called the father of political science. He is well known for his political ideology that there should be three types of government: republics for small city-states, a monarchy for middle sized states, and despotism for large empires. In 1721, his book Persian Letters was published, and later in 1748, The Spirit of the Laws, was published.

Voltaire  He was the philosophe who was well known for his criticism of traditional religion. On the other hand, he was an advocate for religious toleration. He was a deist. Deism was a philosophy that believed that God was the clockmaker and creator of the universe. He was also called the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Denis Diderot  He is most famous for his book Encyclopedia. Like Voltaire, he disliked traditional religion. He condemned Catholicism as fanatical and unreasonable.

Jean Jacques Rousseau   He believed that each person was born with a tabula rasa or a clean slate. According to him, each person was inherently good, but it was society that corrupted the individual. However, he is best known for his Social Contract, which explains the ideal relationship between a government and its subjects. The ideas expressed in The Social Contract were used to justify the French Revolution.

John Locke  He was inspired by Newton and the ideas of natural laws found in nature. Locke took this idea one step further and applied it to people and society. He claimed that all people had certain, inalienable rights; life, liberty, and property. The job of the government was to protect the rights of the people and the people had to act reasonably towards the government.

Rene Descartes  He introduced the phrase cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") In his Discourse on Method, he argued that everything is not true just based on observation. He also said that through deductive reasoning, any truth could be discovered.