John Locke was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, …

David Gauthier (born 1932) is a Canadian-American philosopher best known for his neo-Hobbesian social contract (contractarian) theory of morality, as laid out in his book "Morals by Agreement".

Will Hutton is Executive Vice Chair in August 2008. He began his career as a stockbroker and investment analyst, before working in BBC TV and radio as a producer and reporter. Prior to joining The Work Foundation, Will spent four years as editor in chief of the Observer and he continues to write a weekly column for the paper.

(1600-1661). "Scottish pastor and theologian. He was born of farming stock at Nisbet in Roxburghshire, and gave evidence of grace and of spiritual insight in boyhood; his mind was always sensitive to spiritual impressions. He entered Edinburgh University in 1617, graduated M.A. in 1621, and two years later after a competitive examination was appointed professor of Latin language and literature in the university.

Hugh Parr Scanlon, Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme (26 October 1913-27 January 2004) was a British trade union leader. Scanlon was born in Melbourne, Australia to parents who had emigrated from Britain. His mother brought him to Britain at the age of two after she was widowed. He attended Stretford elementary school in Manchester, which he left at 14 to become an apprentice instrument maker at a local engineering firm where he first joined his union, …

Patrick Cyril (Sid) Ryan (born 1952, in Dublin, Ireland) is a Canadian labour union leader. He has been the president of the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which has a membership of 210,000, since 1992, and is a vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. Ryan has been involved with CUPE since 1976, when he began working for Ontario Hydro.

Pieter Van den Abeele is the founder of Gentoo/PowerPC, a foundation connected with a distribution of the Linux computer operating system. He joined Gentoo shortly after its conception, merging Gentoo's first port into the mainline Gentoo repository, paving the way for other Gentoo Linux ports by implementing amongst many other things the Gentoo architecture keywords and portage profiles.

Tony Silipo (born August 10, 1957 in Martone, Calabria, Italy) is a former Canadian politician. Silipo was educated at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall at York University, and began practising law in 1984. He also served as a trustee on the Toronto Board of Education from 1978 to 1990, and was its chair from 1989 to 1990.

Karen Haslam (born April 19, 1946 in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, and served as a junior minister in the government of Bob Rae. Later, she became the mayor of Stratford, Ontario. Haslam was a teacher and librarian before entering public life. She was elected as a Rate Payer's trustee in Beaverbank, Nova Scotia in 1984, …

Mark Morrow (born April 2, 1960 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995. Morrow graduated High School from Scott Park Secondary, he then proceeded to take some college business courses. Prior to his election, he was a shipper receiver and also worked in places such as Stelco, Dofacso and other industrial jobs.

Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco was the first leader of Paraguay following its independence from Spain. He ran the country with no outside interference and little outside influence from 1814 to 1840. Although his father, a native of São Paulo, was simply García Rodríguez Francia, the dictator inserted "de" to style himself "Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco". He is often referred to simply as "Francia".

I live in New Orleans with Jason. We just had the most perfect baby girl, Ellis, on June 16th. My life is focused on excited things like poop, sleeping when I can, and hanging out with the coolest person who happens to sleep 18 hours a day. You can see more pictures at: www.flickr.com/photos/graceelliscook.