- Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). - Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17 1790) was one of the most critical Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, environmentalist, and diplomat. As a scientist he was a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As a political writer and activist he, more than anyone, invented the idea of an American nation, … - Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. - Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (Thetford, England, 29 January 1737 - 8 June 1809, New York City, USA) was a pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, and intellectual. Born in Great Britain, he lived in America, having migrated to the American colonies just in time to take part in the American Revolution, mainly as the author of the powerful, widely read pamphlet, "Common Sense" (1776), advocating independence for the American Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"'"',, (28 August 1749 - 22 March 1832) was a German polymath. Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, Humanism, science, and painting. His most enduring work, the two-part dramatic poem "Faust", is considered one of the peaks of world literature. Goethe's other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the bildungsroman "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship", … - Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza (lived November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. - Anders Chydenius
Anders Chydenius was the leading classical liberal of Nordic history. Born in Sotkamo (modern day Finland) and having studied under Pehr Kalm at the Royal Academy of Turku (Åbo), Finland (part of Sweden until 1809) Chydenius became a priest, Enlightenment philosopher and member of the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. In 1765 he published a pamphlet called "The National Gain", in which he proposes ideas of free trade and industry, … - Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Spanish neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and main figure of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain, was born at Gijón in Asturias, Spain. Selecting law as his profession, he studied at Oviedo, Ávila, and the Complutense University of Madrid, before becoming a criminal judge at Seville in 1767. His integrity and ability were rewarded in 1778 by a judgeship in Madrid, and in 1780 by appointment to the council of military orders. - Nikolay Novikov
Nikolay Ivanovich Novikov was a Russian writer and philanthropist most representative of his country's Enlightenment. Frequently considered to be the first Russian journalist, he aimed at advancing the cultural and educational level of the Russian public. Novikov belonged to the first generation of Russians that benefited from the creation of the Moscow University in 1755. He took an active part in the Legislative Assembly of 1767, … - Mikhail Shcherbatov
Prince Mikhailo Mikhailovich Shcherbatov (July 22, 1733 - December 12, 1790) was a leading ideologue and exponent of the Russian Enlightenment, on the par with Mikhail Lomonosov and Nikolay Novikov. His view of human nature and social progress is kindred to Swift's pessimism. Shcherbatov, Mikhail Mikhailovich (22 July 1733, Moscow-December 12, 1790, Moscow), the eminent statesman, historian, writer and philosopher, … - Eugenio Espejo
Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo (born "Luis Chuzhig") (Royal Audience of Quito, 1747-1795) was a medical pioneer, writer and lawyer of mestizo origin in colonial Ecuador. Although he was a notable scientist and writer, he stands out as a polemicist who inspired the separatist movement in Quito. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in colonial Ecuador. He was Quito's first journalist and hygienist. - Julien Offray de la Mettrie
Julien Offray de La Mettrie (December 25, 1709 - November 11,1751) was a French physician and philosopher, the earliest of the materialist writers of the Enlightenment. He has been claimed as a founder of cognitive science. - Jens Schielderup Sneedorff
Jens Schielderup Sneedorff was a Danish author, professor of political science and royal teacher and a central figure in Denmark-Norway in the Age of Enlightenment. Sneedorff studied in Copenhagen and Göttingen and became influenced by British and French Enlightenment thinking as well as German cameralism. From his position as professor at the Sorø Academy for young noblemen and later teacher to the prince, … - Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (born March 1672 in Basildon, Berkshire; died 21 February 1741 in Shalbourne, Berkshire (now Wiltshire)) was an English agricultural pioneer during the Industrial Revolution and the Agricultural Revolution. Tull was born in Basildon, Berkshire to Dorothy Buckridge and Jethro Tull. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford and Gray's Inn. - Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet, better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws in France and harsh penalties for those who broke them. - Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (born April 13, 1949, in Portsmouth , England ) is a journalist, author and literary critic. Hitchens received degrees in philosophy, politics and economics from Balliol College , Oxford , in 1970. From 1971-1981, he worked in Britain as book reviewer for The Times newspaper. He emigrated to the United States in 1981, and has written regularly, or been a contributing editor for Harper's , Vanity Fair and The Nation . - Eggert Ólafsson
"Eggert Ólafsson" was an Icelandic explorer, writer and conservator of the Icelandic language. He was the son of a farmer from Svefneyjar in Breiðafjörður. He studied natural sciences, Classics, Grammar, Law and Agriculture at the University of Copenhagen. Ólafsson wrote on a wide range of topics, including published and unpublished works. He wrote a standardised spelling of Icelandic, however this spelling is quite different from the current Icelandic spelling. - Gheorghe Şincai
Gheorghe Şincai was an ethnic Romanian Transylvanian historian, philologist, translator, poet, and representative of the Enlightenment-influenced Transylvanian School. As the director of Greek Catholic education in Transylvania he brought a fundamental contribution to the process of promoting culture in rural environments. - Peter Gay
Peter Gay, a Jewish American historian of the social history of ideas, born as Peter Joachim Fröhlich in Berlin, where he was educated at the Goethe-Gymnasium. After witnessing Kristallnacht in 1938, he fled Nazi Germany in 1939. His family initially booked passage on the SS <i>St. - Roy Porter
Roy Porter (31 December 1946 to 3 March 2002) was a British historian noted for his work on the history of medicine. He grew up in South London and attended Wilson's School in Camberwell. He won a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied under J. H. Plumb. His contemporaries included Simon Schama and Andrew Wheatcroft. He achieved a double starred first and became a junior Fellow in 1968, studying under Robert M. Young. - Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder (August 25, 1744 in Mohrungen, East Prussia - December 18, 1803 in Weimar) was a German philosopher, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Storm and Stress, and Weimar Classicism. - Marquis de Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a "Condorcet method". Unlike many of his contemporaries, he advocated a liberal economy, free and equal public education, constitutionalism, and equal rights for women and people of all races. His ideas and writings were said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment and rationalism, … - George Campbell
George Campbell (December 25 1719-April 6 1796) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, minister, theologian, and professor of divinity. Campbell had three focuses to his intellectual life: language, theology, and rhetoric. He was primarily interested in rhetoric since he believed that the study of rhetoric would enable his students to become better preachers. - Jean-Antoine Houdon
Jean-Antoine Houdon was a French neoclassical sculptor. Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment. Houdon's subjects include Denis Diderot (1771), Benjamin Franklin (1778-09), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1778), Voltaire (1781), Molière (1781), George Washington (1785-88), Thomas Jefferson (1789), Louis XVI (1790), Robert Fulton, 1803-04, and Napoléon Bonaparte (1806). - Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, more commonly known as Montesquieu, was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. - Georg Forster
Johann Georg Adam Forster (November 27 1754 – January 10 1794) was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific. His report from that journey, "A Voyage Round the World", … - David Williams
David Williams (1738 - June 29 1816), was a Welsh philosopher of the Enlightenment period. Born at a house called Waunwaelod in Eglwysilan near Caerphilly, Williams was educated at a local school run by his namesake, David Williams (1709-1784). His father, William David, was converted to Methodism by Howell Harris; it was at his request that David Williams entered the ministry. His views were unconventional, largely thanks to his four years study at Carmarthen Academy, … - Giovanni Battista Sammartini
Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700 or 1701 - January 17, 1775) was an Italian composer, organist, choirmaster and teacher. He counted Gluck among his students, and was highly regarded by younger composers including Johann Christian Bach. It has also been noted that many stylizations in Joseph Haydn's compositions are similar to those of Sammartini, although Haydn denied any such influence. - Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (25 January, 1743 - 10 March, 1819), was a German philosopher who made his mark on philosophy by coining the term nihilism and promoting it as the prime fault of Enlightenment thought and Kantianism. Instead of speculative reason, he advocated faith (or "belief", "Glaube" in German) and revelation (though he differed from the religious meaning in that he took this to be rational). - Jonathan Israel
Professor Jonathan Irvine Israel (born London, 26 January 1946) is as of 2006 Modern European History Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Township, New Jersey, USA, and a writer on Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jewry. He was previously Professor of Dutch History and Institutions at the University of London. - J. G. A. Pocock
John Greville Agard (J.G.A.) Pocock (born March 71924) is a world-renowned historian and expatriate New Zealander, noted for his trenchant studies of republicanism in the early modern period (especially in Europe, Britain, and America), for his treatment of Edward Gibbon and noteworthy contemporaries as historians of Enlightenment, and, in historical method, for his contributions to the history of political discourse. - Morris Berman
Morris Berman (born 1944) is an academic and a humanist cultural critic who specializes in Western cultural and intellectual history. Despite his status as an academic, Berman's books are written for a general audience. They are concerned with the state of Western civilization and with an ethical, historically responsible, or enlightened approach to living within it. - Ian Watt
Literary critic and literary historian Ian Watt (born March 9, 1917 in Windemere, England, died December 13, 1999 in Menlo Park, Calif.) was a professor of English at Stanford University. His "The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding" (1957) is an important work in the history of the genre. - James Webb
James Webb (January 13, 1946 - May 9, 1980) was a Scottish historian and biographer. Webb, born in Edinburgh, was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered primarily for two works "The Occult Underground" and "The Occult Establishment". "Occult Underground" was originally titled "Flight from Reason". He also wrote an important, and somewhat debated biography of G. I. Gurdjieff, "The Harmonious Circle". - Andrew Sandlin
P. Andrew Sandlin is a Christian Reconstructionist and one of several pastors of the Church of the King in California. He is the founder of The Center for Cultural Leadership, and a notable Reformed Evangelical Calvinist who may believe that the Enlightenment mitigated the intentions of the Protestant Reformation. - Victor Klemperer
Victor Klemperer was a businessman, journalist and eventually a Professor of Literature, specialising in the French Enlightenment at the Technische Universität Dresden. His diaries detailing his life in Nazi Germany were published in 1995. - Iain King
Iain King (born 1971) is a contemporary British moral philosopher. He studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, and was latterly a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. Outside philosophy, he has written on Kosovo, the Northern Ireland Peace Process, and postwar reconstruction. Iain King's theories of meta-ethics and ethics try to reconcile several divergent schools of thought. - Leo Damrosch
Leo Damrosch is an American author and professor. In 2001, he was named the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University. He received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. His areas of academic specialty include Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and Puritanism. - Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling (July 4, 1905 - November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. Trilling was one of the group known as "The New York Intellectuals" and was viewed as one of the great literary critics of his time. He is probably most famous to the general public for his introduction to a 1952 reissue of George Orwell's book, "Homage to Catalonia". He was also a regular contributor to the "Partisan Review". - Victor Of Aveyron
Victor of Aveyron (also The Wild Boy of Aveyron) was a boy who apparently lived his entire childhood alone in the woods before being found wandering the woods near Saint Sernin sur Rance, France (near Toulouse) in 1797. He was captured, but soon escaped. He was then captured again and kept in the care of a local woman for about a week before he escaped once more. However, on January 8, 1800, he emerged from the forests on his own, …
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