Ren Descartes

Academic, Philosopher, Scientist, Mathematician (15961650)

Philosopher and mathematician Ren Descartes is regarded as the father of modern

philosophy for defining a starting point for existence, I think; therefore I am.

QUOTES

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Ren Descartes

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your
life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Ren Descartes

Synopsis

Ren Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye en Touraine, France. He was
extensively educated, first at a Jesuit college at age 8, then earning a law degree at 22,
but an influential teacher set him on a course to apply mathematics and logic to
understanding the natural world. This approach incorporated the contemplation of the
nature of existence and of knowledge itself, hence his most famous observation, I
think; therefore I am.
Early Life

Philosopher Ren Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye en Touraine, a
small town in central France, which has since been renamed after him to honor its most
famous son. He was the youngest of three children, and his mother, Jeanne Brochard,
died within his first year of life. His father, Joachim, a council member in the provincial
parliament, sent the children to live with their maternal grandmother, where they
remained even after he remarried a few years later. But he was very concerned with
good education and sent Ren, at age 8, to boarding school at the Jesuit college of
Henri IV in La Flche, several miles to the north, for seven years.

Descartes was a good student, although it is thought that he might have been sickly,
since he didnt have to abide by the schools rigorous schedule and was instead allowed
to rest in bed until midmorning. The subjects he studied, such as rhetoric and logic and
the mathematical arts, which included music and astronomy, as well as metaphysics,
natural philosophy and ethics, equipped him well for his future as a philosopher. So did
spending the next four years earning a baccalaureate in law at the University of Poitiers.
Some scholars speculate that he may have had a nervous breakdown during this time.

Descartes later added theology and medicine to his studies. But he eschewed all this,
resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or
else in the great book of the world, he wrote much later in Discourse on the Method of
Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences, published in 1637.

So he traveled, joined the army for a brief time, saw some battles and was introduced to
Dutch scientist and philosopher Isaac Beeckman, who would become for Descartes a
very influential teacher. A year after graduating from Poitiers, Descartes credited a
series of three very powerful dreams or visions with determining the course of his study
for the rest of his life.

Becoming the Father of Modern Philosophy

Descartes is considered by many to be the father of modern philosophy, because his ideas
departed widely from current understanding in the early 17th century, which was more feeling-
based. While elements of his philosophy werent completely new, his approach to them was.
Descartes believed in basically clearing everything off the table, all preconceived and inherited
notions, and starting fresh, putting back one by one the things that were certain, which for him
began with the statement I exist. From this sprang his most famous quote: I think; therefore I
am.

Since Descartes believed that all truths were ultimately linked, he sought to uncover the meaning
of the natural world with a rational approach, through science and mathematicsin some ways
an extension of the approach Sir Francis Bacon had asserted in England a few decades prior. In
addition to Discourse on the Method, Descartes also published Meditations on First
Philosophy and Principles of Philosophy, among other treatises.

Although philosophy is largely where the 20th century deposited Descarteseach century has
focused on different aspects of his workhis investigations in theoretical physics led many
scholars to consider him a mathematician first. He introduced Cartesian geometry, which
incorporates algebra; through his laws of refraction, he developed an empirical understanding of
rainbows; and he proposed a naturalistic account of the formation of the solar system, although
he felt he had to suppress much of that due to Galileos fate at the hands of the Inquisition. His
concern wasnt misplacedPope Alexander VII later added Descartes works to the Index of
Prohibited Books.
Later Life, Death and Legacy

Descartes never married, but he did have a daughter, Francine, born in the Netherlands in 1635.
He had moved to that country in 1628 because life in France was too bustling for him to
concentrate on his work, and Francines mother was a maid in the home where he was staying.
He had planned to have the little girl educated in France, having arranged for her to live with
relatives, but she died of a fever at age 5.

Descartes lived in the Netherlands for more than 20 years but died in Stockholm, Sweden, on
February 11, 1650. He had moved there less than a year before, at the request of Queen
Christina, to be her philosophy tutor. The fragile health indicated in his early life persisted. He
habitually spent mornings in bed, where he continued to honor his dream life, incorporating it
into his waking methodologies in conscious meditation, but the queens insistence on 5 am
lessons led to a bout of pneumonia from which he could not recover. He was 53.

Sweden was a Protestant country, so Descartes, a Catholic, was buried in a graveyard primarily
for unbaptized babies. Later, his remains were taken to the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prs, the
oldest church in Paris. They were moved during the French Revolution, and were put back later
although urban legend has it that only his heart is there and the rest is buried in the Panthon.

Descartes approach of combining mathematics and logic with philosophy to explain the physical
world turned metaphysical when confronted with questions of theology; it led him to a
contemplation of the nature of existence and the mind-body duality, identifying the point of
contact for the body with the soul at the pineal gland. It also led him to define the idea of
dualism: matter meeting non-matter. Because his previous philosophical system had given man
the tools to define knowledge of what is true, this concept led to controversy. Fortunately,
Descartes himself had also invented methodological skepticism, or Cartesian doubt, thus making
philosophers of us all.

Charles-Louis de Secondat
Philosopher, Government Official, Legal Professional, Writer (16891755)

French philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brde and de

Montesquieu, was a highly influential political thinker during the Age of Enlightenment.
QUOTES

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind, arising from the opinion
each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the
government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.
Charles-Louis de Secondat

There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.

Charles-Louis de Secondat

Synopsis

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brde and de Montesquieu, was born in the Aquitaine
region of France on January 18, 1689, during the Age of Enlightenment. Through his education
and travels he became a sharp social commentator and political thinker who gained the respect of
his fellow philosophers with his masterwork The Spirit of Laws, which went on to have a major
influence on English and American government.

Early Life

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brde and de Montesquieu, was born in the region of
Bordeaux, France, on January 18, 1689, to a wealthy family, with maternal connections to the
barony. His soldier father also had noble lineage. Even so, Charles-Louis was placed in the care
of a poor family during his childhood.

His mother died when he was 7 years old, and at age 11, he was sent to the Oratorian Collge de
Juilly near Paris to study literature, the sciences and other precepts of a classical education. He
went on to take up law at the University of Bordeaux and began working in Paris after
graduation.

But the next four years brought a quick succession of changes: He returned to Bordeaux in 1713
when his father died; in 1714 he became councilor to the Bordeaux parliament; in 1715 he
married Jeanne de Lartigue (who came with a large dowry); and in 1716 his uncle died, leaving
him lands and titles as the Baron de La Brde and de Montesquieu.

As such, he became deputy president of the Bordeaux Parliament. Now socially and financially
secure, he devoted himself to his passions, including Roman law, history, biology, geography and
physics.
Fame as Political Thinker

In 1721, Montesquieu gained fame with the publication of the Persian Letters, a politically biting
satire of religions, monarchies and the rich French under the guise of an epistolary novel,
although he disdained calling it that. He moved to Paris, traveled extensively, and continued to
publish, switching to political treatises such as a consideration of the fall of Rome.

His masterwork, The Spirit of Laws, published in 1748, had enormous influence on how
governments should work, eschewing classical definitions of government for new delineations.
He also established the idea of a separation of powerslegislative, executive and judicialto
more effectively propagate liberty. Although the Catholic Church put Spirit on its list of banned
books, the work influenced France's Declaration of the Rights of Man (Declaration des Droits de
lHomme et du Citoyen) and the U.S. Constitution. Montesquieu later published his Dfense de
LEsprit des Lois in 1750.

Death and Legacy

Montesquieu died of a fever in Paris on February 10, 1755. Although he had fathered two
daughters and a son with his wife, he had been devoted to his work. He was regarded as genial
and generous, and had a wide and international circle of admirers, from Scottish philosopher
David Hume to Hegel to future American president James Madison.

But Montesquieu's democratic outlook was still in part a reflection of his time. He believed
women were supposedly unfit as heads of the home while fit to govern as written in The Spirit of
Laws: "It is against reason and against nature for women to be mistresses in the house...but not
for them to govern an empire. In the first case, their weak state does not permit them to be
preeminent; in the second, their very weakness gives them more gentleness and moderation,
which, rather than the harsh and ferocious virtues, can make for a good environment." Ironically,
he had left his wife in charge of their household during his travels.

Voltaire
Philosopher, Historian, Writer (16941778)

Author of the satirical novella 'Candide,' Voltaire is widely considered one of France's
greatest Enlightenment writers.
QUOTES

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of
trumpets.

Voltaire

Synopsis

Born in 1694, in Paris, France, Voltaire established himself as one of the leading writers of the
Enlightenment. His famed works include the tragic play Zare, the historical study The Age of
Louis XIV and the satirical novella Candide. Often at odds with French authorities over his
politically charged works, he was twice imprisoned and spent many years in exile. He died
shortly after returning to Paris in 1778.

Early Life

Widely considered one of France's greatest Enlightenment writers, Voltaire was born Franois-
Marie Arouet to a prosperous family on November 21, 1694, in Paris, France. He was the
youngest of five children born to Franois Arouet and Marie Marguerite d'Aumart. When
Voltaire was just 7 years old, his mother passed away. Following her death, he grew closer to his
free-thinking godfather.

In 1704, Voltaire was enrolled at the Collge Louis-le-Grand, a Jesuit secondary school in Paris,
where he received a classical education and began showing promise as a writer.
Major Works

Voltaire wrote poetry and plays, as well as historical and philosophical works. His most well-
known poetry includes The Henriade (1723) and The Maid of Orleans, which he started writing
in 1730 but never fully completed.

Among the earliest of Voltaire's best-known plays is his adaptation of Sophocles'

tragedy Oedipus, which was first performed in 1718. Voltaire followed with a string of dramatic
tragedies, including Mariamne (1724). His Zare (1732), written in verse, was something of a
departure from previous works: Until that point, Voltaire's tragedies had centered on a fatal flaw
in the protagonist's character; however, the tragedy in Zare was the result of circumstance.
Following Zare, Voltaire continued to write tragic plays, including Mahomet (1736)
and Nanine (1749).

Voltaire's body of writing also includes the notable historical works The Age of Louis XIV (1751)
and Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756). In the latter, Voltaire took a
unique approach to tracing the progression of world civilization by focusing on social history and
the arts.

Voltaire's popular philosophic works took the form of the short stories Micromgas (1752)
and Plato's Dream (1756), as well as the famed satirical novella Candide (1759). In 1764, he
published another of his acclaimed philosophical works, Dictionnaire philosophique, an
encyclopedic dictionary that embraced the concepts of Enlightenment and rejected the ideas of
the Roman Catholic Church.

Arrests and Exiles

In 1716, Voltaire was exiled to Tulle for mocking the duc d'Orleans. In 1717, he returned to
Paris, only to be arrested and exiled to the Bastille for a year on charges of writing libelous
poetry. Voltaire was sent to the Bastille again in 1726, for arguing with the Chevalier de Rohan.
This time he was only detained briefly before being exiled to England, where he remained for
nearly three years.

The publication of Voltaire's Letters on the English (1733) angered the French church and
government, forcing the writer to flee to safer pastures. He spent the next 15 years with his
mistress, milie du Chtelet, at her husband's home in Cirey-sur-Blaise.

Voltaire moved to Prussia in 1750 as a member of Frederick the Great's court, and spent later
years in Geneva and Ferney. By 1778, he was recognized as an icon of the Enlightenment's
progressive ideals, and he was given a hero's welcome upon his return to Paris.
Auguste Comte
Academic, Philosopher, Sociologist (17981857)

French philosopher Auguste Comte (17981857) greatly advanced the field of social
science, giving it the name "sociology" and influenced many 19th-century social
intellectuals.

QUOTES
The sacred formula of positivism: love as a principle, the order as a foundation,
and progress as a goal.
Auguste Comte

Synopsis

Born in 1798, Auguste Comte grew up in the wake of the French Revolution. He rejected
religion and royalty, focusing instead on the study of society, which he named "sociology." He
broke the subject into two categories: the forces holding society together ("social statics") and
those driving social change ("social dynamics"). Comte's ideas and use of scientific methods
greatly advanced the field.

Overview

Philosopher Auguste Comte was born on January 19, 1798, in Montpellier, France. He was born
in the shadow of the French Revolution and as modern science and technology gave birth to the
Industrial Revolution. During this time, European society experienced violent conflict and
feelings of alienation. Confidence in established beliefs and institutions was shattered. Comte
spent much of his life developing a philosophy for a new social order amidst all the chaos and
uncertainty.
Early Life

Comtes father, Louis, a government tax official, and his mother, Rosalie (Boyer) Comte, were
both monarchists and devout Roman Catholics. While attending the University of Montpellier,
Comte abandoned these attitudes in favor of republicanism inspired by the French Revolution,
which would influence his later work.

In 1814, he entered cole Polytechnique and proved to be a brilliant mathematician and scientist.
He left school before graduating and settled in Paris with no viable way to support himself. He
earned a meager living teaching mathematics and journalism while deep in the study of
economics, history and philosophy.

At 19, Comte met Henri de Saint-Simon, a social theorist interested in utopian reform and an
early founder of European socialism. Deeply influenced by Saint-Simon, Comte became his
secretary and collaborator. In 1824, the partnership ended over disputed authorship of the pairs
writings, but Saint-Simons influence remained throughout Comtes life.

Philosophical Ideas

Free on his own, Comte developed a social doctrine based on scientific principles. In 1826, he
began presenting a series of lectures to a group of distinguished French intellectuals. However,
about one-third of the way through the lecture series, he suffered a nervous breakdown. Despite
periodic hospitalization over the next 15 years, he produced his major work, the six-
volume Course of Positive Philosophy. In this work, Comte argued that, like the physical world,
society operated under its own set of laws.

Comtes efforts furthered the study of society and the development of sociology. During this
time, he supported himself with a post at cole Polytechnique, but clashed with administrators
and was dismissed in 1842. That same year, he divorced his wife, Caroline Massin Comte, after
17 years of acrimonious marriage. From then on he relied on friends and benefactors to support
him.

In 1844, Comte became involved with Clotilde de Vaux, a French aristocrat and writer. Because
she wasnt divorced from her philandering husband, her relationship with Comte remained
platonic, thought the two were deeply in love. After her death, in 1846, Comte wrote the System
of Positive Polity. In his formulation of a religion of humanity, Comte proposed a religious
order based on reason and humanity, emphasizing morality as the cornerstone of human political
organization.
Death

Comte continued to refine and promote his new world order, attempting to unify history,
psychology and economics through the scientific understanding of society. His work was widely
promulgated by Europes intellectuals and influenced the thinking of Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill
and George Eliot. Comte died of stomach cancer in Paris on September 5, 1857. Though self-
centered and egocentric, Comte devoted himself to the betterment of society.

John Stuart Mill

Philosopher, Author, Scholar, Economist (18061873)

John Stuart Mill, who has been called the most influential English-speaking philosopher
of the 19th century, was a British philosopher, economist, and moral and political
theorist. His works include books and essays covering logic, epistemology, economics,
social and political philosophy, ethics, and religion, among them A System of Logic, On
Liberty, and Utilitarianism.

Synopsis

Under the tutelage of his imposing father, himself a historian and economist, John Stuart Mill
began his intellectual journey at an early age, starting his study of Greek at the age of three and
Latin at eight. Mills father was a proponent of Jeremy Benthams philosophy of utilitarianism,
and John Stuart Mill began embracing it himself in his middle teens. Later, he started to believe
that his rigorous analytical training had weakened his capacity for emotion, that his intellect had
been nurtured but his feelings had not. This perhaps led to his expansion of Benthams utilitarian
thought, his development of the harm theory, and his writings in the defense of the rights of
women, all of which cemented his reputation as a major thinker of his day.
Background: James Mill

The life and thought of John Stuart Mill might best be understood in the context of his father,
who was a huge influence on the younger Mill. John Stuart Mills father, James Mill, met
political theorist Jeremy Bentham in 1808 and received financial assistance from him while Mill
struggled to establish himself. The two mens friendship and similar political thought prompted
them to start and lead the movement of philosophic radicals. The group, which was in direct
opposition to the Whigs and the Tories, pushed for legal and political reform by way of universal
voting rights (for men), a new place for economic theory in political decision making, and
politics that took into account human happiness instead of natural rights. The group also
sought to restructure social and political institutions under the guidance of principles of what
would become known as utilitarianism, a school of social thought founded by Bentham.

Early Years

Born in 1806, John Stuart Mill was the eldest son of James Mill and Harriet Barrow (whose
influence on Mill was vastly overshadowed by that of his father). A struggling man of letters,
James Mill wrote History of British India (1818), and the work landed him a coveted position in
the East India Company, where he rose to the post of chief examiner. When not carrying out his
administrative duties, James Mill spent considerable time educating his son John, who began to
learn Greek at age three and Latin at age eight. By the age of 14, John was extremely well versed
in the Greek and Latin classics; had studied world history, logic and mathematics; and had
mastered the basics of economic theory, all of which was part of his fathers plan to make John
Stuart Mill a young proponent of the views of the philosophical radicals.

By his late teens, Mill spent many hours editing Jeremy Benthams manuscripts, and he threw
himself into the work of the philosophic radicals (still guided by his father). He also founded a
number of intellectual societies and began to contribute to periodicals, including the Westminster
Review (which was founded by Bentham and James Mill). In 1823, his father secured him a
junior position in the East India Company, and he, like his father before him, rose in the ranks,
eventually taking his father's position of chief examiner.
Crisis and Evolution of the Thinker

In 1826, John Stuart Mill experienced what he would later call in his autobiography a mental
crisis, during which he suffered a nervous breakdown marked by depression. It was likely
triggered by the intense stress of his education, the continual influence of his domineering father,
and other factors, but what emerged from this period is in the end more important than what
caused it: Because of the depression, Mill started to rethink his entire lifes work thus far and to
reformulate theories he had previously wholly embraced.

Mills new path began with a struggle to revise his fathers and Benthams work, which he
suddenly saw as limited in a number of ways. This new drive was perhaps triggered by the
poetry he had begun reading, most notably that of William Wordsworth. Mill found something of
a mental balm in the verses of Wordsworth. Over the course of several months, his depression
disappeared, and with it many of his former firmly held ideals.

Mill came to believe that he had been emotionally stunted by his father's demanding analytical
training, that his ability to feel had been compromised by the constant cultivation of his intellect,
and that this emotional component was lacking from what the radical philosophers had been
espousing. He therefore sought a philosophy that could overcome the limits imposed by culture
and history (e.g., natural rights) on any possible reform movement and would advance the roles
of feeling and imagination.

Mill began to dismantle much of the negative (and therefore limited) polemic of Bentham and
his father. He understood that fighting the negativity against which he was rebelling with more
negativity was futile, so he allowed himself to see the good and to view the defenders of the old
ways not as reactionaries but as those who have always advanced the good aspects of their
generally flawed ways of thinking.

Mill must have considered his own role in advancing his formerly held beliefs, as he did not
abandon Benthams utilitarianism entirely, but now centered his thoughts on its positive
elements instead of attacking it critically and destructively; he focused on how its best parts
could be used constructively in the creation of a new society. He advanced in his endeavor by
immersing himself in the writings of a wide variety of thinkers (and corresponding with many as
well), including John Ruskin, Auguste Comte and Alexis de Tocqueville, and editing a new
journal that he co-founded with his father and Charles Molesworth, the London Review.
Select Major Works

In 1832, Jeremy Bentham died, followed closely by James Mill in 1836. With the deaths of his
two mentors, Mill discovered that he had even more intellectual freedom. He used that freedom
to create a new philosophic radicalism incorporating the ideas of thinkers such as Coleridge and
Thomas Carlyle. He also acknowledged that while he was breaking away from Bentham, there
were aspects of his mentors philosophy that he intended to preserve.

The major works started to appear in 1843 with A System of Logic, Mills most comprehensive
and systematic philosophical work, which presented Mills thoughts on inductive logic and the
shortcomings of the use of syllogisms (arguments derived from general principles, in which two
premises are used to deduce a conclusion) to advance deductive logic.

The year 1859 marked the publication of On Liberty, Mills landmark work on supporting
individuals' moral and economic freedom from the government and society at large. In his
autobiography, Mill wrote of "the importance, to man and society . . . , of giving full freedom to
human nature to expand itself in innumerable and conflicting directions, an idea fully fleshed
out in On Liberty. In the work, Mill asserts that individuals opinions and behavior should enjoy
free rein, whether in the face of the law or social pressure. Perhaps as a segue into
Mills Utilitarianism, which would follow four years later, Mill makes one concession: If a
person's behavior harms other people, that behavior should be constrained. The essay has been
criticized for various vagaries in its arguments, but it provides an impassioned defense of
nonconformity, diversity and individuality.

In 1861, Utilitarianism first began appearing in serialized form in Frasers Magazine. The work
comes from Mills association with, and partial break from, the moral philosophy of Jeremy
Bentham and would go on to be Mills most famous work. It bolsters support for Bentham's
philosophy and refutes certain misconceptions about it. In sum, utilitarianism as a moral
philosophy rests on a single sentence: Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote
happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. In his book, Mill argues that
utilitarianism stems from "natural" sentiments that exist organically within human beings' social
nature. Therefore, if society were simply to embrace acts that minimize pain and maximize
happiness, the standards created would form an easily and naturally internalized code of ethics.
In his exploration of this issue, Mill transcends discussions of good and evil, and humanitys
fascination with concepts of them, and posits a single criterion for a universal morality.
Legacy

Although Mill was influenced by utilitarianism, he nevertheless wrote again and again in defense
of the importance of the rights of individualsnotably in defense of both suffrage for women
and their equal rights in education. (His essay called The Subjection of Women [1869] is an
early, and at the time quite controversial, defense of gender equality, and because of it he is often
considered a proto-feminist.) Mills belief that the majority often denies individual liberties
drove his interest in social reform, and he was a strident activist on behalf of political reforms,
labor unions and farm cooperatives. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking
philosopher of the 19th century and is remembered as one of historys great thinkers in regard to
social and political theory.

Maximilien de Robespierre
Philosopher, Government Official, Journalist, Scholar, Judge, Activist, Lawyer(1758
1794)

Maximilien de Robespierre was an official during the French Revolution and one of the
principal architects of the Reign of Terror.
IN THESE GROUPS

QUOTES
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in
keeping them ignorant.
Maximilien de Robespierre

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.

Maximilien de Robespierre

The king must die so that the country can live.

Maximilien de Robespierre
Synopsis

Maximilien de Robespierre was born on May 6, 1758, in Arras, France. He was a radical Jacobin
leader and one of the principal figures in the French Revolution. In the latter months of 1793 he
came to dominate the Committee of Public Safety, the principal organ of the Revolutionary
government during the Reign of Terror, but in 1794 he was overthrown and guillotined.

Early Life

Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was born in Arras, France, on May 6, 1758, the oldest
of four children. His mother died when he was 6 years old, and his father left the family soon
after. The children were raised by their maternal grandparents. Young Maximilien was educated
in Paris, graduating from the Lyce Louis-le-Grand and earning a law degree in 1781. He
practiced law in Arras, which provided him with a comfortable income.

Entering Public Service

Robespierre soon took on a public role, calling for political change in the French monarchy. He
became a devotee of social philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, intrigued by the idea of a
virtuous man who stands alone accompanied only by his conscience. He gained a reputation for
defending the poorest of society and earned the nickname "the incorruptible" for his adherence to
strict moral values.

At age 30, Robespierre was elected to the Estates General of the French legislature. He became
increasingly popular with the people for his attacks on the French monarchy and his advocacy
for democratic reforms. He also opposed the death penalty and slavery. Some of his colleagues
saw his refusal to compromise and his rigid stand against all authority as extreme and
impractical. After a time he left the legislature to push his agenda outside of government.
Revolutionary or Madman?

In April 1789, Robespierre was elected president of the powerful Jacobin political faction. A year
later, he participated in writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the foundation
of the French constitution. When the people of Paris rose up against King Louis XVI in August
1792, Robespierre was elected to head the Paris delegation to the new National Convention. In
December of that year, he successfully argued for the execution of the king and continued to
encourage the crowds to rise up against the aristocracy.

On July 27, 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety,
formed to oversee the government with virtual dictatorial control. Faced with pressures both
from the outside and from within, the Revolutionary government instituted the Reign of Terror in
September. In the next 11 months, 300,000 suspected enemies of the Revolution were arrested
and more than 17,000 were executed, most by guillotine. In the orgy of bloodshed, Robespierre
was able to eliminate many of his political opponents.

Seemingly intoxicated with the power over life and death, Robespierre called for more purges
and executions. By the summer of 1794, many in the Revolutionary government began to
question his motives, as the country was no longer threatened by outside enemies. An awkward
coalition of moderates and revolutionaries formed to oppose Robespierre and his followers.

On July 27, 1794, Robespierre and many of his allies were arrested and taken to prison. He was
able to escape with the aid of a sympathetic jailer and hid in the Htel de Ville (City Hall) in
Paris. When he received word that the National Convention had declared him an outlaw, he tried
to commit suicide, but succeeded only in wounding his jaw. Shortly after, troops from the
National Convention stormed the building and seized and arrested Robespierre and his followers.
The next day, he and 21 of his allies were executed at the guillotine.

Ironic Aftermath

After the coup, the Committee of Public Safety lost its credibility and the French Revolution
became distinctly less radical. France saw the return of bourgeois values, corruption and further
military failure. In 1799, a military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory and
established him as first consul, with dictatorial powers. In 1804, Napoleon proclaimed himself
emperor of France.

Samuel Alexander
Philosopher (18591938)

Samuel Alexander was an esteemed professor and metaphysicist known for his 20th
century work Space, Time, and Deity.

Synopsis

Born on January 6, 1859, in Sydney, Australia, Samuel Alexander earned a scholarship to Oxford
University in England and became known for his award-winning essay "Moral Order and
Progress." He later headed the philosophy department at the University of Manchester, penning
his seminal work that looked at metaphysical processes, 1920's Space, Time, and Deity. He died
on September 13, 1938.

John Locke
Philosopher (16321704)

English philosopher John Locke's works lie at the foundation of modern philosophical
empiricism and political liberalism.

QUOTES
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but
himself.
John Locke

Synopsis

John Locke, born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset, England, went to
Westminster school and then Christ Church, University of Oxford. At Oxford he studied
medicine, which would play a central role in his life. He became a highly influential
philosopher, writing about such topics as political philosophy, epistemology, and
education. Locke's writings helped found modern Western philosophy.
Early Life

Influential philosopher and physician John Locke, whose writings had a significant impact on
Western philosophy, was born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, a village in the English county
of Somerset. His father was a country lawyer and military man who had served as a captain
during the English civil war.

Both his parents were Puritans and as such, Locke was raised that way. Because of his father's
connections and allegiance to the English government, Locke received an outstanding education.

In 1647 he enrolled at Westminster School in London, where Locke earned the distinct honor of
being named a King's Scholar, a privilege that went to only select number of boys and paved the
way for Locke to attend Christ Church, Oxford in 1652.

At Christ Church, perhaps Oxford's most prestigious school, Locke immersed himself in logic
and metaphysics, as well as the classical languages. After graduating in 1656, he returned to
Christ Church two years later for a Master of Arts, which led in just a few short years to Locke
taking on tutorial work at the college.

In 1668 Locke was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He graduated with a bachelor's of
medicine in 1674.

Early in his medical studies, Locke met Lord Ashley, who was to become Earl of Shaftsbury. The
two grew close and Shaftsbury eventually persuaded Locke to move to London and become his
personal physician. As Shaftsbury's stature grew, so did Locke's responsibilities. He assisted in
his business and political matters, and after Shaftsbury was made chancellor, Locke became his
secretary of presentations.

Writings

Shaftsbury's influence on Locke's professional career and his political thoughts cannot be
understated. As one of the founders of the Whig party, which pushed for constitutional
monarchism and stood in opposition to the dominant Tories, Shaftsbury imparted an outlook on
rule and government that never left Locke.
In Locke's landmark, Two Treatises of Government, put forth his revolutionary ideas concerning
the natural rights of man and the social contract. Both concepts not only stirred waves in
England, but also impacted the intellectual underpinnings that formed the later American and
French revolutions.

As England fell under a cloud of possible revolution, Locke became a target of the government.
While historical research has pointed to his lack of involvement in the incident, Locke was
forced to leave in England in 1683 due to a failed assassination attempt of King Charles II and
his brother, or what later came to known as the Rye House Plot.

Exiled in Holland, Locke composed "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding," another
ground breaking work of intellectual might that spanned four books and took on the task of
examining the nature of human knowledge.

Just like his Two Treatises, the Essay was published after Locke's return to England in 1688. His
arrival back in his homeland had come in the aftermath of the dramatic departure of King James
II, who'd fled the country, allowing the Whigs to rise to power. Later called the Glorious
Revolution of 1688, the event forever changed English government, moving the balance of
power from the throne to Parliament. It also set Locke up to be a hero to many in his native
country.

Later Years and Impact

In addition to his Essay and Two Treatises, Locke's return to England also saw him publish
additional work, including A Letter Concerning Toleration, The Reasonableness of Christianity
and Some Thoughts Concerning Education.

A hero to the Whig party, Locke remained connected to governmental affairs in his advanced
years. He helped steer the resurrection of the Board of Trade, which oversaw England's new
territories in North America. Locke served as one of the body's key members.

Long afflicted with delicate health, Locke died on October 28, 1704, in Essex, where he'd
resided over the last decade of his life.

Years after his death we are still gauging his impact on Western thought. His theories concerning
the separation of Church and State, religious freedom, and liberty, not only influenced European
thinkers such as the French Enlightenment writer, Voltaire, but shaped the thinking of America's
founders, from Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Jefferson
Karl Marx
Philosopher, Journalist, Historian, Economist (18181883)

German philosopher and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx published The Communist
Manifesto and Das Kapital, anticapitalist works that form the basis of Marxism.

Synopsis

Born in Prussia on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx began exploring sociopolitical theories at
university among the Young Hegelians. He became a journalist, and his socialist
writings would get him expelled from Germany and France. In 1848, he published The
Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and was exiled to London, where he wrote
the first volume of Das Kapital and lived the remainder of his life.

Early Life

Karl Heinrich Marx was one of nine children born to Heinrich and Henrietta Marx in Trier,
Prussia. His father was a successful lawyer who revered Kant and Voltaire, and was a passionate
activist for Prussian reform. Although both parents were Jewish with rabbinical ancestry, Karls
father converted to Christianity in 1816 at the age of 35.

This was likely a professional concession in response to an 1815 law banning Jews from high
society. He was baptized a Lutheran, rather than a Catholic, which was the predominant faith in
Trier, because he equated Protestantism with intellectual freedom. When he was 6, Karl was
baptized along with the other children, but his mother waited until 1825, after her father died.

Marx was an average student. He was educated at home until he was 12 and spent five years,
from 1830 to 1835, at the Jesuit high school in Trier, at that time known as the Friedrich-Wilhelm
Gymnasium. The schools principal, a friend of Marxs father, was a liberal and a Kantian and
was respected by the people of Rhineland but suspect to authorities. The school was under
surveillance and was raided in 1832.
Education

In October of 1835, Marx began studying at the University of Bonn. It had a lively and rebellious
culture, and Marx enthusiastically took part in student life. In his two semesters there, he was
imprisoned for drunkenness and disturbing the peace, incurred debts and participated in a duel.
At the end of the year, Marxs father insisted he enroll in the more serious University of Berlin.

In Berlin, he studied law and philosophy and was introduced to the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel,
who had been a professor at Berlin until his death in 1831. Marx was not initially enamored with
Hegel, but he soon became involved with the Young Hegelians, a radical group of students
including Bruno Bauer and Ludwig Feuerbach, who criticized the political and religious
establishments of the day.

In 1836, as he was becoming more politically zealous, Marx was secretly engaged to Jenny von
Westphalen, a sought-after woman from a respected family in Trier who was four years his
senior. This, along with his increasing radicalism, caused his father angst. In a series of letters,
Marxs father expressed concerns about what he saw as his sons demons, and admonished him
for not taking the responsibilities of marriage seriously enough, particularly when his wife-to-be
came from a higher class.

Marx did not settle down. He received his doctorate from the University of Jena in 1841, but his
radical politics prevented him from procuring a teaching position. He began to work as a
journalist, and in 1842, he became the editor of Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal newspaper in
Cologne. Just one year later, the government ordered the newspapers suppression, effective
April 1, 1843. Marx resigned on March 18th. Three months later, in June, he finally married
Jenny von Westphalen, and in October, they moved to Paris.

Paris

Paris was the political heart of Europe in 1843. There, along with Arnold Ruge, Marx founded a
political journal titled Deutsch-Franzsische Jahrbcher (German-French Annals). Only a single
issue was published before philosophical differences between Marx and Ruge resulted in its
demise, but in August of 1844, the journal brought Marx together with a contributor, Friedrich
Engels, who would become his collaborator and lifelong friend. Together, the two began writing
a criticism of the philosophy of Bruno Bauer, a Young Hegelian and former friend of Marxs.
The result of Marx and Engelss first collaboration was published in 1845 as The Holy Family.

Later that year, Marx moved to Belgium after being expelled from France while writing for
another radical newspaper, Vorwrts!, which had strong ties to an organization that would later
become the Communist League.

Brussels

In Brussels, Marx was introduced to socialism by Moses Hess, and finally broke off from the
philosophy of the Young Hegelians completely. While there, he wrote The German Ideology, in
which he first developed his theory on historical materialism. Marx couldnt find a willing
publisher, however, and The German Ideology -- along with Theses on Feuerbach, which was
also written during this time -- were not published until after his death.

At the beginning of 1846, Marx founded a Communist Correspondence Committee in an attempt

to link socialists from around Europe. Inspired by his ideas, socialists in England held a
conference and formed the Communist League, and in 1847 at a Central Committee meeting in
London, the organization asked Marx and Engels to write Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
(Manifesto of the Communist Party).

The Communist Manifesto, as this work is commonly known, was published in 1848, and shortly
after, in 1849, Marx was expelled from Belgium. He went to France, anticipating a socialist
revolution, but was deported from there as well. Prussia refused to renaturalize him, so Marx
moved to London. Although Britain denied him citizenship, he remained in London until his
death.

London

In London, Marx helped found the German Workers Educational Society, as well as a new
headquarters for the Communist League. He continued to work as a journalist, including a 10-
year stint as a correspondent for the New York Daily Tribune from 1852 to 1862, but he never
earned a living wage and was largely supported by Engels.

Marx became increasingly focused on capitalism and economic theory, and in 1867, he published
the first volume of Das Kapital. The rest of his life was spent writing and revising manuscripts
for additional volumes, which he did not complete. The remaining two volumes were assembled
and published posthumously by Engels.

Death
Marx died of pleurisy in London on March 14, 1883. While his original grave had only a
nondescript stone, the Communist Party of Great Britain erected a large tombstone, including a
bust of Marx, in 1954. The stone is etched with the last line of The Communist
Manifesto (Workers of all lands unite), as well as a quote from the Theses on Feuerbach.
Max Weber
Philosopher, Political Scientist, Anti-War
Activist, Journalist, Educator, Scholar, Sociologist, Economist, Literary Critic (1864
1920)

Max Weber was a 19th-century German sociologist and one of the founders of modern
sociology. He wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1905.

QUOTES
The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization
and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.
Max Weber

No sociologist should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of
thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a
time.
Max Weber

Synopsis

Born in Germany in 1864, Max Weber was a precocious child. He went to university and became
a professor, but suffered a mental breakdown in 1897 that left him unable to work for five years.
In 1905 he published his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
He returned to teaching in 1918 and died in 1920. He is considered the father of modern
sociology.
Early Life and Education

Max Weber was born on April 21, 1864. His father, Max Weber Sr., was a politically active
lawyer with a penchant for earthly pleasures, while his mother, Helene Fallenstein Weber,
preferred a more ascetic lifestyle. The conflicts this created in their marriage acutely influenced
Max. Still, their house was full of prominent intellectuals and lively discourse, an environment in
which Weber thrived. Growing up, he was bored with school and disdained his teachers, but
devoured classic literature on his own.

After graduating from high school, Weber studied law, history, philosophy and economics for
three semesters at Heidelberg University before spending a year in the military. When he
resumed his studies in 1884, he went to the University of Berlin and spent one semester at
Gttingen. He passed the bar exam in 1886 and earned his Ph.D. in 1889, ultimately completing
his habitation thesis, which allowed him to obtain a position in academia.

Early Career

Weber married a distant cousin, Marianne Schnitger, in 1893. He got a job teaching
economics at Freiburg University the following year, before returning to Heidelberg in
1896 as a professor. In 1897, Max had a falling out with his father, which went
unresolved. After his father died in 1897, Weber suffered a mental breakdown. He was
plagued by depression, anxiety and insomnia, which made it impossible for him to
teach. He spent the next five years in and out of sanatoriums.

When Weber was finally able to resume working in 1903, he became an editor at a
prominent social science journal. In 1904, he was invited to deliver a lecture at the
Congress of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis, Missouri and later became widely known for
his famed essays, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. These essays,
published in 1904 and 1905, discussed his idea that the rise of modern capitalism was
attributable to Protestantism, particularly Calvinism.

Later Work

After a stint volunteering in the medical service during World War I, Weber published three more
books on religion in a sociological context. These works, The Religion of China (1916), The
Religion of India (1916) and Ancient Judaism (1917-1918), contrasted their respective religions
and cultures with that of the Western world by weighing the importance of economic and
religious factors, among others, on historical outcomes. Weber resumed teaching in 1918. He
intended to publish additional volumes on Christianity and Islam, but he contracted the Spanish
flu and died in Munich on June 14, 1920. His manuscript of Economy and Society was left
unfinished; it was edited by his wife and published in 1922.
Legacy

Weber's writing helped form the basis of modern sociology. His influence runs throughout the
realms of sociology, politics, religion and economics.