Thinkers

Francis Bacon

The statesman and philosopher who argued that knowledge should be built from experiment and observation rather than inherited authority.

René Descartes

The philosopher and mathematician who began from doubt and rebuilt knowledge on the certainty of the thinking self.

Blaise Pascal

The mathematician and essayist who built a calculating machine, founded probability, and wrote about faith with startling intimacy.

Baruch Spinoza

The lens grinder and philosopher who identified God with nature and argued that freedom lies in understanding necessity.

John Locke

The physician and philosopher who grounded knowledge in experience and government in the consent of the governed.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

The philosopher and mathematician who invented calculus independently and argued that this is the best of all possible worlds.