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Biography of Homer
Homer is the man who, according to legend, wrote the two great epics of Greek history: the Iliad
(the tale of the Trojan War) and the Odyssey (about the travels of Odysseus). Both books are
considered landmarks in human literature and Homer is therefore often cited as the starting
point of Western literary and historical tradition. The details of Homer's life are a mystery; some
scholars believe that no such man ever existed, and that the works credited to him were actually
told and gathered by many people over many centuries. Other stories give various birthplaces
and ages for Homer and suggest he was a wandering poet or minstrel. Homer is usually said to
have been blind, a point on which nearly all the legends agree.
Biography of Aristotle
Aristotle is one of the "big three" in ancient Greek philosophy, along with Plato and Socrates.
(Socrates taught Plato, who in turn instructed Aristotle.) Aristotle spent nearly 20 years at Plato's
Academy, first as a student and then as a teacher. After Plato's death he travelled widely and
educated a famous pupil, Alexander the Great, the Macedonian who nearly conquered the world.
Later Aristotle began his own school in Athens, known as the Lyceum. Aristotle is known for his
carefully detailed observations about nature and the physical world, which laid the groundwork
for the modern study of biology. Among his works are the texts Physics, Metaphysics, Rhetoric
and Ethics.
Biography of Archimedes
Archmedes (ar-ke-me'-deez), a renowned mathematician. His astonishing skill in mechanics was
such that some of the greatest real triumphs of antiquity may be ascribed to him. His inventions
amazed his contemporaries: the lifting of weights by means of pulleys and the endless screw are
among them. A Roman historian celebrates the warlike engines produced by the skill of
Archimedes. His mind ever fruitful of extraordinary resources, when Syracuse was besieged by
Marcellus, he constructed a burning-glass on a scale of such magnitude that by means of it the
enemy's fleet was fired. Eventually, the city being taken, he was found among the slain.
Biography of Dante
An exiled and wandering figure during his writing lifetime, Dante is now considered Italy's
greatest poet -- so much a literary giant that he is generally known by his first name alone. The
Divine Comedy, by far his most famous work, is the story of a journey through Hell, Purgatory and
finally Paradise. (The journey through Hell is often referred to independently as "Dante's
Inferno.") In the poem the first two stages are guided by the Roman poet Virgil, and the final visit
to Paradise is led by a woman named Beatrice -- a girl Dante met briefly when he was nine and
whom he idolized the rest of his life. The Divine Comedy is the source of many famous classical
images, inspiring works by William Blake and others, and is famous for its inscription on the gates
of Hell: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
Joan of Arc
(1412-1431)
A hero of the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc remains a French national hero six centuries later.
As a teenager she heard voices from on high urging her to save France from English domination.
Despite being a young woman, she was placed at the head of an army; she attacked the English
and forced them to retreat from Orléans. Later she was captured by the English, tried for heresy,
and burned at the stake. In 1920 she was canonized by the Catholic Church.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 Calvi (Corsica), northwest of the island, 200km from
Ajaccio. He was the oldest of five children. As a child, he helped his father as a weaver. He always
liked the sea. Genoa was an important seaport. There is no doubt that as a child he caught rides
on ships. He had little schooling but was a genius with the sea. His plan was not to prove that the
world was flat, but it was to find a shortcut to the Spice Islands. He wanted to establish a city
there for trade, seaports, and much more. When he grew into a man he was interested in sailing
to Asia by going west. First he went to the king of Italy and presented his idea before him. Italy
wasn't looking for a way to Asia, they were still recieving riches from their old trade routes. His
three ships were the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the Pinta.
One-Tank Trip: Columbus, Ga.
Pensacola News Journal - 路 FOUNDED/ESTABLISHED: 1828. 路 HISTORY: This city, named for
Christopher Columbus, is located on a bluff overlooking the Chattahoochee River. It is the third
largest city in Georgia and the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state. Coca-Cola ...
Little League team has full support from Columbus
Philadelphia Enquirer - COLUMBUS, Ga. - Georgia schools students usually are allowed no more
than five non-excused absences before they are considered truant. The boys of summer from
Columbus who are still swinging away in the Little League World Series have been given the ...
City: Knights fall in Columbus
Toledo Blade - COLUMBUS - St. Francis de Sales outgained Columbus DeSales by 187 yards, but
DeSales' special teams were superior in knocking off the Knights 24-21 last night in a
season-opener. After Knights quarterback Matt Meinert hit Mike Jesionowski for a six ...
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci is best remembered as the painter of the Mona Lisa (1503-1506) and The Last
Supper (1495). But he's almost equally famous for his astonishing multiplicity of talents: he
dabbled in architecture, sculpture, engineering, geology, hydraulics and the military arts, all with
success, and in his spare time doodled parachutes and flying machines that resembled inventions
of the 19th and 20th centuries. He made detailed drawings of human anatomy which are still
highly regarded today. Leonardo also was quirky enough to write notebook entries in mirror
(backwards) script, a trick which kept many of his observations from being widely known until
decades after his death.
Nicolas Copernicus
Nicolas Copernicus was born into a well-to-do family, and after his father died in 1483 he was put
under the guardianship of his uncle, a bishop of Warmia (Poland). He went to university in
Krakow and spent a decade in Italy, studying law and mathematics. A canon of the cathedral at
Frombork, Copernicus carried out administrative duties and, from his house, observed the stars
and planets. For years he worked on his theory that the planets in our solar system revolved
around the sun (Ptolemy of ancient Greece had explained that the universe was a closed system
revolving around the earth, and the Catholic church concurred). Hesitant to publish his work for
fear of being charged with heresy, Copernicus summarized it in 1530 and circulated it among
Europe's scholars, where it was greeted with enthusiasm. His work, titled De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium was finally published in 1543, apparently just a few weeks before he died
Socrates
Philosopher
Socrates is credited with laying the foundation for Western philosophical thought. His "Socratic
Method" involved asking probing questions in a give-and-take which would eventually lead to the
truth. Socrates's iconoclastic attitude didn't sit well with everyone, and at age 70 he was charged
with heresy and corruption of local youth. Convicted, he carried out the death sentence by
drinking hemlock, becoming one of history's earliest martyrs of conscience. Socrates's most
famous pupil was Plato, who in turn instructed the philosopher Aristotle
Confucius
Philosopher
Also Known As: Kong Fu-Zi
Confucius was a teacher, scholar and minor political figure, whose commentary on Chinese
literary classics developed into a pragmatic philosophy for daily life. Not strictly religious, his
teachings were a utilitarian approach to social harmony and the moral obligations between
individuals and social systems.
Biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Perhaps the greatest influence on western art in the last five centuries, Michelangelo was an
Italian sculptor, architect, painter and poet in the period known as the High Renaissance. His
great works were almost entirely in the service of the Catholic Church, and include a huge statue
of the Biblical hero David (over 14 feet tall) in Florence, sculpted between 1501 and 1504, and
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (commissioned by Pope Julius II), painted between 1508
and 1512. After 1519 Michelangelo was increasingly active in architecture; he designed the dome
of St. Peter's Basilica, completed after his death. Along with contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci
and Raphael, he is considered one of the great masters of European art.
Ferdinand Magellan
Explorer
Portuguese name: Fernao de Magalhaes
Magellan was born in Portugal, but it was under the Spanish flag that he sailed in 1519 with the
intention of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing west around South America. After much
hardship he succeeded in reaching and then sailing across the Pacific Ocean. Soon thereafter he
was killed while trying to subdue the natives on what is now the island of Mactan in the
Philippines. After still more hardships, one of his original five ships, Victoria, eventually made it
back to Spain. Though Magellan didn't complete the entire circumnavigation, as the expedition's
leader he is usually credited with being the first man to circle the globe
Miguel de Cervantes
Writer
Full name: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Cervantes wrote the epic satire Don Quixote, regarded as the first true modern novel. Little is
known of Cervantes's early life; at 23 he enlisted in the Spanish militia and then fought against
the Turks in the battle of Lepanto (1571) where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left
hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by
Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him;
it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. The title character, a dreamy
middle-aged nobleman, sets out through Spain on a makeshift quest to fight injustice through
acts of chivalry. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but none had the
impact or popularity of his masterpiece.
Shakespeare
1564?616, English dramatist and poet, b. Stratford-on-Avon. He is considered the greatest
playwright who ever lived.
Life
His father, John Shakespeare, was successful in the leather business during Shakespeare's early
childhood but later met with financial difficulties. During his prosperous years his father was also
involved in municipal affairs, holding the offices of alderman and bailiff during the 1560s. While
little is known of Shakespeare's boyhood, he probably attended the grammar school in Stratford,
where he would have been educated in the classics, particularly Latin grammar and literature.
Whatever the veracity of Ben Jonson's famous comment that Shakespeare had "small Latine, and
less Greeke," much of his work clearly depends on a knowledge of Roman comedy, ancient
history, and classical mythology.
In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of
the marriage. They had three children: Susanna, born in 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith,
born in 1585. Nothing is known of the period between the birth of the twins and Shakespeare's
emergence as a playwright in London (c.1592). However, various suggestions have been made
regarding this time, including those that he fled Stratford to avoid prosecution for stealing deer,
that he joined a group of traveling players, and that he was a country schoolteacher. The last
suggestion is given some credence by the academic style of his early plays; The Comedy of Errors,
for example, is an adaptation of two plays by Plautus.
In 1594 Shakespeare became an actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the
company that later became the King's Men under James I. Until the end of his London career
Shakespeare remained with the company; it is thought that as an actor he played old men's roles,
such as the ghost in Hamlet and Old Adam in As You Like It. In 1596 he obtained a coat of arms,
and by 1597 he was prosperous enough to buy New Place in Stratford, which later was the home
of his retirement years. In 1599 he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe theatre, and
in 1608 he was part owner of the Blackfriars theatre. Shakespeare retired and returned to
Stratford c.1613. He undoubtedly enjoyed a comfortable living throughout his career and in
retirement, although he was never a wealthy man.
The Plays
Chronology of Composition
The chronology of Shakespeare's plays is uncertain, but a reasonable approximation of their
order can be inferred from dates of publication, references in contemporary writings, allusions in
the plays to contemporary events, thematic relationships, and metrical and stylistic comparisons.
His first plays are believed to be the three parts of Henry VI; it is uncertain whether Part I was
written before or after Parts II and III. Richard III is related to these plays and is usually grouped
with them as the final part of a first tetralogy of historical plays.
After these come The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus (almost a third of which may have been
written by George Peele), The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's
Labour's Lost, and Romeo and Juliet. Some of the comedies of this early period are classical
imitations with a strong element of farce. The two tragedies, Titus Andronicus and Romeo and
Juliet, were both popular in Shakespeare's own lifetime. In Romeo and Juliet the main plot, in
which the new love between Romeo and Juliet comes into conflict with the longstanding hatred
between their families, is skillfully advanced, while the substantial development of minor
characters supports and enriches it.
After these early plays, and before his great tragedies, Shakespeare wrote Richard II, A
Midsummer Night's Dream, King John, The Merchant of Venice, Parts I and II of Henry IV, Much
Ado about Nothing, Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. The comedies of this
period partake less of farce and more of idyllic romance, while the history plays successfully
integrate political elements with individual characterization. Taken together, Richard II, each part
of Henry IV, and Henry V form a second tetralogy of historical plays, although each can stand
alone, and they are usually performed separately. The two parts of Henry IV feature Falstaff, a
vividly depicted character who from the beginning has enjoyed immense popularity.
The period of Shakespeare's great tragedies and the "problem plays" begins in 1600 with Hamlet.
Following this are The Merry Wives of Windsor (written to meet Queen Elizabeth's request for
another play including Falstaff, it is not thematically typical of the period), Troilus and Cressida,
All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and
Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Timon of Athens (the last may have been partially written by Thomas
Middleton).
On familial, state, and cosmic levels, Othello, Lear, and Macbeth present clear oppositions of
order and chaos, good and evil, and spirituality and animality. Stylistically the plays of this period
become increasingly compressed and symbolic. Through the portrayal of political leaders as tragic
heroes, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra involve the study of politics and social history as
well as the psychology of individuals.
The last two plays in the Shakespearean corpus, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, may be
collaborations with John Fletcher. The remaining four plays?i>Pericles (two acts of which may
have been written by George Wilkins), Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest朼re
tragicomedies. They feature characters of tragic potential, but resemble comedy in that their
conclusions are marked by a harmonious resolution achieved through magic, with all its divine,
humanistic, and artistic implications.
Appeal and Influence
Since his death Shakespeare's plays have been almost continually performed, in
non-English-speaking nations as well as those where English is the native tongue; they are
quoted more than the works of any other single author. The plays have been subject to ongoing
examination and evaluation by critics attempting to explain their perennial appeal, which does
not appear to derive from any set of profound or explicitly formulated ideas. Indeed,
Shakespeare has sometimes been criticized for not consistently holding to any particular
philosophy, religion, or ideology; for example, the subplot of A Midsummer Night's Dream
includes a burlesque of the kind of tragic love that he idealizes in Romeo and Juliet.
The strength of Shakespeare's plays lies in the absorbing stories they tell, in their wealth of
complex characters, and in the eloquent speech杤ivid, forceful, and at the same time lyric杢hat
the playwright puts on his characters' lips. It has often been noted that Shakespeare's characters
are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and that it is their flawed, inconsistent nature that makes
them memorable. Hamlet fascinates audiences with his ambivalence about revenge and the
uncertainty over how much of his madness is feigned and how much genuine. Falstaff would not
be beloved if, in addition to being genial, openhearted, and witty, he were not also boisterous,
cowardly, and, ultimately, poignant. Finally, the plays are distinguished by an unparalleled use of
language. Shakespeare had a tremendous vocabulary and a corresponding sensitivity to nuance,
as well as a singular aptitude for coining neologisms and punning.
Editions and Sources
The first collected edition of Shakespeare is the First Folio, published in 1623 and including all the
plays except Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen (the latter play also generally not appearing in
modern editions). Eighteen of the plays exist in earlier quarto editions, eight of which are
extremely corrupt, possibly having been reconstructed from an actor's memory. The first edition
of Shakespeare to divide the plays into acts and scenes and to mark exits and entrances is that of
Nicholas Rowe in 1709. Other important early editions include those of Alexander Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1733), and Samuel Johnson (1765).
Among Shakespeare's most important sources, Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England,
Scotland, and Ireland (1587) is significant for the English history plays, although Shakespeare did
not hesitate to transform a character when it suited his dramatic purposes. For his Roman
tragedies he used Sir Thomas North's translation (1579) of Plutarch's Lives. Many times he
rewrote old plays, and twice he turned English prose romances into drama (As You Like It and The
Winter's Tale). He also used the works of contemporary European authors. For further
information on Shakespeare's sources, see the table entitled Shakespeare's Play.
The Poetry
Shakespeare's first published works were two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The
Rape of Lucrece (1594). In 1599 a volume of poetry entitled The Passionate Pilgrim was published
and attributed entirely to Shakespeare. However, only five of the poems are definitely considered
his, two appearing in other versions in the Sonnets and three in Love's Labour's Lost. A love elegy,
The Phoenix and the Turtle, was published in 1601. In the 1980s and 90s many Elizabethan
scholars concluded that a poem published in 1612 entitled A Funeral Elegy and signed "W.S."
exhibits many Shakespearean characteristics; it has not yet been definitely included in the canon.
Shakespeare's sonnets are by far his most important nondramatic poetry. They were first
published in 1609, although many of them had certainly been circulated privately before this, and
it is generally agreed that the poems were written sometime in the 1590s. Scholars have long
debated the order of the poems and the degree of autobiographical content.
The first 126 of the 154 sonnets are addressed to a young man whose identity has long intrigued
scholars. The publisher, Thomas Thorpe, wrote a dedication to the first edition in which he
claimed that a person with the initials W. H. had inspired the sonnets. Some have thought these
letters to be the transposed initials of Henry Wriothesley, 3d earl of Southampton, to whom
Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece; or they are possibly the
initials of William Herbert, 3d earl of Pembroke, whose connection with Shakespeare is more
tenuous. The identity of the dark lady addressed in sonnets 127?52 has also been the object of
much conjecture but no proof. The sonnets are marked by the recurring themes of beauty,
youthful beauty ravaged by time, and the ability of love and art to transcend time and even
death.
Critical Opinion
There has been a great variety of critical approach to Shakespeare's work since his death. During
the 17th and 18th cent., Shakespeare was both admired and condemned. Since then, much of
the adverse criticism has not been considered relevant, although certain issues have continued to
interest critics throughout the years. For instance, charges against his moral propriety were made
by Samuel Johnson in the 18th cent. and by George Bernard Shaw in the 20th.
Early criticism was directed primarily at questions of form. Shakespeare was criticized for mixing
comedy and tragedy and failing to observe the unities of time and place prescribed by the rules
of classical drama. Dryden and Johnson were among the critics claiming that he had corrupted
the language with false wit, puns, and ambiguity. While some of his early plays might justly be
charged with a frivolous use of such devices, 20th-century criticism has tended to praise their use
in later plays as adding depth and resonance of meaning.
Generally critics of the 17th and 18th cent. accused Shakespeare of a want of artistic restraint
while praising him for a fecund imagination. Samuel Johnson, while agreeing with many earlier
criticisms, defended Shakespeare on the question of classical rules. On the issue of unity of time
and place he argued that no one considers the stage play to be real life anyway. Johnson
inaugurated the criticism of Shakespeare's characters that reached its culmination in the late
19th cent. with the work of A. C. Bradley. The German critics Gotthold Lessing and Augustus
Wilhelm von Schlegel saw Shakespeare as a romantic, different in type from the classical poets,
but on equal footing. Schlegel first elucidated the structural unity of Shakespeare's plays, a
concept of unity that is developed much more completely by the English poet and critic Samuel
Coleridge.
While Schlegel and Coleridge were establishing Shakespeare's plays as artistic, organic unities,
such 19th-century critics as the German Georg Gervinus and the Irishman Edward Dowden were
trying to see positive moral tendencies in the plays. The 19th-century English critic William Hazlitt,
who continued the development of character analysis begun by Johnson, considered each
Shakespearean character to be unique, but found a unity through analogy and gradation of
characterization. While A. C. Bradley marks the culmination of romantic 19th-century character
study, he also suggested that the plays had unifying imagistic atmospheres, an idea that was
further developed in the 20th cent.
The tendency in 20th-century criticism has been to abandon both the study of character as
independent personality and the assumption that moral considerations can be separated from
their dramatic and aesthetic context. The plays have been increasingly viewed in terms of the
unity of image, metaphor, and tone. Caroline Spurgeon began the careful classification of
Shakespeare's imagery, and although her attempts were later felt to be somewhat naive and
morally biased, her work is a landmark in Shakespearean criticism. Other important trends in
20th-century criticism include the Freudian approach, such as Ernest Jones's Oedipal
interpretation of Hamlet; the study of Shakespeare in terms of the Elizabethan world view and
Elizabethan stage conventions; and the study of the plays in mythic terms.
Bibliography
See also biographies by E. K. Chambers (2 vol., 1930), G. E. Bentley (1961), S. Schoenbaum (1970
and 1975), S. Wells (1974), R. Fraser (2 vol., 1988), P. Levi (1988, repr. 1995), E. Sams (1995), P.
Honan (1998), A. Holden (1999), and I. L. Matus (1999); bibliographies ed. by G. R. Smith (1963)
and E. Quinn et al. (1973); A. Nicoll, Shakespeare: An Introduction (1952); G. Bullough, ed.,
Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare (8 vol., 1957?5); O. J. Campbell and E. G. Quinn,
ed., The Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare (1966); M. R. Martin and R. C. Harrier, The Concise
Encyclopedic Guide to Shakespeare (1972); M. Spevack, A Complete and Systematic Concordance
to the Works of Shakespeare (6 vol., 1970); The Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare (1973); S.
Wells, ed., Current Approaches to Shakespeare: Language, Text, Theatre, and Ideology (1988); G.
Taylor, Reinventing Shakespeare (1989); J. Bate, The Genius of Shakespeare (1997); H. Vendler,
The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997); H. Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
(1998); D. S. Kastan, ed., A Companion to Shakespeare (1999); S. Orgel, Imagining Shakespeare: A
History of Texts and Visions (2003); B. Vickers, Shakespeare, Co-Author (2003); S. Wells,
Shakespeare for All Time (2003); S. Greenblatt, Will in the World (2004).
Bacon
Francis Bacon was the son of Nicolas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Seal of Elisabeth I. He entered
Trinity College Cambridge at age 12. Bacon later described his tutors as "Men of sharp wits, shut
up in their cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle, their Dictator." This is likely the beginning of
Bacon's rejection of Aristotelianism and Scholasticism and the new Renaissance Humanism.
His father died when he was 18, and being the youngest son this left him virtually penniless. He
turned to the law and at 23 he was already in the House of Commons. His rich relatives did little
to advance his career and Elisabeth apparently distrusted him. It was not until James I became
King that Bacon's career advanced. He rose to become Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans and
Lord Chancellor of England. His fall came about in the course of a struggle between King and
Parliament. He was accused of having taken a bribe while a judge, tried and found guilty. He thus
lost his personal honour, his fortune and his place at court.
Loren Eiseley in his beautifully written book about Bacon The Man Who Saw Through Time
remarks that Bacon: "...more fully than any man of his time, entertained the idea of the universe
as a problem to be solved, examined, meditated upon, rather than as an eternally fixed stage,
upon which man walked."
This is the title page from Bacon's Instauratio Magna which contains his Novum Organum which
is a new method to replace that of Aristotle. The image is of a ship passing through the pillars of
Hercules, which symbolized for the ancients the limits of man's possible explorations. The image
represents the analogy between the great voyages of discovery and the explorations leading to
the advancement of learning. In The Advancement of Learning Bacon makes this analogy explicit.
Speaking to James I, to whom the book is dedicated, he writes: "For why should a few received
authors stand up like Hercules columns, beyond which there should be no sailing or discovering,
since we have so bright and benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us." The image
also forcefully suggests that using Bacon's new method, the boundaries of ancient learning will
be passed. The Latin phrase at the bottom from the Book of Daniel means: "Many will pass
through and knowledge will be increased."
Bacon saw himself as the inventor of a method which would kindle a light in nature - "a light that
would eventually disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the universe."
This method involved the collection of data, their judicious interpretation, the carrying out of
experiments, thus to learn the secrets of nature by organized observation of its regularities.
Bacon's proposals had a powerful influence on the development of science in seventeenth
century Europe. Thomas Hobbes served as Bacon's last amunensis or secretary. Many members
of the British Royal Society saw Bacon as advocating the kind of enquiry conducted by that
society.
Descartes
Descartes is often called the father of modern science. He established a new, clear way of
thinking about philosophy and science by rejecting all ideas based on assumptions or emotional
beliefs and accepting only those ideas which could be proved by or systematically deduced from
direct observation. He took as his philosophical starting point the statement Cogito ergo sum -- "I
think, therefore I am." Descartes made major contributions to modern mathematics, especially in
developing the Cartesian coordinate system and advancing the theory of equations.
Newton
Isaac Newton's discoveries were so numerous and varied that many consider him to be the father
of modern science. A graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, Newton developed an intense
interest in mathematics and the laws of nature which ultimately led to his two most famous
works: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) and Opticks (1704). Newton helped
define the laws of gravity and planetary motion, co-founded the field of calculus, and explained
laws of light and color, among many other discoveries. A famous story suggests Newton
discovered the laws of gravity by watching an apple fall from a tree, though there's no proof that
this is true. Newton was knighted in 1705.
Extra credit: Newton was the first scientist given the honor of burial in He is
often ranked 1-2 with Albert Einstein among history's Newton held the
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge -- a post later held by Newton
was good friends with astronomer Edmond Halley, of Halley's Comet fame.
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the most influential thinkers during the Enlightenment in
eighteenth century Europe. His first major philosophical work, A Discourse on the Sciences and
Arts, was the winning response to an essay contest conducted by the Academy of Dijon in 1750.
In this work, Rousseau argues that the progression of the sciences and arts has caused the
corruption of virtue and morality. This discourse won Rousseau fame and recognition, and it laid
much of the philosophical groundwork for a second, longer work, The Discourse on the Origin of
Inequality. The second discourse did not win the Academy’s prize, but like the first, it was widely
read and further solidified Rousseau’s place as a significant intellectual figure. The central claim
of the work is that human beings are basically good by nature, but were corrupted by the
complex historical events that resulted in present day civil society.
Rousseau’s praise of nature is a theme that continues throughout his later works as well, the
most significant of which include his comprehensive work on the philosophy of education, the
Emile, and his major work on political philosophy, The Social Contract: both published in 1762.
These works caused great controversy in France and were immediately banned by Paris
authorities. Rousseau fled France and settled in Switzerland, but he continued to find difficulties
with authorities and quarrel with friends. The end of Rousseau’s life was marked in large part by
his growing paranoia and his continued attempts to justify his life and his work. This is especially
evident in his later books, The Confessions, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, and Rousseau:
Judge of Jean-Jacques.
Rousseau greatly influenced Immanuel Kant’s work on ethics. His novel Julie or the New Heloise
impacted the late eighteenth century’s Romantic Naturalism movement, and his political ideals
were championed by leaders of the French Revolution.
Kant
Immanuel Kant was born in the East Prussian city of K?nigsberg, studied at its university, and
worked there as a tutor and professor for more than forty years, never travelling more than fifty
miles from home. Although his outward life was one of legendary calm and regularity, Kant's
intellectual work easily justified his own claim to have effected a Copernican revolution in
philosophy. Beginning with his Inaugural Dissertation (1770) on the difference between right- and
left-handed spatial orientations, Kant patiently worked out the most comprehensive and
influential philosophical programme of the modern era. His central thesis—that the possibility of
human knowledge presupposes the active participation of the human mind—is deceptively
simple, but the details of its application are notoriously complex.
The monumental Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason) (1781, 1787) fully spells out
the conditions for mathematical, scientific, and metaphysical knowledge in its "Transcendental
Aesthetic," "Transcendental Analytic," and "Transcendental Dialectic," but Kant found it helpful to
offer a less technical exposition of the same themes in the Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen
Metaphysik die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten k?nnen (Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysic)
(1783). Carefully distinguishing judgments as analytic or synthetic and as a priori or a posteriori,
Kant held that the most interesting and useful varieties of human knowledge rely upon synthetic
a priori judgments, which are, in turn, possible only when the mind determines the conditions of
its own experience. Thus, it is we who impose the forms of space and time upon all possible
sensation in mathematics, and it is we who render all experience coherent as scientific
knowledge governed by traditional notions of substance and causality by applying the pure
concepts of the understanding to all possible experience. But regulative principles of this sort
hold only for the world as we know it, and since metaphysical propositions seek a truth beyond
all experience, they cannot be established within the bounds of reason.
Significant applications of these principles are expressed in Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der
Naturwissenschaft (Metaphysical Foundations of the Science of Nature) (1786) and
Beantwortung der Frage: Ist es eine Erfahrung, da? wir denken? (On Comprehension and
Transcendental Consciousness) (1788-1791).
Kant's moral philosophy is developed in the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (Grounding
for the Metaphysics of Morals) (1785). From his analysis of the operation of the human will, Kant
derived the necessity of a perfectly universalizable moral law, expressed in a categorical
imperative that must be regarded as binding upon every agent. In the Third Section of the
Grounding and in the Kritik der practischen Vernunft (Critique of Practical Reason) (1788), Kant
grounded this conception of moral autonomy upon our postulation of god, freedom, and
immortality.
In later life, Kant drew art and science together under the concept of purpose in the Kritik der
Urteilskraft (Critique of Judgment) (1790), considered the consequences of transcendental
criticism for theology in Die Religion innerhalb die Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (Religion within
the Limits of Reason Alone) (1793), stated the fundamental principles for civil discourse in
Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufkl?rung? ("What is Enlightenment?" (1784), and made an
eloquent plea for international cooperation in Zum ewigen Frieden (Perpetual Peace) (1795).
Washington
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in
New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every
thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is
devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."
Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and body of
knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped
survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754,
he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an
aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two
horses were shot from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around
Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Married to a widow, Martha
Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters,
Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British regulations. As
the quarrel with the mother country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance
to the restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one
of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3,
1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked
upon a war that was to last six grueling years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, "we
should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled
by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly,
then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he soon realized that the Nation
under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the
steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new
Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President
He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress.
But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the
French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept
entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was
pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he
insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term. Wearied of
politics, feeling old, he retired at the end of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his
countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he
warned against long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat
infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.
Watt
James Watt, the son of a merchant, was born in Greenock, Scotland, in 1736. At the age of
nineteen Watt was sent to Glasgow to learn the trade of a mathematical-instrument maker.
After spending a year in London, Watt returned to Glasgow in 1757 where he established his own
instrument-making business. Watt soon developed a reputation as a high quality engineer and
was employed on the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Caledonian Canal. He was also engaged in the
improvement of harbours and in the deepening of the Forth, Clyde and other rivers in Scotland.
In 1763 Watt was sent a Newcomen steam engine to repair. While putting it back into working
order, Watt discovered how he could make the engine more efficient. Watt worked on the idea
for several months and eventually produced a steam engine that cooled the used steam in a
condenser separate from the main cylinder. James Watt was not a wealthy man so he decided to
seek a partner with money. John Roebuck, the owner of a Scottish ironworks, agreed to provide
financial backing for Watt's project.
When Roebuck went bankrupt in 1773, Watt took his ideas to Matthew Boulton, a successful
businessman from Birmingham. For the next eleven years Boulton's factory producing and selling
Watt's steam-engines. These machines were mainly sold to colliery owners who used them to
pump water from their mines. Watt's machine was very popular because it was four times more
powerful than those that had been based on the Thomas Newcomen design.
Watt continued to experiment and in 1781 he produced a rotary-motion steam engine. Whereas
his earlier machine, with its up-and-down pumping action, was ideal for draining mines, this new
steam engine could be used to drive many different types of machinery. Richard Arkwright was
quick to importance of this new invention, and in 1783 he began using Watt's steam-engine in his
textile factories. Others followed his lead and by 1800 there were over 500 of Watt's machines in
Britain's mines and factories.
In 1755 Watt had been granted a patent by Parliament that prevented anybody else from making
a steam-engine like the one he had developed. For the next twenty-five years, the Boulton &
Watt company had a virtual monopoly over the production of steam-engines. Watt charged his
customers a premium for using his steam engines. To justify this he compared his machine to a
horse. Watt calculated that a horse exerted a pull of 180 lb., therefore, when he made a machine,
he described its power in relation to a horse, i.e. "a 20 horse-power engine". Watt worked out
how much each company saved by using his machine rather than a team of horses. The company
then had to pay him one third of this figure every year, for the next twenty-five years. When
James Watt died in 1819 he was a very wealthy man
Jefferson
In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn
upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from
his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph,
high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he
married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed
mountaintop home, Monticello.
Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent,
but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress,
he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the
Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored
to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom,
enacted in 1786.
Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy for the French
Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in
President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.
Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the
Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the
Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist
policies, he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states.
As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election.
Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent of President
Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious problem. Republican electors, attempting to
name both a President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote between
Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both
Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.
When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and
Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet
reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates,
who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the
Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms
over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from
Napoleon in 1803.
During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from
involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered with the neutral
rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's attempted solution, an embargo upon American
shipping, worked badly and was unpopular.
Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University of
Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had placed his house and his mind "on an elevated
situation, from which he might contemplate the universe."
He died on July 4, 1826.
Adam Smith
1723?0, Scottish economist, educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He became professor of moral
philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow in 1752, and while teaching there wrote his Theory of Moral
Sentiments (1759), which gave him the beginnings of an international reputation. He traveled on
the Continent from 1764 to 1766 as tutor to the duke of Buccleuch and while in France met some
of the physiocrats and began to write An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations, finally published in 1776.
In that work, Smith postulated the theory of the division of labor and emphasized that value
arises from the labor expended in the process of production. He was led by the rationalist current
of the century, as well as by the more direct influence of Hume and others, to believe that in a
laissez-faire economy the impulse of self-interest would bring about the public welfare; at the
same time he was capable of appreciating that private groups such as manufacturers might at
times oppose the public interest. Smith was opposed to monopolies and the concepts of
mercantilism in general but admitted restrictions to free trade, such as the Navigation Acts, as
sometimes necessary national economic weapons in the existing state of the world. He also
accepted government intervention in the economy that reduced poverty and government
regulation in support of workers.
Smith wrote before the Industrial Revolution was fully developed, and some of his theories were
voided by its development, but as an analyst of institutions and an influence on later economists
he has never been surpassed. His pragmatism, as well as the leaven of ethical content and social
insight in his thought, differentiates him from the rigidity of David Ricardo and the school of early
19th-century utilitarianism. In 1778, Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland.
His Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1795) appeared posthumously.
See biographies by J. Rae (1895, repr. 1965) and I. S. Ross (1995); studies by E. Ginzberg (1934,
repr. 1964), T. D. Campbell (1971), S. Hollander (1973), and E. Rothschild (2001).
Goethe
THE boy, Goethe, was a precocious youngster. At the early age of eight he had already acquired
some knowledge of Greek, Latin, French and Italian. He had likewise acquired from his mother
the knack of story telling; and from a toy puppet show in his nursery his first interest in the stage.
Goethe's early education was somewhat irregular and informal, and already he was marked by
that apparent feeling of superiority that stayed by him throughout his life. When he was about 16
he was sent to Leipzig, ostensibly to study law. He apparently studied more life than law and put
in his time expressing his reactions through some form of writing. On at least two occasions, this
form was dramatic.
Finally, in 1770 Goethe went to Strassburg, this time really intent on passing his preliminary
examinations in law, and with the somewhat more frivolous ambition of learning to dance. Along
with his study of law, he studied art, music, anatomy and chemistry. A strong friendship with the
writer, Herder, was likewise no part of Goethe's experience at this time, a contact which was of
considerable importance in these formative years.
In 1771 Goethe returned to Frankfurt, nominally to practice law, but he was soon deep in work
on what was to be his first dramatic success, G?tz von Berlichingen. While this was actually the
story of a robber baron of the 16th century it really represented Goethe's youthful protest
against the established order and his demand for intellectual freedom. Its success made its
hitherto unknown author the literary leader of Germany.
Goethe's invitation in 1775 to the court of Duke Karl August at Weimar was a turning point in the
literary life of Germany. He became manager of the Court Theater, and interested himself in
various other activities, so that for a period of some ten years not much actual writing was done.
The writing of Faust, however, that best known of Goethe's works, extended over practically the
whole of Goethe's literary life, a period of 57 years. It was finally finished when Goethe was 81.
Faust is in reality a dramatic poem rather than a piece for the stage. While based on the same
legend as Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, it far transcends both its legendary source and the English play.
The latter is little more than a Morality illustrating the punishment of sin; Goethe's work is a
drama of redemption.
Others of Goethe's works which have stood the test of time include: Clavigo, Egmont, Stella,
Iphigenia in Tauris and Torquato Tasso.
Beethoven
?l?d磜?g v?n bā磘ōv n, Ger. l t磛?kh f鋘 bāt磆ōf n) , 1770?827, German composer. He is
universally recognized as one of the greatest composers of the Western European music tradition.
Beethoven's work crowned the classical period and also effectively initiated the romantic era in
music. He is one of the few artists who genuinely may be considered revolutionary.
Life
Born in Bonn, Beethoven showed remarkable talent at an early age. His father, a court musician,
subjected him to a brutal regimen, hoping to exploit him as a child prodigy. While this plan did
not succeed, young Beethoven's gifts were recognized and nurtured by his teachers and by
members of the local aristocracy. In 1787 Beethoven first visited Vienna, at that time the center
of the music world. There he performed for Mozart, whom he greatly impressed.
In 1792 Haydn invited him to become his student, and Beethoven returned to Vienna, where he
was to remain permanently. However, Beethoven's unorthodox musical ideas offended the old
master, and the lessons were terminated. Beethoven studied with several other eminent teachers,
including Antonio Salieri, but was developing according to his own singular genius and could no
longer profit greatly from instruction.
Both his breathtaking piano virtuosity and his remarkable compositions won Beethoven favor
among the enlightened aristocracy congregated at Vienna, and he enjoyed their generous
support throughout his life. They were tolerant, too, of his notoriously boorish manners, careless
appearance, and towering rages. His work itself was widely accepted, if controversial, and from
the end of the 1790s Beethoven was not dependent on patronage for his income.
The year 1801 marked the onset of Beethoven's tragic affliction, his deafness, which became
progressively worse and, by 1817, total. Public performance eventually became impossible; but
his creative work was not restricted. Beethoven never married; however, he was stormily in and
out of love all his life, always with women unattainable because of marriage or station. His
personal life was further complicated when he was made the guardian of his nephew Karl, who
caused him much anxiety and grief but to whom he nevertheless remained fondly attached.
Beethoven died, after a long illness, in the midst of a fierce thunderstorm, and legend has it that
the dying man shook his fist in defiance of the heavens.
Compositions
By the 19th cent., Beethoven's work could already be divided into three fairly distinct periods.
The works of the first period include the First (1800) and Second (1802) Symphonies; the first
three piano concertos (1795?800); the first group of string quartets (1800); and a number of
piano sonatas, among them the Path閠ique (1798) and the Moonlight Sonata (1801). Although
the compositions of the first period have Beethoven's unmistakable breadth and vitality, they are
dominated by the tradition of Haydn and Mozart.
Beginning about 1802, Beethoven's work took on new dimensions. The premiere in 1805 of the
massive Third Symphony, known as the Eroica (composed 1803?), was a landmark in cultural
history. It signaled a definitive break with the past and the birth of a new era. The length,
structure, harmonies, and orchestration of the Eroica all broke the formal conventions of classical
music; unprecedented too was its intention杢o celebrate human freedom and nobility. The
symphony was originally dedicated to Napoleon, who at first symbolized to Beethoven the spirit
of the French Revolution and the liberation of mankind; however, when Napoleon proclaimed
himself emperor, the disillusioned composer renamed his work the "Heroic Symphony to
celebrate the memory of a great man."
The works of Beethoven's middle period, his most productive, include the Piano Concertos No. 4
(1806) and No. 5 (Emperor Concerto, 1809); the Razumovsky Quartets (1806); his Ninth Sonata
for violin, the Kreutzer Sonata (1803), and his one Violin Concerto (1806); the Fourth through
Eighth Symphonies (1806?2); a number of piano sonatas, among them the Waldstein and the
Appassionata (both 1804). His sole opera, Fidelio, was produced in its first version in 1805 and in
its final form in 1814. Beethoven wrote four overtures for the opera, three of them known as the
Leonore Overture. He also composed overtures to Collin's Coriolan (1807) and to Goethe's
Egmont (1810). From about 1813 to 1820 there was some slackening in Beethoven's productivity,
probably due in part to difficulties concerning his nephew.
Beethoven's final period dates from about 1816 and is characterized by works of greater depth
and complexity. They include the demanding, nearly symphonic Hammerklavier sonata (1818)
and the other late piano sonatas; the monumental Ninth Symphony (1817?3) with its choral
finale based on Schiller's Ode to Joy; and the Missa Solemnis (1818?3). The last five string
quartets and the Grosse Fuge (also for quartet), composed in his last years, are considered by
many music lovers to be Beethoven's supreme creations, and by some the most sublime music
ever composed.
An extraordinarily prolific composer, Beethoven produced, in addition to the works mentioned,
sonatas for violin and piano and for cello and piano; string and piano trios; music for wind
instruments; miscellaneous piano works, including the popular bagatelle F黵 Elise (1810); over
200 songs; a number of shorter orchestral works; and several choral pieces.
Beethoven's influence on subsequent composers has been immeasurable. Aside from his
architectonic innovations and expansion of the classical sonata and symphony, he brought to
music a new depth and intensity of emotion that was emulated by later romantic composersbut
probably never surpassed.
Bibliography
See his letters, ed. by E. Anderson (3 vol., tr. 1961); biographies by A. F. Schindler (tr. 1966), M.
Solomon (rev. ed. 1998), and L. Lockwood (2002); studies by D. F. Tovey (1945), W. S. Newman
(1971), and R. Kamien (1992); E. Forbes, ed., Thayer's Life of Beethoven (2 vol., rev. ed. 1967); H.
C. R. Landon, ed., Beethoven: A Documentary Study (1970); D. Arnold and N. Fortune, ed., The
Beethoven Reader (1971); M. Cooper, Beethoven's Last Decade (1985); M. Solomon, Beethoven
Essays (1988) and Late Beethoven (2003); S. Burnham, Beethoven Hero (1995
Hegle
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was one of the most influential western philosophers of the 19th
century. While a professor in Heidelberg and Berlin he wrote his most famous works, The
Phenomenology of the Mind (1806), The Science of Logic (1812) and The Philosophy of Right
(1821). Hegel was dubbed an "Absolute Idealist" because his metaphysical system posited that
reality is the result of a historical process whose ultimate end is an understanding of the essence
of existence, or "the Absolute." This process he called the dialectic: an evolution toward progress
that springs out of conflict. (This give-and-take notion is now often called the Hegelian Dialectic.)
Hegel also wrote about ethics, religion and politics, and his philosophical system influenced the
theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Robert Owen
1771?858, British social reformer and socialist, pioneer in the cooperative movement. The son of
a saddler, he had little formal education but was a zealous reader. At the age of 10 he began
working in the textile business and by 1794 had become a successful cotton manufacturer in
Manchester.
In 1800, Owen moved to New Lanark, Scotland, where he had bought, with others, the mills of
David Dale (whose daughter he married). There he reconstructed the community into a model
industrial town with good housing and sanitation, nonprofit stores, schools, and excellent
working conditions. Mill profits increased. The New Lanark experiment became famous in
England and abroad, and Owen's ideas spread. He instigated the reform that resulted in the
passage of the Factory Act of 1819朼 watered down version of his proposals, but still a landmark
in social reform. He also proposed the formation of self-sufficient cooperative
agricultural-industrial communities. One such community, called New Harmony, was established
(1825) in Indiana but failed after numerous disagreements among its members.
Professing a disbelief in religion (1817) and calling for the transformation of society rather than
its reform (1820), Owen gradually lost much of his former upper-class support but was embraced
by the working classes. After his return (1829) from the United States he became involved in the
trade union movement and advocated the merging of unions with cooperative societies. Soon,
however, the government took repressive action, and many workers responded by proclaiming
the need for class struggle. Believing in the peaceful reordering of society, Owen ended his
association with trade unionism and spent the last 25 years of his life writing and lecturing on his
beliefs on education, marriage, and religion. Throughout his life Owen based his social programs
on the idea that individual character is molded by environment and can be improved in a society
based upon cooperation. Chief among his extensive writings are New View of Society; or, Essays
on the Formation of Character (3 vol., 1813?4), Report to the County of Lanark (1821), and his
autobiography (1857?8, repr. 1970).
See biographies by F. Podmore (1907, repr. 1971), G. D. H. Cole (3d ed. 1966), R. H. Harvey (1949),
and M. I. Cole (1953, repr. 1969); studies by A. Morton (1962); J. Butts, ed. (1971), and R. G.
Garnett (1973).
Faraday
The English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday, b. Sept. 22, 1791, d. Aug. 25, 1867, is known
for his pioneering experiments in electricity and magnetism. Many consider him the greatest
experimentalist who ever lived. Several concepts that he derived directly from experiments, such
as lines of magnetic force, have become common ideas in modern physics.
Faraday was born at Newington, Surrey, near London. He received little more than a primary
education, and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a bookbinder. There he became interested
in the physical and chemical works of the time. After hearing a lecture by the famous chemist
Humphry Davy, he sent Davy the notes he had made of his lectures. As a result Faraday was
appointed, at the age of 21, assistant to Davy in the laboratory of the Royal Institution in London.
During the initial years of his scientific work, Faraday occupied himself mainly with chemical
problems. He discovered two new chlorides of carbon and succeeded in liquefying chlorine and
other gases. He isolated benzene in 1825, the year in which he was appointed director of the
laboratory.
Davy, who had the greatest influence on Faraday's thinking, had shown in 1807 that the metals
sodium and potassium can be precipitated from their compounds by an electric current, a
process known as electrolysis. Faraday's vigorous pursuit of these experiments led in 1834 to
what became known as Faraday's laws of electrolysis.
Faraday's research into electricity and electrolysis was guided by the belief that electricity is only
one of the many manifestations of the unified forces of nature, which included heat, light,
magnetism, and chemical affinity. Although this idea was erroneous, it led him into the field of
electromagnetism, which was still in its infancy. In 1785, Charles Coulomb had been the first to
demonstrate the manner in which electric charges repel one another, and it was not until 1820
that Hans Christian Oersted and Andre Marie Ampere discovered that an electric current
produces a magnetic field. Faraday's ideas about conservation of energy led him to believe that
since an electric current could cause a magnetic field, a magnetic field should be able to produce
an electric current. He demonstrated this principle of induction in 1831. Faraday expressed the
electric current induced in the wire in terms of the number of lines of force that are cut by the
wire. The principle of induction was a landmark in applied science, for it made possible the
dynamo, or generator, which produces electricity by mechanical means.
Faraday's introduction of the concept of lines of force was rejected by most of the mathematical
physicists of Europe, since they assumed that electric charges attract and repel one another, by
action at a distance, making such lines unnecessary. Faraday had demonstrated the phenomenon
of electromagnetism in a series of experiments, however. This experimental necessity probably
led the physicist James Clerk Maxwell to accept the concept of lines of force and put Faraday's
ideas into mathematical form, thus giving birth to modern field theory.
Faraday's discovery (1845) that an intense magnetic field can rotate the plane of polarized light is
known today as the Faraday effect. The phenomenon has been used to elucidate molecular
structure and has yielded information about galactic magnetic fields.
Faraday described his numerous experiments in electricity and electromagnetism in three
volumes entitled Experimental Researches in Electricity (1839, 1844, 1855); his chemical work
was chronicled in Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1858). Faraday ceased
research work in 1855 because of declining mental powers, but he continued as a lecturer until
1861. A series of six children's lectures published in 1860 as The Chemical History of a Candle,
has become a classic of science literature.
John brown
John Brown was a man of action -- a man who would not be deterred from his mission of
abolishing slavery. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers
Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal
was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36
hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured.
John Brown was born into a deeply religious family in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800. Led by a
father who was vehemently opposed to slavery, the family moved to northern Ohio when John
was five, to a district that would become known for its antislavery views.
During his first fifty years, Brown moved about the country, settling in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts, and New York, and taking along his ever-growing family. (He would father twenty
children.) Working at various times as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator, he
never was finacially successful -- he even filed for bankruptcy when in his forties. His lack of funds,
however, did not keep him from supporting causes he believed in. He helped finance the
publication of David Walker's Appeal and Henry Highland's "Call to Rebellion" speech. He gave
land to fugitive slaves. He and his wife agreed to raise a black youth as one of their own. He also
participated in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851, helped establish the League of Gileadites,
an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves from slave catchers.
In 1847 Frederick Douglass met Brown for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts. Of the
meeting Douglass stated that, "though a white gentleman, [Brown] is in sympathy a black man,
and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of
slavery." It was at this meeting that Brown first outlined his plan to Douglass to lead a war to free
slaves.
Brown moved to the black community of North Elba, New York, in 1849. The community had
been established thanks to the philanthropy of Gerrit Smith, who donated tracts of at least 50
acres to black families willing to clear and farm the land. Brown, knowing that many of the
families were finding life in this isolated area difficult, offered to establish his own farm there as
well, in order to lead the blacks by his example and to act as a "kind father to them."
Despite his contributions to the antislavery cause, Brown did not emerge as a figure of major
significance until 1855 after he followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory. There, he became
the leader of antislavery guerillas and fought a proslavery attack against the antislavery town of
Lawrence. The following year, in retribution for another attack, Brown went to a proslavery town
and brutally killed five of its settlers. Brown and his sons would continue to fight in the territory
and in Missouri for the rest of the year.
Brown returned to the east and began to think more seriously about his plan for a war in Virginia
against slavery. He sought money to fund an "army" he would lead. On October 16, 1859, he set
his plan to action when he and 21 other men -- 5 blacks and 16 whites -- raided the federal
arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
Brown was wounded and quickly captured, and moved to Charlestown, Virginia, where he was
tried and convicted of treason, Before hearing his sentence, Brown was allowed make an address
to the court.
. . . I believe to have interfered as I have done, . . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong,
but right. Now, if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the
ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of
millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust
enactments, I submit: so let it be done."
Although initially shocked by Brown's exploits, many Northerners began to speak favorably of the
militant abolitionist. "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was
bid. . . .," said Henry David Thoreau in an address to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts. "No
man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human
nature. . . ."
John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.
H. C. Andersen
A native of Denmark ( info5 ), Hans Christian Andersen ( info1 ) is one of the immortals of world
literature. The fairy tales he wrote are like no others written before or since. "The Steadfast Tin
Soldier", "The Snow Queen" , "The Swineherd" , "The Nightingale"
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense ( info2 ) on April 2, 1805 ( info3) in a one-room
house ( now Hans Christian Andersen Museum) in Hans Jensens Str?de and lived here a short
time from 1805 -1807. In 1807 Hans Christian and the family moved to another house, Hans
Christian Andersen Childhood Home, ( info3 ) in Munkem?llestr?de 3-5 in Odense, where he lived
from 1807-1819.
When he was 11 years old, his father ( info4 ) died (26. april 1816) and he was virtually left
alone. He went to school only at intervals and spent most of his time imagining stories rather
than reading lessons. He could memorize very easily and learned some of his lessons by listening
to a neighbourhood boy who was in the habit of studying aloud. He memorized and recited plays
to anyone who would listen and imitated ballet dancers, acrobats or pantomists.
To put an end on this, his mother apprenticed him first to a weaver, then to a tobacconist and
finally to a tailor. Hans Christian knew these occupations were not for him. The only things that
held his interest were the theater , books and stories. When he was 14, he decided to go to
Copenhagen. Few monts after his confirmation on the 4 September 1819 he leaved Odense and
seek his fortune in Copenhagen.
There followed three bitter years of poverty. Hans Christian earned a little money singing in a
boy's choir until his voice changed. He tried to act and to join the ballet, but his awkwardness
made these careers impossible. He attempted to work with his hands but could not do this either.
It never occured to him to return home and admit defeat.
At last, when he was 17, Andersen came to the attention of Chancellor Jonas Collin, a director of
The Royal Theater in Copenhagen. Collin had read a play by Andersen and saw that the youth had
talent. He procured money from the king Frederik 6 for Andersen's education and sent him to a
school near Copenhagen. First in Slagelse and later in Elsinore (Helsing?r). His teacher, a bitter
man, treated him harshly and took delight in taunting him about his ambition to become a writer.
Finally Collin took the youth from the school and arranged for him to study under a private tutor
in Copenhagen. In 1828, when he was 23, Andersen passed his entrance examinations to the
university in Copenhagen.
Andersen's writings began to be published in Danish in 1829. In 1833 the king gave him a grant of
money for travel and he spent 16 months wandering through Germany, France, Switzerland and
his beloved Italy. His works were poems, plays, novels and impressions of his travels (he always
brought a rope, because he was afraid of fire). Andersen was i the periode 1831 -1873 on 30
travels to other countries. Hans Christian Andersen lived nearly 15 years in other countries. " To
travel is "
In 1835 Andersen published 'Fairy Tales for Children' - four short stories he wrote for a little girl,
Ida Thiele, who was the daughter of the secretary of the Academy of Art. People, who had read
the stories - adults as well as children - wanted more. Andersen published 168 fairy tales in all. He
wrote the stories just as he would have told them. Although he never married and had no
children of his own, he was at his best as an interpreter of the nature of children.
Hans Christian Andersen died (info6) on Aug.4, 1875.
Lincoln
LINCOLN, Abraham (1809?5), 16th president of the U.S. (1861?5), who steered the Union to
victory in the American Civil War and abolished slavery.
Early Life.
Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Ky., the son of Nancy Hanks (1784??818)
and Thomas Lincoln (1778?851), pioneer farmers. At the age of two he was taken by his parents
to nearby Knob Creek and at eight to Spencer Co., Ind. The following year his mother died. In
1819 his father married Sarah Bush Johnston (1788?869), a kindly widow, who soon gained the
boy抯 affection.
Lincoln grew up a tall, gangling youth, who could hold his own in physical contests and also
showed great intellectual promise, although he had little formal education. After moving with his
family to Macon Co., Ill., in 1831, he struck out on his own, taking a cargo to New Orleans, La., on
a flatboat. He then returned to Illinois and settled in New Salem, a short-lived community on the
Sangamon River, where he split rails and clerked in a store. He gained the respect of his fellow
townspeople, including the so-called Clary Grove boys, who had challenged him to physical
combat, and was elected captain of his company in the Black Hawk War (1832). Returning from
the war, he began an unsuccessful venture in shopkeeping that ended when his partner died. In
1833 he was appointed postmaster but had to supplement his income with surveying and various
other jobs. At the same time he began to study law. That he gradually paid off his and his
deceased partner抯 debts firmly established his reputation for honesty. The story of his
romance with Ann Rutledge (1816?5), a local young woman whom he knew briefly before her
untimely death, is unsubstantiated.
Illinois Politician and Lawyer.
Defeated in 1832 in a race for the state legislature, Lincoln was elected on the Whig ticket two
years later and served in the lower house from 1834 to 1841. He quickly emerged as one of the
leaders of the party and was one of the authors of the removal of the capital to Springfield,
where he settled in 1837. After his admission to the bar (1836), he entered into successive
partnerships with John T. Stuart (1807?5), Stephen T. Logan (1800?0), and William Herndon
(1818?1), and soon won recognition as an effective and resourceful attorney.
In 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd (1818?2), the daughter of a prominent Kentucky banker, and
despite her somewhat difficult disposition, the marriage seems to have been reasonably
successful. The Lincolns had four children, only one of whom reached adulthood.
His birth in a slave state notwithstanding, Lincoln had long opposed slavery. In the legislature he
voted against resolutions favorable to the 損eculiar institution?and in 1837 was one of two
members who signed a protest against it. Elected to Congress in 1846, he attracted attention
because of his outspoken criticism of the war with Mexico and formulated a plan for gradual
emancipation in the District of Columbia. He was not an abolitionist, however. Conceding the
right of the states to manage their own affairs, he merely sought to prevent the spread of human
bondage.
National Recognition.
Disappointed in a quest for federal office at the end of his one term in Congress (1847?9), Lincoln
returned to Springfield to pursue his profession. In 1854, however, because of his alarm at
Senator Stephen A. Douglas抯 Kansas-Nebraska Act, he became politically active again. Clearly
setting forth his opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he argued that the
measure was wrong because slavery was wrong and that Congress should keep the territories
free for actual settlers (as opposed to those who traveled there mainly to vote for or against
slavery). The following year he ran for the U.S. Senate, but seeing that he could not win, he
yielded to Lyman Trumbull, a Democrat who opposed Douglas抯 bill. He campaigned for the
newly founded Republican party in 1856, and in 1858 he became its senatorial candidate against
Douglas. In a speech to the party抯 state convention that year he warned that 揳 house
divided against itself cannot stand?and predicted the eventual triumph of freedom. Meeting
Douglas in a series of debates, he challenged his opponent in effect to explain how he could
reconcile his principles of popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. In his reply, Douglas
reaffirmed his belief in the practical ability of settlers to keep slavery out of the territories despite
the Supreme Court抯 denial of their right to do so. Although Lincoln lost the election to Douglas,
the debates won him national recognition.
Election and Secession Crisis.
In 1860 the Republicans, anxious to attract as many different factions as possible, nominated
Lincoln for the presidency on a platform of slavery restriction, internal improvements,
homesteads, and tariff reform. In a campaign against Douglas and John C. Breckinridge, two rival
Democrats, and John Bell, of the Constitutional Union party, Lincoln won a majority of the
electoral votes and was elected president.
Immediately after the election, South Carolina, followed by six other Southern states, took steps
to secede from the Union. Declaring that secession was illegal but that he had no power to
oppose it, President James Buchanan preferred to rely on Congress to find a compromise. The
success of this effort, however, depended on Lincoln, the president-elect, who was open to
concessions but refused to countenance any possible extension of slavery. Thus, the Crittenden
Compromise, the most promising scheme of adjustment, failed, and a new Southern government
was inaugurated in February 1861.
Lincoln as President.
When Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, he was confronted with a hostile
Confederacy determined to expand and threatening the remaining federal forts in the South, the
most important of which was Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C. Anxious not to offend
the upper South, which had not yet seceded, Lincoln at first refused to take decisive action. After
the failure of an expedition to Fort Pickens, Fla., however, he decided to relieve Fort Sumter and
informed the governor of South Carolina of his intention to send food to the beleaguered
garrison. The Confederates, unwilling to permit continued federal occupation of their soil,
opened fire to reduce the fort, thus starting the Civil War. When Lincoln countered with a call for
75,000 volunteers, the North responded with enthusiasm, but the upper South seceded.
Military leadership.
As commander in chief, Lincoln encountered great difficulties in the search for capable generals.
After the defeat of Irvin McDowell (1818?5) at the First Battle of Bull Run, the president
appointed George B. McClellan to lead the eastern army but found him excessively cautious. His
Peninsular campaign against Richmond, Va., the Confederate capital, failed, and Lincoln, whose
own strategy had not succeeded in trapping Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of
Virginia, virtually superseded McClellan with John Pope (1822?2). When Pope was defeated at
the Second Battle of Bull Run, the president turned once more to McClellan, only to be
disappointed again. Despite his victory at Antietam, Md., the general was so hesitant that Lincoln
finally had to remove him. The president抯 next choice, Ambrose Burnside, was also
unfortunate. Decisively beaten at Fredericksburg, Va., Burnside gave way to Joseph Hooker, who
in turn was routed at Chancellorsville, Va. Then Lincoln appointed George G. Meade, who
triumphed at Gettysburg, Pa., but failed to follow up his victory. Persisting in his determination to
discover a general who could defeat the Confederates, the president in 1864 entrusted overall
command to Ulysses S. Grant, the victor at Fort Donelson, Tenn., Vicksburg, Miss., and
Chattanooga, Tenn. This choice was a good one. Grant, in a series of coordinated campaigns,
finally brought the war to a successful conclusion.
Emancipation.
In dealing with the problem of emancipation, Lincoln proved himself a masterful statesman.
Carefully maneuvering to take advantage of radical pressure to move forward and conservative
entreaties to hold back, he was able to retain the loyalty of the Democrats and the border states
while still bringing about the final abolition of slavery. Lincoln pleased the radicals in 1861, when
he signed the first Confiscation Act, freeing slaves used by the Confederates for military purposes.
He deferred to the conservatives when he countermanded emancipation orders of the Union
generals John C. Fr閙ont and David Hunter (1802?6), but again courted the radicals by reverting
to a cautious antislavery program. Thus, he exerted pressure on the border states to inaugurate
compensated emancipation, signed the bill for abolition in the District of Columbia, and
consented to the second Confiscation Act.
On July 22, 1862, in response to radical demands and diplomatic necessity, he told his cabinet
that he intended to issue an emancipation proclamation but took care to soften the blow to the
border states by specifically exempting them. Advised to await some federal victory, he did not
make his proclamation public until September 22, following the Battle of Antietam, when he
announced that all slaves in areas still in rebellion within 100 days would be 搕hen,
thenceforward, and forever, free.?The final Emancipation Proclamation followed on Jan. 1, 1863.
Promulgated by the president in his capacity as commander in chief in times of actual armed
rebellion, it freed slaves in regions held by the insurgents and authorized the creation of black
military units. Lincoln was determined to place emancipation on a more permanent basis,
however, and in 1864 he advocated the adoption of an antislavery amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. The amendment was passed after Lincoln抯 reelection, when he made use of all
the powers of his office to ensure its success in the House of Representatives (Jan. 31, 1865).
Political skill.
A consummate politician, Lincoln sought to maintain harmony among the disparate elements of
his party by giving them representation in his cabinet. Recognizing former Whigs by the
appointment of William H. Seward as secretary of state and Edward Bates (1793?869) as attorney
general, he also extended invitations to such former Democrats as Montgomery Blair, who
became postmaster general, and Gideon Welles (1802?8), who became secretary of the navy. He
honored local factions by appointing Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania secretary of war and Caleb
B. Smith (1808?4) of Indiana secretary of the interior, while satisfying the border states with
Bates and Blair. At the same time, he offset the conservative Bates with the radical Secretary of
the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and later with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Although Lincoln
was much closer to the radicals and gradually moved toward ever more radical measures, he did
not needlessly offend the conservatives and often collaborated with them. His careful handling of
the slavery issue is a case in point, as is his appointment of Democratic generals and his
deference to the sensibilities of the border states. In December 1862 he foiled critics demanding
the dismissal of the conservative Seward. Refusing to accept Seward抯 resignation and inducing
the radical Chase to offer to step down as well, he maintained the balance of his cabinet by
retaining both secretaries.
Lincoln抯 political influence was enhanced by his great gifts as an orator. Able to stress
essentials in simple terms, he effectively appealed to the nation in such classical short speeches
as the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address. Moreover, he was a capable
diplomat. Firmly rejecting Seward抯 proposal in April 1861 that the country be united by means
of a foreign war, he sought to maintain friendly relations with the nations of Europe, used the
Emancipation Proclamation to win friends for the Union, and effectively countered Confederate
efforts to gain foreign recognition.
Reelection and Reconstruction.
In 1864 a number of disgruntled Republicans sought to prevent Lincoln抯 renomination. Adroitly
outmaneuvering his opponents, especially the ambitious Chase, he succeeded in obtaining his
party抯 endorsement at Baltimore, Md., even though a few extremists nominated Fr閙ont.
Lincoln抯 renomination did not end his political problems, however. Unhappy with his
Proclamation of Amnesty (December 1863), which called for the restoration of insurgent states if
10 percent of the electorate took an oath of loyalty, Congress in July 1864 passed the Wade-Davis
Bill, which provided for more onerous conditions and their acceptance by 50 percent of the
voters. When Lincoln used the pocket veto to kill it, some radicals sought to displace him and in
the so-called Wade-Davis Manifesto passionately attacked the administration.
The president, nevertheless, prevailed again. His poor prospects in August 1864 improved when
the Democrats nominated Gen. McClellan on a peace platform. Subsequent federal victories and
the withdrawal of Fr閙ont, coupled with the resignation of the conservative Blair, reunited the
party, and in November 1864 Lincoln was triumphantly reelected.
The president抯 success at the polls enabled him to seek to establish his own Reconstruction
policies. To blunt conservative criticism, he met with leading Confederates at Hampton Roads, Va.,
and demonstrated the impossibility of a negotiated peace. The radicals, however, were also
dissatisfied. Because of their demand for black suffrage, Lincoln was unable to induce Congress to
accept the members-elect of the free state government of Louisiana, which he had organized. In
addition, after the fall of Richmond, he alarmed his critics by inviting the Confederate legislature
of Virginia to repeal the secession ordinance. His Reconstruction policies, however, had been
determined by military necessity. As soon as the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered
at Appomattox Court House, Va., Lincoln withdrew the invitation to the Virginians. He again
proved how close he was to the radicals by endorsing a limited black franchise.
The Assassination.
At his second inaugural, Lincoln, attributing the war to the evil consequences of slavery, summed
up his attitude in the famous phrase 搘ith malice toward none, with charity for all.?A few weeks
later, he publicly announced his support for limited black suffrage in Louisiana. This open
defiance of conservative opinion could only have strengthened the resolve of one in his audience,
John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor of Confederate sympathies, who had long been plotting
against the president. Aroused by the prospect of votes for blacks, he determined to carry out his
assassination scheme and on April 14, 1865, shot Lincoln at Ford抯 Theater in Washington, D.C.
The president died the next day.
The subject of numerous myths, Lincoln ranks with the greatest of American statesmen. His
humanitarian instincts, brilliant speeches, and unusual political skill ensured his hold on the
electorate and his success in saving the Union. That he also gained fame as the Great
Emancipator was due to a large degree to his excellent sense of timing and his open-mindedness.
Thus, he was able to bring about the abolition of slavery and to advocate a policy of
Reconstruction that envisaged the gradual enfranchisement of the freedmen. It was a disaster for
the country that he did not live to carry it out.
Darwin
1809?2, English naturalist, b. Shrewsbury; grandson of Erasmus Darwin and of Josiah Wedgwood.
He firmly established the theory of organic evolution known as Darwinism. He studied medicine
at Edinburgh and for the ministry at Cambridge but lost interest in both professions during the
training. His interest in natural history led to his friendship with the botanist J. S. Henslow;
through him came the opportunity to make a five-year cruise (1831?6) as official naturalist
aboard the Beagle. This started Darwin on a career of accumulating and assimilating data that
resulted in the formulation of his concept of evolution. He spent the remainder of his life
carefully and methodically working over the information from his copious notes and from every
other available source.
Independently, A. R. Wallace had worked out a theory similar to Darwin's. Both men were
exceptionally modest; they first published summaries of their ideas simultaneously in 1858. In
1859, Darwin set forth the structure of his theory and massive support for it in the superbly
organized Origin of Species, supplemented and elaborated in his many later books, notably The
Descent of Man (1871). He also formulated a theory of the origin of coral reefs.
See his autobiography (ed. by N. Barlow, 1958) and Life and Letters (ed. by F. Darwin, 1887; repr.
with intro. by G. G. Simpson, 1962); letters of Darwin and Henslow, ed. by N. Barlow (1967); The
Corespondence of Charles Darwin ed. by F. Burkhardt et al. (10 vol., 1987?7); J. Barzun, Darwin,
Marx, Wagner (rev. ed. 1958); G. Wichler, Charles Darwin: The Founder of the Theory of Evolution
and Natural Selection (tr. 1961); A. Moorehead, Darwin and the Beagle (1969, rev. ed. 1979); P.
Appleman, ed., Darwin (1970, repr. 1983); D. L Hull, Darwin and His Critics (1983); R. J. Richards,
Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior (1989); R. Dawkins,
River Out of Eden (1995); D. C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995); N. Eldredge,
Reinventing Darwin (1995); S. Jones, Darwin's Ghost: "The Origin of Species" Updated (2000); J.
Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging (1995) and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place (2002).
Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, in the region of Jura, France. His discovery
that most infectious diseases are caused by germs, known as the "germ theory of disease", is one
of the most important in medical history. His work became the foundation for the science of
microbiology, and a cornerstone of modern medicine.
Pasteur's phenomenal contributions to microbiology and medicine can be summarized as follows.
First, he championed changes in hospital practices to minimize the spread of disease by microbes.
Second, he discovered that weakened forms of a microbe could be used as an immunization
against more virulent forms of the microbe. Third, Pasteur found that rabies was transmitted by
agents so small they could not be seen under a microscope, thus revealing the world of viruses.
As a result he developed techniques to vaccinate dogs against rabies, and to treat humans bitten
by rabid dogs. And fourth, Pasteur developed "pasteurization", a process by which harmful
microbes in perishable food products are destroyed using heat, without destroying the food.
His Works
Each discovery in the body of Pasteur's work represents a link in an uninterrupted chain,
beginning with molecular asymmetry and ending with his rabies prophylaxis, by way of his
research in fermentation, silkworm, wine and beer diseases, asepsis and vaccines.
From Crystallography to Molecular Asymmetry
In 1847 at the age of 26, Pasteur did his first work on molecular asymmetry, bringing together the
principles of crystallography, chemistry and optics. He formulated a fundamental law: asymmetry
differentiates the organic world from the mineral world. In other words, asymmetric molecules
are always the product of life forces. His work became the basis of a new science --
stereochemistry.
Research on Fermentation and Spontaneous Generation
At the request of a distiller named Bigo from the north of France, Pasteur began to examine why
alcohol becomes contaminated with undesirable substances during fermentation. He soon
demonstrated that each sort of fermentation is linked to the existence of a specific
microorganism or ferment -- a living being that one can study by cultivation in an appropriate,
sterile medium. This insight is the basis of microbiology.
Pasteur delivered the fatal blow to the doctrine of spontaneous generation, the theory held for
20 centuries that life could arise spontaneously in organic materials. He also developed a germ
theory. At the same time, he discovered the existence of life without oxygen: "Fermentation is
the consequence of life without air". The discovery of anaerobic life paved the way for the study
of germs that cause septicemia and gangrene, among other infections. Thanks to Pasteur, it
became possible to devise techniques to kill microbes and to control contamination.
Technique of "Pasteurization"
Emperor Napoleon III asked Pasteur to investigate the diseases afflicting wine which were causing
considerable economic losses to the wine industry. Pasteur went to a vineyard in Arbois in 1864
to study this problem. He demonstrated that wine diseases are caused by microorganisms that
can be killed by heating the wine to 55deg.C for several minutes. Applied to beer and milk, this
process, called "pasteurization", soon came into use throughout the world.
Research on Infectious Diseases Afflicting Man and Animal
In 1865, Pasteur began to study the silkworm diseases that were crippling the silk industry in
France. He discovered the infectious agents and revealed the manner in which these agents are
transmitted--by contagion and hereditary principle -- and how to prevent them. Elaborating on
his study of fermentation, he could now confirm that each disease is caused by a specific microbe
and that these microbes are foreign elements. With this knowledge, Pasteur was able to establish
the basic rules of sterilization or asepsis. Preventing contagion and infection, his method of
sterilization revolutionized surgery and obstetrics.
From 1877 to 1887, Pasteur employed these fundamentals of microbiology in the battle against
infectious diseases. He went on to discover three bacteria responsible for human illnesses :
staphylococcus, streptococcus and pneumococcus.
Treatment and Prevention of Rabies
Louis Pasteur discovered the method for the attenuation of virulent microorganisms that is the
basis of vaccination. He developed vaccines against chicken cholera, anthrax and swine erysipelas.
After mastering his method of vaccination, he applied this concept to rabies. On July 6, 1885,
Pasteur tested his pioneering rabies treatment on man for the first time : the young Joseph
Meister was saved.
The Creation of the Pasteur Institute
On March 1, 1886, Pasteur presented the results of his rabies treatment to the Academy of
Sciences and called for the creation of a rabies vaccine center. An extensive, international public
drive for funds financed the construction of the Pasteur Institute, a private, state-approved
institute recognized by the President of France, Jules Grévy, in 1887 and inaugurated by his
successor Sadi Carnot in 1888. In accordance with Pasteur's wishes, the Institute was founded as
a clinic for rabies treatment, a research center for infectious disease and a teaching center.
The 66-year-old scientist went on to dedicate the last seven years of his life to the Institute that
still bears his name. During this period, Pasteur also came to know the joys of fame and was
honored throughout the world with prestigious decorations.
His work was continued and amplified throughout the world by his disciples, the Pasteuriens.
A Man of Freedom and Rigor
Pasteur's work is not simply the sum of his discoveries. It also represents the revolution of
scientific methodology. Pasteur superimposed two indisputable rules of modern research: the
freedom of creative imagination necessarily subjected to rigorous experimentation. He would
teach his disciples :
"Do not put forward anything that you cannot prove by experimentation"
Louis Pasteur was a humanist, always working towards the improvement of the human condition.
He was a free man who never hesitated to take issue with the prevailing yet false ideas of his
time.
He ascribed particular importance to the spread of knowledge and the applications of research.
In the scientist's lifetime, Pasteurien theory and method were put into use well beyond the
borders of France.
Fully aware of the international importance of his work, Pasteur's disciples dispersed themselves
wherever their assistance was needed. In 1891, the first Foreign Institut Pasteur was founded in
Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) launching what was to become a vast international
network of Instituts Pasteur.
Because he changed the world forever, his homeland and the world have long considered him a
benefactor of humanity.
The Progress of Humanity
"I beseech you to take interest in these sacred domains so expressively called laboratories. Ask
that there be more and that they be adorned for these are the temples of the future, wealth and
well-being. It is here that humanity will grow, strengthen and improve. Here, humanity will learn
to read progress and individual harmony in the works of nature, while humanity's own works are
all too often those of barbarism, fanaticism and destruction." -- Louis Pasteur
Einstein
American theoretical physicist, known for the formulation of the relativity theory, b. Ulm,
Germany. He is recognized as one of the greatest physicists of all time.
Life
Einstein lived as a boy in Munich and Milan, continued his studies at the cantonal school at Aarau,
Switzerland, and was graduated (1900) from the Federal Institute of Technology, Z黵ich. Later he
became a Swiss citizen. He was examiner (1902?) at the patent office, Bern. During this period he
obtained his doctorate (1905) at the Univ. of Z黵ich, evolved the special theory of relativity,
explained the photoelectric effect, and studied the motion of atoms, on which he based his
explanation of Brownian movement. In 1909 his work had already attracted attention among
scientists, and he was offered an adjunct professorship at the Univ. of Z黵ich. He resigned that
position in 1910 to become full professor at the German Univ., Prague, and in 1912 he accepted
the chair of theoretical physics at the Federal Institute of Technology, Z黵ich.
By 1913 Einstein had won international fame and was invited by the Prussian Academy of
Sciences to come to Berlin as titular professor of physics and as director of theoretical physics at
the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. He assumed these posts in 1914 and subsequently resumed his
German citizenship. For his work in theoretical physics, notably on the photoelectric effect, he
received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. His property was confiscated (1934) by the Nazi
government because he was Jewish, and he was deprived of his German citizenship. He had
previously accepted (1933) a post at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, which he held
until his death in 1955. An ardent pacifist, Einstein was long active in the cause of world peace;
however, in 1939, at the request of a group of scientists, he wrote to President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt to stress the urgency of investigating the possible use of atomic energy in bombs. In
1940 he became an American citizen.
Major Contributions to Science
The Special and General Theories of Relativity
Einstein's early work on the theory of relativity (1905) dealt only with systems or observers in
uniform (unaccelerated) motion with respect to one another and is referred to as the special
theory of relativity; among other results, it demonstrated that two observers moving at great
speed with respect to each other will disagree about measurements of length and time intervals
made in each other's systems, that the speed of light is the limiting speed of all bodies having
mass, and that mass and energy are equivalent. In 1911 he asserted the equivalence of
gravitation and inertia, and in 1916 he completed his mathematical formulation of a general
theory of relativity that included gravitation as a determiner of the curvature of a space-time
continuum. He then began work on his unified field theory, which attempts to explain gravitation,
electromagnetism, and subatomic phenomena in one set of laws; the successful development of
such a unified theory, however, eluded Einstein.
Photons and the Quantum Theory
In addition to the theory of relativity, Einstein is also known for his contributions to the
development of the quantum theory. He postulated (1905) light quanta (photons), upon which
he based his explanation of the photoelectric effect, and he developed the quantum theory of
specific heat. Although he was one of the leading figures in the development of quantum theory,
Einstein regarded it as only a temporarily useful structure. He reserved his main efforts for his
unified field theory, feeling that when it was completed the quantization of energy and charge
would be found to be a consequence of it. Einstein wished his theories to have that simplicity and
beauty which he thought fitting for an interpretation of the universe and which he did not find in
quantum theory.
Writings
Einstein's writings include Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (1918; tr. 1920, reissued
1947) and excerpts (most of them translated) from letters, articles, and addresses collected in
About Zionism (1930), The World as I See It (1934), Out of My Later Years (1950), Ideas and
Opinions (1954), and Einstein on Peace (ed. by Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden, 1960). Einstein's
manuscripts and correspondence are presently at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
The first volume of an edition of his collected works, under the editorship of John Stachel et al.,
appeared in 1987.
Bibliography
See the Born-Einstein letters, ed. by M. Born (tr. 1971); biographies by R. W. Clark (1971, repr.
1991), B. Hoffmann (with H. Dukas, 1972, repr. 1989), J. Bernstein (1973, repr. 1997), A. Pais
(1982), M. White and J. Gribbin (1995), D. Brian (1997), and A. Folsing (1998); studies by P. A.
Schilpp, ed. (1949, repr. 1973), M. Born (rev. ed. 1962), C. Lanczos (1965), A. J. Friedman and C.
Donley (1989), D. Howard and J. Stachel (1989), A. Pais (1994), and D. Overbye (2000).
Galileo
Great Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist. By his persistent investigation of natural
laws he laid foundations for modern experimental science, and by the construction of
astronomical telescopes he greatly enlarged humanity's vision and conception of the universe. He
gave a mathematical formulation to many physical laws.
Contributions to Physics
His early studies, at the Univ. of Pisa, were in medicine, but he was soon drawn to mathematics
and physics. It is said that at the age of 19, in the cathedral of Pisa, he timed the oscillations of a
swinging lamp by means of his pulse beats and found the time for each swing to be the same, no
matter what the amplitude of the oscillation, thus discovering the isochronal nature of the
pendulum, which he verified by experiment. Galileo soon became known through his invention of
a hydrostatic balance and his treatise on the center of gravity of solid bodies. While professor
(1589?2) at the Univ. of Pisa, he initiated his experiments concerning the laws of bodies in
motion, which brought results so contradictory to the accepted teachings of Aristotle that strong
antagonism was aroused. He found that bodies do not fall with velocities proportional to their
weights, but he did not arrive at the correct conclusion (that the velocity is proportional to time
and independent of both weight and density) until perhaps 20 years later. The famous story in
which Galileo is said to have dropped weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa is apocryphal. The
actual experiment was performed by Simon Stevin several years before Galileo's work. However,
Galileo did find that the path of a projectile is a parabola, and he is credited with conclusions
foreshadowing Newton's laws of motion.
Contributions to Astronomy
In 1592 he began lecturing on mathematics at the Univ. of Padua, where he remained for 18
years. There, in 1609, having heard reports of a simple magnifying instrument put together by a
lens-grinder in Holland, he constructed the first complete astronomical telescope. Exploring the
heavens with his new aid, Galileo discovered that the moon, shining with reflected light, had an
uneven, mountainous surface and that the Milky Way was made up of numerous separate stars.
In 1610 he discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the first satellites of a planet other
than Earth to be detected. He observed and studied the oval shape of Saturn (the limitations of
his telescope prevented the resolving of Saturn's rings), the phases of Venus, and the spots on
the sun. His investigations confirmed his acceptance of the Copernican theory of the solar system;
but he did not openly declare a doctrine so opposed to accepted beliefs until 1613, when he
issued a work on sunspots. Meanwhile, in 1610, he had gone to Florence as philosopher and
mathematician to Cosimo II de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, and as mathematician at the Univ.
of Pisa.
Conflict with the Church
In 1611 he visited Rome to display the telescope to the papal court. In 1616 the system of
Copernicus was denounced as dangerous to faith, and Galileo, summoned to Rome, was warned
not to uphold it or teach it. But in 1632 he published a work written for the nonspecialist, Dialogo
opra i due massimi sistemi del mondo [dialogue on the two chief systems of the world] (tr. 1661;
rev. and ed. by Giorgio de Santillana, 1953; new tr. by Stillman Drake, 1953, rev. 1967); that work,
which supported the Copernican system as opposed to the Ptolemaic, marked a turning point in
scientific and philosophical thought. Again summoned to Rome, he was tried (1633) by the
Inquisition and brought to the point of making an abjuration of all beliefs and writings that held
the sun to be the central body and the earth a moving body revolving with the other planets
about it. Since 1761, accounts of the trial have concluded with the statement that Galileo, as he
arose from his knees, exclaimed sotto voce, "E pur si muove" [nevertheless it does move]. That
statement was long considered legendary, but it was discovered written on a portrait of Galileo
completed c.1640.
After the Inquisition trial Galileo was sentenced to an enforced residence in Siena. He was later
allowed to live in seclusion at Arcetri near Florence, and it is likely that Galileo's statement of
defiance was made as he left Siena for Arcetri. In spite of infirmities and, at the last, blindness,
Galileo continued the pursuit of scientific truth until his death. His last book, Dialogues
Concerning Two New Sciences (tr., 3d ed. 1939, repr. 1952), which contains most of his
contributions to physics, appeared in 1638. In 1979 Pope John Paul II asked that the 1633
conviction be annulled. However, since teaching the Copernican theory had been banned in 1616,
it was technically possible that a new trial could find Galileo guilty; thus it was suggested that the
1616 prohibition be reversed, and this happened in 1992. The pope concluded that while
17th-century theologians based their decision on the knowledge available to them at the time,
they had wronged Galileo by not recognizing the difference between a question relating to
scientific investigation and one falling into the realm of doctrine of the faith.
Bibliography
See biography by L. Geymonat (tr. 1965); studies by G. de Santillana (1955), S. Drake (1970, 1978,
and 1980), and W. R. Shea (1973); G. de Santillana, The Crime of Galileo (1955, repr. 1976); M. A.
Finocchiaro, Galileo and the Art of Reasoning (1980).
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