Famous People Review

AUTHOR	WRITTEN WORK	CONCEPT OF WRITINGS
Freud, Sigmund	Interpretation of Dreams	He postulated that much of human behavior is motivated by unconscious emotional needs
Montaigne	Book of Essays	Noted for his essays, he expressed skepticism toward accepted beliefs, condemned superstition and intolerance and urged man to live nobly.
Comte, August	The Course of Positive Philosopy	History is divided into three stages: theological, works by God's will; metaphysical, works by natural law; scientific, forget generalizations and stick to facts.
Bacon, Francis	Novum Organum	He gave science a progressionist bias. Science has as a practical purpose the goal of human improvement. His greatest achievement was persuading others that scientific thought must conform to empirical experience.
Petrarch	A Letter to Boccaccio: Literary Humanism	He believed in reviving an interest in the classics, he wrote sonnets expressing a romantic love, and an appreciation of nature.
Boccaccio, Giovanni	Decarmeron	His works portrayed lecherous friars, ambitious merchants and a frankly acquisitive, sensual and secular society.
Spinoza, Baruch	Ethics	'in the light of eternity'; all determination is negation (metaphysics)
Hegel, George	Philosophy of Right	Thesis vs. antithesis leads to synthesis.
Pico, della Mirandola	Oration on the Dignity of Man	Man's place within the universe lies somewhere between beasts and angels, but there are no limits to what he can accomplish.
More, Thomas	Utopia	He believed that the basic problems of society were caused by greed. Law should exalt mercy above justice. Citizens who live by reason will live a nearly perfect life.
Mahan, Alfred	Influence of Seapower on History	He believed that the future of military power lay in the navy.
Spencer, Herbert	Social Statics: Liberal Philosophy	He believed that human society progresses through competition. If the weak received too much protection the rest of mankind was the loser. This concept was applied to avoid aiding the poor.
Galileo	Two Chief Systems of the World	E pur se muove (It still moves). Geocentric theory of the universe.
Aquinas, Thomas	Summa Theologica	He believed that Christianity's premises and date came from divine revelation rather than from empirical observation. Theology was considered a science, and he a scholastic.
Cellini, Benvenuto	Autobiography	My cruel fate hath warr'd with me vain: Life, glory, worth, and all unmeasur'd skill, Beauty and grace, themselves in me fulfill, That many I surpass, and to the best attain. The author, certain of his genius, wrote so that all could appreciate it. Demonstrates excessive "hubris".
Bentham, Jeremy	Principles of Morals and Legislation	He believed in the greatest good for the greatest number and that colonies were a burden for the mother country to carry.
Erasmus, Desiderius	In Praise of Folly	Although a Catholic he believed that many priests had distorted the simple teaching of Christ. He admired clear honest thinking and disliked intolerance and persecution.
Machiavelli, Nicolo	The Prince	The chief foundations of all states are good laws and good arms (synonymous with deception, unscrupulousness and cunning). The end justifies the means.
Marx, Karl	Das Kapital	Believed in the rise of the proletariat.
Kant, Immanuel	Critique of Pure Reason	The categorical imperative, transcendental logic; 'thing-in-itself'.
Voltaire	Candide	He believed that the best one could hope for in government was an enlightened monarch since human beings are very rarely worthy to govern themselves.
Copernicus	On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies	Heliocentric theory of the universe.
Ranke, Leopold	Critizism of New Historians	The purpose of the historian is not to judge the past, in order to instruct the present, but only to show what actually occurred. One should not praise nor condemn an epoch. 'Every age is immediate to God.'
Malthus, Thomas	Essay on the Principle of Population	Population growth would always exceed the food production leading to famine, pestilence and war.
Wollstonecrat, Mary	Vindication of the Rights of Women	She believed that a woman's mind is as good as a man's.
Darwin, Charles	Origin of the Species	His originality lay in suggesting how biological evolution might have occurred. He argued that chance differences among members of a species help some to survive while others die.
Descates, Rene	Discourse on Method	Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am).
Ricardo, David	Principles of Political Economy and Taxation	Rising wages favor capital intensive production over labor intensive production.
Blanc, Louis	Organization of Work	He wanted to give the vote to the working class, a state controlled working class could finance workshops to employ the poor.
Fourier, Charles	Theory of Four Movements	He advocated the construction of communities called PHALANXES in which liberated living would replace boredom and dullness of industrial life. It would be agrarian rather than industrial.
Nietzsche, Frederick	The Will to Power	The will to power, transvaluation of values, God is dead.
Hobbes, Thomas	The Leviathan	He maintained that sovereignty is ultimately derived from the people, who transfer it to the monarchy by implicit contract. The rule of the monarch is absolute, but not by divine right.
Goethe, Johann	Dr. Faustus	His work demonstrated the deep spiritual problems that Europeans would encounter as the traditional moral and religious values of Christianity were abandoned.
Castiglione	Book of the Courtier	He knew that the ideal man was many talented, including artistic, intellectual and physical skills. Wrote regarding manners.
Boussuet, Jacques	Politics Drawn of Holy Scripture	He held fast to the Old Testament belief that rulers were divinely appointed by and answerable only to God.
Locke, John	Second Treatise of Government	Knowledge is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas. Wrote to justify revolution and man's right to overthrow an unjust government. The mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa).
Mill, John Stuart	On Liberty	He advocated the education of the working class as a means of raising their standard of living. He urged the formation of labor cooperatives. He supported the cause of women's rights.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques	The Social Contract	Believed that individuals would surrender their natural liberty to one another, fusing their wills into a General Will which would be the true sovereign power. the majority is always right.
Sieyes, Abbe	What is the Third Estate?	He believed that the nobility was useless, his motto became: 'confidence from below, authority from above.'
Grotius, Hugo	Law of War and Peace	He tried to prove that such a thing a natural law existed and that states were bound by it. first to propose the concept of a"united nations" and believed war should be oputlawed.
Montesquieu	Spirit of the Law	Geography and climate determine the form of government. Believed in separation of powers.
Valla, Lorenzo	Donation of Constantine	His work exemplifies the application of critical scholarship to old and almost sacred writings, as well as the new secular spirit of the Renaissance.
Lenin	Our Program	In his interpretation of Marxism he allowed for an elite party and a dual social revolution of the proletariat and the peasantry.
Loyola, Ignatius	Spiritual Exercises	Catholic soldier for God. Set forth a system of disciplined prayer and asceticism to guide the members of society.
Newton, Issac	Principia of Mathematica	He created a single set of explanations for motion both on earth and in the skies. This synthesis prevailed until the 20th century.
Pascal, Blaise	Pensees (Thoughts)	He believed that the gap between Christianity and natural science was great. Man was not the physical center of the world, but his mind had penetrated the world's laws. He said man was merely a reed, but a thinking reed.
Beccaria	An Essay on Crimes and Punishment	He attacked both torture and capital punishment. He believed criminal justice should ensure speedy trial and sure punishment which was intended to deter further crime. Law was to secure the greatest good for the greatest number of human beings.
Rabelais	Gargantua and Pantagruel	A satirical fantasy in which he considers the questions of philosophy, education and politics, expressing his faith in idndividuals and their ability to lead good lives.
Calvin, John	Institutes of the Christian Religion	Bible is sole word of God. Believed in predestination. Helped create the protestant work ethic.
Marx and Engels	The Communist manifesto	Economic conditions determined the nature of everything in society. Class conflict will lead to a bourgeoisie revolution.
Leo XIII	Rerum Novarum	He condemned socialism and Marxism for its atheism and opposition to private property. Insisted on the moral obilgation of employers to pay a living wage to workers.
Count of Saint-Simon	The New Christianity	Government should be directed by scientists, not politicians, who understood the opperation of modern industrial economy. Government should serve interests ofthe people
Smith, Adam	Wealth of Nations	Competition acts as the invisible hand serving to regulate the marketplace