Great Thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

Question 1

Copernicus

Answer 1

1473-1534, Poland/East Prussia
- spread the heliocentric theory of the solar system

Question 2

Anton von Leeuwenhoek

Answer 2

1632-1723, Netherlands
- invented and used microscopes to create a basis for modern biological sciences through drawings

Question 3

Michel de Montaigne

Answer 3

1533-1592, France
- inventor of the essay, skeptic

Question 4

Francis Bacon

Answer 4

1561-1626, England
- codifier of the inductive method

Question 5

René Descartes

Answer 5

1596-1650, France
- advocate for the deductive method, defined two kinds of matter: thinking substance and extended substance

Question 6

Tycho Brahe

Answer 6

1546-1601, Denmark
- collected vast amounts of data, hired Johannes Kepler

Question 7

Johannes Kepler

Answer 7

1571-1630, Germany
- discovered the three laws of planetary motion that helped Newton understand gravity, discovered that planets’ orbits are ellipses

Question 8

Galileo Galilei

Answer 8

1571-1642, Italy
- proved that Earth was not the center of the universe, objects of different weights fall at the same rate

Question 9

Vesalius

Answer 9

1514-1564, Belgium
- his anatomical drawings were the first detailed anatomical maps of the human body

Question 10

William Harvey

Answer 10

1578-1657, England
- explained the circulation of the blood through arteries and veins

Question 11

Isaac Newton

Answer 11

1642-1727, England
- synthesized Kepler’s and Galileo’s ideas to create laws of motion
- developed calculus

Question 12

Leibniz

Answer 12

1646-1716, Germany
- invented calculus simultaneously