Key Figures in European Intellectual History

Question 1

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Answer 1

1. Renaissance political philosopher who wrote The Prince.
2. Believed that people are ungrateful and untrustworthy.
3. Urged ruler to study war, avoid unnecessary kindness, and always base policy upon the principle that the end justifies the means.

Question 2

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

Answer 2

1. Northern Renaissance humanist who wrote In Praise of Folly.
2. Wrote in Latin while most humanists wrote in the vernacular.
3. Wanted to reform the Catholic Church.

Question 3

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Answer 3

1. Protestant reformer whose criticism of indulgences helped spark the Reformation.
2. Advocated salvation by faith, the authority of the Bible, and a priesthood of all believers.
3. Believed that Christian women should strive to become models of wifely obedience and Christian charity.

Question 4

John Calvin (1506-1564)

Answer 4

1. Protestant reformer who wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion.
2. Believed in the absolute omnipotence of God, the weakness of humanity, and the doctrine of predestination.
3. Established Geneva as a model Christian community.
4. Influenced followers who were known as Huguenots in France, Presbyterians, in Scotland, and Puritans in England and the New England colonies.
5. Advocated that each local congregation have a ruling body composed of both ministers and laymen who carefully supervised the moral conduct of the faithful.

Question 5

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

Answer 5

1. French Renaissance writer who developed the essay as a literary genre.
2. Known for his skeptical attitude and willingness to look at all sides of an issue.

Question 6

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

Answer 6

1. Polish clergyman and astronomer who wrote On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres.
2. Helped launch the Scientific Revolution by challenging the widespread belief in the geocentric theory that the earth is the center of the universe.
3. Offered a new heliocentric universe in which the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun.

Question 7

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

Answer 7

1. Began his career as an assistant to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.
2. Formulated three laws of planetary motion.
3. Proved that planetary orbits are elliptical rather than circular.

Question 8

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Answer 8

1. Italian scientist who contributed to the scientific method by conducting controlled experiments.
2. Major accomplishments included using the telescope for astronomical observation, formulating laws of motion, and popularizing the new scientific ideas.
3. Condemned by the Inquisition for publicly advocating Copernicus’s heliocentric theory.

Question 9

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Answer 9

1. English scientist and mathematician who wrote Principia.
2. Viewed the universe as a vast machine governed by the universal laws of gravity and inertia.
3. Mechanistic view of the universe strongly influenced deism.

Question 10

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Answer 10

1. English politician and writer.

2. Formalized the empirical method into a general theory of inductive reasoning known as empiricism.

Question 11

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Answer 11

1. French philosopher and mathematician.

2. Used deductive reasoning from self-evident principles to reach scientific laws.

Question 12

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

Answer 12

1. English political philosopher who wrote Leviathan.
2. Viewed human beings as naturally self-centered and prone to violence.
3. Feared the dangers of anarchy more than the dangers of tyranny.
4. Argued that monarchs have absolute and unlimited political authority.

Question 13

John Locke (1632-1704)

Answer 13

1. English philosopher who wrote The Second TReatise of Government.
2. Viewed humans as basically rational beings who learn from experience.
3. Formulated the theory of natural rights, arguing that people are born with basic rights to “life, liberty, and property”.
4. Insisted that governments are formed to protect natural rights.
5. Stated that the governed have a right to rebel against rulers who violate natural rights.

Question 14

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Answer 14

1. French philosophe and voluminous author of essays and letters.
2. Championed the enlightened principles of reason, progress, toleration, and individual liberty.
3. Opposed superstition, intolerance, and ignorance.
4. Criticized organized religion for perpetuating superstition and intolerance.

Question 15

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Answer 15

1. Enlightened thinker best known for writing The Social Contract and Emile.
2. Believed that since “law is the expression of the general will,” the state is based on a social contract.
3. Emphasized the education of the whole person for citizenship.
4. Rejected excessive rationalism and stressed emotions, thus anticipating the romantic movement.

Question 16

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Answer 16

1. Scottish economist who wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
2. Opposed mercantilist policies.
3. Advocated free trade and “the Invisible Hand of competition.”

Question 17

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Answer 17

1. British writer, philosopher, and feminist who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
2. Argued that women are not naturally inferior to men.
3. Maintained that women deserve the same fundamental rights as men.

Question 18

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Answer 18

1. English conservative leader who wrote Reflections on the Revolutions in France.
2. Denounced the radicalism and violence of the French Revolution.
3. Favored gradual and orderly change.

Question 19

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Answer 19

1. English Utilitarian and essayist best known for writing On Liberty and The Subjection of Women.

Question 20

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Answer 20

1. Scientific socialist who coauthored The Communist Manifesto.
2. Believed that the history of class conflict is best understood through the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
3. Contended that a class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat would lead “to the dictatorship of the proletariat,” which in turn would be a transitional phase leading to a classless society.

Question 21

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Answer 21

1. British biologist who wrote The Origin of Species.
2. Challenged the idea of special creation by proposing a revolutionary theory of biological evolution.
3. Concluded that every living plant and animal takes part in a constant “struggle or existence” in which only the “fittest” survive.
4. Argued that the fittest are determined by a process of natural selection.

Question 22

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Answer 22

1. Austrian psychologist who formulated groundbreaking theories of human personality.
2. Theorized that the human psyche contains three distinct parts: (1) the id, which is the center of unconscious sexual and aggressive drives; (2) the superego, which is the center of moral values; and (3) the ego, which is the center of pragmatic reason.
3. Argued that human behavior is often irrational.

Question 23

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Answer 23

1. German physicist whose theory of special relativity undermined Newtonian physics.
2. Challenged traditional conceptions of time, space, and motion.
3. Contributed to the view that humans live in a universe with uncertainties.
4. Added to the feeling of uncertainty in the postwar world.

Question 24

Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900)

Answer 24

1. German philosopher whose writings influenced existentialism.
2. Expressed contempt for middle-class morality, saying that it led to a false and shallow existence.
3. Rejected reason and embraced the irrational.
4. Believed that the “will-to-power” of a few heroic “supermen” could successfully reorder the world.

Question 25

Albert Camus (1913-1960) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Answer 25

1. French existentialist philosophers and writers.
2. Questioned the efficacy of reason and science to understand the human situation.
3. Believed that God, reason, and progress are myths, and that humans live in a hostile world, alone and isolated.