© 2013 Axios Institute. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Contact Information
Previous Next
Page 1 of 8
John Locke
1632–1704 - English
Philosopher. Locke is both a founder of the European tradition of philosophical empiricism, which puts primary emphasis on knowledge gained by our senses as revealed through our brain, and also a founder of the modern movement in favor of personal liberty, democracy, and the rights of the governed. Locke taught that every person had a right to life, liberty, and property. In his view, those were interrelated because if the state threatened property rights, citizens would be powerless to stand up for their rights to life and liberty. Jefferson famously modified Locke in the Declaration of Independence by speaking of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Pierre Beauchamp
1636–1705 - French
Dancer, choreographer, and director of the Academie Royale de Danse in France. He helped develop classical ballet (with an early notation system), and thus represented a marriage of intense physical discipline with music and the joy of movement.
Ninon de Lenclos
1620–1705 - French
Courtesan. She was a famous hostess and had affairs with the great.
Pierre Bayle
1647–1706 - French
Philosopher. His Dictionairre historique and critique of 1696, which espoused toleration and a skeptical attitude toward philosophical and religious truths, became an early tract of the Enlightenment and influenced Diderot and other contributors to The Encyclopedie.
François Fénelon
1651–1715 - Roman
Roman Catholic archbishop. A tutor of Louis XIV's grandson, he got in trouble with the Court by espousing reforms and in even more trouble with the Church for defending Madame Guyon, a celebrated mystic.
Previous Next
Page 1 of 8