Key Philosophers and Thinkers: Renaissance to Enlightenment

John Locke (1632-1704)

John Locke was a representative of philosophical empiricism, a thinker, an intellectual, and an advocate for a liberal regime. He was a philosopher, politician, physician, and chemist. In his *Essay Concerning Human Understanding* and his *Letter Concerning Toleration*, he defended religious tolerance.

Locke lived through the Middle Ages, a time marked by religious and political intolerance, centralization of power, and a lack of peace and security. Violence, bigotry, and inequality dominated the era. He believed that the solution to the disputes between the Christian sects that arose after the Reformation lay in tolerance. Today, his remarks advocate for a secular state.

His principal works include *Two Treatises of Civil Government* and *An Essay Concerning Human Understanding*.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Rousseau's thinking is part of the Enlightenment. Along with Hobbes and Locke, he is part of the contractarian current. He deepens some of the fundamental ideas of the Enlightenment, such as the interest in man, the study of his nature and his position in the order of things and the universe, and the pursuit of autonomous reason. On the other hand, he presents himself as a critic of excessive optimism based on enlightened progress.

Rousseau is known as one of the greatest representatives of the time, but his position is revolutionary.

His work is a vindication of the natural man.

David Hume (1711-1776)

David Hume is one of the leading representatives of empiricism, as well as an enlightened philosopher and critic. Thus, his philosophy reflects both epistemological interests, using only experience to justify the construction of human knowledge, and ethical, political, or religious interests, where he employs a descriptive and historical method that is not without criticism.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1530)

Niccolò Machiavelli was one of the great political theorists of the Renaissance. His masterpiece, *The Prince*, reflects the essential elements of his political theory. It gives practical advice to the monarch to consolidate and exercise his authority, solidifying his power. He proposes a theory that reflects political pragmatism.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Galileo Galilei is known for being, along with Copernicus and Kepler, one of the initiators of the scientific revolution in the 16th century. His astronomical discoveries and his work in mathematics and physics led him to defend heliocentrism, providing a new vision of the universe compared to the traditional Aristotelian-Ptolemaic geocentric model. This created a new science, marking a before and after in the history of science and helping man to have a new attitude toward reality.

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

Baruch Spinoza, together with Descartes and Leibniz, is one of the greatest representatives of the 17th-century rationalist current.

The Modern Age and the Scientific Revolution

The Modern Age was marked by great changes, especially the so-called Scientific Revolution, carried out from the studies of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, which provided:

• A new vision of the universe: the closed universe of Aristotle's geocentrism was replaced by a vision in which man could no longer find his place.
• A new scientific method: the method of mathematicism.
• New attitudes toward reality: reason acquired new rights.