Johann Gutenberg

• born 14th century, Germany]—died 1468, Germany

• German craftsman and inventor who originated a
method of printing from movable type. Elements of his
invention are thought to have included a metal alloy that
could melt readily and cool quickly to form durable
reusable type, an oil-based ink that could be made
sufficiently thick to adhere well to metal type and
transfer well to vellum or paper, and a new press, likely
adapted from those used in producing wine, oil, or paper,
for applying firm even pressure to printing surfaces.
• None of these features existed in the European
technique used up to that time for stamping letters on
various surfaces or in woodblock printing.
• Gutenberg’s printing press was considered a history-
changing invention, making books widely accessible and
ushering in an “information revolution.” (Britannica)
 Humanism
• System of education and mode of inquiry that originated in northern Italy
during the 13th and 14th centuries and later spread through continental Europe
and England.
• The term is alternatively applied to a variety of Western beliefs, methods, and
philosophies that place central emphasis on the human realm.
• Also known as Renaissance humanism, the historical program was so broadly
and profoundly influential that it is one of the chief reasons why the
Renaissance is viewed as a distinct historical period in Western history.
• Indeed, though the word Renaissance is of more recent coinage, the
fundamental idea of that period as one of renewal and reawakening is
humanistic in origin. But humanism sought its own philosophical bases in far
earlier times and, moreover, continued to exert some of its power long after the
end of the Renaissance. (Britannica)
 Martin Luther
• born 1483—died 1546
• German theologian and religious reformer who was
the catalyst of the 16th-century Protestant
Reformation.
• Through his words and actions, Luther precipitated
a movement that reformulated certain basic tenets
of Christian belief and resulted in the division of
Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism
and the new Protestant traditions, mainly
Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, the
Anabaptists, and the anti-Trinitarians. He is one of
the most influential figures in the history of
Christianity. (Britannica)
Religions in Europe in the 16th century
 Isaac Newton
• born 1643-died 1727
• English physicist and mathematician who was the
culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th
century. In optics, his discovery of the composition of white
light integrated the phenomena of colors into the science
of light and laid the foundation for modern physical optics.
• In mechanics, his three laws of motion, the basic principles
of modern physics, resulted in the formulation of the law of
universal gravitation.
• In mathematics, he was the original discoverer of the
infinitesimal calculus. Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy, 1687) was one of the most important single
works in the history of modern science. (Britannica_
 Immanuel Kant
• born 1724—died 1804
• German philosopher whose comprehensive and
systematic work in epistemology (the theory of
knowledge), ethics, and aesthetics greatly
influenced all subsequent philosophy.
• Kant was one of the foremost thinkers of the
Enlightenment and arguably one of the greatest
philosophers of all time.
• In him were subsumed new trends that had begun
with the rationalism (stressing reason) of René
Descartes and the empiricism (stressing experience)
of Francis Bacon. He thus inaugurated a new era in
the development of philosophical thought.
(Britannica)
 Adam Smith
• died 1790
• Scottish social philosopher and political economist,
instrumental in the rise of classical liberalism.
• He is a towering figure in the history of economic
thought. Known primarily for a single work—An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations (1776), the first comprehensive system of
political economy—he is more properly regarded as
a social philosopher whose economic writings
constitute only the capstone to an overarching view
of political and social evolution.
• The Wealth of Nations may be seen not merely as a
treatise on economics but also as a partial
exposition of a much larger scheme of historical
evolution. (Britannica)