•
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), American polymath; one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States •
Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749), French mathematician, physicist, and author during the Age of Enlightenment. Her crowning achievement is considered to be her translation and commentary on
Isaac Newton's work
Principia Mathematica. •
Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Russian
polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the
atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were
natural science,
chemistry,
physics,
mineralogy, history, art,
philology,
optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the formation of the modern
Russian literary language. •
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783), French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with
Denis Diderot of the
Encyclopédie. •
Adam Smith (1723–1790), Scottish philosopher and economist; considered the father of modern economics •
James Hutton (1726–1797), Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and experimental agriculturalist. His work helped to establish the basis of modern geology. His theories of geology and geologic time, also called deep time, came to be included in theories which were called
plutonism and
uniformitarianism. •
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic •
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1796), German philosopher influential in the Jewish Haskalah •
George Washington (1732–1799), American soldier, statesman, and Founding Father, who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797 •
James Watt (1736–1819), Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the
Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the
Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world. •
Thomas Paine (1737–1809), English pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, inventor, and intellectual, and one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States •
Ethan Allen (1738–89), early American revolutionary and guerrilla leader •
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), author of the
Jefferson Bible, an American Founding Father, the principal author of the
U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States. •
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), French naturalist. He was a soldier, biologist, academic, and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. •
Johann Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830),
Bavarian philosopher, canon law professor and founder of the
Illuminati •
James Madison (1751–1836), "Father of the
United States Constitution", one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States, and the 4th President of the United States •
James Monroe (1758–1831),
Founding Father of the United States and fifth
president of the United States; held various other roles in the government of the United States. Monroe almost never discussed religion but used Deist language in speeches and was a
Freemason, who were largely Deists at the time. •
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. •
Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794), French revolutionary and lawyer •
Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), American author and advocate of deism •
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), German mathematician and physical scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including
number theory, statistics, analysis,
differential geometry,
geodesy,
geophysics,
electrostatics,
astronomy and
optics. •
Humphry Davy (1778–1829), British chemist and inventor. •
Charles Lyell (1797–1875), British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of
Principles of Geology, which popularised
James Hutton's concepts of
uniformitarianism. ==Born 1800–1900==