Francesco Bacone (1561—1626) Sir Francis Bacon (later Lord Verulam and the Viscount St. Albans) was an English lawyer, statesman, essayist, storico, intellectual reformer, philosopher, and champion of modern science. Early in his career he claimed “all knowledge as his province” and afterwards dedicated himself to a wholesale revaluation and re-structuring of traditional learning. To take the place of the established tradition (a miscellany of Scholasticism,

Constructive Mathematics Constructive mathematics is positively characterized by the requirement that proof be algorithmic. In parole povere, this means that when a (mathematical) object is asserted to exist, an explicit example is given: a constructive existence proof demonstrates the existence of a mathematical object by outlining a method of finding (“constructing”) such an object. The emphasis in constructive theory is placed on hands-on provability, invece di

Gottfried Leibniz: Metaphysics The German rationalist philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), is one of the great renaissance men of Western thought. He has made significant contributions in several fields spanning the intellectual landscape, including mathematics, fisica, logica, etica, and theology. Unlike many of his contemporaries of the modern period, Leibniz does not have a canonical work that stands as his single, comprehensive piece of philosophy. Invece,

Giuseppe Priestley (1733-1804) Un notevole erudito dell'Illuminismo, Joseph Priestley pubblicò quasi duecento opere sulla filosofia naturale, teologia, metafisica, filosofia politica, politica, istruzione, storia e linguistica. Ricordato oggi soprattutto come uno scienziato che isolò l'ossigeno, Priestley considerava la sua vocazione quella di teologo, e trascorse gran parte della sua vita lavorando come ministro e insegnante. Ha combinato la sua teologia unitaria con un

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844—1900) Nietzsche was a German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic. His writings on truth, moralità, lingua, estetica, cultural theory, history, nihilism, energia, coscienza, and the meaning of existence have exerted an enormous influence on Western philosophy and intellectual history. Nietzsche spoke of “the death of God,” and foresaw the dissolution of traditional religion and metaphysics. Some interpreters of Nietzsche believe he embraced nihilism,