Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (French: [bɛl]; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher and writer best known for his seminal work the Historical and Critical Dictionary, published beginning in 1695. Bayle was a self-pronounced Protestant, and as a fideist he advocated a separation between the spheres of faith and reason, on the grounds of God being incomprehensible to man. As a forerunner of the Encyclopedists and an advocate of the principle of the toleration of divergent beliefs, his works subsequently influenced the development of the Enlightenment. Biography[edit] Bayle was born at Carla-le-Comte (later renamed Carla-Bayle in his honour), near Pamiers, Ariège, France. There he became acquainted with the teachings of René Descartes. Just before that event, Bayle had fled to the Dutch Republic, where he almost immediately was appointed professor of philosophy and history at the École Illustre in Rotterdam. Bayle remained in Rotterdam until his death on 28 December 1706. Works[edit]
Change Of Habit: How Seattle Cops Fought An Addiction To Locking Up Drug Users Jeremy Bradford and a friend were walking through downtown Seattle one summer night in 2011, looking for a place where they could share the contents of the baggie in Bradford’s pocket, when they ran into a man who told them about a spot under the freeway. A narrow trail led through a thicket of blackberry brambles to a small clearing. Eight or nine people were sitting around on salvaged chairs and mattresses, smoking cigarettes and talking. Bradford didn’t feel like he belonged there. In another life, Bradford supervised 13 soldiers as a corporal in the Marines, and later sold good suits in the men’s section of a department store. A few months after that night under the freeway, the cops found their way to the hidden spot. For Bradford, it represented another chance. Jeremy Bradford, a former suit salesman who was arrested for drugs more than 20 times in half as many years, stands for a portrait in downtown Seattle on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014. Daugaard remembers feeling taken aback.
Baruch Spinoza Biography[edit] Family and community origins[edit] Spinoza's ancestors were of Sephardic Jewish descent, and were a part of the community of Portuguese Jews that had settled in the city of Amsterdam in the wake of the Alhambra Decree in Spain (1492) and the Portuguese Inquisition (1536), which had resulted in forced conversions and expulsions from the Iberian peninsula.[11] Attracted by the Decree of Toleration issued in 1579 by the Union of Utrecht, Portuguese "conversos" first sailed to Amsterdam in 1593 and promptly reconverted to Judaism.[12] In 1598 permission was granted to build a synagogue, and in 1615 an ordinance for the admission and government of the Jews was passed.[13] As a community of exiles, the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam were highly proud of their identity.[13] Spinoza's father, Miguel (Michael), and his uncle, Manuel, then moved to Amsterdam where they resumed the practice of Judaism. 17th-century Holland[edit] Early life[edit] Expulsion from the Jewish community[edit]
32 Florida Prison Guards Fired Amid Outrage Over Inmate Abuse Sept 20 (Reuters) - The secretary of Florida's prison system has fired nearly three dozen guards in the wake of the recent scrutiny given to inmate deaths across the state during recent years, the Miami Herald newspaper reported. Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Michael Crews dismissed 32 guards on Friday, according to the newspaper. All of them had been accused of criminal misconduct or wrongdoing stemming from inmate deaths at four different prisons, the report said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report as representatives for the department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Florida's prison system came under increasing scrutiny after the circumstances of the 2012 death of mentally ill prisoner Darren Rainey came to light. In June, the American Civil Liberties Union penned a letter to U.S. After two hours, Rainey was found dead with his skin separated from his body, the letter stated.
Thomas Hobbes Though on rational grounds a champion of absolutism for the sovereign, Hobbes also developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state); the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.[3] He was one of the founders of modern political philosophy and political science.[4][5] His understanding of humans as being matter and motion, obeying the same physical laws as other matter and motion, remains influential; and his account of human nature as self-interested cooperation, and of political communities as being based upon a "social contract" remains one of the major topics of political philosophy. Early life and education[edit]
Agent Storm: Inside al Qaeda for the CIA Your video will begin momentarily. Morten Storm was a radical Islamist turned double agentHe switched sides when he lost his faithStorm says he set a key al Qaeda leader up with a wifeHe decided to go public after a falling out with his Western handlers Watch "Double Agent: Inside al Qaeda for the CIA" Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET. (CNN) -- Two worlds. Two identities and the ever-present, very real risk of death. That was the life of Morten Storm, a radical Islamist turned double agent, who's now lifting the lid on some of the world's best-kept secrets. His life is the stuff of spy novels, and he talks about it in his book: "Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA," co-authored by CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister. He also recently sat down with CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson. Double Agent Inside al Qaeda for the CIA Turning double-agent on al Qaeda America's Most Wanted Terrorists "I had these different names. Growing up Finding 'truth'
René Descartes Descartes laid the foundation for 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. His best known philosophical statement is "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; I think, therefore I am), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 – written in French but with inclusion of "Cogito ergo sum") and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 – written in Latin). Early life[edit] Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France. In his book, Discourse On The Method, he says "I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Visions[edit] According to Adrien Baillet, on the night of 10–11 November 1619 (St. Work[edit] Death[edit] In 1991 E.
Jimmy Savile: police investigate alleged rape and sex abuse 'on national scale' | Media | The Guardian Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Police are pursuing 120 separate lines of inquiry involving alleged rape and sexual abuse by Sir Jimmy Savile stretching over a period of four decades and "on a national scale", Scotland Yard has said. Two formal criminal allegations of rape and six of indecent assault have been recorded to date against the late DJ and television presenter, who died last year, but police said they had received information relating to up to 25 potential victims, the majority of whom were girls aged between 13 and 16 when the alleged abuse took place. The earliest allegation dates from 1959, said Commander Peter Spindler, head of serious crime investigations at the Metropolitan police, which is co-ordinating the inquiry, but the reports "span four decades of abuse", the majority relating to incidents in the 1970s and 1980s. Peter Liver, director of the NSPCC, said the charity had passed 24 reports of abuse to the Met, 17 of which related directly to Savile.
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban,[a] QC (/ˈbeɪkən/; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism.[4] His works established and popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today. Bacon was knighted in 1603, and created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Biography[edit] Early life[edit] The 18-year-old Francis Bacon.
5 Amazing Things Your Brain Does While You Sleep We spend a third of our lives sleeping, an activity as crucial to our health and well-being as eating. But exactly why we need sleep hasn’t always been clear. We know that sleep makes us feel more energized and improves our mood, but what’s really happening in the brain and body when we’re at rest? Research has identified a number of reasons that sleep is critical to our health. When we’re sleeping, the brain is anything but inactive. In fact, during sleep, neurons in the brain fire nearly as much as they do during waking hours — so it should come as no surprise that what happens during our resting hours is extremely important to a number brain and cognitive functions. Here are five incredible things your brain does while you’re asleep — and good reason to get some shuteye tonight: The brain can process information and prepare for actions during sleep, effectively making decisions while unconscious, new research has found. Creates and consolidates memories. Makes creative connections. Alamy
Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei (Italian pronunciation: [ɡaliˈlɛːo ɡaliˈlɛi]; 15 February 1564[3] – 8 January 1642), often known mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy",[4] the "father of modern physics",[5][6] the "father of science",[6][7] and "the father of modern science".[8] Early life Galileo was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of Florence), Italy, in 1564,[15] the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist, composer, and music theorist, and Giulia Ammannati. Although a genuinely pious Roman Catholic,[17] Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. Career as a scientist Galileo, Kepler and theories of tides
Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (27 October[1] 1466 – 12 July 1536), known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a pure Latin style. Amongst humanists, he enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists"; he has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists".[2] Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. These raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will,[3] The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works. Erasmus was his baptismal name, given after St. Early life[edit] Ordination and monastic experience[edit] Education and scholarship[edit]
Thomas Moore Early life[edit] Thomas Moore was born at 12 Aungier-street in Dublin, Ireland, on 28 May 1779.[1] over his father's grocery shop, his father being from the Kerry Gaeltacht and his mother, Anastasia Codd, from Wexford. He had two younger sisters, Kate and Ellen. First success[edit] The soldier and politician Lord Moira was a major early patron of Moore. In 1799 he travelled to London to study law at the Middle Temple. North America[edit] From Norfolk he travelled across the United States and Canada in a Grand Tour. Duel and marriage[edit] Lord Jeffrey whom Moore nearly fought in a duel in 1806 after a bad review of his work. It was after this trip that he published his book, Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems, which featured a paean to the historic Cohoes Falls called Lines Written at the Cohos [sic], or Falls of the Mohawk River, among other famous verses. Irish Melodies[edit] France[edit] Later life[edit]
Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (Italian: [nikkoˈlɔ makjaˈvɛlli]; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He was a founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is renowned in the Italian language. He was Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. "Machiavellianism" is a widely used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described in The Prince. Life[edit] Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era—popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states, and people and cities often fell from power. Works[edit] The Prince[edit]