Philosophers

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the ...

Under his pen name "George Orwell", Eric Arthur Blair (1903 –1950), was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. Best known known for the allegorical Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), his work remains influential in popular and political culture. The...

Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air". His experiment to measure the density of the Earth has come to be k...

Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872–1970) was a British polymath whose work has had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, and especially the philosophy of mathematics and language, epistemology a...

Sir William Petty FRS (1623–1687) was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to survey the land that was to be confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers. He ...

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) introduced the notion of 'utility' and developed the framework still underpinning much applied policy evaluation. The "fundamental axiom" of his philosophy was the principle that "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong...