Spinoza

. . . roll-over image links for previews or follow the theme trails by clicking on each image to proceed to the next . . .

Baruch or Benedictus or Bento (de) Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch rationalist philosopher with Portuguese Jewish roots. His most famous work was Ethics.

Spinoza ran afoul of the Jewish community because his monistic metaphysics identifies God with Nature. Spinoza's God is not the Jewish or Christian creator of the universe, "but Nature itself, understood as an infinite, necessary, and fully deterministic system of which humans are a part."

Leibniz

. . . roll-over image links for previews or follow the theme trails by clicking on each image to proceed to the next . . .

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German rationalist philosopher and polymath. (Polymaths, are those who excel in a wide variety of subjects or fields – Leonardo da Vinci, and Hildegarde of Bingen are also regarded as polymaths. Polymaths are also called Renaissance men or Homo Universalis.)

Leibniz invented the calculus independently of Newton, and we owe present day notations within differential and integral calculus to Leibniz. and Leibniz's philosophy is best remembered for his monadology.

Links : Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz : Leibniz's Ethics : Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz : Leibniz

Descartes

. . . roll-over image links for previews or follow the theme trails by clicking on each image to proceed to the next . . .

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French rationalist philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and physiologist who is regarded as the father of modern philosophy. Decartes is best known for positing "cogito ergo sum", for his argument for mind-body dualism, and for Cartesian geometry.

Descartes revitalized philosophy by his rejection of the Aristotelian and Scholastic traditions of the "schoolmen". . .

More on Descartes' circular argument for the existence of God.