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5 figures

Adam Smith

1723 – 1790

The Wealth of Nations founded economics as a discipline.

United Kingdom·Economics · Philosophy

Immanuel Kant

1724 – 1804

The categorical imperative and the limits of knowledge.

Germany·Philosophy

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749 – 1832

A poet who also did serious science, and defined what a modern European is.

Germany·Literature · Biology · PhilosophyFull profile

Mary Wollstonecraft

1759 – 1797

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman founded feminist political theory.

United Kingdom·Politics · Philosophy · Literature

G. W. F. Hegel

1770 – 1831

Dialectic and the history of spirit; the pivot from which Marx and existentialism both turn.

Germany·Philosophy