Zeno of Elea: (pronounced Greek) (ca. 490 BC? – ca. 430 BC?

) was a pre-Socratic Greek

philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Elastic School founded by Parmenides.
Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic.[1] He is best known for his paradoxes, which
Bertrand Russell has described as "immeasurably subtle and profound".[2]

Life
Little is known for certain about Zeno's life. Although written nearly a century after Zeno's
death, the primary source of biographical information about Zeno is the dialogue of Plato called
the Parmenides.[3] In the dialogue, Plato describes a visit to Athens by Zeno and Parmenides, at a
time when Parmenides is "about 65," Zeno is "nearly 40" (Parmenides 127b) and Socrates is "a
very young man" (Parmenides 127c). Assuming an age for Socrates of around 20, and taking the
date of Socrates' birth as 470 BC, gives an approximate date of birth for Zeno of 490 BC.

Plato says that Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth …
reported to have been beloved by Parmenides" (Parmenides 127b).

Works
Although many ancient writers refer to the writings of Zeno, none of his writings survive intact.

Plato says that Zeno's writings were "brought to Athens for the first time on the occasion of" the
visit of Zeno and Parmenides (Parmenides 127c). Plato also has Zeno say that this work, "meant
to protect the arguments of Parmenides" (Parmenides 128c), was written in Zeno's youth, stolen,
and published without his consent (Parmenides 128e). Plato has Socrates paraphrase the "first
thesis of the first argument" of Zeno's work as follows: "if being is many, it must be both like
and unlike, and this is impossible, for neither can the like be unlike, nor the unlike like"
(Parmenides 127d,e).

According to Proclus in his Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, Zeno produced "not less than
forty arguments revealing contradictions" (p. 29), but only nine are now known.

Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20
March 1726])[1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher,
alchemist, and theologian who is considered by many scholars and members of the general
public to be one of the most influential people in human history. His 1687 publication of the
Philosophic Naturalism Principia Mathematical (usually called the Principia) is considered to
be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of
classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of
motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.
Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the
same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary
motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and
advancing the Scientific Revolution.

Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope[7] and developed a theory of colour based on
the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible
spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.

In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the
differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem,
developed Newton's method for approximating the roots of a function, and contributed to the
study of power series.

In a 2005 survey of members of Britain's Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the
history of science and made the greater contribution to humankind, Newton or Albert Einstein.
Royal Society scientists deemed Newton to have made the greater overall contribution on both.[8]

Newton was also highly religious, though an unorthodox Christian, writing more on Biblical
hermeneutics and occult studies than the natural science for which he is remembered today. The
100 by astrophysicist Michael H. Hart ranks Newton as the second most influential person in
history (below Muhammad and above Jesus).[9]

Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan FRS, better known as Srinivasa Iyengar

Ramanujan (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician and autodidact
who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made substantial contributions to
mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions. Rāmānujan's talent
was said, by the prominent English mathematician G.H. Hardy, to be in the same league as
legendary mathematicians such as Euler, Gauss, Newton and Archimedes [1].

Born and raised in Erode, Tamil Nadu, India, Ramanujan first encountered formal mathematics
at age 10. He demonstrated a natural ability, and was given books on advanced trigonometry
written by S. L. Loney.[2] He had mastered them by age 12, and even discovered theorems of his
own. He demonstrated unusual mathematical skills at school, winning accolades and awards. By
17, Ramanujan conducted his own mathematical research on Bernoulli numbers and the Euler–
Mascheroni constant. He received a scholarship to study at Government College in
Kumbakonam, but lost it when he failed his non-mathematical coursework. He joined another
college to pursue independent mathematical research, working as a clerk in the Accountant-
General's office at the Madras Port Trust Office to support himself.[3] In 1912–1913, he sent
samples of his theorems to three academics at the University of Cambridge. Only G. H. Hardy
recognized the brilliance of his work, subsequently inviting Ramanujan to visit and work with
him at Cambridge. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, dying of illness, malnutrition and possibly liver infection in 1920 at the age of 32.
During his short lifetime, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly
identities and equations).[4] Although a small number of these results were actually false and
some were already known, most of his claims have now been proven correct.[5] He stated results
that were both original and highly unconventional, such as the Ramanujan prime and the
Ramanujan theta function, and these have inspired a vast amount of further research.[6] However,
some of his major discoveries have been rather slow to enter the mathematical mainstream.
Recently, Ramanujan's formulae have found applications in crystallography and string theory.
The Ramanujan Journal, an international publication, was launched to publish work in all areas
of mathematics influenced by his work.[7]

René Descartes (French pronunciation:  31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) (Latinized

form: Renatus Cartesius; adjectival form: "Cartesian"),[2] was a French philosopher,
mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He
has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and much subsequent Western philosophy
is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations
on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.
Descartes' influence in mathematics is also apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system—allowing
geometric shapes to be expressed in algebraic equations—was named after him. He is credited as
the father of analytical geometry. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific
Revolution.

Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section
of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly
called emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one
had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late
Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like St.
Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the Schools on two major points: First, he
rejects the analysis of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to
ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena.[3] In his theology, he insists on the
absolute freedom of God’s act of creation.

Descartes was a major figure in 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, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 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. As the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system,
Descartes founded analytic geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the
discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. He is best known for the philosophical statement
"Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am; or I am
thinking, therefore I exist), 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).
Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: O Pythagoras o Samios, "Pythagoras the Samian", or
simply c. 570-c. 495 BC[1]) was an Ionian Greek philosopher and founder of the religious
movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of our information about Pythagoras was written down
centuries after he lived, thus very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on
the island of Samos, and may have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places
seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and
there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by
Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics
of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were
burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in
Metapontum.

Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th
century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, and he is best
known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and
obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can say
little with confidence about his teachings, and some have questioned whether he contributed
much to mathematics and natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to
Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Whether
or not his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were
the ultimate reality is unknown. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a
philosopher, or lover of wisdom,[2] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato,
and through him, all of Western philosophy.