Santiago Ramón y Cajal- Spanish neurologist; one of the founding fathers of neuroscience:
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Ramón y Cajal's early work was accomplished at the University of Zaragoza and the University of Valencia, where he focused on the pathology of inflammation, the microbiology of cholera, and the structure of epithelial cells and tissues. It was not until he moved to the University of Barcelona in 1887 that he learned about Golgi's method, which uses potassium dichromate and silver nitrate to (randomly) stain a few neurons a dark black color, while leaving the surrounding cells transparent. This staining method, which Ramón y Cajal improved, was central to his work, allowing him to turn his attention to the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), in which neurons are so densely intertwined that standard microscopic inspection would be nearly impossible. During this period he made extensive studies of neural material, covering many species and most major regions of the brain, leaving behind a legacy of detailed drawings.
Ramón y Cajal made several major contributions to neuroanatomy.[6] He discovered the axonal growth cone, and demonstrated experimentally that the relationship between nerve cells was not continuous, but contiguous.[6] This provided definitive evidence for what would later be known as "neuron doctrine", now widely considered the foundation of modern neuroscience.[6] In debating neural network theories (e.g. neuron theory, reticular theory), Ramón y Cajal was a fierce defender of the neuron theory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santia...C3%B3n_y_Cajal
Theodor Schwann- German physiologist who discovered Schwann Cells and made other contributions to biology.
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It was during the four years spent under the influence of Müller at Berlin that Schwann's most valuable work was done. Müller was at this time preparing his great book on physiology, and Schwann assisted him in the experimental work required. Schwann observed animal cells under the microscope, noting their different properties. Schwann found particular interest in the nervous and muscular tissues. He discovered the cells that envelope the nerve fibers, now called Schwann cells in his honor.
Schwann discovered the striated muscle in the upper esophagus and initiated research into muscle contraction, since expanded upon greatly by Emil du Bois-Reymond and others. Müller directed Schwann's attention to the process of digestion, and in 1837 Schwann isolated an enzyme essential to digestion, which he called pepsin.[1]
Schwann became chair of anatomy at the Belgian Catholic University of Leuven in 1839. Here he produced little new scientific work, the exception being a paper establishing the importance of bile in digestion. He nonetheless proved to be a dedicated and conscientious professor.[2]
In 1848, his compatriot Antoine Frédéric Spring convinced him to transfer to the University of Ličge, also in Belgium. At Ličge, he continued to follow the latest advances in anatomy and physiology without himself contributing. He became something of an inventor, working on numerous projects including a human respirator for environments where the surroundings are not breathable.[2]
In his later years, Schwann found growing interest in theological issues. Three years after retiring, Schwann died in Cologne on 11 January 1882.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Schwann
Baron de La Brčde et de Montesquieu- French philosopher during the enlightenment
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Montesquieu was one of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment. Insatiably curious and mordantly funny, he constructed a naturalistic account of the various forms of government, and of the causes that made them what they were and that advanced or constrained their development. He used this account to explain how governments might be preserved from corruption. He saw despotism, in particular, as a standing danger for any government not already despotic, and argued that it could best be prevented by a system in which different bodies exercised legislative, executive, and judicial power, and in which all those bodies were bound by the rule of law. This theory of the separation of powers had an enormous impact on liberal political theory, and on the framers of the constitution of the United States of America. [...]
In a democracy, the people are sovereign. They may govern through ministers, or be advised by a senate, but they must have the power of choosing their ministers and senators for themselves. The principle of democracy is political virtue, by which Montesquieu means "the love of the laws and of our country" (SL 4.5), including its democratic constitution. The form of a democratic government makes the laws governing suffrage and voting fundamental. The need to protect its principle, however, imposes far more extensive requirements. On Montesquieu's view, the virtue required by a functioning democracy is not natural. It requires "a constant preference of public to private interest" (SL 4.5); it "limits ambition to the sole desire, to the sole happiness, of doing greater services to our country than the rest of our fellow citizens" (SL 5.3); and it "is a self-renunciation, which is ever arduous and painful" (SL 4.5). Montesquieu compares it to monks' love for their order: "their rule debars them from all those things by which the ordinary passions are fed; there remains therefore only this passion for the very rule that torments them. ... the more it curbs their inclinations, the more force it gives to the only passion left them" (SL 5.2). To produce this unnatural self-renunciation, "the whole power of education is required" (SL 4.5). A democracy must educate its citizens to identify their interests with the interests of their country, and should have censors to preserve its mores. It should seek to establish frugality by law, so as to prevent its citizens from being tempted to advance their own private interests at the expense of the public good; for the same reason, the laws by which property is transferred should aim to preserve an equal distribution of property among citizens. Its territory should be small, so that it is easy for citizens to identify with it, and more difficult for extensive private interests to emerge.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/
Adam Smith - Scottish economist and philosopher
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1.Enlightened Self-Interest
Smith wanted people to practice thrift, hard work, and enlightened self-interest. He thought the practice of enlightened self-interest was natural for the majority of people. In his famous example, a butcher does not supply meat based on good-hearted intentions, but because he profits by selling meat. If the meat he sells is poor, he will not have repeat customers and thus, no profit. Therefore, it's in the butcher's interest to sell good meat at a price that customers are willing to pay, so that both parties benefit in every transaction. Smith believed that the ability to think long-term would curb most businesses from abusing customers. When that wasn't enough, he looked to the government to enforce laws.
Extending upon self-interest in trade, Smith saw thrift and savings as important virtues, especially when savings were used to invest. Through investment, the industry would have the capital to buy more labor-saving machinery and encourage innovation. This technological leap forward would increase returns on invested capital and raise the overall standard of living.
2. Limited Government
Smith saw the responsibilities of the government being limited to the defense of the nation, universal education, public works (infrastructure such as roads and bridges), the enforcement of legal rights (property rights and contracts) and the punishment of crime. The government would step in when people acted on their short-term interests, and would make and enforce laws against robbery, fraud, and other similar crimes. He cautioned against larger, bureaucratic governments, writing, "there is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people." His focus on universal education was to counteract the negative and dulling effects of the division of labor that was a necessary part of industrialization.
3.Solid Currency and Free-Market Economy
The third element Smith proposed was a solid currency twinned with free-market principles. By backing currency with hard metals, Smith hoped to curtail the government's ability to depreciate currency by circulating more of it to pay for wars or other wasteful expenditures. With hard currency acting as a check to spending, Smith wanted the government to follow free-market principles by keeping taxes low and allowing free trade across borders by eliminating tariffs. He pointed out that tariffs and other taxes only succeeded in making life more expensive for the people while also stifling industry and trade abroad. (For more on backing a currency with precious metal, read: The Gold Standard Revisited.)
http://www.investopedia.com/updates/...th-of-nations/
Henry Sidgwick- English philosopher
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Ethical egoism was introduced by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick in his book The Methods of Ethics, written in 1874. Sidgwick compared egoism to the philosophy of utilitarianism, writing that whereas utilitarianism sought to maximize overall pleasure, egoism focused only on maximizing individual pleasure.[6]
Philosophers before Sidgwick have also retroactively been identified as ethical egoists. One ancient example is the philosophy of Yang Zhu (4th century BC), Yangism, who views wei wo, or "everything for myself", as the only virtue necessary for self-cultivation.[7] Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics were exponents of virtue ethics, and "did not accept the formal principle that whatever the good is, we should seek only our own good, or prefer it to the good of others."[6] However, the beliefs of the Cyrenaics have been referred to as a "form of egoistic hedonism",[8] and while some refer to Epicurus' hedonism as a form of virtue ethics, others argue his ethics are more properly described as ethical egoism.[9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_egoism
