Daniel Bernoulli (1700 - 1782): Swiss mathematician and theoretical physicist. Born into an extensive and influential family of gifted mathematicians, Daniel became a professor of mathematics at St. Petersburg in 1723, and soon helped persuade Leonhard Euler to move to Russia. Bernoulli returned to Basel in 1733, and published a seminal treatise on fluid dynamics in 1738. Bernoulli's Theorem, first expressed in that treatise, expresses the law of conservation of energy for laminar flows in ideal fluids. Better known as the Venturi effect, that theorem explains the phenomenon of lift generated by air flowing over an airplane's wings, and serves as the theoretical basis for shaping the throat of a carburetor in a gasoline engine. Mises refers to one of Bernoulli's conjectures about economics known as de mensura sortis, which is closely related to the psycho-physical Weber-Fechner law.

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790): American statesman and scientist, famous for his experiments in electricity and his ambassadorship to France during the Revolutionary War. He was instrumental in establishing the constitution, and insisted on several provisions (hard money, patent and post offices, etc.) that served the new government well. Mises quotes from Franklin's Autobiography to illustrate the difference between ratiocination and rationalization.

David Hume (1711 - 1776): Scottish philosopher, lawyer, and historian. Hume's formal education was unhappy and incomplete. He published his first philosophical book, the Treatise of Human Nature, in 1739. That book, now acknowledged as a masterpiece, was a commercial failure. Hume simplified his philosophy in subsequent books, most of which sold very well. Briefly, Hume was a skeptic. He questioned the validity of inductive logic. He even declared that his own self, or ego, did not exist, because there is no specific empirical evidence for it. Widely regarded today as a great empiricist and as a forerunner of Comte's positivism, he won fame as an economist with Political Discourses, published in 1852. Mises mentions him as one of the classical British economists and discusses his (incorrect) theory of the neutrality of money, but has little to say about Hume's philosophy, except for passing references to the problem of incomplete induction.

Jacques Claude Marie Vincent, Marquis de Gournay (1712 -1759): French merchant and economist. Contemporary of Quesnay and Turgot. Though counted as one of the Physiocrats he did not entirely accept their theories; he stressed industry and trade over agriculture. He is generally recognized as the originator of the phrase laissez faire, laissez passer. In 1754 Gournay published a French translation of Josiah Child's New Discourse of Trade under the interesting title Traités sur le commerce et sur les avantages qui résultent de la reduction de l'intérêt de l'argent par Josias Child. Mises does not mention Gournay directly, but does speak of the Physiocrats as founders of economic science.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778): French philosopher, author, and composer. Rousseau was born in Geneva, He developed a great fondness for reading as a child. When he was 10 his father abandoned him. When he was 15 he ran away from Geneva and settled in Turin, where he converted to Catholicism. In Italy, he lived with a Madame de Warrens, who was well to do, and separated from her husband. She later became his mistress. Rousseau lived with de Warrens for about ten years. In 1742 he moved to Paris, where he eventually fell in with a woman named Thérèse Levasseur, wth whom he had several illegitimate children, and whom he eventually married. He gave all their children up for adoption. During his time in Paris Rousseau made quite a name for himself as an author. His essay Discours sur les sciences et les arts (Discourse on the Arts and Sciences), composed in 1850, won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Académie de Dijon.

In 1854 Rousseau moved back to Geneva, and dropped Catholicism in favor of Calvinism. Rousseau wrote several treatises on politics during his years in Geneva. His novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse was an immense success. More treatises on political philosophy and on education followed. Though famous, Rousseau was also very controversial: several of his books were banned by the Vatican. He became persona non grata throughout most of continental Europe, his opinions condemned by Protestants and Catholics alike. David Hume helped him escape to England in 1766. Rouusseau might have been happy in England, but he soon had a falling out with Hume, and James Boswell had an adulterous affair with Rousseau's wife Thérèse. Rousseau returned to France in 1767.He spent the last peripatetic years of his life in Switzerland and in France. Rousseau famously asserted that civilization degrades and demeans mankind. Mises mentions him and Engels in the same breath: men who never could have had the time to write their books if not tor the benefits of the society they despised.

Hanoverians (1714 - 1901): British royal family from the death of Queen Anne until Queen Victoria's passing. The term "Hanoverians" is especially associated with the period from 1714 through 1837: during that time, the king of England was also the elector of Hanover (king of Hanover after 1810), a state in Germany. Mises mentions the Hanoverians, along with their predecessors the Tudors and the Stuarts, in discussing the contrast between hedonism and asceticism.

Adam Smith (1723 - 1790): Scottish moral philosopher and economist. Served as a professor of Logic, and later of Moral Philosophy, at Glasgow University. Widely regarded as the founder of the science of economics, although careful scholarship reveals that most of the ideas in The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, were not original with him. Mises refers to him as one of the archetypical classical economists. Today Smith has more than one web site -- click here to view a good one.

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804): German philosopher and ethicist. Born and educated in Königsberg, he spent his entire life there, teaching at the university, and writing books. At first a rationalist in the Cartesian tradition, he was "awakened from his dogmatic slumber" when he read David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In 1781 he released Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason) which, in his own estimation, effected a "Copernican revolution" in epistemology. This very difficult book is universally acknowledged as one of the most influential philosophical treatises in the history of the world. Briefly, Kant declared that the noumenal world (that is, the thing-in-itself) is essentially unknowable; that the phenomenal world (our sensory impression of things outside ourselves) is the only evidence of reality the human mind can apprehend; that to think about the world is to arrange those chaotic sensory impressions into some sort of order; and that it makes more sense to consider the a priori structure of the mind itself, and how that structure influences the organization of sensory impressions, than to assume that all human knowledge arises only a posteriori, in some Baconian or Lockean sense. In other words, John Locke (and David Hume) were wrong when they said the mind is a tabula rasa on which experience writes its lessons -- the mind is not a passive object, but an active organizing principle that wrests order from the chaotic jumble of perception automatically, via an inherent mental structure that is innate in every human being.

Kant was not only an epistemologist. He also wrote extensively on the problems of ethics, and of aesthetics. His version of idealism has exerted a tremendous influence on every philosophical system advanced since 1781. In particular, Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling, Kant's immediate intellectual heirs, were directly influenced by his ideas. Mises, who devotes an entire chapter to the epistemological basis of economic theory, is obviously a Kantian, or at least a neo-Kantian. He uses Kant's terminology -- categories, concepts, the a priori -- freely. He grounds the entire edifice of praxeology in the category of human action. Oddly, though, he rarely mentions Kant by name. The one occurence of Kant's name in Human Action that I've found occurs in a passage about Lucien Lévy-Bruhl and the allegedly fundamental differences between the "primitive" human mind and the "developed" sensibilities of Europeans, where Mises mentions Kant as someone whose neighbors might have spent their time discussing mundane topics like food, and the weather.

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (1727 - 1781): French lawyer and economist. One of the Physiocrats, Turgot's early career as a lawyer finally led him into public affairs. As intendant of Limoges he made many improvements in the civil administration. On the ascension of Louis XVI he secured the post of comptroller-general of finance for all of France. He instituted free domestic trade in grain and abolished some corporate monopolies before the vested interests secured his removal from office. His major work, Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (1766), largely anticipated the work of Adam Smith. Mises doesn't mention his name directly, but does acknowledge the Physiocrats, and the classical British economists, as the founders of economic science.

Peter III (1728 - 1762): Husband of Catherine the Great and Tsar of Russia for less than a year. Peter was born Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp in Kiel; he was ethnically German. He tried to end the Seven Years' War by switching Russia's support from France to Prussia. This move was extremely unpopular; the army deposed him, and he was executed a few months later. Mises mentions him in connection with histrical disputes about thr germanification of the Romanoffs.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743 - 1794): French scientist widely regarded as the father of modern chemistry. Lavoisier spent much of his life in government service, as a tax collector ("farmer general of taxes," from 1768), as director of the French gunpowder mills, and as a member of the commission on weights and measures whose report ultimately led to the adoption of the metric system. His Traité élémentaire de chimie (1789 -- Elements of Chemistry) was a seminal work that laid the foundations for a systematic explanation of simple oxidation/reduction reactions. Lavoisier's career was cut short by the Reign of Terror; he was guillotined for his "crimes" as a tax collector. Mises mentions him, along with Galileo and Copernicus, as an innovator -- an original thinker whose ideas sounded "crazy" when they were first advanced, but which later came to be accepted as the conventional wisdom.

Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832): English eccentric, prolific author, and social reformer, generally regarded as the founder of utilitarianism. He was independently wealthy because of a bequest from his father, and he spent most of his life writing about science and government. In accordance with the terms of his will, his skeleton is preserved in a cabinet at University College, London. Efforts to preserve his head intact were unsuccessful, and today his skeleton is topped by an artificial head made of wax. His real head was long displayed on the floor of the cabinet, between his feet, but was retired to a vault after some of the undergraduates were (allegedly) apprehended using it in a game of soccer! Mises held Bentham's philosophy of utilitarianism in high esteem. Click here to learn more about the iconoclastic Bentham.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832): German poet, playwright, novelist, literary critic, director of theatrical productions, and statesman. Goethe was born in Frankfurt. He received a very good education at home. In 1765 he decamped to Leipzig, where he studied law. He was an inattentive student, devoting more time to writing poetry than to reading law. Eventuallly (1771) he received a law degree from the University of Strasbourg. He was not successful as a lawyer; when he published The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) in 1771, his reputation as a great novelist spread throughout the world. Goethe eventually settled in the city of Weimar, where he lived for more than 50 years. He served in many diplomatic positions in the court at Weimar, including War Commissioner, Commissioner of Mines and Highways, and (acting) Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mises mentions him as a prime example of a genius, whose artistic productions are an expression of innaate talent, not to be confused with ordinary labor.

Physiocrats: A school of French economists who flourished about 1750 - 1776. They coined the famous phrase laissez faire, laissez passer, reflecting their basic belief that natural law should guide the economy. Although opposing the mercantilist theories which had prevailed in Europe up until their time and favoring some free trade and somewhat lower taxes, the Physiocrats were in favor of restricting foreign competition with French agriculture. They also generally held that agriculture, and mining, are the only "productive" forms of economic activity. Quesnay and Turgot were among the members of the Physiocratic School.

Tsar Paul (1754 - 1801): Tsar of Russia. Reportedly the son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, there is some doubt about his paternity; his mother was famously promiscuous, and claimed in her memoirs that Peter's father was really Sergei Saltykov. Paul was viewed unfavorably by the Russian nobility, who arranged for his assassination just five years after his accession. Mises mentions him in connection with the historical dispute involving the germanification of the Romanoffs.

William Godwin (1756 - 1836): English political writer, anarchist, and novelist. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1778, he served five years as a cleric before turning to literary pursuits and atheism. His political theory was enunciated in an Enquiry concerning Political Justice (1793). Inspired by the events of the French revolution, it advocated anarchy, radical educational reforms, sexual licentiousness, and a peculiar form of socialism. In 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft, who was a noted radical and social reformer in her own right -- their daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was later (1816) to marry the renowned romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who with his friend Lord Byron and Mary's half-sister 'Claire' Clairmont put Godwin's theory of free love into practice. (Mary Godwin / Shelley is famous herself -- as the author of Frankenstein.) Mises implies that Godwin's totally impractical socialistic ideas exemplify the insanity of all socialist authors.

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 - 1834): English demographer and political economist. Educated at Cambridge, his first major work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, was published in 1798. His basic argument, that population will tend to grow faster than the means of subsistence, has been abused and misinterpreted by both his friends and enemies. In a second major work, Principles of Political Economy Considered with a View to their Practical Application (1820), he anticipated many aspects of J. M. Keynes' theories about private saving and "public investment." Mises mentions Malthus several times, usually referring to his principle of population growth, and the need for "moral restraint" in a civilized society.

Ludwig von Beethoven (1770 - 1827): German musician and composer. Generally recognized as the originator of "romantic" music; arguably the greatest composer in human history. Lost his hearing about 1802, but continued to compose beautiful music in spite of this handicap. Mises mentions him both as an example of spontaneous genius that arose from poverty, and as a study in self determination.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 - 1831): German author, teacher, and philosopher. Following Immanuel Kant as a German idealist, Hegel took a more mystical turn with his philosophy of dialectic -- a struggle between the finite spirit of man and the infinite spirit of God -- and of God as the Absolute Idea. Hegel's ideas were subsequently twisted almost beyond recognition by elements of both the political right (Prussian conservatives) and left (socialists and communists). Mises refers to Hegel's concept of Geist and expounds at length on the influence Hegelianism exerted on Karl Marx. Click here to read more about Hegel.

Frederick William III (1770 - 1840): King of Prussia from 1797 until his death. The grand nephew of Frederick the Great, he was a shy and unassuming character. Defeated by Napoleon in 1806, he eventually reclaimed his kingdom. He attempted to unify all the Protestant churches in Prussia; this caused much dissension and strife. Mises mentions him in connection with G.W.F. Hegel, who claimed that Geist created the universe for the purpose of making Frederick William III the king of Prussia.

Charles Fourier (1772 - 1837): French socialist (not to be confused with his contemporary, Jean Baptiste Joseph, Baron de Fourier, an eminent physicist and mathematician). Disenchanted with his career as a businessman and believing that capitalism and civilization are evil, Charles produced a new social theory calling for the establishment of agricultural communes he called phalanges. In Fourier's system, marriage would be abolished and men would continually rotate from one craft or profession to another, leading to universal harmony as the "free" and "healthy" development of human talents and emotions was encouraged, and not repressed. Mises mentions Fourier as one whose theories influenced Karl Marx, and as an author whose crazy ideas exemplify the insanity of all socialistic theories.

David Ricardo (1772 - 1823): English businessman, economist, and politician. Ricardo's system, as explained in Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, is generally regarded as the summum bonum of classical economics. Mises gives particular attention to Ricardo's law of association and the closely related law of returns. Because he was unaware of the subjective theory of value, Ricardo advanced a labor theory of value, which led him into antinomies like the iron law of wages.

Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773 - 1842): Swiss economist and social critic. His family was well to do, but he never received much formal education. The family fled Geneva in 1794 and bought a farm in Tuscany. In 1801 Sismondi published his first book, Tableau de l'agriculture toscane (A Picture of Tuscan Agriculture), based on his experience as a farmer. He was favorably impressed by Smith's Wealth of Nations. His magnum opus, Nouveaux principes d'économie politique (New Principles of Political Economy) came out in 1819 and criticized the basic assumptions of laissez-faire economic theory. Sismondi called for redistriburionist policies and graduated tax rates. He also coined the term "proletariat", and advanced a theory of history as class struggle. Mises mentions him while discussing the Marxian notion that all legislation in the bourgeois nations is motivated by class interests.