Letters on the English author of "Novum Organum" and father of experimental philosophy. Letter 13 is about John Locke and his theories on the immortality of the soul. Letter 14 compares British philosopher Isaac Newton to French philosopher René Descartes. Upon his death in 1727, Newton was compared to Descartes in a eulogy performed by French philosopher Fontenelle. While the British did not appreciate this comparison, Voltaire argues that Descartes, too, was a great philosopher and mathematician. Letter 15 focuses on Newton's law of universal gravitation. Letter 16 talks about Newton's work with optics. Letter 17 discusses Newton's work with geometry and his theories
Modern philosophy for a fixed truth transcending the individual. Nietzsche found in this not grounds for pessimism, but the possibility of a new kind of freedom. 19th-century British philosophy came increasingly to be dominated by strands of neo-Hegelian thought, and as a reaction against this, figures such as Bertrand Russell and George Edward Moore began moving in the direction of analytic philosophy, which was essentially an updating of traditional empiricism to accommodate the new developments in logic of the German mathematician Gottlob Frege. Renaissance humanism emphasized the value of human beings (see Oration on the Dignity of Man) and opposed dogma and