Poets like William Blake and William Wordsworth, among others, saw poetry as a powerful vehicle for philosophical and spiritual insight. Percy Bysshe Shelley, in particular, a Romantic poet, famously wrote that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” suggesting that poets shape human thought and society much like philosophers do.
Others and Shelley:
(a) William Godwin was a political philosopher, novelist, and journalist, who is best known for his influential work An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), a foundational text in English anarchist and libertarian thought, and for his novel Caleb Williams (1794), which critiques tyranny and injustice. He was married to English writer Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneering feminist known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Their daughter, the English author Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein and married the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Godwin’s life and ideas placed him at the center of English radical intellectual and literary circles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
(b) John Milton was a towering figure in 17th-century English literature and political thought, whose writings—both prose and poetry—engaged deeply with the turbulent issues of his time. During the English Civil War and Interregnum, he wrote important works like Areopagitica (1644), a powerful defense of freedom of the press and free speech grounded in classical and Protestant ideals, and The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649), which justified the right to overthrow tyrannical rulers and contributed to early liberal political thought. In his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton explores profound themes such as free will versus predestination, the nature of evil, obedience and rebellion, and the problem of suffering and divine justice, engaging with theological debates from Augustinian, Calvinist, and Arminian perspectives. His works also delve into metaphysical questions about the nature of the soul, human reason, and moral responsibility, reflecting his wide-ranging inquiry into human existence and morality.
(c) Percy Bysshe Shelley was a major Romantic poet known for his radical political views, philosophical depth, and lyrical style. Expelled from Oxford for his atheistic writings, he became a passionate advocate for individual liberty, nonviolence, and social justice, often linking politics, ethics, and imagination in his work. He married Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, and was closely associated with fellow English writers Lord Byron and William Godwin, his father-in-law. Shelley's poetry—including Ozymandias, Prometheus Unbound, Ode to the West Wind, and The Mask of Anarchy—explored themes of rebellion, the power of nature, the imagination, and the fall of tyranny. Though not a philosopher in the academic sense, he was deeply influenced by Enlightenment and Platonic thought, believing poetry could inspire moral and political transformation. He famously wrote that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Shelley died tragically in a boating accident off the coast of Italy at age 29, but his work left a lasting impact on literature, political thought, and later revolutionary movements.
Beyond poetry, modern philosophy established key frameworks for understanding human nature, society, and reason. Three foundational books of modern philosophy include Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), Bacon’s Novum Organum, and Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. These works are significant because each represents a foundational shift in how people understood the world during the 17th and 18th centuries. Collectively, they laid the intellectual bedrock for the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and modern Western thought.
(1) Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) – Isaac Newton
Widely regarded as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution, Newton’s Principia Mathematica laid the foundations of classical mechanics through his laws of motion and universal gravitation. This 1687 publication was the first formal presentation of these concepts. Edmond Halley, a fellow English scientist and astronomer, encouraged Newton to publish the work and helped oversee its production. The Principia transformed the study of physics and astronomy and symbolized the power of reason and mathematical inquiry at the dawn of the Enlightenment. Later editions (1713 and 1726) included revisions and clarifications, but the core ideas of motion and gravity were introduced in this first edition.
(2) Novum Organum (1620) – Francis Bacon
A foundational text in the development of the scientific method, Novum Organum challenged classical Aristotelian logic and promoted empirical observation and inductive reasoning as the path to true knowledge. Bacon envisioned science as a tool for human progress, and his ideas profoundly influenced Enlightenment thinking and the subsequent evolution of experimental philosophy.
(3)Two Treatises of Government (1689) – John Locke
A seminal work of political philosophy, Two Treatises of Government articulated the natural rights of life, liberty, and property, laying the ideological groundwork for modern liberal democracy. Locke’s theories on government by consent, the right of revolution, and the separation of powers directly shaped Enlightenment political thought and inspired the founding principles of the United States and other democratic societies.
In 1789, Thomas Jefferson, then American Secretary of State under President George Washington, writing to John Trumbull, an American artist, grouped Newton, Bacon, and Locke together: “Bacon, Locke, and Newton, whose pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me; and as I consider them the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the physical and moral sciences.”
Influence of the Cambridge Platonists and Scientific Innovators
The Cambridge Platonists, including Benjamin Whichcote, Ralph Cudworth, and Henry More, were 17th-century English philosophers associated with the University of Cambridge. They sought to reconcile faith and reason, challenging both the dogmatism of Puritanism and the materialism of Thomas Hobbes, and argued that moral principles were innate and discoverable through reason. Whichcote contributed an optimistic and rational tone, while Cudworth and More authored extensive works defending these ideas. Their emphasis on moderate, tolerant Christianity influenced Latitudinarianism and later thinkers in the Scottish Enlightenment and early liberal theology.
During the same period, figures like William Harvey and Robert Hooke advanced scientific understanding, laying important groundwork for the Scientific Revolution and the intellectual environment that would fuel the Enlightenment.
(a) William Harvey was a physician who transformed the understanding of the human body through his discovery of blood circulation. In his 1628 work An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, he used careful observation and experimentation, including animal dissections, to demonstrate that blood circulates continuously throughout the body. This directly challenged the long-accepted Galenic theory, which held that blood was produced in the liver, consumed by the body, and constantly replenished. Harvey’s methodical, empirical approach marked a pivotal shift in medical research, emphasizing observation and experimentation over reliance on ancient authorities. His work laid the foundation for modern physiology and significantly advanced knowledge of the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, and related treatments.
(b) Robert Hooke was a polymath known for his contributions to science, architecture, and invention. In his 1665 book Micrographia, Hooke coined the term “cell” after observing the microscopic structure of cork, and his detailed illustrations of microscopic organisms and objects sparked widespread public interest in scientific observation. As Surveyor of London and assistant to Sir Christopher Wren, he helped rebuild the city after the Great Fire of 1666, contributing to the design of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Monument to the Great Fire, and notable buildings such as the original Bethlehem Royal Hospital (“Bedlam”). Hooke also had a long-standing rivalry with Isaac Newton, particularly over the inverse-square law of gravity; while Hooke proposed the idea qualitatively, Newton developed the mathematical proof. Although Newton later undermined Hooke’s reputation, modern assessments recognize Hooke’s lasting impact on science and architecture.