Ivan Franko

Ukraine writer & political activist Ivan Yakovych Franko (1856 -1916) was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1915. The multi-talented Ukrainian was poet, writer, and a social and literary critic. He was also a journalist, interpreter, economist, political activist, doctor of philosophy, ethnographer. Franko was the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry …

Baruch Spinoza

Philosopher just before Enlightenment Baruch Spinoza born Benedito de Espinosa (1632-1677) was a cool Portuguese philosopher. His thinking helped bring about the Enlightenment. He invented a modern way of viewing one self in relation to the universe. No longer was the universe passing out favors or punishments. The universe was, well the universe, and for …