This is the third installment of a series that will focus on Michael H. Hart's book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (Citadel Press). As I explained in my first installment, Hart has attempted to survey the whole of human history from early civilization through the late 20th century and identify the 100 individuals whose undertakings have most affected, for good or ill, the largest number of fellow humans. For each, the author provides a brief bio combined with an explanation of his or her historical influence.
In short form, Hart's top 100 list (1992 revised edition), starting with the most influential, is: Muhammad; Newton; Jesus; Buddha; Confucius; St. Paul; Ts’ai Lun; Gutenberg; Columbus; Einstein; Pasteur; Galileo; Aristotle; Euclid; Moses; Darwin; Shih Huang Ti; Augustus Caesar; Copernicus; Lavoisier; Constantine; Watt; Faraday; Maxwell; Luther; Washington; Marx; Wright Brothers; Genghis Khan; Adam Smith; de Vere a/k/a Shakespeare; Dalton; Alexander; Napoleon; Edison; Leeuwenhoek; Morton; Marconi; Hitler; Plato; Cromwell; Bell; Fleming; Locke; Beethoven; Heisenberg; Daguerre; Bolivar; Descartes; Michelangelo; Pope Urban II; 'Umar ibn al-Khattab; Asoka; St. Augustine; Harvey; Rutherford; Calvin; Mendel; Planck; Lister; Otto; Pizarro; Cortes; Jefferson; Isabella I; Stalin; Julius Caesar; William the Conqueror; Freud; Jenner; Röntgen; Bach; Lao Tzu; Voltaire; Kepler; Fermi; Euler; Rousseau; Machiavelli; Malthus; Kennedy; Pincus; Mani; Lenin; Sui Wen Ti; da Gama; Cyrus; Peter the Great; Mao; Bacon; Ford; Mencius; Zoroaster; Elizabeth I; Gorbachev; Menes; Charlemagne; Homer; Justinian I; Mahariva.
My plan is to go through the list from top to bottom and, with each installment, provide bullet point summaries of Hart's biographical sketches, supplemented with synopses of Hart's subjective commentary. I welcome you to suggest other names that should be on Hart's list. Keep in mind, though, that any such suggestion necessarily implies that someone on the list should be dropped. If you can, please tell us which name or names you'd like to toss.
In the first two installments we covered Muhammad through Einstein. Here are the next five (I originally planned to cover 10 at a time, but that notion has proved too ambitious - I'm a slow writer) on Hart’s list of the most influential persons in history:
11. Louis Pasteur 1822-1895
• born in eastern France; earned doctorate and by age 26 had achieved renown as a chemist
• advocated the germ theory of disease and supported the theory with numerous experiments and demonstrations, thus convincing the scientific community of the germ theory’s correctness
• developed technique for destroying microorganisms in beverages ("pasteurization")
• developed vaccination techniques for cattle (anthrax), chickens (cholera), and humans (rabies)
• disproved validity of spontaneous generation
• discovered phenomenon of anaerobiosis
• influenced Joseph Lister, who introduced antiseptic methods of surgery
Hart argues that Pasteur’s influence was considerably greater than that of Edward Jenner, who had earlier developed a vaccine against smallpox, as Pasteur’s methods have been applied to a large number of diseases. Hart contends that Pasteur’s contributions deserve much of the credit for the major increase in human longevity since the mid-nineteenth century.
12. Galileo Galilei 1564-1642
• born in Pisa, Italy, and obtained teaching position at University of Padua
• discovered that, contrary to Aristotle’s teaching, heavy and light objects fall and accelerate at the same velocity except to the extent they are affected by friction of air
• discovered that the distance traversed by a falling object is proportional to the square of its time of travel
• discovered law of inertia, later restated as Newton’s first law of motion
• using a self-built telescope, made original astronomical observations that corroborated Copernican theory of sun-centered solar system, arousing opposition from the Catholic church
• in 1642, published book espousing Copernican theory, leading to trial by church authorities
• was convicted of heresy; forced to recant his teaching, and sentenced to house arrest
Galileo played a leading role in developing scientific methodology, particularly the use of careful quantitative observations. He insisted on the necessity of performing experiments rather than relying on the pronouncements of traditional authorities. Although deeply religious, his scientific outlook was distinctly non-mystical.
13. Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC
• Born in Macedonia and at age 17, traveled to Athens to study under Plato
• after Plato’s death, returned to Macedonia where he tutored the young Alexander the Great
• after Alexander became king, returned to Athens and founded his own school, the Lyceum
• produced a large number of works on natural science, philosophy, and numerous other subjects including logic, politics, economics, and education
• was a leading expert of his time in every field of science, including astronomy, zoology, geography, geology, physics, anatomy, and physiology
• died in exile following Alexander’s death
Aristotle greatly influenced, even dominated, Western thought for many centuries. His works were widely translated, and they influenced Arab, Jewish, and Christian thinkers; however, many of his teachings have been proved factually incorrect or discarded as morally obsolete and deficient, such as the acceptability of slavery and the inferiority of women.
14. Euclid c. 300 B.C.
• few details are known of his life
• was a teacher in Alexandria, Egypt
• authored the Elements, a textbook of plane and solid geometry with sections devoted to algebra and number theory
• the Elements, written in Greek, has been used as a textbook for more than 2,000 years and translated into many languages – the most successful textbook ever written
Euclid’s work was a major factor in the rise of modern science and was the basis for the mathematical knowledge possessed by Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. Euclid’s approach, which employs a carefully selected and ordered set of axioms, postulates, and theorems, is a showcase for the power of logical deduction. China, which led Europe in technology for centuries, lacked any mathematical treatise comparable to the Elements and eventually fell behind in scientific matters.
15. Moses approx. 13th century BC
• Little reliable information is known about his life
• Traditionally known as the political-religious figure who led the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt
• By reputation, author of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; these constitute the Jewish Torah and include the Ten Commandments. However, historical evidence indicates Moses was not the actual author of much of this material.
• Played a crucial role in the preservation and institutionalization of Jewish monotheism, which later inspired both Christianity and Islam
Moses is one of the most widely admired persons in history, as he is recognized as a great prophet by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.