|
| Archimedes (285 - 212 v. Chr.) |
| |
 |
| Archimedes |
|
|
The great mathematician reportedly shouted overwhelmed
"Give me a firm location outside our earth, and I will lift the
world off its hinges." as he discovered, which gigantic power performance
can be achieved with a block and tackle. Characteristic for the
work the Arcimedes is the way, in which he has won important knowledge:
apparently incidentally, playfully and seemingly as a matter of
course. In such a manner he created the dogma "The volume of a body
corresponds to the quantity of water, which he displaces.", by climbing
in his bathtub and watching the water swash over edge. "
During the Roman siege of Syrakus Archimedes was
in his home city. He drew up some refined defensive weapons, which
held up the opponent for a long time. That he had also set up gigantic
burning glasses, which burnt the incoming Roman ships in the harbor,
is an anecdote.
|
| |
|
 |
|
| Bacon, Francis (1561 - 1626) |
| |
|
The English statesman and philosopher is ranked
as the founder of the empiricism, the doctrine that all knowledge
is derived from the experience of the senses. The thinker is greater
in a bold draft than in careful education. Driven by his highflying
fantasies he gives a powerful swing to his ideas. Similarly to Voltaire
he starts his work with a complete departure from the historic tradition.
"Why hold on to the old, if in truth not this former times
but we ourselves with the experiences of the centuries have to be
regarded as old? Time is like a stream, which carries away the easy
and hollow, however lets the heavy and substantial sink quickly
to ground." With Bacon the blind worship turns into an exclusive
esteem of the present.
|
|
 |
| Francis Bacon |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Cäsar, Julius (100 - 44 v. Chr.) |
| |
 |
| Julius Cäsar |
|
|
The position as governor of the provinces 'Gallia
cisalpina' and 'Gallia transalpina' was used by the ambitious Caesar
as a stepping stone for his ambitious conquests. In the spring the
year 58 - the Helvetier had burned down their current residences
in the present Switzerland and looked for new country in the actual
Gaul - the commander successfully faced his first battle. "Caesar
drove this people back in its residences like a shepherd puts the
flock in their stable", reported a contemporary chronicler.
|
| |
|
|
|
| Dürrenmatt, Friedrich (1921 - 1990) |
| |
|
"Our world has led likewise to the grotesqueness
and to the atomic bomb, just like the apocalyptic pictures of Hieronymus
Bosch are equally grotesque. However the grotesqueness is only a
sensual paradox, the figure of a misshape, the face of a faceless
world, and just like our thinking does not seem to get along no
more without the conception of the paradox, as well as the art,
our world, which is only still existing, because the atomic bomb
exists: out of fear of it."(from 'Theaterprobleme')
Dürrenmatt was born nearby Bern as the son of a Protestant
priest; he studied philosophy and theology at different Swiss universities.
The underlying theme of all of Dürrenmatts works is the attempt,
to determine the position of the human being. As a passionate moralist
he was seen as an 'enfant terrible' under Swiss authors.
|
|
 |
| Friedrich Dürrenmatt |
|
| |
|
|
|
