Great Souls
Ø Nelson Mandela
Mandela, the South African black political leader and former president, was awarded 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to antiracism and antiapartheid.Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppreion in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country.Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the centre of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world.As president of the African National Congre and head of South Africa\'s antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial
government and majority rule.He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.(138)
Ø Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement.He was the pioneer of the resistance to tyranny through ma civil disobedience, firmly founded upon total non-violence—which led India to independence and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom acro the world.He is officially honored in India as the Father of the Nation.After auming leadership of the Indian National Congre in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women\'s rights, build religious and ethnic amity, and increase economic self-reliance.Above all, he aimed to achieve the
independence of India from foreign domination.Later he campaigned against the British to Quit India.Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.(128)
Additionally, Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements.Leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, including Martin Luther King and James Lawson, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about non-violence.Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi.Prior to becoming President of the United States, then-Senator Barack Obama noted that: Throughout my life, I have always looked to Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration, because he embodies the kind of transformational change that can be made when ordinary people come together to do extraordinary things.That is why his portrait hangs in my Senate office: to remind me that real results will come not just from Washington – they will come from the people.(129)
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, Jr.was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the
African-American civil right movement.His main legacy was to secure progre on civil rights in the United States and he is frequently referenced as a human rights icon today.
King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president.King\'s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his \"I Have a Dream\" speech.There, he raised public
consciousne of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S.history.By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the VietnamWar, both from a religious perspective.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end
racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congreional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr.Day was established as a U.S.national
holiday in 1986.(192)
Ø Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Miionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950.For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Miionaries of Charity‗s expansion.
Mother Teresa\'s Miionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 miions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS,
leprosy and tuberculosis, children\'s and family counseling programs, and schools.
By the 1970s she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocated for the poor and helple.She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India\'s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna in 1980 for her humanitarian work.(122)
Ø
Ø Susan B.Anthony
Although I am not a feminist, I admire Susan B.Anthony for her daring to hold on to her view even being mocked cruelly by her contemporaries.A tirele civil rights worker, Anthony devoted her life to the work which has guaranteed women‘s basic right, including suffrage and equal protections under law.She believed that men and women are created equal and persevered unremittingly in opening doors and expanding acceptable modes of behavior for women.In the patriarchy society of her time, people considered her unladylike and ridiculous.However, 19th Amendment to the Constitution gives women‘s rights to vote, which established Susan B.Anthony as a bold revolutionary feminist in history.(111)
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger sparked the birth control movement with the publication of The Woman Rebel, in which she encourages women to view conception as a choice rather than an obligation.In 1923, her tirele efforts resulted in the establishment of America\'s first legal birth control clinic, which served as a contraceptive dispensary and research facility under the auspices of the American Birth Control League (one of the groups that eventually morphed into Planned Parenthood).The birth control movement has had far-reaching, worldwide implications, from women\'s rights to population control to the sexual revolution.(92)
l Bright Minds
Ø Newton
Newton‘s aim at Cambridge was a law degree.Instruction at Cambridge was dominated by the philosophy of Aristotle but some freedom of study was allowed in the third year of the course.Newton had a golden opportunity to study an abundance of great minds: the philosophy of Descartes, Gaendi, Hobbes, and in particular Boyle.The mechanics of the Copernican
astronomy of Galileo attracted him and he also studied Kepler‘s Optics.It is a fascinating account of how Newton‘s ideas were formed.He collected all these thoughts and developed his own system by which he succefully explained a wide range of previously unrelated phenomena: the eccentric orbits of comets, the proceion of the Earth‘s axis, and motion of the Moon as perturbed by the gravity of the Sun, as well as the three laws of motion that made him an international leader in scientific research and the greatest pilot in human‘s civilization.(157)
Ø Darwin’s Origin of Species
The theory of evolution is one of the great intellectual revolutions of human history.Hundreds of years ago, people were confused with the complexity of different species of the world, and believed that species were created by the mysterious God.However, Darwin did not believe so.After several years\' study, he eventually demonstrated that species, however complex seemingly, all evolved by natural selection from simple and preliminary conditions.When Darwin published his famous research results on the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the book encountered lots of controversies.Members of the religious community, as well as some
scientific peers, were outraged and protested.However, Darwin\'s idea of evolution eventually defeated the traditional belief and was accepted and acknowledged by some insightful scientists and finally by the society.It is now reverenced as one of the greatest intellectual revolutions of human history.(144)
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it.Disturbed by the failure of Ptolemy\'s geocentric model of the universe to follow Aristotle\'s requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies, Copernicus decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric model.He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to the size of their orbits.At the time
Copernicus\'s heliocentric idea was very controversial; neverthele, it was the start of a change in the way the world was viewed, and Copernicus came to be seen as the initiator of the Scientific Revolution.(129)
Ø Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution.His achievements include improvements to the
telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism.Galileo\'s observations about four satellites of Jupiter with his new telescope convinced him of the truth of Copernicus\'s sun-centered or heliocentric theory.Galileo has been called the \"father of modern observational astronomy,\" the \"father of modern physics,\" and \"the Father of Modern Science.\" Stephen Hawking says, \"Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science.\" (96)
Ø Christopher Columbus
In 1485, Columbus presented his plans to John II, King of Portugal.He requested he be made \"Great Admiral of the Ocean\", appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, and given
one-tenth of all revenue from those lands.The king submitted the proposal to his experts and rejected it.In 1488 Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal once again, and once again it also proved unsucceful.Then, Columbus travelled from Portugal to both Genoa and Venice, but he received encouragement from neither.In1486, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella.After the paing of much time, these savants of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, pronounced the idea impractical, and advised their Royal Highnees to pa on the proposed venture.But after endle attempts at establishing a settlement of Hispanism, Catholic Monarchs finally gave him an annual allowance of 12,000 maravedis and furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their domain to provide him food and lodging with which Columbus succefully initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans and carved out the cro-continental trade market.(183)
Ø John Nash
Before 1950, Adam Smith was respected as ―the father of Game Theory‖, he wrote a famous book named The Wealth of Nations and demonstrated ―perfect competition‖ which was
commonly accepted by people.There is a sentence from the book ―Individual ambition serious the common good‖ which means when each individual pursue his own interests, the benefits of the group will be improved most effectively.However, John Nash, a normal mathematician in Princeton University, created a theory ―Nash Equilibrium‖ which laid the foundation of Game Theory in 1950.He doubted the statement from Adam Smith, and he succeeded.John Nash wrote a 28 pages diertation to argue a new theory.Due to the fact that personal benefits
conflict each other, the interest of a group will be harmed.To ensure the interests of whole group, individuals should find equilibrium between the personal and group interests.Consequently, John Nash received the Nobel Prize in economics and fundamentally reformed the arena of economics.(160)
Ø
Alfred Bernhard Nobel-1
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite.To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator which could be ignited by lighting a fuse.The market for dynamite and detonating caps grew very rapidly and Alfred Nobel also proved himself to be a very skillful entrepreneur and busineman.He later produced ballistite, one of the first smokele powders.At the time of his death, his will provide his enormous fortune of the major portion of $9 million estate to
institute the Nobel Prize, a yearly prize for merit in physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, literature, and world peace.The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.(119)
Ø Thomas Edison
In 19th century, people could only get light from candles, but it suffered from several
disadvantages, including exorbitantly high price and in adequate lightne.Thomas Edison, one of the most prominent inventors in the 20th century, overcame 1500 failure and suitable filament for electric light bulb which were affordable for all people to buy and use.He tried numerous
materials such as iron, copper, aluminum, silver, hair, even his colleague‘s brown beard, but he fails all times.Neverthele he did not give up and dedicated himself in finding the best material.The belief held by him was that ―we will make the electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn
candles.‖ He had the first succeful experiment in 1879, finding that carbon filament can last over 40 hours, but he and his team were not satisfied for that.Through hundreds of tough trying, they finally found carbonized bamboo filament which could last over 1200 hours.Furthermore, the light bulbs invented by Edison with the most suitable filament have not only lighted up the world, but influenced people‘s lives all over the world until now.(185)
