December 04

Omar Khayyám was born in 1048 and became one of the most versatile scholars of medieval Persia. He authored the Rubáiyát, a collection of quatrains that reflect deep philosophical insights and poetic mastery. As an astronomer, he revised the Persian calendar to great accuracy, influencing later timekeeping. His work in algebra and geometry addressed the solutions of cubic equations and geometric proofs. Khayyám's blend of scientific rigor and philosophical thought continues to fascinate readers and researchers around the world.

Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588 in Malmesbury, England, and became one of the most influential political philosophers of the 17th century. His seminal work 'Leviathan', published in 1651, argued for a strong sovereign authority to avoid the chaos of the natural 'state of nature'. Hobbes proposed that humans are driven by self-interest and required a social contract to maintain peace and order. He studied at Oxford University and served as a tutor to noble families, which brought him into contact with European intellectual circles. Hobbes's materialist worldview and skepticism of absolute freedom challenged prevailing religious and political doctrines. His ideas on governance, human rights, and morality have had a lasting impact on modern political theory and philosophy.

Born in 1906 in Hanover, Germany, Hannah Arendt studied under Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. Facing persecution as a Jewish intellectual, she fled Nazi Germany and settled in the United States in 1941. Arendt taught at prestigious universities and wrote influential works on totalitarianism and political theory. Her book The Origins of Totalitarianism analyzed the rise of Nazism and Stalinism in the 20th century. Arendt’s controversial report Eichmann in Jerusalem introduced the concept of the \"banality of evil.\"