500 B.c.

[Watchman]

Although it doesn't exactly count as a merit of any single person, mechanical tools for measuring the passing of time (ie. clocks, and later watches), urbanization and salaried jobs (paid more or less by the hour) have over the centuries changed the way we view the very time (linear time as opposed to the old cyclic "mythical" time perception). Then there's those astrologers whose discoveries changed our perceptions of the universe, the Earth, the solar system... The developement of archeology, paleontology etc. and evolutionary theories has altered the way we view ourself, our past and our future. Then there's the analytical human sciences - for example psychology and the social sciences - that have changed our understanding of our inner and collective workings and "the art of being human." Although somewhat obscure, the higher-end theoretical physics thinking that was already at full tilt at the beginning of the 20th century delves deep into the workings of time and the universe itself; Einstein is no doubt a name everyone recognizes, but there were and are many others.

The ancient Greek philosophers get points for spirited attempt, though.

[Franconicus]

There is Planck, Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenberg (maybe Bohr, too)
Of cause Freud, too.
(Please note, most of them are physicists and all are German )
From former time: Galileo, Kopernikus, Darwin, who else?

[Kraxis]

There is Planck, Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenberg (maybe Bohr, too)
Of cause Freud, too.
(Please note, most of them are physicists and all are German )
From former time: Galileo, Kopernikus, Darwin, who else?

Oh my dear Franc... You do of course know that Niels Bohr was Danish right? So I must assume you are playing the old HRE vassal card in relation to Denmark.

[Rosacrux redux]

Freud and Einstein were jewish, no?

[Franconicus]

Oh my dear Franc... You do of course know that Niels Bohr was Danish right? So I must assume you are playing the old HRE vassal card in relation to Denmark.

Did I hurt your sentiments. I really did not want to and I appologize for my misleading declaration. Didn't I write that most of them were German? Let me announce that neither Bohr, nor Darwin, nor Galileo is, was or ever will be German!

Freud and Einstein were jewish, no?

So what! They were German and Jewish. (O.k., Freud was Austrian, but that was only a kind of subform of German, so in fact he was German too.)
There was no antagonism in being German and Jewish. They spoke German and they thought German. Many famous Germans were Jewish in fact. (And many Jewish were German, in fact, too). The Nazis tried to make it an antogonism. We shouldn't follow their reasoning, should we?

[Rosacrux redux]

Just kidding, don't come down on me laddy!

On a relevant note, talking about philosophy: I'd like to point out that in ancient times being a philosopher, meant also being a "scientist". Philosophos means "lover of wisdom" and "wisdom" wasn't confined in abstract thinking (today's philosophy) or utilitarian thinking (today's science). Wisdom was knowledge, and critical thinking and constant evolution.

On another relevant note:
Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - in history has shaped the world in the way Aristotle's thinking did, no? All major versions of Christianity, other more (Protestantic doctrines) and other less (Catholics, Orthodoxes) are based on Aristotle, the whole Western way of thinking is based on Aristotle.

Is there any other philosopher who can claim such Influence? Someone might argue Confucius for the easteners, but I'd say they today are moving in more and more Western (Aristotelian) directions.