Evaluate the significance of two key intellectual/scientific figures, each chosen from a different region.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of the impact of two key intellectual/scientific figures, weighing up their significance or otherwise. The two figures must be from different regions. Impact may extend beyond the timeframe of the question but it must be clearly linked to the issue raised. Candidates may offer equal coverage of the two figures, or they may prioritize discussion of one of them. However, both figures will be a feature of the response. Candidates may refer to one important scientific figure who challenged the accepted knowledge of his time, for example Galileo or Copernicus. They may also refer to some intellectual figures that played a significant role in philosophy or literature, for example, Mulla Sadra and the development of the philosophies of the Islamic Golden Age or Wang Yang Ming and the “Yangming School of Mind” which became the dominant Confucian school in China. They may refer to the political impact of some intellectual figures, for example Machiavelli on Europe or Inca Garcilaso de la Vega on the indigenous elites of the Peruvian viceroyalty. Candidates’ opinions or conclusions will be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.

The question required that candidates make an appraisal of the impact of two key intellectual/scientific figures, each chosen from a different region. There were very few responses seen.