Silvermintz notes that, " Historians of economic thought credit Plato, primarily on account of arguments advanced in his Republic, as an early proponent of the division of labor .” Notwithstanding this, Silvermintz argues that, " While Plato recognizes both the economic and political benefits of the division of labor, he ultimately critiques this form of economic arrangement insofar as it hinders the individual from ordering his own soul by cultivating acquisitive motives over prudence and reason.

In anthropology Sapir is known as an early proponent of the importance of psychology to anthropology, maintaining that studying the nature of relationships between different individual personalities is important for the ways in ways in which culture and society develop.

He was an early proponent of religious toleration, and enjoyed the sobriquet " Prince of the Humanists "; he has been called " the crowning glory of the Christian humanists ".

An early proponent of the electric Spanish guitar was jazz guitarist George Barnes who used the instrument in two songs recorded in Chicago on March 1, 1938, " Sweetheart Land " and " It's a Low-Down Dirty Shame ".

An early twentieth-century proponent of hollow Earth, William Reed, wrote Phantom of the Poles in 1906.

As early as 1819, in his famous speech “ On Ancient and Modern Liberty ,” the political philosopher Benjamin Constant, a proponent of constitutional monarchy and representative democracy, criticized Rousseau, or rather his more radical followers ( specifically the Abbé de Mably ), for allegedly believing that " everything should give way to collective will, and that all restrictions on individual rights would be amply compensated by participation in social power .”

The French philosopher and theologian Roscellinus ( c. 1050-c. 1125 ) was an early, prominent proponent of this view.

Jacques Babinet, an early proponent of a trans-Neptunian planet

Gary Becker was an early proponent of applying rational actor models more widely.

Three notable figures from the early days of engineering were selected as judges: John Urpeth Rastrick, a locomotive engineer of Stourbridge, Nicholas Wood, a mining engineer from Killingworth with considerable locomotive design experience and John Kennedy, a Manchester cotton spinner and a major proponent of the railway.

Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle was an early proponent of sugar cubes, which he manufactured at his sugar refineries in Liverpool and London.

The foremost proponent of Sabbath-keeping among early Adventists was Joseph Bates.

Stephen Bachiler ( c. 1561 – 1656 ) was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in America.

An early proponent of the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, Uruguay has actively participated in the follow-up process to the periodic Summits of the Americas, especially the Free Trade Area of the Americas ( FTAA ).

In the 20th century, the viola da gamba and its repertoire were revived by early music enthusiasts, an early proponent being Arnold Dolmetsch.

Steiner was also an early proponent of organic agriculture, in the form of a holistic concept later called biodynamic agriculture.

Roger Williams ( c. 1603 – between January and March 1683 ) was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

However, an important early proponent of a view like this was John Stuart Mill.

A major early proponent of formalism was David Hilbert, whose program was intended to be a complete and consistent axiomatization of all of mathematics.

He built some of the earliest Gregorian telescopes, observed the rotations of Mars and Jupiter and, based on his observations of fossils, was an early proponent of biological evolution.

Edward Durell Stone ( March 9, 1902-August 6, 1978 ) was a twentieth century American architect and an early proponent of modern architecture in the United States.

In his native Athens in the early 410s BC, he advocated an aggressive foreign policy, and was a prominent proponent of the Sicilian Expedition, but fled to Sparta after his political enemies brought charges of sacrilege against him.

On the other hand, several advocates of Enlightenment, deism and anti-Church positions saw him as an early forerunner of their own ethical and religious ideas, a proponent of a universal, non-denominational religion compatible with Reason.

Some early ' skyscrapers ' were made in masonry, and demonstrated the limitations of the material – for example, the Monadnock Building in Chicago ( opened in 1896 ) is masonry and just 17 stories high ; the ground walls are almost thick, clearly building any higher would lead to excessive loss of internal floor space on the lower floors.

An early design method derived from such thinking was " cross-programming ", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers.

Some early skyscrapers have a steel frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the corporate culture of New York was a primary center for the construction of skyscrapers, and was rivaled only by Chicago on the American continent.

This impressive group of early skyscrapers was nicknamed " The Heaviest Corner on Earth ".

In addition to their pioneering accomplishments with steel-framed buildings and skyscrapers, Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan were early employers and mentors of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose consistent praise for Adler (" the ' American Engineer ' my ' Big Chief '") surpassed even that which he reserved for Sullivan, whom he called his " lieber meister ".

Unlike New York's early skyscrapers, which took the form of towers arising from a lower, blockier mass, such as the contemporary Singer Building ( 1902 – 1908 ), the Flatiron Building epitomizes the Chicago school conception: like a classical Greek column, its facade – limestone at the bottom changing to glazed terra-cotta from the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company in Tottenville, Staten Island as the floors rise – is divided into a base, shaft and capital.

During the energy boom of the early 1980s several new skyscrapers were built in downtown Denver including Republic Plaza ( Denver's tallest at 714 ').

His father, a sheet metal worker, helped build the early New York skyscrapers.

A new skyline of concrete and steel skyscrapers swept away much of the old lowrise and often sandstone skyline of early Sydney: Australia Square Tower, constructed in 1967 and designed by modernist architect Harry Seidler became a city landmark, surpassed in 1981 by Sydney Tower (" Centrepoint ") as the tallest building in Sydney at 305m.

However during the advent of early skyscrapers, New York architectural critics warned developers not to exceed the height of the 13th floor.

Major cultural institutions, such as the Chicago Cultural Center, Symphony Center, and the Auditorium Theater are located here, as are many late 19th and early 20th century skyscrapers.

More akin to the early tall American skyscrapers, the Royal Liver Building closely resembles H. H. Richardson's Allegheny Court House ( built in 1884 ) and Adler and Sullivan's Schiller Theatre-with no definitive exterior styling but eclectic references to the Baroque and Byzantine.

In the early 1980s, Dan Goodwin, aka Spider Dan, Skyscraperman, who gained fame for scaling skyscrapers, broke from rock climbing tradition by free soloing without a rope difficult climbs, including the then tallest structure on the planet, the CN Tower, thus opening a new era for skyscraper climbers.

In the early days of oxygen production the biggest use by far for the gas was the oxyacetylene torch, invented in France in 1904, which revolutionized metal cutting and welding in the construction of ships, skyscrapers, and other iron and steel structures.

Design and construction of such towers became widespread in the early 1950s, although many ongoing projects were cancelled in 1955, when regional " skyscrapers " were specifically addressed by Nikita Khrushchev's decree " On liquidation of architectural excesses ..." as unacceptable expense.

Automobile wealth led to a boom in downtown Detroit business, and the construction of a collection of early 20th century skyscrapers.

The booming cities in North America used shovels to dig foundations and basements for the early skyscrapers.

The office's significant skyscrapers were not designed until the late 1910s and early 1920s when, in association with other architects, Hasting's office worked on the Cunard Building ( 1917 – 21 ) and the Standard Oil Building ( 1920 – 28 ), which stand across the street from each other on Broadway at Bowling Green.

Many of Dallas ' major retailers, hotels and banks once located here, and the district includes the city's early skyscrapers.

Many early skyscrapers took the Venetian bell-tower as a logical model for a modern office tower, but 14 Wall Street was the first to top it off with a temple in the sky, a seven-story stepped pyramid modeled on one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

A large setup was on public display at the Atlanta Botanical Garden during the summer and early fall of 2005, including replicas of downtown Atlanta skyscrapers made from wood, bark, and other natural materials.

In the early twentieth-century, downtown was rapidly developing but it did not feature skyscrapers as tall as Chicago and New York.

In fact, cement sidewalks replaced wooden ones in the early 1960s, and the " skyscrapers " of Whitehorse are no taller than four floors ; one three-storey log cabin was built in the 1940s and is known as the log skyscraper, probably not what Service had in mind!