The "father of modern philosophy," René Descartes was invited by the Queen of Sweden, in 1649, to become her personal tutor.  What she neglected to mention was that she wanted her daily lessons at 5 in the morning, in winter.  Descartes promptly caught pneumonia -- and died.  But before his demise he managed to develop an entirely new way of thinking about the physical world, one dramatically at odds with the reigning Aristotelian-Christian worldview.  Modern philosophy had been born, and there was no turning back.