Key Concepts of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

Plato & Aristotle

Ancient philosophers whose ideas on knowledge and government influenced later thought.

The Church & Geocentric Theory

Medieval authority teaching Earth-centered universe (Ptolemy).

Copernicus & Heliocentric Theory

Sun-centered model proposed c. 1543, challenging Church orthodoxy.

Galileo & Newton

Observational astronomer; formulator of laws of motion and universal gravitation.

Francis Bacon & Descartes

Advocates of empirical method; "I think, therefore I am."

Ptolemy

2nd-century geographer who codified the geocentric model.

Locke, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Voltaire

Enlightenment thinkers on government, social contract, separation of powers, and free speech.

Enlightenment

18th-century intellectual movement promoting reason, science, and individual rights.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Early feminist author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).

Natural rights & Divine right

Rights inherent to individuals vs. monarchs' claim to rule by God's will.

Separation of Powers

Montesquieu's idea dividing government into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.