Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment Study Guide

A vocabulary flashcard set reviewing the Scientific Revolution, key Enlightenment philosophes, Enlightened Despots, and their influence on early American founding documents.

Scientific Method

A method that shifted reliance away from ancient religious texts and traditional doctrine toward empirical observation, experimentation, and mathematical proof.

Geocentric Model

A model of the universe that places Earth at the center with everything orbiting it.

Heliocentric Model

A model of the universe that places the Sun at the center with Earth and other planets orbiting it.

Galileo Galilei

The scientist who used a telescope to observe Jupiter's moons and craters on the Moon.

Thomas Hobbes

A philosophe who believed human nature is inherently self-interested, requiring a strong central government or absolute monarchy to establish order.

John Locke

A philosophe who wrote Two Treatises of Government, arguing that humans are born with natural rights (life, liberty, and property) and that government authority comes from the consent of the governed.

Baron de Montesquieu

A philosophe who warned against tyranny and advocated for the separation of government powers into three branches with a system of checks and balances.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A philosophe who emphasized the 'General Will' and direct democracy, believing that true laws express the collective will of all citizens.

Voltaire

A philosophe who championed religious tolerance and the protection of free speech and open debate.

Denis Diderot

The editor who compiled the 28-volume Encyclopédie to democratize information and combat ignorance and censorship.

Mary Wollstonecraft

An advocate for gender equality who argued that education was the key for women to gain independence.

Cesare Beccaria

An Enlightenment thinker who called for a ban on cruel and unusual punishment and guaranteed the right to a fair trial.

Adam Smith

An economist who promoted laissez-faire capitalism, where the government keeps its hands off the economy.

Laissez-faire

An economic system promoted by Adam Smith where the government keeps off the economy.

Enlightened Despots

Absolute monarchs who embraced Enlightenment ideas to modernize their states, but refused to give up total monarchical power, often maintaining serfdom or power structures favoring the nobility.

Frederick the Great (Frederick II)

An Enlightened Despot who called himself the 'First Servant of the State' and granted religious freedom, but kept serfdom.

Joseph II

A radical reformer and Enlightened Despot who established religious toleration and abolished serfdom entirely, though his reforms were later reversed.

Catherine the Great

An Enlightened Despot who exchanged letters with Voltaire, but ultimately expanded the power of the nobility.

Declaration of Independence (1776)

An American founding document that directly mirrors John Locke's ideas of natural rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) and the social contract.

U.S. Constitution (1787)

An American document implementing Montesquieu's separation of powers by explicitly dividing government into three branches: Legislative (Congress), Executive (President), and Judicial (Supreme Court).

First Amendment

A constitutional amendment protecting free speech, freedom of the press, and religious exercise (reflecting Voltaire), as well as the right to petition the government (connecting to Locke).

Fifth and Eighth Amendments

Constitutional amendments reflecting Beccaria's influence through the ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the right to a fair trial.