The Enlightenment (1750-1900)

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from a lecture on the Enlightenment period (1750-1900).

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement that applied new ways of understanding, such as rationalism and empiricism, both to the natural world and to human relationships.

Rationalism

Argued that reason, rather than emotion or any external authority, is the most reliable source of true knowledge.

Empiricism

The idea that true knowledge is gained through the senses, mainly through rigorous experimentation.

Scientific Revolution

Scientists rejected biblical and religious authority and used reason to discover how the world works.

Enlightenment and Religion

The questioning and reexamination of the role of religion in public life.

Deism

Believed in a god that created all things but no longer intervenes in the created order.

Atheism

A complete rejection of religious belief and any notion of a divine being.

Individualism

The most basic element of society was the individual human and not collective groups.

Natural Rights

Individual humans are born with certain rights that cannot be infringed upon by governments or any other entity.

Social Contract

Human societies must construct governments of their own will to protect their natural rights; if the government becomes tyrannical, the people have the right to overthrow it.

Nationalism

A sense of commonality among a people based on shared language, religion, and social customs, often linked with a desire for territory.

Suffrage

The right to vote.

Serfs

Peasants bound in coerced labor/ bound to land