The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

Flashcards for reviewing the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.

The Scientific Revolution

A period in European history when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, and other sciences developed.

Printing Press

Spread ideas quickly during the Scientific Revolution.

Science

Originally called “natural philosophy,” it was based in religion and a simple understanding of the world.

Inductive Reasoning

Making simple, specific observations to make large generalizations about the world around them

Francis Bacon

Considered the father of scientific experimentation, he championed innovation and change.

Deductive Method

Replaced the Inductive Method. It starts with a few true statements (axioms) with the goal of proving many true statements (theorems) that logically follow from them.

René Descartes

Rejected scholastic philosophy in favor of mathematical models; 'I think therefore I am'.

Isaac Newton

Discovered laws of gravity; all physical objects in the universe move through mutual attraction.

Geocentric

The view that the earth is at the center of the universe.

Heliocentric

The view that the sun is at the center of the solar system.

Johannes Kepler

Advocated for the Copernican view and figured out planets move in elliptical orbits.

Galileo Galilei

Early practitioner of the experimental method and high-profile Copernican advocate.

Public opinion

The collective effect on political and social life of views discussed in various settings.

Paracelsus

Rejected Aristotle & Galen; chemical philosophy based on observation & experimentation

Scientific Revolution

The idea that reason & experimentation were emphasized as the key to gaining knowledge and could be applied to the study of society/law.

Rationalism

Humans have the ability to understand the world through reason.

Empiricism

Human knowledge comes through the senses and experience.

Deism

God created the universe & then stepped back & left it running like a clock.

Atheism

Complete rejection of God and religion.

Skepticism

Human reason not sufficient to prove the existence of God; religion corrupts people.

Methodism

Emerges from Anglicanism; personal experience with God; anyone can experience salvation.

Thomas Hobbes

Motivated by the English Civil War, this person wrote Leviathan.

Locke’s Social Contract

Government was responsible for and should be responsive to the governed; humans have reason and goodwill.

Tabula Rasa

Blank Slate; people are not born good or bad but are motivated by self-interest.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Rejected extreme individualism and stressed the role of the individual as a member of society.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, defending equality of women with men based on human reason.

Voltaire

Wrote satire and praised the British for their freedoms; enlightened despotism & deist.

The Encyclopedia

Edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, it aimed to secularize learning.

Montesquieu

Believed in separation of powers so one part of the government would not be completely in control.

Beccaria

Spoke out against torture and capital punishment; purpose of punishment should be to deter further crimes.

Adam Smith

Wrote Wealth of Nations (1776); capitalism and laissez-faire economics.