Unit 5a Vocab

Scientific Revolution

Intellectual and cultural transformation; shaped a new conception of the material world between 1500s to 1700s (Europe); instead of relying on the authority of religion, leading figures believed that knowledge was acquired through rational inquiry based on evidence (product of human minds alone)

Scientific Rev. Scientists

• Copernicus (Poland)

• Galileo (Italy)

• Descartes (France)

• Newton (England)

Corporation

collective group of people; treated as a unit (w/ certain rights to regulate and control its own members)

Europe’s legal revolution was based on this term.

“neutral zones of intellectual autonomy”

Universities in Europe; where scholars could pursue their studies with relative freedom.

Madrassas

Islamic universities; based on the teachings of Quran

(very different compared to European universities)

Copernicus

Polish scientist; First to argue (1543) about the idea of a sun-centric system; sparked the S.R.

Famous book: “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”

Kepler

German mathematician; showed how planets orbited in a elliptical orbit, not perfectly (nor divine-like)

Galileo

Italian scientist; dev. a better telescope that questioned the cosmos

Famous Books:

• The Starry Messenger

• Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Newton

English scientist; created laws of motion that became the culmination of S.R.

Main core: universal gravitation

Descartes

French philosopher; agreed w the understanding that the universe could be explained through human reason alone.