Humanities History Notes

Francis Bacon

created the scientific method

Copernicus

discovered the heliocentric universe

Kepler

discovered the planet’s orbit path is ellipse shaped

Galileo 

materialisticness of stuff in space

Newton

law of gravity

descartes

father of modern philosophy

assert that through reason alone we can dominate the world, led to the belief that faith was not necessary, believed the scientic method can be applied to all walks of life 

What did the scientific revolution thinkers believe? (3 things)

reason, natural law, hope, progress

4 buzz words of the enlightenment

1. popularization of science

2. a new skepticism

3. impact of travel literature

4. legacy of locke and newton

what were the 4 paths to enlightenment?

Kant

encouraged thinking for yourself, defined the enlightenment as “dare to know! have the courage to use your own intelligence!”, felt religion should not be used to determine anything, called people to leave immaturity and seek knowledge

Montesquieu

came up with the idea of the separation of powers and checks and balances, influecned the founding fathers and the constitution, wrote the Spirit of Laws and taught to apply the scientific method to social aspects and politics.

Voltaire

Critic of traditional religion and watned freedom and diversity of religion, caused the French to revolt

Diderot

Attacked Christianity, wrote an encyclopedia and sold it cheap to the masses to spread knowledge 

Rousseau

Believed the will of the whole was best for the individual, basis for participatory democracy, wrote the social contract: harmonize government authority with society

Astell

Argued for female equality in education and marriage

Wollstonecraft 

founder of modern feminism, argued that men and women can both reason so men and women should both have rights

Secularization

the belief that faith cannot have influence over life

Less confrontational, wanted to reform institutions from within, more conservative, change in unersities and libraries

4 ways the protestants changed from the enlightenment

Confrontational, idealistic, radical revolution, publishing of papers and books 

4 ways catholics changed from the enlightenment 

court-based, aristocratic

2 european changes from the enlightenment

social

Netherlands change from Enlightenment

Separation of powers, rights of man, secularism, materialism 

4 things the enlightenment helped form in the US 

Something in us desires worship and when the art creates a vacuum for worship, music fills the vacuum

Why did the music during the enlightement shift to very religious while the rest of culture was shifting away from religion?

france vs britain, colonies fought for Britain, british victory, the colonies were being taxed for the war

what was the french and Indian War?

The enlightenment (franklin and Jefferson), the great awakening (whitfield and Edwards)

2 intellectual currents during the american revolution

How did the enlightenment influence revolution throughout the world?

Enlightenment ideas with no spiritual authority leads to anarchy (french revolution). enlightenment ideas with spiritual authority lead to the American constitution and American revolution.

sugar act and currency act

british taxes on sugar and currency

Stamp act

british tax on stamps, must have revenue stamps on any document 

quartering act

colonists must provide barracks for the troops and feed them

the stamp act is repealed and the declaratory act is put in place. what does this say?

its an unambiguous statement of sovereignty 

Townsend act

british tax on glass, paint, lead, tea

5 americans killed, parliament appeals the townsend act except on tea which leads to the boston tea party

what happened at the boston massacre

coercive and intolerable acts 

parliament controls Boston 

representatives of all colonies meet and express the need to fight britain, they decide to resist the coercive acts and create malitias for people to sign up to fight britain

what happened at the continental congress

the first battle, 3x the amount of British soldiers killed compared to patriots

what happened at the battle of concord

argued that not only should the colonies be their own country but they could (it was their duty), 150,000 copies sold in 3 months 

what was common sense by thomas paine

turning point in the war, french helped the colonists

what happened at the battle of saratoga

the brits surrender, general cornwallis refuses to meet with washington

what happened at the battle of yorktown

sherman, livingston, franklin, Adams, and jefferson (wrote it) 

who were five men in charge of the ideas for the declaration of independence written in 1776?

a press release that explained to britain what america is doing and why they rebelled, listed the kings failings, and was the foundation for american philosophy

what was the declaration of Independence?

union and independent (how does that work?)

all men are created equal (who qualifies as men?) 

what are two things the declaration left unanswered or unclear? 

1. jefferson was a better writer than adams

2. jefferson was better liked than adams

3. jefferson was a virginian (home of enlightenment thinkers such as washington, Monroe, and madison, south was pro slave so if a northerner wrote it it probably wouldnt have been signed)

why did adams tell jefferson to write the declaration of independence?

introduction (why), the philosophical foundation (it is the people’s duty to reform or abolish the government if it is corrupt), transition to grieveances and list of grievances (how the king has been a tyrant), on british people (refusing to help), formal declaration, conclusion

what is the basic layout of the declaration?

the articles of confederation, written in 1777, enacted in 1781, stated that colonies were a convention of states

what was the original government for america called? what were they?

no central government so they couldnt make money because they couldnt tax, no military because they couldnt make money, couldnt pass laws because they required a unanimous vote, no executive branch, no court system

why did the articles of confederation fail?

american citizens rebelled because they were tired of economic instability and there being no rule of law 

what was shay’s rebellion

becuase of shay’s rebellion, representatives from each state met to form a new constitution

how did the constitutional convention form

a compromise of the Virginia plan and new jersey plan resulting in a 2 part congress (house and senate), the house of representatives by population and the senate by state

what was the great compromise?

slaves counted as 3/5ths of a person when determining population of a state 

what was the 3/5ths compromise 

federalists advocated for a strong central government (washington, adams, hamilton) and anti-federalists advocated against a strong central government and stated that the states were strong enough on their own

who are the Federalists and anti federalists?

written after the constitution to convince the poeople to adopt it

what were the federalist papers

listed the rights of the people (first 10 amendments), a compromise to get the federalists and anti federalists on board with the constitution, secured a strong central government while protecting individual rights 

what is the bill of rights

federal system (national government, state government, local government), mixed and balanced government system

what are thwo philosophies behind the constitution

corrupt form is despotism, the pro is that its decisive, the con is that the whole government suffers from one bad decision

corrupt, pro, and con of monarchy

corrupt form is oligarchy, pro is wise, con is slow

corrupt, pro, and con of aristocracy

corrupt form is mob rule, pro is stable/strong, con is inefficient 

corrupt, pro, and con of democracy 

popular sovereignty, limited government, republicannism, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances

6 major ideas in the Constitution

1. declaration of independence

2. articles of confederation

3. constitution

4. bill of rights

4 major documents that define america

5 freedoms (religion, assembly, petition, press, speech), right to bear arms, right to refuse quartering to soldiers, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, establishes the due process of law, more rights of the accused, guarantees trial by jury in a civil law suit, protection from cruel and unusual punishment, says that just becuase some rights are written down it does not mean other rights are denied, if the constitution does not attribute a certain power to the federal government that power is attributed to the state government 

10 bill of rights