Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Modern Philosophy Review

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards derived from lecture notes spanning Renaissance origins, the development of humanism, the scientific revolution, and the shift into modern Rationalism and Empiricism.

Studia Humanitatis

A Renaissance field of study encompassing rhetoric, poetics, philosophy, and law.

Humanitas

A concept tied to the Greek Paideia, referring to the integral formation of the individual.

Geisteswissenschaften

A term introduced by Dilthey in the $19^{th}$ century referring to the human sciences or humanities.

Bildung

A German term used to describe the process of individual formation or building oneself.

Artifex (Artífice)

A term for a 'maker' or 'creator,' contrasted with the minister; in the Renaissance, God is viewed as the ultimate Artifex.

Docta Ignorantia

A concept from Nicholas of Cusa (1440) describing the 'learned ignorance' resulting from the structural disproportion between finite human knowledge and the infinite.

Quiditas (Quidditas)

A term referring to the essence or 'whatness' of a being.

Scientific Revolution

The period between the $16^{th}$ and $18^{th}$ centuries characterized by a new type of public, controllable, and progressive knowledge based on experimental and mathematical models.

Hermeticism

A tradition based on the Corpus Hermeticum and Hermes Trismegistus, involving alchemy and occultism.

Demiurge

A creative intelligence mentioned in Plato's 'Timaeus' as the maker of the world.

Arete

The Greek concept of virtue or excellence.

Patristics

Early Christian philosophy divided into the Apostolic stage (focused on disclosure) and the Apologetic stage (focused on defense).

Malleus Maleficarum

A treatise on witchcraft published in 1486, following the establishment of the Christian Inquisition in 1184.

Political Realism

A conception of politics practiced by Machiavelli, separate from traditional morality and religion, evaluating governance based on efficacy and the stability of power.

Utopia

A model of political organization, such as that described by Thomas More (1516), seeking a perfect society based on reason, justice, and the common good.

Sovereignty

As defined by Jean Bodin, it is the absolute and perpetual power of the State.

Que sais-je?

The motto of Michel de Montaigne, expressing skepticism regarding human knowledge and possibilities.

Cogito ergo sum

Descartes' fundamental principle: 'I think, therefore I am,' establishing the thinking self as the foundation of knowledge.

Res cogitans

One of Descartes' substances, referring to innate ideas and the thinking mind.

Res extensa

One of Descartes' substances, referring to adventitious ideas and physical matter.

Res divina

In Cartesian philosophy, the substance representing God.

Novum Organum

A work by Francis Bacon (1620) critiquing classical knowledge and proposing that science should be applied to industry for the improvement of life.

Induction

A scientific method associated with Empiricism that moves from the specific to the general.

Idea (Locke)

According to Locke, everything that the spirit perceives in itself or is the immediate object of perception, thought, or intellect.

Person (Locke)

A thinking being that considers itself as the same thinking thing in different times and places, made possible only by consciousness.