Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment Key Terms

Margaret Cavendish

educated scientist and astronomer; excluded from English Royal Society, regardless of her many accomplishments; wrote several books contrasting her knowledge with the knowledge of other scientists; Critical of the growing belief that humans could master nature

Maria Merian

Entomologist who's most influential work was illustrating the reproductive and developmental cycles of Suriname's insect life; Challenged the stereotypical image of women at the time by becoming an important figure in entomology

Maria Winklemann

Married to Gottfried Kirch (Germany's foremost astronomer) discovered a comet; rejected by Berlin Academy soley on the premise that she was a woman

René Descartes

French philosopher known as the father of modern day rationalism; Believed in the separation of mind and matter; mathematics can be used to understand all aspects of the material world because it is pure mechanism; still believed God created everything

rationalism

the assertion that said one can accept only those things that his reason said were true; allowed scientists to view matter as something that could be investigated independently using reason.

deductive reasoning

urged scientists to proceed from the small stuff to the more general concepts; From carefully organized experiments and thorough, systematic observations, correct generalizations could be developed.

scientific method

began with systematic observations and experiments, which were used to arrive at general concepts. New deductions derived from these general concepts could then be tested and verified by precise experiments; answers question of HOW something works not why which allowed religion to retain its central importance; Newton synthesized Bacon's empiricism with Descartes's rationalism.

Scientific Revolution

From the 16th-17th century, people were starting to do analysis to systematic observations of the natural world. It was an age of questioning the ancient world of writers such as Aristotle and Ptolemy & opted for reason through literature and math & science developments as well as technology.

Questioning of the ancients

Ever since medieval times, scholars have used philosophers such as Aristotle, Galen, and Ptolemy in fields of physics, medicine, and astronomy, but Renaissance humanists start to question these ideas and started to contradict and correct them.

Geocentric conception

Because of Ptolemy, the greatest astronomer of antiquity, there were the ideas that the universe had a series of concentric spheres with a fixed earth as its center. Spheres made of crystalline & moved in circular orbits. There were heavenly bodies, and the other planets were nonmaterial.

Copernicus

Mathematician & astronomer. Thought the Ptolemaic was too complicated, hence created the heliocentric model. Got attacked by Protestants of the time due to the contradiction to Scripture with God invisible & no clear human role in the universe.

Heliocentric Conception

Heliocentric conception is the conception that the sun is in the center, rather than the earth. It is fixed & surrounded by 8 spheres. The movement of the sun & the fixed stars are explained because of the earth's daily rotation.

Questioning of the Church

Because of Copernicus (and furthermore Galileo), many started to question the church, but the church started to condemn them when Martin Luther told them it was a contradiction to Scripture. It was said to have contradicted Joshua when the sun stood still & not the earth.

Tycho Brahe

Brahe built the Uraniborg Castle, where he was able to do conduct precise astronomical observations. He observed the positions & movement of the stars & planets. His data caused him to reject the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system as well as Copernicus's suggestion of earth's movement.

Johannes Kepler

Studies math and astronomy but was an avid astrologer who was interested in Hermetic magic. Basis of geometric figures & human soul mirroring numerical relationships between planets. Created the three laws of planetary motion.

Natural Rights

the idea that all humans are born with rights, which include the right to life, liberty, and property

Philosophe

one of a group of social thinkers in France during the Enlightenment

Montesquieu

French political philosopher who advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers (1689-1755)

Deism

A popular Enlightenment era belief that there is a God, but that God isn't involved in people's lives or in revealing truths to prophets.

Diderot's Encyclopedia

spread Enlightenment ideas to educated people all over the world

political thoughts of Locke

Wrote Two Treatises of Government. Said human nature lived free and had the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. He said government was created in order to protect these rights and if the government failed to do so it was the duty of the people to rebel.

Voltaire challenges religion - religious toleration

Aversion to Christianity, intolerance, and tyranny, argued for religious tolerance and freedom of thought, wanted to end priestly and aristocratic-monarchial authority, supported constitutional monarchy that protected people's rights

Diderot challenges religion - religious toleration

Was atheist, went through a religious crisis, critiqued religion, advocated for freedom of religion

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Used telescope → sees imperfect moon → humans on earth no longer center, Heaven now a world of matter, God no longer in a specific place → forced to recant before Roman Inquisition = house arrest

Galen

Disease = imbalance of 4 bodily humors (blood,yellow side, phlegm, black bile). Challenged by Harvey, Paracelsus and Vesalius. Galen = blood from liver → Vesalius = blood from heart. Galen = body worked on separate blood systems → same blood flows in veins and arteries from heart

Paracelsus

Philippus Aureolus → Paracelsus (greater than Celsus). believed human being was replica of small world. Recognized new drugs → father of medicine

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)

Used personal dissection of human body to examine structure of human body and corrected Galen's errors

William Harvey (1578-1657)

Studied blood circulation and found that the heart was the beginning of blood circulation not liver

Isaac Newton

Plague closed Cambridge → apple falls → discover gravity → explains all motion → Newton's three laws of motion

Rousseau's ideas regarding reason and emotion

Rousseau emphasized the role of natural emotion based on love and compassion in the choice and will of the people, advocating that people should control and obey their own emotions.

Rousseau's thoughts on women

Rousseau thought that women were naturally inferior and because of this they were destined to live a life and a house taking care of the babies making babies and taking care of their family

salons

gatherings in which intellectual and political ideas were exchanged during the Enlightenment normally in homes and run by women of the house

Laissez-faire

Policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy.

Adam Smith challenges mercantilism

In his inquiry The Wealth of Nations Smith presented a strong attack on mercantilism condemning the use of tariffs and supporting free trade

political thoughts of Rousseau

Political philosophy explains how man in the state of nature is blessed with enviable total freedom. Rousseau believed good government must have freedom to be successful

The "woman's question"

Term for debate about the intellectual capabilities of women and the extent to which they should participate in nontraditional endeavors

Mary Wollstonecraft

English writer and early feminist who denied male supremacy and advocated equal education for women debate with Rosseau

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a lawyer and lord chancellor, rejected Copernicus and Kepler and misunderstood Galileo. Unfinished work= The Great Instauration→called for his contemporaries ''to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and all human knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations.'' Didn't doubt humans' ability to know the natural world, but he believed that they had proceeded incorrectly

inductive reasoning

foundational concept in the development of the scientific method. Bacon advocated for a systematic approach to scientific inquiry that emphasized observation and experimentation over purely deductive reasoning, which was more common in classical philosophy.

Empiricism

a philosophical approach that emphasized knowledge derived from sensory experience and observation. Bacon is often regarded as one of the early proponents of empiricism, advocating for the importance of experimentation and evidence in the acquisition of knowledge.

descartes & deductive reasoning

Mind & body are separate

Father modern rationalism = use of mind, reason & logic, & math

Start with self-evident truths & deduce more complex conclusions

English & French Societies

English= Royal Society founded in London, aimed to promote scientific research. Shared knowledge through meetings and journals. Prominent members= Isaac Newton. The society established rigorous standards for experimentation and observation, contributing significantly to the development of the scientific method.

Opposition to new science

The tensions between new scientific ideas and established beliefs ultimately contributed to the evolution of scientific thought and the gradual shift toward a more empirical, experimental approach to understanding the natural world. Opposed by religious institutions, aristotellian philosophy, politics, intellects from intellectual renaissance, public skepticism, & lack of empirical evidence

Enlightenment

A movement in the 18th century that advocated the use of reason in the reappraisal of accepted ideas and social institutions.

skepticism

A philosophy which suggests that nothing can ever be known for certain.

Madame Geoffrin

One of the leading females during Enlightenment. Had the most famous salon. Godmother of encyclopedia