. Scientific Revoultion and
_Enlightenment
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Adam Smith: Scottish political economist and philosopher. His
. Wealth of Nations (1776) laid the foundations of free-market
economic theory (the forces of supply and demand and
competition would make the economy run) and said the
government should not interfere (laissez-fairs)
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Baron de Montesquieu:
French aristocrat who wanted to limit
royal absolutism; Wrote The Spirit of Laws, urging that power be
separated between executive, legislative, and judicial branches,
each balancing out the others, thus preventing despotism
(absolute power by one king) and preserving freedom. This
greatly influenced writers of the US Constitution.
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Beccaria: wrote the essay "On Crimes and Punishments",
believed punishments should serve only as deterrents, not
exercises of brutality, opposed capital punishment
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Deism: The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s). Followers
believed that God was like a mechanic; He existed and had
created the world, but that afterwards He left itto run by its own
natural laws without interference.
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Denis Diderot: philosophe who created a large set of books to
'. which many leading scholars of Europe contributed articles &
essays; he called it "Encyclopedia" & began publishing first
volumes in 1751; the "Encyclopedia" helped spread
Enlightenment ideas to educate people all over Europe
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau:
(1712-1778) French writer and
Enlightenment philosopher who wrote a book called, The Social
Contract, where he stated that people were basically good, and
that society, and its unequal distribution of wealth, were the
cause of most problems. Rousseau believed that government
should be run according to the will of the majority, which he
called the General Will. He claimed that the General Will would
always act in the best interest of the people.
John Locke: 17th century English philosopher who said
everyone was born with a blank mind and were molded by their
experiences believed and that all knowledge is derived from
sensory experience
John Wesley: Anglican minister; created religious movement,
Methodism (Methodists); led to become missionary to the
English people; apealed especialy to lower class; his Methodism
gave lower and middle classes in English society a sense of
purpose and comunity
9. Laissez-faire:
idea that government should playas small a role
as possible in economic affairs; that they shouldn't intervene
much and should instead let the people do. French for "to let do"
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MaryWollston.ecraft:
British feminist of the eighteenth
century who argued for women's equality with men, even in
voting, in her 1792 "Vindication of the Rights of Women. "
philosophe:
Intellectual thinkerin the Age of Enlightenment,
means "philosopher"
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salon: elegant sitting room where guests ar~ received and where
the wealthy held social gatherings of intellectuals and artists in
European cities during the Enlightenment.
separation
ofpowers:
Constitutional division of powers
among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the
legislative branch making law, the executive applying and
enforcing the law, and the judiciary interpreting the law.
Branches limit and control each other in a system of checks and
balances.
14. 'social contract:
an agreement between a people and their
government, stating that people would give up some of their
freedom and in return, their government would provide them
with peace, security, and order
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Voltaire: he was highly critical of organized religion because he
thought that it corrupted people, but he argued for freedom of
religion; in addition, he was a champion of freedom ofspeech,
saying "I do not believe in a word you say, but I defend to the
death your right to say it," as well as a deist
Andreas Vesalius: physician who published the first accurate
and detailed study of human anatomy physician who published
one of the first accurate and detailed studies ofhuman anatomy.
His book "On the Fabric of the Human Body" (1543) was based
on human dissections.
Francis Bacon: English philosopher who developed scientific
method; believed that instead ofrelying on the ideas of ancient
authorites, scientists should use inductive reasoning to learn
about nature
Galileo Galilei: discovered that heavenly bodies were solids, not
light; used a telescope to discover mountains on Earth's moon
and four moons around Jupiter; he published his findings and
the Catholic Church ordered him to abandon his ideas
Geocentric theory: the system of planetary motion that places
the Earth at the center of the universe, with the Sun, Moon, and
other planets revolving around the Earth.
Heliocentric
theory: the system of the universe proposed in
1543 by Nicholas Copernicus, who argued that the Earth and the
planets revolved around the Sun
inductive reasoning:
A type oflogic in which generalizations
are based on a large number of specific observations. (all the ice
we have examined is cold so therefore all ice is cold)
Isaac Newton: Built upon the earlier work of Copernicus and
Galileo and used mathematics to describe gravity as the force that
keeps planets revolving around the sun. He also explained that
this same force is what causes objects to fall to earth.
J ohan Kepler: German astronomer who confirmed that the 8m1
was the center of the universe and added that the orbits Op;-,(;;
planets were eliptical (egg-shaped) not circular.
Margaret Cavendish:
One of the most prominent female
scientists of the 17th century. She wrote a number of books en
scientific matters, including Observations Upon Experimental
Philosophy (which was critical of the growing belief that
humans, through science, were the masters of nature)