Enlightenment and Revolution, Ch. 6 World History Vocabulary

Nicolas Copernicus - a Renaissance astronomer, priest and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.

Scientific Revolution – a major change in European thought, starting in the mid-1500’s in which the study of the natural world began to be characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

heliocentric theory – the idea that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun.

Johannes Kepler - German astronomer who first used mathematics to prove the laws of planetary motion. He sowed that the planes revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits instead of circles.

Galileo Galilei – Italian scientist who invented the telescope and contradicted several of Aristltles ideas, including the law of the pendulum, the rate of falling objects, and the surface of the moon. He got in trouble with the church for defending the ideas of Copernicus..

scientific method – a logical procedure for gathering information about the natural world, in which experimentation and observation are used to test hypotheses.

Francis Bacon – English politician and writer who urged scientists to use experimentation to reach conclusions.

Rene Descartes - French scientist who developed analytical geometry, which linked algebra and geometry.

Isaac Newton – English scientist who worked out laws for the motion of the planet around the sun, the law of universal grvitaion..

Enlightenment – an 18th century European movement in which thinkers attempted to apply the principles of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of society.

social contract – the agreement by which people define and limit their individual rights, thus creating an organized society or government.

John Locke - Held a positive view of human nature, that people have natural rights and that citizens have the right to overthrow a government that doesn't protect those rights.

natural rights – the rights that all people are born with – the rights of life, liberty, and property.

plilosophe – one of a group of social thinkers in France during the Enlightenment.

Voltaire - Used satire against his opponents, he mocked the laws and customs of France. He fought for tolerance, freedom and freedom of religious belief.

Montesquieu - He believed in political liberty and separation of powers.

separation of powers – the assignment of executive, legislative, and judicial powers to different groups of officials in a government.

Jean Jacques Rousseau - Comitted to individual freedom, believed in a direct democracy and that all people should be equal.

Mary Wolstonecraft - Believed in women's equality and argued for women's education and their right to participate in plitics.

salon – a social gathering of intellectuals and artists, like those held in the homes of wealthy women in Paris and other European cities during the Enlightenment.

baroque – relating to a grand, ornate style that characterized European painting, music, and architecture I the 1600’s and early 1700’s.

neoclassical – relating to a simple, elegant style (based on ideas and themes from ancient Greece and Rome) that characterized the arts in Europe during the late 1700’s.

enlightened despot – one of the 18th –century European monarchs who were inspired by Enlightenment ideas to rule justly and respect the rights of their subjects.

Catherine the Great - well educated ruler of Russia who tried to modernize and reform Russia based on enlightenment thinkers ideas.

Declaration of Independence – a statement of the reasons for the American colonies’ break with Britain, approved by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.

Thomas Jefferson - wrote the Declaration of Independence based on teh ideas of John Locke and the enlightenment.

checks and balances – measures designed to prevent any one branch of government from dominating the others.

federal system - a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and a number of individual states.

Bill of Rights – the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ basic rights and freedoms.

Thomas Hobbes - Viewed humans as naturally selfish and wicked and he believed government should have an absolute ruler to keep citizens under control.