Chapter 19

Law of Universal Gravitation

Newtons law that all objects are attracted to one another and that the force of attraction is proportional to the objects quantity of matter.

General Will

A concept associated with Rousseau, referring to the common interests of all the people, who have replaced the power of the monarch

Philosiphies

A group of French intellectuals who proclaimed that they were bringing the light of knowledge to their fellow creatures in the Age of Enlightenment

Haskalah

A jewish enlightenment movement led by Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn

Law of Intertia

A law formulated by Galileo stating that motion, not rest is the natural state of an object

Economic Liberalism

Adam Smith theory that the pursuit of self interest in a competitive market suffices to improve living conditions, rendering government intervention unnecessary and undesirable.

Cottage industry

Manufacturing with hand tools in peasant cottages and work sheds, a form of economic activity that became important in the 18th Europe

Enclosures

The conterverisal process of fencing off common land to created privately owned fields that increased agricultural production at the cost of reducing poor farmers access to land.

Copernican Hypothesis

The sun, not the earth is the center of the earth

Empiricism

a theory of inductive reasoning that calls for acquiring evidence through observation and experimentation rather than reason and speculation

Public Sphere

An Idealized intellectual space that emerged in Europe during the enlightenment. Here, the public came together to discuss important social, economic and political issues.

Sensationalism

An idea espoused by John Locke that all human ideas and thoughts are produced as a result of sensory impression

Enlightienment

An interllectual and cultural movement in late seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe and its colonies that used rational and critical thinking.

Deism

Belief in a distant, nonintervention deity, shared by many Enlightenment thinkers.

calson

Regular social gatherings held by talented and rich parisian women in their homes, where philosophers and their followers met to discuss literature, science and philosophy.

Enlightened Absolutism

Term coined by historians to desribe the rule of 18th century monarchs who without renouncing their own absolute authority