AP European History Chapter Sixteen

Frederick II

"Frederick The Great", King of Prussia, aggressive in foreign affairs. Used military to increase power. Encouraged religious tolerance and legal reform

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher of Enlightenment who separated science and morality into separate branches of knowledge, science could describe nature, posed the question "What is Enlightenment?"

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A French man who believed that human beings are naturally good and free and can rely on their instincts. Government should exist to protect common good, and be a democracy

Nicolaus Copernicus

A Polish astronomer who proved that the Ptolemaic system was inaccurate, he proposed the theory that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system

Rationalism

A belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response

Philosophes

A group of French "radicals" who focused on human reason and making critical changes in society, proclaimed they brought light to the knowledge of their fellow humans

Encyclopedia

a book giving information on many subjects or on many aspects of one subject and typically arranged alphabetically

Enlightenment

a movement that emphasized science and reason as guides to help see the world more clearly to advocated the use of reason in the reappraisal of accepted ideas and social institutions

Salon

a social gathering of intellectuals and artists

Enlightened Absolutism

a system in which rulers tried to govern by Enlightenment principles while maintaining their full royal powers

Rousseau's Social Contract

contained the concepts of general will and popular sovereignty, citizens transfer their rights to the community in return for security of life and property: everyone is dependent of everybody

Francis Bacon

developed the scientific method

Robert Boyle

founder of modern chemistry, famous for Boyle's law, undertook experiments to discover the basic elements of nature

Royal Society

met weekly to conduct experiments and discuss latest findings of scholars across Europe

Joseph II

the ruler of the Habsburgs that controlled the Catholic Church closely, granted religious toleration and civic rights to Protestants and Jews, and abolished serfdom; son of Maria Teresa and a enlightened despot who ruled over the Austrian Empire

Law of Universal Gravitation

the scientific law that states that every object in the universe attracts every other object

Empiricism

the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation

Rococo

very highly ornamented; excessively ornate

Seven Years War

worldwide struggle between France and Great Britain for power and control of land

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

written by Nicholas Copernicus discussing his opinions on our solar system

Aristotle

Greek philosopher. The author of works on logic, metaphysics, ethics, natural sciences, politics, and poetics, he profoundly influenced Western thought

Galileo Galilei

Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first to use a telescope to study the stars

Adam Smith

Scottish economist who wrote the Wealth of Nations a precursor to modern Capitalism

David Hume

Scottish philosopher whose sceptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses

Cartesian Dualism

Separation of mind and matter, allowed something to be investigated independently by reason

Pierre Bayle

Skeptic and French Huguenot who concluded that nothing can be known beyond all doubt, believed in open minded toleration

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, and scientist who rejected the work of Aristotle and Galen and attacked universities. He followed a chemical philosophy that a human was a small replica of the larger world. He used chemical remedies that went for each sickness, He is associated with diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Maria Theresa

Austrian empress who unified her nation after her father's death

Cesare Beccaria

Author of Of Crime and Punishment. He attacked both torture and capital punishment. He believed criminal justice should ensure speedy trial and sure punishment which was intended to deter further crime. Law was to secure the greatest good for the greatest number of human beings

Pope Urban VIII

Banned Galileo's book as heresy and demanded that Galileo stand on trial

Andrew Vesalius

Belgian doctor who was the founder of the modern human anatomy

Issac Newton

British scientist who defined the laws of motion, discovered gravity, experimented with optics, invented differential calculus and wrote "Principia"

Johannes Kepler

Created the laws of planetary motion

Tycho Brahe

Danish astronomer who collected data to prove that Copernicus was correct

Catherine the Great

Empress of Russia who greatly increased the territory of the empire

John Locke

English philosopher who advocated the idea of a "social contract" in which government powers are derived from the consent of the governed and in which the government serves the people; also said people have natural rights to life, liberty and property.

William Harvey

English physician and scientist who described the circulation of the blood

Voltaire

French philosopher and writer whose works epitomize the Age of Enlightenment, often attacking injustice and intolerance; a reformer in politics whose philosophical and religious positions were radical

Rene Descartes

French philosopher who wrote Discourse on Method; 1st principle "i think therefore i am"; believed mind and matter were completely separate; known as father of modern rationalism; saw that there was a correspondence between geometry and algebra

Montesquieu

French political philosopher who advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers

Ptolemy

His ideas on science influenced Muslim and European scholars from Roman times until the Scientific Revolution. He was a Greco-Roman writer famous as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet

Pugachev Rebellion

Led by Cossack Emelian Pugachev who claimed to be legitimate tsar, rebelled against Catherine's intentions of reformation

Denis Diderot

Philosopher who edited a book called the Encyclopedia which was banned by the French king and pope

Experimental Method

The proper way to explore the workings of the universe was through repeatable experiments rather than speculation.

Natural Philosophy

The scientific study of nature, which developed, especially in Europe, in the later Middle Ages

Cameralism

View that monarchy was the best form of government, that all elements of society should serve the monarch, and that, in turn, the state should use its resources and authority to increase the public good

Principia Mathematica

Written by Sir Issac Newton, it was filled with contributions to many areas of science, and included the three well-known laws of motion.

War of Austrian Succession

series of wars in which various European nations competed for power in Central Europe after the death of Hapsburg emperor Charles VI

Law of Inertia

states that motion, not rest, is the natural state of an object, and that an object continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force. Also known as Newton's First Law