The Scientific Revolution Vocab

Experimental Method

The approach, pioneered by Galileo, that the proper way to explore the workings of the universe was through repeatable experiments rather than speculation.

Reading revolution

The transition in Europe from a society where literacy consisted of patriarchal and communal reading of religious texts to a society where literacy was commonplace and reading material was broad and diverse.

Law of inertia

A law formulated by Galileo that states that motion, not rest, is the natural state of an object, that an object continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force.

Rococo

A popular style in Europe in the eighteenth century, known for its soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits, and starry-eyed lovers protected by hovering cupids.

Natural Philosophy

An early modern term for the study of the nature of the universe, its purpose, and how it functioned; it encompassed what we could call "science" today.

Public sphere

An idealized intellectual space that emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment, where the public came together to discuss important issues relating to society, economics, and politics.

Law of universal gravitation

Newton's law that all objects are attracted to one another and that the force attraction is proportional to the object's quantity of matter and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Copernican Hypothesis

The idea that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.

Enlightenment

The influential intellectual and cultural movement of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that introduced a new world-view based on the use of reason, the scientific method, and progress.

Rationalism

A secular, critical way of thinking in which nothing was to be accepted on faith, and everything was to be submitted to reason.

Empiricism

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

Cartesian dualism

Descartes's view that all of reality could ultimately be reduced to mind and matter.

Salons

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

Enlightened absolutism

Term coined by historians to describe the rule of eighteenth century monarchs who, without renouncing their own absolute authority, adopted Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, progress, and tolerance.

Haskalah

The Jewish Enlightenment of the second half of the eighteenth century, led by the Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

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.