Ap Euro Chapter 16 Notes

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 would 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.

Copernican hypothesis

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

Rationalism

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

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.

Enlightenment

A movement in the 18th century that advocated the use of reason in the reappraisal of accepted ideas and social institutions.

Haskalah

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

Salon

Informal social gatherings at which writers, artists, philosophes, and others exchanged ideas

Empricism

the view that (a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and (b) science flourishes through observation and experiment.

Law of Inertia

A law formulated by Galileo that 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.

experimental method

A method of investigation used to demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships by purposely manipulating one factor thought to produce change in another factor.

Cartesian Dualism

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

Rococo

Very elaborate and ornate (in decorating or metaphorically, as in speech and writing); relating to a highly ornate style of art and architecture in 18th-century France

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.

philosophes

Writers during the Enlightenment and who popularized the new ideas of the time.

Enlightened Absolutism

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

law of universal gravitation

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