AP Euro Chapter 17
What was the fundamental goal of the Encyclopedia, according to its editor?
"Change the general way of thinking."
Copernicus's theory of the universe postulated what about the universe?
A sun-centered view of the universe.
What did Pierre Bayle demonstrate in Historical and Critical Dictionary?
All knowledge can be questioned and doubted.
Copernican Hypothesis
The idea that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.
What did the Baron de Montesquieu use to symbolize Eastern political tyranny in Persian Letters?
The oppression of women in Prussian harem.
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.
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.
Law of Universal Gravitation
Newton's law that all objects are attracted to one another and that the force of attraction is proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Johannes Kepler believed that the elliptical orbit of the planets did what?
Produced a musical harmony of heavenly bodies.
How did philosophes evade the work of censors?
They filled their writing with satire and double meanings.
What was the primary goal of Galileo's experimental method?
To discover what did occur in nature rather than to speculate on what should occur.
What was the primary purpose of Fontenelle's Conversations on the Plurality of the Worlds (1686)?
To popularize the findings of the scientific revolution.
How did Catherine the Great of Russia come to power in 1762?
A military coup.
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.
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.
What does the idea of public sphere, that emerged during the Enlightenment refer to?
An idealized space where individuals gathered to discuss social and political issues.
How did Isaac Newton's law of gravity bring the Scientific Revolution to maturity?
Newton synthesized mathematics with physics and astronomy to demonstrate that the entire universe was unified into one coherent system.
Philosophes
A group of French intellectuals who proclaimed that they were bringing the light of knowledge to their fellow creatures in the Age of Enlightenment.
Rationalism
A secular, critical way of thinking in which nothing was to be accepted on faith, and everything was to be submitted to reason.
Francis Bacon formalized the research methods of Tycho Brahe and Galileo into a theory of reasoning known as what?
Empiricism.
How did the Enlightenment thinkers differ from those of the Middle Ages and Renaissance?
Enlightenment thinkers believed that thought had progressed far beyond that of antiquity, which demonstrated possibility of human progress.
How did the idea of "race" transform Europeans' idea of their superiority over other peoples?
European superiority increasingly was defined as biologically superior as well as culturally superior.
In john Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, what did he claim?
Human development is determined by education and society.
What four items correctly characterize the role of women in the new science?
In Italy, universities offered positions to women, women were well involved in informal scientific communities, attending salons and participating in scientific experiments, most new academics that furnished professional credentials did not accept female members, women worked as illustrators and model makers.
Which powers participated in the partitioning of Poland in the late eighteenth century?
Prussia, Russia, and Austria.
What correctly characterizes the response of various religious perspectives to Copernicus' hypothesis?
Calvin and Luther condemned Copernicus, while Catholic reaction was mild at first and only declared his hypothesis false in the seventeenth century.
Cartesian Dualism
Descartes's view that all of reality could be ultimately reduced to mind and matter.
The enlightenment policies of Frederick II of Prussia included what four items?
Freeing the Persian serfs.
The Enlightenment reached its highest development in France in what four areas?
French was the international language of the educated classes, France was the largest and most populous country in Europe, French intellectuals had more freedoms than those in Eastern and East-Central Europe.
What change within the Jewish community accompanied the Haskalah Enlightenment movement?
Increased interactions with Christians occurred as rabbinic controls diminished.
A striking feature of the salons was that they were often sponsored by?
Philosophes, nobles, and members of the upper middle class intermingled.
Why did scientists find that Protestant countries were more conducive to their work especially after 1640?
Protestant countries generally lacked a strong religious authority capable of censoring or suppressing scientific work that challenged religious doctrine.
What did Empress Maria Theresa do to improve the rural economy and the lives of peasants?
Reduced nobles' power over their serfs.
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.
Soft pastels, ornate interiors, and sentimental portraits are all characteristics of the style known as?
Rococo.
How did the governments respond to the new science?
States established academies of science to support and sometimes direct scientific research.
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.
The most influential aspect of Rene Descartes' theories of nature was?
That the universe functions in a mechanistic fashion.
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.
What was the most important and original core concept of the Enlightenment?
The methods of natural science should be used to examine all aspects of life.
How did the scientific revolution affect the economy in the seventeenth century?
The science had few practical applications.
What does Rousseau's concept of the general will assert?
The authentic, long—term needs of the people can be correctly interpreted by a far-seeing minority.
The scientific revolution drew on what four items for its origins?
The establishment of universities and their partial practice of free inquiry, the recovery of ancient texts in the Renaissance. Arabic commentaries on mathematics and studies of nature, efforts to solve problems of navigation.
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.
What does the concept of the Reading Revolution refer to?
A shift from reading aloud texts perceived as authoritative to reading as many different texts rapidly, silently, and individually.
What did the discipline of natural philosophy focus on?
Fundamental questions about nature, purpose, and function of the universe.
What was Voltaire's attitude towards the government?
He believed that a good monarch was the best one could hope for.
Who believed that women's limited contribution to science was the result of unequal education?
Madame du Chatelet.
Cameralism
View that monarch 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.
What did Rousseau believe about women?
Women were best suited to a passive role in social relations.