Chapter 17
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 core concept of the Enlightenment was the most important and original?
The methods of natural science should be used to examine all aspects of life.
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
Soft pastels, ornate interiors, and sentimental portraits are all characteristics of the style known as
rococo
One result of Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 was
the creation of a highly educated and influential opposition group that was willing to express its criticism of monarchical absolutism in writing.
The most influential aspect of René Descartes' theories of nature was that
the universe functioned in a mechanistic fashion.
Following the deaths of William and Mary and their successor, Anne (Mary's sister), the English turned to which dynastic house for their next ruler, King George I (r. 1714-1727)?
the German House of Hanover
Enlightenment writers saw the solution for all social problems in
the scientific method.
By the eighteenth century, many Europeans began to try to provide a rationale for the institution of slavery based predominantly on
Africans' purported mental--and thus racial--inferiority.
To improve the rural economy and the lives of peasants, Empress Maria Theresa
reduced nobles' power over their serfs.
How did 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 the possibility of human progress.
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.
How did the philosophes evade the work of censors?
They filled their writings with satire and double meanings.
Catherine the Great of Russia came to power in 1762 through
a military coup.
Demographic historians speak of a "population explosion" beginning in the seventeenth century, which they attribute to all of the following factors except
a rise in the birthrate.
After Voltaire's Letters Concerning the English Nation was published in the early 1730s, the French government ordered his arrest because the book
praised the British government's toleration and flexibility as a way of condemning the French government.
Johannes Kepler believed that the elliptical orbit of planets
produced a musical harmony of heavenly bodies.
The scientific revolution drew on all of the following for its origins except
efforts to prevent a recurrence of the Black Death.
Francis Bacon formalized the research methods of Tycho Brahe and Galileo into a theory of reasoning known as
empiricism.
The seventeenth-century Protestant revival known as Pietism, which became popular in the German Lutheran states, the Dutch Republic, and Scandinavia,
encouraged an intense emotionalism, even ecstasy, in religious worship as well as participation in daily catechism instruction and frequent prayer meetings.
The discipline of natural philosophy focused on
fundamental questions about the nature, purpose, and function of the universe.
In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke claimed that
human development is determined by education and society.
English coffeehouses were
important places to discuss politics and society.
The slave trade and the plantation system had a lasting impact on Europe because they
permanently altered consumption patterns for ordinary people.
Montesquieu's Persian Letters, anonymously published in the Dutch Republic in 1721, is an example of
political critiques of European politics and society that were disguised as travel accounts.
