McKay chapter 17

David Hume

(1711-1776) Scottish philosopher whose skeptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses

Immanuel Kant

(1724-1804) German philosopher from Prussia who researched, lectured and wrote on philosophy, geography and anthropology; "Dare to know"

Catherine the Great

(1729-1796) Empress of Russia who greatly increased the territory of the empire, its wealth & education/benefits for people; inspired by French Enlightenment; wife of Peter III; Emelian Pugachev ruled with her after Peter's "death"

Tycho Brahe

(1546-1601) Established himself as Europe's foremost astronomer of his day; detailed observations of new star of 1572; believed that planets revolved in turn around the earth-moon system

Francis Bacon

(1561-1626) English politician & writer; formalized the empirical method

William Harvey

(1578-1657) English physician and scientist who described the circulation of the blood

Rene Descartes

(1596-1650) French philosopher; famous for writing "cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"); wrote about concept of Cartesian dualism; discovery of analytic geometry

Peter III

grandson to Peter the Great; husband of Catherine the Great, was mentally unstable, and was murdered by a group of Russian army officers; withdrew from the Seven Year's War because he sided with Frederick II of Prussia.

Maria Theresa of Austria

heir to Charles VI (Habsburg); lost Silesia to Fredrick II of Prussia; formed alliance with France in 7 Years War against Frederick II; absolutist; limited pope's authority, revamped tax system & partially freed peasants (r.1740-1780)

Enlightenment

The influential intellectual and cultural movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries that introduced a new worldview based on the use of reason, the scientiicf method and progress

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

Robert Boyle

(1627-1691) Irish chemist who established that nature consists of atoms & 1st to create a vacuum; Boyle's law states that the pressure of a gas varies inversely with volume

John Locke

(1632-1704) English empiricist philosopher who believed that all knowledge is derived from experience & that humans were born "good"

Pierre Bayle

(1647-1706) Huguenot; wrote Historical and Critical Dictionary; skepticism (nothing can be known beyond all doubt)

Denis Diderot

(1713-1783) editor of Encyclopedia with 72,000 articles

baron de Montesquieu

(1689-1755) French philosopher; The Spirit of the Laws describes what he considers to be the best government should divide itself according to its powers, creating a Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branch; also wrote about the relations between men & women

Voltaire

(1694-1778) favored by royalty; impressed by Newton; hated religious intolerance (like most philosophers)

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

natural philosophy

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

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.

Galileo Galilei

(1564-1642) improved telescope; discovered imperfections in space (moons of Jupiter, mountains on moon, rings of Saturn); made people think the universe was bigger; formulated the law of inertia

Andreas Vaselius

(1514-1564) published On The Structure of the Human Body; presented the first accurate portrayal of the human body

Isaac Newton

English mathematician and scientist who invented differential calculus; formulated the law of universal gravitation; developed the theory about the nature of light and three laws of motion

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

French philosopher and writer who believed that the natural goodness of man was warped by society & rationalism; ideas influenced the French Revolution (1712-1778)

Johannes Kepler

German astronomer who first stated laws of planetary motion (1571-1630), discovered that the paths of the planets around the sun are elliptical rather that circular

Haskalah

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

Carl von Linne (Linnaeus)

Swedish botanist who proposed the modern system of biological nomenclature (1707-1778)

Cartesian dualism

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

Joseph II

Enlightened monarch of Austria; "revolutionary emperor; abolished serfdom (but re-established during next reign); economic and agrarian reform; son of Maria Theresa of Austria (r. 1780-1790)

Moses Mendelssohn

Jewish philosopher; influential in the development of modern Judaism (1729-1786)

Frederick II

King of Prussia; son of Frederick William I; seized Silesia from Austria sparking the War of the Austrian Succession & 7 Years War with France; became known as Frederick the Great w/ brought education, reconstruction after wars, education & humane treatment of people (r. 1740-1786)

Law of universal gravitation

Newton's law that states that all objects in the universe attract each other through gravitational force; the size of the force depends on the masses of the objects and the distance between them

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center (1473-1543)

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

Law of inertia

a law formulated by Galileo that stated that rest was not the natural state of object. Rather, an object continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force.

Rococo

a popular style in Europe in the 18 c., known for its soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits and starry-eyed lovers protected by hovering cupids

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

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 18th c. monarchs who, without renouncing their own absolute authority, adopted Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, progress and tolerance

Experimental method

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

Copernican hypothesis

the idea that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe; this had enormous scientific and religious implications.