chapter 16 flash cards

Question 1

Natural Philosophy

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Copernican Hypothesis

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Experimental Method

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Law of Inertia

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Law of Universal Gravitation

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Empiricism

Answer 6

the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation

Question 7

Cartesian Dualism

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Enlightenment

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Rationalism

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Philosophes

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Reading Revolution

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Salon

Answer 12

a social gathering of intellectuals and artists

Question 13

Rococo

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Public Sphere

Answer 14

the arena in which deliberative decision making occurs through the exchange of ideas and arguments

Question 15

Enlightened Absolutism

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Cameralism

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Haskalah

Answer 17

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