Week 5 Flashcards
What is the Renaissance?
A cultural movement with renewed interest in the knowledge and methods of Antiquity in arts, architecture, science, literature, and philosophy.
Name three famous artists of the Renaissance.
- Da Vinci (1452-1519)
- Michelangelo (1475-1564)
- Raphael (1483-1520)
What significant invention did Johannes Gutenberg contribute to the Renaissance?
Movable type printing press around 1450.
What was the impact of the Printing Press on society according to Marshall McLuhan?
New technologies exert a gravitational effect on cognition and social organization.
Fill in the blank: Humanism is an interest in humankind and its _______.
moral improvement.
What is Civic Humanism?
The idea of active life in politics.
What is Alchemy?
The study and transformation of matter, an intellectual tradition in natural philosophy.
Who was Paracelsus?
A key figure in alchemy (1493-1541) known for emphasizing observation and the integration of chemistry with medicine.
What did Andreas Vesalius contribute to anatomy?
De humani corporis fabrica, an illustrated anatomy treaty.
What is the title of Nicolaus Copernicus’s work published in 1543?
On the Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies.
What is a key feature of the Copernican system?
It presents a heliocentric model of the universe.
What are some problems associated with the Copernican system?
- Stellar parallax
- Theological problems
- Reduction of Earth to the rank of mere planet.
What did the Printing Revolution help to change in culture and politics?
It contributed to the Protestant Reform and the emergence of a news cycle.
What is iatrochemistry?
The integration of medicine and chemistry.
What do humoral imbalances refer to in Paracelsian medicine?
Imbalances caused by the environment requiring balance with ‘metals’.
True or False: The Copernican system introduced new astronomical observations.
False.
What was the role of patronage in the development of science during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
It supported humanism and the translation of ancient texts.
Fill in the blank: The first known water-powered mills for paper were established in _______.
Nuremberg (1390).
What did the 16th Century Gazette contribute to?
The development of the news cycle.
What is the significance of the term ‘imagined communities’ by Benedict Anderson?
It describes how print technology fosters nationalism.
What was the Renaissance?
A cultural movement that revived classical antiquity in art, architecture, science, literature, and philosophy.
What are some artistic innovations of the Renaissance?
Use of perspective, geometry, and realistic anatomy in painting and sculpture.
Who were the three most famous artists of the Renaissance?
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
What is Humanism?
A movement focused on human potential and moral improvement, often through the study of classical texts.
What role did Florence play in the development of Humanism?
As a republic, it fostered Civic Humanism—the idea of active participation in politics and society.
Who was Leonardo Bruni?
A Florentine humanist and historian who translated Aristotle and promoted ‘studia humanitatis.’
What invention revolutionized the spread of ideas in the Renaissance?
The Printing Press, invented around 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg.
What was one long-term impact of the printing press?
It contributed to the Protestant Reformation and the rise of news media like gazettes and newspapers.
Who was Paracelsus and what did he contribute?
A physician and alchemist who developed iatrochemistry, blending medicine and chemistry, and emphasized empirical observation.
What is the principle of ‘likes cure likes’?
The idea that a substance causing symptoms in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in the sick—associated with Paracelsus.
Who was Andreas Vesalius?
A Renaissance anatomist who wrote ‘De humani corporis fabrica’, correcting Galen through dissections.
What did Vesalius emphasize in his studies?
Dissection and observation—laying the foundation for modern anatomy.
What did Nicolaus Copernicus propose in 1543?
A heliocentric model of the universe, with the sun at the center.
What problems did the Copernican system face?
Lack of observed stellar parallax, and theological objections to demoting Earth.
What were the advantages of Copernicus’ model?
Explained the phases and brightness of planets, and their relative distances more clearly.
What is the Scientific Revolution?
A period in the 16th–17th centuries marked by the rise of empirical observation, experimentation, and scientific reasoning.
Who emphasized empirical experimentation as the path to true knowledge?
Francis Bacon
Who wrote Discourse on the Method and promoted rational skepticism?
René Descartes
What was the Tychonic system proposed by Tycho Brahe?
A geo-heliocentric model where planets orbit the Sun, and the Sun orbits the Earth.
What celestial events did Brahe observe that challenged the fixed heavens?
The nova of 1572 and the comet of 1577
What are Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion?
- Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus.
- Equal areas are swept in equal times.
- T² ∝ R³ (orbital period squared ∝ radius cubed).
What did Galileo discover with the telescope?
Moons of Jupiter, phases of Venus, and the Moon’s surface features.
What happened to Galileo in 1633?
He was tried by the Inquisition and forced to recant his support of heliocentrism.
What are Newton’s Three Laws of Motion?
- Inertia.
- F = ma.
- Action = Reaction.
What is Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation?
Every mass attracts every other mass with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
What philosophy did the Royal Society of London promote?
Baconian empiricism
How was the Académie des Sciences different from the Royal Society?
It was state-run, appointed scientists as civil servants, and set research agendas from the top-down.
What was Peter the Great’s goal with the Russian Academy of Sciences?
To modernize and westernize Russia through scientific advancement.
Who used microscopes to study microorganisms in the 1670s?
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
What are four legacies of the Scientific Revolution?
- Science became public.
- Collaboration in research.
- Scientific communication.
- Rise of expert authority.
What elements of medieval science continued into the Scientific Revolution?
University system, exclusion of women, God in science, and alchemical labs.
Why do some argue that the ‘Scientific Revolution’ was not truly revolutionary?
Many changes were built on medieval foundations, and some areas (like medicine) changed slowly.
