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The Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution

Word List with 29 words
By Dictionary.com

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Words in This List

The Enlightenment

A philosophical movement of the 18th century, characterized by belief in the power of human reason and by innovations in political, religious, and educational doctrine.

Scientific Revolution

The period of great advances in the sciences, roughly 1500-1700.

reason

The power of intelligent and dispassionate thought, or of conduct influenced by such thought.

Baruch Spinoza

Dutch philosopher whose ideas sparked The Enlightenment.

John Locke

An English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers.

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Pierre Bayle

French philosopher and critic.

Isaac Newton

English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.

Voltaire

French philosopher, historian, satirist, dramatist, and essayist.

Gutenberg

German printer: credited with invention of printing from movable type.

printing press

A machine, as a cylinder press or rotary press, for printing on paper or the like from type, plates, etc.

Enlightened Despotism

A form of absolute monarchy or despotism influenced by the Enlightenment.

Encyclopédie

A general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772.

Rousseau

French philosopher, author, and social reformer; born in Switzerland.

France

A republic in western Europe. 58,470,421; 212,736 sq. mi. (550,985 sq. km). Capital: Paris.

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher who researched, lectured and wrote on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish astronomer who promulgated the now accepted theory that the earth and the other planets move around the sun.

Andreas Vesalius

Flemish anatomist.

Aalileo Galilei

Italian physicist and astronomer; played a major role in the Scientific Revolution.

René Descartes

A French philosopher, mathematician, and writer; 'Father of Modern Philosophy'.

gottfried leibniz

German philosopher, writer, and mathematician.

Johannes Kepler

A German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer.

Tycho Brahe

Danish astronomer.

heliocentrism

The astronomical model in which the universe is measured from or in relation to the centre of the sun.

atomism

The theory that minute, discrete, finite, and indivisible elements are the ultimate constituents of all matter.

inertia

The property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force.

scientific method

A method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested.

chemistry

The science that deals with the composition and properties of substances and various elementary forms of matter.

empiricism

The doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience.

mathematization

To reduce to a mathematical formula or problem; regard in purely mathematical terms.