Enlightened absolutists monarchs
Frederick the great of Prussia: tried to help the people. Increased freedoms of press and speech to weaken the nobility and strengthen his power.
Johannes Kepler
Affirmed Copernicus’ findings and through complex math of his own, found that plants orbit in ellipses, not perfect circles
The enlightenment
Enlightenment thinkers applied new methods of reasoning to politics, and human institutions
Despite him being a devote catholic, the pope ruled him a heretic and placed him under house arrest. But his books were published after his death
Thomas Hobbes
Saw that the population was rising faster than the food supply, thought Europe was heading towards starvation
John Locke
Argued that natural rights were given by god, not a government, so a government couldn’t take them away. Therefore power originates with the people
Developed inductive reasoning
A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Argued that women and men were equal, and anything women seemed inferior at, it was only because they had been denied education and opportunities by men
Scientific method
Charter of towns 1792
Catherine the great extended civl liberties to Russian Jews
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. Books also became less religious. So religious censorship increased
Paracelsus
Rejected the humoral theory and claimed that chemical imbalances caused disease, meaning chemical remedies could be used to cure people.
Natural rights
The idea that human beings, just by virtue of being human, possess rights like life liberty and property
Built a telescope and observed that other planets and moons, existed, and weren’t just balls of light
Rising birth rates, improving medical technology, vaccines, and bubonic plague went away
Humoral theory of the body
The body is made up of 4 substances: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and flem? Imbalance of these 4 lead to disease. This is where blood letting came from
William Harvey
Further overturned Galen’s theory by proving how the circulatory system works
Consumer Revolution
Collaborated with other enlightened thinkers to edit and publish an encyclopedia that contained a rational explanation for everything.
Attacked mercantilist economics. Promoted laissez-faire, free-market economy, and supply-and-demand economics.
Every body in the galaxy circled around the earth, including the sun. This was the Catholic Churches view and presumed model of the universe in midevil europe
Contagious Diseases Act
This allowed police officers to arrest any woman they suspected to be a prostitute. They were then permitted to give that woman an examination to prevent the spread of STDs. This is state-sponsered sexual assault.
Philosophes
French thinkers
Mary Wollstonecraft
Enlightenment views of religion
Overall, religion was increasingly viewed as a matter of private, rather than public concern. Structures of society grew increasingly secular.
Most famous French philosopher. Produced many works that criticized social and religious institutions of France. Supported religious tolerance, natural rights, but didn’t believe in democracy, only enlightened absolutism
Social Contract
Voltaire argued that there was a god, but god didn’t intervene in human affairs.
Inductive reasoning
Using specific observations to create general principles
