Neoclassicism
In the later 1700s, the nature and subject of art shifted from state and religious themes to themes that appealed to bourgeoisie society
Denis Diderot
Scientific method
During the scientific Revolution, the scientific method was invented, which emphasizes observations and experimentation
William Harvey
Further overturned Galen’s theory by proving how the circulatory system works
Deductive reasoning
Using general principles to determine specific consitions
Voltaire
Catherine the great extended civl liberties to Russian Jews
Population increases in the 1700s
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.
French thinkers
Johannes Kepler
Affirmed Copernicus’ findings and through complex math of his own, found that plants orbit in ellipses, not perfect circles
Geocentric model of the universe
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
Natural rights
The idea that human beings, just by virtue of being human, possess rights like life liberty and property
Social Contract
private drawing rooms where wealthy Parisian women would have intellectual discussions with aristocrats
Coffee Houses
Grew with the increased demand for leisure during the consumer revolution and helped spread enlightenment ideas
Attacked mercantilist economics. Promoted laissez-faire, free-market economy, and supply-and-demand economics.
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
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)
Saw that the population was rising faster than the food supply, thought Europe was heading towards starvation
Enlightenment views of religion
Overall, religion was increasingly viewed as a matter of private, rather than public concern. Structures of society grew increasingly secular.
Built a telescope and observed that other planets and moons, existed, and weren’t just balls of light
Paracelsus
Rejected the humoral theory and claimed that chemical imbalances caused disease, meaning chemical remedies could be used to cure people.
Galen
Ancient Greek doctor who advanced the humoral theory of the body
Mary Wollstonecraft
Urbanization
Thanks to new technologies, fewer people were required for farming, leading many to move to the cities.
Nicolaus Copernicus
Challenged the geocentric model of the universe through mathematics and put forward the heliocentric model, where everything orbits the sun.
Thomas Hobbes
There is no morality in the state of nature. You need government to order the chaos of nature
Copernicus and keplers books ended up on the index of prohibited books
These new ideas from Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo are challenging established beliefs of the Catholic Church during the catholic counter reformation. The geocentric model fit nicely with scripture so the church stuck with it.
Enlightened Absolutism
The enlightenment
Enlightenment thinkers applied new methods of reasoning to politics, and human institutions
