Voltaire
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
A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Denis Diderot
Collaborated with other enlightened thinkers to edit and publish an encyclopedia that contained a rational explanation for everything.
Thomas Hobbes
There is no morality in the state of nature. You need government to order the chaos of nature
Inductive reasoning
Using specific observations to create general principles
Galileo Galilei
a cheap apartment building often crammed with people created in response to the influx of people moving into cities
Deism
Voltaire argued that there was a god, but god didn’t intervene in human affairs.
Francis Bacon
Developed inductive reasoning
Enlightened Absolutism
a system in which rulers tried to govern by Enlightenment principles while maintaining their full royal powers. Rulers only acted enlightened when it benefitted them.
Coffee Houses
Grew with the increased demand for leisure during the consumer revolution and helped spread enlightenment ideas
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
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
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Neoclassicism
In the later 1700s, the nature and subject of art shifted from state and religious themes to themes that appealed to bourgeoisie society
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Attacked mercantilist economics. Promoted laissez-faire, free-market economy, and supply-and-demand economics.
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.
Using general principles to determine specific consitions
Philosophes
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
Salon
Scientific method
During the scientific Revolution, the scientific method was invented, which emphasizes observations and experimentation
Galen
Contagious Diseases Act
A voluntary agreement among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by creating a government and abiding by its rules.
Paracelsus
Rejected the humoral theory and claimed that chemical imbalances caused disease, meaning chemical remedies could be used to cure people.
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
William Harvey
Saw that the population was rising faster than the food supply, thought Europe was heading towards starvation
Overall, religion was increasingly viewed as a matter of private, rather than public concern. Structures of society grew increasingly secular.
