Chapter 18 - Toward a New World Flashcards

Vocabulary review for Chapter 18 of A History of Western Society

264133812	World-view	a basic outlook on life. pg. 595	0
264133813	Copernican hypothesis	the idea that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe; this had enormous scientific and religious implications. pg. 598a	1
264133814	Experimental method	Galileo's greatest achievement; rather than speculate about what might or should happen in an experiment, he conducted controlled experiments to find out what actually did happen. pg. 599a	2
264133815	Law of inertia	a law formulated by Galileo that stated that rest was not the natural state of object. Rather, an object continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force. pg. 599b	3
264133816	Law of universal gravitation	every body in the universe attracts every body in the universe in a precise mathematical relationship, whereby the force of attraction is proportional to the quantity of matter of the objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. pg. 601b	4
264133817	Empiricism	theory of inductive reasoning where you should go beyond speculation and begin to compare and analyze the subject. pg. 603a	5
264133818	Cartesian dualism	Descartes' view of the world as consisting of two fundamental entities: matter and mind. pg. 603b	6
264133819	Enlightenment	a world-view that has played a large role in shaping the modern mind. The three central concepts of the Enlightenment were the use of reason, the scientific method, and progress. pg. 605a	7
264133820	Rationalism	nothing was to be accepted on faith, everything was to be submitted to the rational, critical, scientific way of thinking. pg. 605a	8
264133821	Progress	the idea that with the proper method of discovering the laws of human existence, it was possible for humans to create better societies and better people. pg. 605b	9
264133822	Skepticism	belief that nothing can ever be known beyond all doubt and that humanity's best hope was open-minded toleration. pg. 607a	10
264133823	Tabula rasa	a blank tablet, incorporated into Locke's belief that all ideas are derived from experience, and that the human mind at birth is like a blank tablet on which the environment writes the individuals understanding and beliefs. pg. 607b	11
264133824	Philosophes	intellectuals in France who proclaimed that they were bringing the light of knowledge to their ignorant fellow creatures in the Age of Enlightenment. pg. 607b	12
264133825	The public	all the French (and European) economic and social elites who were seen as the educated or enlightened public. pg. 608a	13
264133826	Separation of powers	the idea that despotism could be avoided when political power was divided and shared by a variety of classes and legal estates holding unequal rights and privileges. pg. 608b	14
264133827	General will	is sacred and absolute, reflecting the common interests of all the people who have displeased the monarch as the holder of sovereign power, it is not necessarily the will of the majority. pg. 612a	15
264133828	Salons	elegant private drawing rooms where talented and rich Parisian women held regular social gatherings to discuss literature, science and philosophy. pg. 613b	16
264133829	Enlightened absolutism	the adaptation, albeit varied, of enlightened governing into the rule of absolute monarchs often at the insistence of philosophes. pg. 615b	17