The Scientific Revolution
This traditional, earth-centered model of the universe dominated European thought for over a millennium.
What is the geocentric model?
This German monk sparked a massive religious transformation in 1517 by writing and posting his 95 Theses against Indulgences.
Who is Martin Luther?
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke used this hypothetical phrase to describe human life before laws and governments existed.
What is a State of Nature?
This witty French philosophe used sharp satire to attack religious intolerance, fanaticism, and the abuses of the French monarchy.
Who is Voltaire?
Drafted in 1787, this document stands as the supreme law of the land, outlining the framework for the U.S. government.
What is the Constitution?
Nicolaus Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by proposing this sun-centered model of the solar system.
What is the heliocentric model?
This 16th-century religious movement was a protest of the Catholic Indulgences.
What is the Protestant Reformation?
John Locke famously argued that all people possess these inherent rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness from birth.
What are natural rights?
Voltaire wrote this famous 1759 satirical novel to mock the blind optimism of dealing with a cruel world. The Best of All Possible Worlds
What is Candide?
These first ten amendments to the Constitution were added specifically to protect individual liberties from government overreach.
What is the Bill of Rights?
He championed the heliocentric theory using his telescope and was famously forced by the Catholic Inquisition to recant his findings.
Who is Galileo Galilei?
This term refers to any religious belief or opinion that directly contradicts official Church teachings like the Geocentricism.
What is heresy?
In his book Leviathan, this pessimistic thinker argued that life without a strong ruler is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
This catastrophic 1755 natural disaster shocked European intellectuals and inspired Voltaire to question God’s role in human suffering.
What was the Lisbon Earthquake?
The 4th President, Known as the "Father of the Constitution," this Virginian statesman also wrote Federalist essays.
Who is James Madison?
This "sizzling" philosopher formalized the empirical method, arguing that scientific knowledge must be built on observation and experimentation.
Who is Francis Bacon?
This devastating three decade war began as a local religious clash but turned into a massive geopolitical war. Over the same god, just your doing it wrong.
What is the Thirty Years' War?
This optimistic philosopher argued that governments exist purely to protect citizen rights, and citizens can overthrow them if they fail.
Who is John Locke?
Because it took abstract Enlightenment theories and put them into physical action, the creation of the United States was known as this.
What is a Grand Experiment?
This collection of 85 essays was written by "Publius" to convince skeptical Americans to ratify the new Constitution.
What are the Federalist Papers?
His masterwork "Things fall down" tied the work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo together using a single mathematical law of universal gravitation.
Who is Isaac Newton?
Church practice of selling you a piece of paper as way out of your sins or purgatory.
What are Indulgences?
This central Enlightenment ideal refers to the personal freedom and political autonomy that thinkers argued governments should preserve.
What is liberty?
This new country became the ultimate living laboratory for the ideas of Locke, Montesquieu, and Voltaire.
What is America?
This brilliant first Secretary of the Treasury was the primary mastermind and driving force behind writing the Federalist Papers.
Who is Alexander Hamilton?