Term
| Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) |
|
Definition
| An enormously influential German composer who rose to prominence in the early 1700s. Best known by his contemporaries as an organist, Bach also wrote an enormous body of both sacred and secular music that synthesized a variety of styles and in turn influenced countless later composers. |
|
|
Term
| Francis Bacon (1561–1626) |
|
Definition
| An English philosopher and statesman who developed the inductive method or Baconian method of scientific investigation, which stresses observation and reasoning as a means for coming to general conclusions. His work influenced his later contemporary René Descartes. |
|
|
Term
| Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794) |
|
Definition
| An Italian politician who ventured into philosophy to protest the horrible injustices that he observed in various European judicial systems. Beccaria’s book On Crimes and Punishments (1764) exposed these practices and led to the abolition of many. |
|
|
Term
| John Comenius (1592–1670) |
|
Definition
| A Czech educational and social reformer who, in response to the Thirty Years’ War, made the bold move of challenging the necessity of war in the first place. Comenius stressed tolerance and education as alternatives for war, which were revolutionary concepts at the time. |
|
|
Term
| René Descartes (1596–1650) |
|
Definition
| A French philosopher and scientist who revolutionized algebra and geometry and made the famous philosophical statement “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes developed a deductive approach to philosophy using math and logic that still remains a standard for problem solving. |
|
|
Term
| Denis Diderot (1713–1784) |
|
Definition
| A French scholar who was the primary editor of the Encyclopédie, a massive thirty-five-volume compilation of human knowledge in the arts and sciences, along with commentary from a number of Enlightenment thinkers. The Encyclopédie became a prominent symbol of the Enlightenment and helped spread the movement throughout Europe. |
|
|
Term
| Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) |
|
Definition
| American thinker, diplomat, and inventor who traveled frequently between the American colonies and Europe during the Enlightenment and facilitated an exchange of ideas between them. Franklin exerted profound influence on the formation of the new government of the United States, with a hand in both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. |
|
|
Term
| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) |
|
Definition
| A German author who wrote near the end of the Aufklärung, the German Enlightenment. Goethe’s morose The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) helped fuel the Sturm und Drang movement, and his two-part Faust (1808, 1832) is seen as one of the landmarks of Western literature. |
|
|
Term
| Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) |
|
Definition
| A French feminist and reformer in the waning years of the Enlightenment who articulated the rights of women with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A Dutch scholar who, like Czech John Comenius, lived during the Thirty Years’ War and felt compelled to write in response to it. The result, a treatise on war and international relations titled On the Law of War and Peace (1625), eventually became accepted as the basis for the rules of modern warfare. |
|
|
Term
| George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) |
|
Definition
| A German-English composer of the late Baroque period whose Messiah remains one of the best-known pieces of music in the world. Handel was an active court composer, receiving commissions from such notables as King George I of England, for whom his Water Music suite was written and performed. |
|
|
Term
| Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) |
|
Definition
| A philosopher and political theorist whose 1651 treatise Leviathan effectively kicked off the English Enlightenment. The controversial Leviathan detailed Hobbes’s theory that all humans are inherently self-driven and evil and that the best form of government is thus a single, all-powerful monarch to keep everything in order. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An English political theorist who focused on the structure of governments. Locke believed that men are all rational and capable people but must compromise some of their beliefs in the interest of forming a government for the people. In his famous Two Treatises of Government (1690), he championed the idea of a representative government that would best serve all constituents. |
|
|
Term
| Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) |
|
Definition
| The foremost French political thinker of the Enlightenment, whose most influential book, The Spirit of Laws, expanded John Locke’s political study and incorporated the ideas of a division of state and separation of powers. Montesquieu’s work also ventured into sociology: he spent a considerable amount of time researching various cultures and their climates, ultimately deducing that climate is a major factor in determining the type of government a given country should have. |
|
|
Term
| Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) |
|
Definition
| An English scholar and mathematician regarded as the father of physical science. Newton’s discoveries anchored the Scientific Revolution and set the stage for everything that followed in mathematics and physics. He shared credit for the creation of calculus, and his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica introduced the world to gravity and fundamental laws of motion. |
|
|
Term
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) |
|
Definition
| An eclectic Swiss-French thinker who brought his own approach to the Enlightenment, believing that man was at his best when unshackled by the conventions of society. Rousseau’s epic The Social Contract (1762) conceived of a system of direct democracy in which all citizens contribute to an overarching “general will” that serves everyone at once. Later in his life, Rousseau released Confessions (1789), which brought a previously unheard-of degree of personal disclosure to the genre of autobiography. The frank personal revelations and emotional discussions were a major cause for the shift toward Romanticism. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A French writer and the primary satirist of the Enlightenment, who criticized religion and leading philosophies of the time. Voltaire’s numerous plays and essays frequently advocated freedom from the ploys of religion, while Candide (1759), the most notable of his works, conveyed his criticisms of optimism and superstition into a neat package. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An influential Scottish economist who objected to the stifling mercantilist systems that were in place during the late eighteenth century. In response, Smith wrote the seminal Wealth of Nations (1776), a dissertation criticizing mercantilism and describing the many merits of a free trade system. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A trend in European governments during the later part of the Enlightenment, in which a number of absolute monarchs adopted Enlightenment-inspired reforms yet retained a firm grip on power. Frederick the Great of Prussia, Maria-Theresa and Joseph II of Austria, Charles III of Spain, and Catherine the Great of Russia are often counted among these “enlightened despots.” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A revolution in France that overthrew the monarchy and is often cited as the end of the Enlightenment. The French Revolution began in 1789 when King Louis XVI convened the legislature in an attempt to solve France’s monumental financial woes. Instead, the massive middle class revolted and set up its own government. Although this new government was effective for a few years, internal dissent grew and power switched hands repeatedly, until France plunged into the brutally violent Reign of Terror of 1793–1794.Critics saw this violence as a direct result of Enlightenment thought and as evidence that the masses were not fit to govern themselves. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| One of the cornerstones of the Enlightenment, a philosophy stressing the recognition of every person as a valuable individual with inalienable, inborn rights. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The economic belief that a favorable balance of trade—that is, more exports than imports—would yield more gold and silver, and thus overall wealth and power, for a country. Governments tended to monitor and meddle with their mercantilist systems closely, which Scottish economist Adam Smith denounced as bad economic practice in his Wealth of Nations. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| was a sprawling intellectual, philosophical, cultural, and social movement that spread through England, France, Germany, and other parts of Europe during the 1700s. |
|
|
