Scientific Revolution:
1. Rene Descartes: French philosopher and mathematician who came up with the Scientific
Method.
2. Nicolaus Copernicus: developed the heliocentric theory (sun is the center of the universe).
Before, it was thought that the Earth was the center (geocentric).
3. Johannes Kelper: developed the theory of planetary motion and said that the planets traveled
in an elliptical pattern around the sun.
4. Galileo Galilei: used the telescope to prove Copernicus’s heliocentric theory.
5. Sir Isaac Newton: developed the theory of gravity the 3 laws of motion.
6. William Harvey: discovered blood circulated around the body from the heart, not the liver as
previously thought.
Enlightenment:
1. Thomas Hobbes: people are naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish; therefore, they need to be
ruled by an absolute monarch. Wrote the book Leviathan (Sea Monster)
2. John Locke: said people were basically good; therefore, they only need to be ruled by a
limited government that is chosen by all. Said people are born as blank slates (Tabula Rasa)
and with inalienable rights: rights that people get just by being born (life, liberty, and property).
His ideas are reflected in the Declaration of Independence.
3. Baron de Montesquieu: anti-absolute monarch. Said that government should have 3
branches and a system of checks and balances so no one branch is too powerful.
4. Jean-Jacque Rousseau: people are basically good but become corrupted by society.
5. Voltaire: very outspoken, freedom of speech and religion. He said “I may not agree with what
you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it.”
6. Thomas Jefferson: wrote the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the United States.
7. Johann Sebastian Bach: Baroque composer
8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Classical composer
9. Eugene Delacroix: French Romantic painter
10. Miguel de Cervantes: Spanish author who wrote Don Quixote, one of the first and best novels
of all time.
Vocabulary:
1. Secular: worldly, not religious
2. Heliocentric: sun centered universe
3. Geocentric: Earth centered universe
4. Inalienable rights: rights people have by being born
5. Absolute monarch: a ruler with total power