Scientfic Revolution

4. of Powers A form of government in which the executive, legislative, and judicial branches limit and control each other through a system of checks and balances.
5. Reasoning The doctrine that scientists should proceed from the particular to the general by making systematic observations and carefully organized experiments to test hypotheses or theories, a process that will lead to correct general principles.
6. Earth-centered; system of planetary motion in which the sun, moon, and other planets revolve around the Earth.
8. The concept that the state should not impose government regulations but should leave the economy alone.
9. Contract The concept that an entire society agrees to be governed by its general will and all individuals should be forced to abide by it since it represents what is best for the entire community.
11. Method A systematic procedure for collecting and analyzing evidence that was crucial to the evolution of science in the modern world.
12. An artistic styles that replaced baroque in the 1730s; it was highly secular, emphasizing grace, charm, and gentle action.
13. The elegant urban drawing rooms where, in the eighteenth century, writers, artists, aristocrats, government officials, and wealthy middle-class people gathered to discuss the ideas of the philosophes.

1. A system of thought expounded by Rene Descartes based on the belief that reason is the chief source of knowledge.
2. Law of Gravitation One of Newton's three rules of motion; it explains that planetary bodies continue in elliptical orbits around the sun because every object in the universe is attracted to every other object by a force called gravity.
3. Sun-centered; the system of the universe in which the Earth and planets revolve around the sun.
7. An eighteenth-century religious philosophy based on reason and natural law.
10. French for "philosopher"; applied to all intellectuals during the Enlightenment.