Key Terms

Cartesianism

The concept that the mind is separate from the body and that the mind can be better and more fully understood than the body.

Deism

A religious philosophy that believed God created a rational universe, a universe that could be understood by human reason alone, that must mean that God was rational as well. everything—physical motion, human physiology, politics, society, economics—had its own set of rational principles established by God which could be understood byhuman beings by means of their reason. The human and physical worlds could be understood without having to bring religion into the explanation.

Empiricism

The belief that knowledge can be derived through careful observation.

Social Contract

The belief that a relationship existed between the people and their government. According to Rousseau, if those in power refused to guarantee community and safety, the governed were free to disobey and establish a new political contract.

Heliocentric Theory

The theory developed by Copernicus which stated that the earth was not the center of the universe and that the planets rotated around the sun.

Deductive Reasoning

The belief that one could start with a known truth and then deduce a complex conclusion.

Inductive Reasoning

The belief that one should seek knowledge through observations and experiments, and then establish the knowledge as a truth.