Key thinkers, discoveries, and ideas of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Front: the term, event, or figure. Back: a one to two sentence explanation of its significance.
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- Nicolaus Copernicus
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Polish astronomer who proposed the heliocentric model, placing the sun at the center of the universe rather than Earth, directly challenging medieval cosmology.- Tycho Brahe
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Danish astronomer who made detailed naked-eye observations of the heavens and created an extensive star catalog, providing crucial data that later astronomers like Kepler used to formulate laws of planetary motion.- Johannes Kepler
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German mathematician and astronomer whose three laws of planetary motion explained how planets orbit the sun in ellipses, mathematically validating heliocentrism.- Galileo Galilei
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Italian scientist who used the telescope to observe Jupiter's moons and spots on the sun, supporting heliocentrism, and formulated early laws of motion, exemplifying the experimental approach.- Isaac Newton
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English mathematician and physicist who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, creating a mathematical framework that explained planetary motion and revolutionized physics.- Rene Descartes
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French philosopher who championed rationalism and the deductive method, proposing that the universe operates like a machine governed by mathematical laws, and famously separated mind from body.- William Harvey
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English physician who demonstrated that blood circulates through the body via the heart and blood vessels, overthrowing the ancient Galenic model of medicine.- Robert Boyle
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Irish natural philosopher who discovered the inverse relationship between gas pressure and volume (Boyle's Law), helping establish chemistry as an experimental science.- Francis Bacon
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English statesman and philosopher who promoted the inductive method, arguing that knowledge should come from systematic observation and controlled experiments rather than pure reason.- The Royal Society
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Scientific institution founded in England in 1660 to promote experimental philosophy and the exchange of knowledge among scientists, becoming the model for modern scientific academies.- Heliocentrism
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The theory that the sun, not Earth, is the center of the universe, proposed by Copernicus and validated through telescopic observation and mathematical modeling, fundamentally changing humanity's view of its place in the cosmos.- The Scientific Method
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An approach to knowledge that emphasizes observation, experimentation, and the testing of hypotheses through controlled conditions, becoming the foundation of modern empirical science.- Mechanical Philosophy
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A worldview emerging during the Scientific Revolution holding that the universe operates according to mechanical principles and mathematical laws, with matter in motion as the basis for all phenomena.- John Locke
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English philosopher who argued that humans possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that government derives legitimacy from the consent of the governed, profoundly influencing democratic theory.- Thomas Hobbes
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English political philosopher whose Leviathan depicted the state of nature as a war of all against all, arguing that people must surrender freedom to an absolute sovereign to avoid chaos.
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