ss103 final

• Greenblatt's Tyrant

  • a book on the dangers and the political landscape that allows for Tyranny. Explores this through the lens of Shakespeare's literature.
• The Four Idols


  Francis Bacon's theory that people are blinded by our own biases

  1. Idol of the Theater
  2. Idol of the Cave
  3. Idol of the Marketplace
  4. Idol of Tribe
• Early democracy (what type of government) during the medieval period


  • South Asia: Guru Nanak challenging the Hindu caste system and excessive taxes
  • Spain: During Ferdinand and Isabella's reign
• The English Bill of Rights

  Established the principles of frequent parliaments, free elections and freedom of speech within Parliament
• Machiavell's "The Prince"

  a book about how to maintain power as a king; contains morally questionable advice.

  
  

  Ex:

  • Appear religious, don't actually be religious
  • Kill everyone against you, but make others do the work (no obvious connections)
  • Be loved or feared, but never hated
  • Unite Prince and subjects against common enemy
  • Never trust mercenaries: If they are good, it's threat to your power + If they are bad, it's waste of money
  • Overall encourages manipulation of subjects
• Johannes Gutenberg

  • German inventor, designed and built the first known mechanized printing press in Europe
  • His invention was used for printing the bible, making the bible widely spread across europe
  • Resulted in many interpretation of the bible
  • Increased the spread of knowledge, discoveries, and literacy in Renaissance Europe
• Martin Luther


  • A German priest upset at the Roman Catholic churches uses of indulgences
  • Believed that just by believing in Christ, you will be saved and that you don't need to pay the church for indulgences
  • Criticizes the church, publishes 95 theses. Sparks Protestant Reformation.
• Queen Elizabeth I


  • Queen of England
  • She remained neutral on the matter of catholic and protestant
  • It is up to the person to believe in catholic or protestant
  • Catholic church called her "witch" (they were very against each other)
  • Refused to get married - because it would make her take sides of the religious dispute
• Thirty Years War


  • Religious War between Catholic and Protestant
  • Difficult to come to compromise bc different religious beliefs, eventually agree to stop fighting and accept other countries believe differently
• War Peace of Westphalia


  Series of peace treaties that ended Thirty Years War → ended with established freedom of religion
• Absolutism


  Unrestrained monarchical power (Louis XIV)
• Louis XIV


  Introduced Absolute monarchy by taking power away from the nobles and ensured he controlled everything
• Hypatia of Alexandria


  • Educated woman, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician
  • Was the greatest mathematician and astronomer of her time
  • Was murdered by a ignorant zealot (very religious people)
• Giordano Bruno


  • Italian philosopher
  • Famous for those parts of his work that anticipated the ideas of later philosophers and scientists
  • He said that the earth is orbiting the sun and that the sun is not in the middle of the universe and is one of billions of stars, which some have life and is the same as the earth with intelligent beings
  • Went around and spread his beliefs and teachings when other people kept their belief and the questionings to themselves
• Copernicus


  • Believes sun is in center of the universe and earth revolves around
  • Controversial bc earth believed to be center (religious affiliation)
  • Threatened by church to take back
• Galileo


  • Astronomy, art, etc… contributed to the development of culture
  • He was the first to report telescopic observations of the mountains on the moon, the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the rings of Saturn
  • Time period: Reformation
• Francis Bacon


  • Believes knowledge is power and need to learn objectively
  • Author of the Four Idols → theory is people are blinded by our own biases
  • Idol of Tribe: human tendency to view from their perspective
  • Idol of Cave: biases one holds
  • Idol of Market: biases/ ideas picked up by others through interactions
  • Idol of theater: Established governments and philosophers setting an idea that is not questioned by others
• Rene Descartes


  • Encourages question and making hypothesis → experimentation to deduce reasoning from = basically have evidence to what you claim
  • Doubt everything is solution
  • "I think therefore I am"
• Zera Yacob


  African philosopher (had similar ideas to enlightenment before european enlightenment) believed everything God made was good → man and women equal under God
• Baruch Spinoza


  Believed God is perfect and humans by contrast are dependent and imperfect by nature. Everything is a part of God → Universe is proof of existence of God
• Isaac Newton


  • Formulated the laws of motion and gravitation
  • Explained the workings of the universe through mathematical understanding
  • Theory of gravity - earth must have a force that pulls object downward rather than letting them float upwards
  • Laws of motion - whenever an object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first object
  • An object at rest remains at rest, an object in motion remains in motion, unless something acts upon it
• The English Civil War

  • Series of conflicts between loyalists to King Charles I and those loyal to Parliament
  • Parliament asserting right to participate in government, not abolish monarchy
  • Charles I executed
  • People figured out that the execution of king doesn't necessarily lead to democracy
  • His execution let parliament to be in charge of power until Charles II was in throne
• Oliver Cromwell


  • Played role in parliament's victory → established a sort of republic
  • Wanted to drive out Catholicism out of parliament
• Charles II


  • Was not feared by the public
  • Restored the monarchy and reestablished the balance of powers between Parliament and the throne
• The English Bill of Rights


  • Established the principles of frequent parliaments, free elections and freedom of speech within Parliament
  • Govt. would use military force to their own citizens before the bill
• Thomas Hobbes


  • Wrote the book "The Leviathan" —how to stay as a "great creature"
  • Leviathan made people behave better otherwise Leviathan would punish them
  • Not a huge democrat but did admit that government lets you do things
  • No government = natural state of nature → human nature is inherently bad/selfish
  • Introduces idea that government is a social construct → no divine right of king
• John Locke


  • Tabula rasa (When we are born, our mind is like an empty paper and education/environment affects it) = humans are blank slate → not good or evil
  • Valued Nurture—Some people would claim they should be in power cuz they were born "noble" but nurture objects this—over Nature
  • Og enlightenment thinker → Human nature is neutral and depends on education, environment, and experience
• Deism


  • Belief in a higher power/supreme being
  • Wealthy people believed it
  • Idea that the Universe exists because it was created. The creator may have just created and then let it run on its own
• Representative Democracy


  Government is elected by the people → voting
• Charles Montesquieu


  Enlightenment thinker → believed in separation of power
• Checks and Balances


  Idea that the government should have regulated powers. Ex: having an executive, judicial, and legislative branch of gov.
• Jean Jacques Rousseau


  Philosopher that questioned the role of government and its responsibility for its citizens. Believed in general will
• The General Will


  Establishing the majority will for common good/ common interest of people
• Denis Diderot


  Created the Encyclopedia
• The Encyclopedia


  Basically dictionary of sciences, arts, crafts → collection of human knowledge
• Voltaire


  Satirical writer, makes fun of serious issues, wrote Candide, a book criticizing naive optimism (idea that everything happens for a reason)
• Leibniz


  Believed in optimism to an extreme → best version of the world bc God created it = Voltaire's opp
• Kant


  • Gave "Enlightenment" its name → be good bc it's the rational thing to do
  • Stickler to rules : what is viewed as bad can only be bad, no exceptions
• The French and Indian War

  Britain vs. France: fighting for control of the Americas → Britain goes into debt and begins taxing American colonies w/ no representation
• Patrick Henry


  • "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
  • Anti-federalist