The Enlightenment Vocab

A cultural and intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority.

• The Renaissance

• The Enlightenment

The capacity for consciously making sense of things, for establishing and verifying facts, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information.

• Intuition

• Vision

• Reason

• Augmentation

A set of fundamental rules, principles, or established precedents that govern how a country or state is run. This is the written document that describes these rules.

AKA: A Blueprint for Society

• Constitution

• Absolutism

• Society

• Congress

Rights that people supposedly have under natural law, including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

• Constitutional Rights

• The Bill of Rights

• Natural Rights

• The State of Nature

A theory or model addressing the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Typically considered an agreement between citizens and the government.

• Anarchy
• Communist Manifesto
• Social Contract Theory
• Divine Right Theory

A belief system that espouses the existence of God but denies supernatural revelation, emphasizing instead morality and rationality.

• Pantheism
• Atheism
• Deism
• Polytheism

A period of significant change in thoughts and beliefs, which brought about a transformation from an agricultural to an increasingly scientific world view.

• Scientific Revolution
• Renaissance
• Enlightenment
• Industrial Revolution

The intellectuals of the 18th-century Enlightenment who applied reason to the study of many areas of learning.

• artists
• historians
• philosophers
• scientists

A political theory holding that all power should be vested in one ruler or other authority.

• Democracy
• Anarchy
• Autocracy (Absolutism)

• Oligarchy

Gatherings of intellectuals sponsored by a host in their home, where Enlightenment ideas were often discussed and spread. 

• cafes

• salons

• theaters

• libraries