AP®︎ World History: Topic 5.1 Flashcards

Late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century movement applying reason and empiricism to nature, government, society, and religion while questioning inherited authority

The use of logical thought to evaluate claims, institutions, and their consequences rather than accepting tradition or authority automatically

The belief that knowledge should be grounded in observation and experience rather than tradition or abstract authority alone

Locke’s idea of the mind as a “blank slate” shaped by experience, emphasizing education over supposedly innate differences

Rights possessed by nature rather than granted by government; Locke identified life, liberty, and property

English philosopher who defended empiricism, natural rights to life, liberty, and property, limited government, and the right to replace tyrannical rulers

The theory that government originates in a human agreement and is legitimate only under the terms and purposes of that agreement

Social-contract theorist who argued that people transfer extensive authority to a powerful sovereign to prevent violent disorder

Philosopher who argued that sovereignty belonged to the people and legitimate government should express the general will

Rousseau’s concept of the collective political will directed toward the common good, not merely a temporary majority preference

The principle that government is legitimate because the people authorize it, not because a dynasty inherits authority

The principle that ultimate political authority belongs to the people rather than a monarch or hereditary ruling family

French philosopher who argued that dividing governmental power among institutions could prevent tyranny and protect liberty

Division of legislative, executive, and judicial authority so no person or institution controls all governmental power

Italian reformer who condemned torture, secret trials, and arbitrary punishment and advocated known laws, proportional penalties, and deterrence

Belief in a creator known through reason and nature while questioning miracles, revelation, and exclusive church authority

French Enlightenment writer who attacked censorship, religious persecution, and established-church power while defending toleration and freedom of thought

The principle that governments should permit differing religious beliefs and communities rather than persecute dissenters

The process by which government, law, education, and public inquiry became less dependent on organized religion

French Enlightenment thinker who edited the Encyclopédie to organize knowledge and circulate criticism of superstition, censorship, and privilege

Diderot’s collaborative reference work that systematized knowledge and spread criticism of clerical authority, censorship, superstition, and inherited privilege

Discussion gatherings, often hosted by elite women, where writers, officials, aristocrats, and intellectuals exchanged Enlightenment ideas

Autocratic rule that adopted selected rational reforms while preserving monarchy and denying that sovereignty belonged to the people

Enlightened absolutist who portrayed himself as a servant of the state and supported limited religious toleration and administrative reform

Russian enlightened absolutist who corresponded with philosophers and considered legal reform but preserved noble privilege and expanded serfdom

Enlightened absolutist who promoted religious toleration and reduced some serf obligations, though resistance limited many reforms

The gradual broadening of voting rights, especially through the removal of property qualifications for men, in response to demands for political consent

The movement to end the slave trade and slavery, justified through natural rights, human equality, and religious morality

The legal ending of peasants’ inherited bondage and movement restrictions, justified by liberty and equality but often leaving economic dependence intact

Developing arguments and organized demands for women’s educational, legal, economic, civil, and political equality

Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, arguing that women are rational beings whose apparent inferiority results largely from denied education

Wollstonecraft’s 1792 argument that denying rational education to women creates dependence and contradicts Enlightenment principles

French activist who demanded equal civil and political rights for women in the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen

De Gouges’s 1791 rewriting of France’s rights declaration to demand for women the same civil and political rights proclaimed for men

The 1848 U.S. women’s-rights convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott that demanded equality, including women’s suffrage

Seneca Falls document declaring that “all men and women are created equal” and listing women’s legal, educational, economic, religious, and political grievances

The belief that people sharing identity through language, religion, customs, history, or territory form a nation entitled to political community or self-government

Principles inherent in nature and discoverable through reason that could be used to judge human laws and governments

The belief that monarchs received their authority from God and were not politically accountable to the people

A system in which branches or institutions of government restrain one another’s power

The principle that individuals should not be forced by the state to profess or abandon religious beliefs

The right of women to vote and the reform movement demanding that right