Renaissance
•	Rebirth of culture 
•	Advances in arts 
•	Questioning spirit 
•	Begins in Venice 
o	Wealthy merchant class to fund arts 
•	Ideas spread through printing press 
•	Studied the classics: Rome and Greece 
•	Humanism 
o	philosophical movement during the Renaissance that stressed life on Earth, and the quality of being human. Rejected living only for the afterlife of Christianity.
o	Importance of individual achievement 
o	Importance of education 
•	DaVinci, Michelangelo, Dante, Shakespeare, Machiavelli 
•	Machiavelli
o	The Prince 
o	Theory: 
•	Some times rulers must do bad to do good
•	Ends justify the means 
•	Justifies absolute monarchy, totalitarianism 
•	Adopted by Bismarck  

Scientific Revolution
•	Begins with a questioning spirit 
•	Questions traditional beliefs about the natural/physical world 
•	Find answers through observation, reason, research, experimentation 
•	Scientific Method 
o	Using observation and experimentation to explain theories on the workings of the universe 
o	Copernicus	
•	Heliocentric theory of the world 
•	Galileo
•	Proves heliocentric theory—but church forces him to recant 
o	Newton 
•	Gravity
•	Clash between church and science 
o	Church doesn’t want people to question their teachings about the world because they would question all teachings
o	Church wants to be final authority on all 

Enlightenment/Age of Reason
•	Developed out of Scientific Revolution 
•	Began with a questioning spirit
o	Can laws of science be applied to government and society?
•	Goal: Examine government and explain best possible system of government  
•	Paris, France 
•	Philosophes 
o	Enlightenment thinkers 
o	Descartes, Voltaire (freedom of speech) 
o	Hobbes:
•	Pro-absolute monarchy 
•	People are born evil, greedy, selfish = need total control to keep them in line 
•	Leviathan
o	Locke: 
•	Democracy 
•	Natural rights (life, liberty, property): borrowed by Thomas Jefferson 
•	People have right to rebel if the gov't does not protect natural rights  
o	Montesquieu 
•	Separation of powers 
•	Checks and balances 
•	Influences US 
o	Rousseau 
•	General Will: gov’t should be run for the good of the majority 
•	Social Contract: people were basically good, and that society, and its unequal distribution of wealth, were the cause of most problems 
•	Ideas inspire revolution and changes in gov’t
•	Glorious Revolution, American Revolution, French Revolution, Latin American Revolutions