Deck 14: New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Question 1

Brahe's assistant was ________.

A) Francis Bacon
B) Rene Descartes
C) Johannes Kepler
D) John Locke

Answer 1

Johannes Kepler

Question 2

Nicolaus Copernicus's breakthrough was to show how ________.

A) the earth moved around the sun
B) the sun moved around the earth
C) the sun was dotted with sun spots
D) the earth was accompanied by other planets in our solar system

Answer 2

the earth moved around the sun

Question 3

The experiences of the English Civil War led Thomas Hobbes to summarize his views about strong central government in his book ________.

A) Second Treatise of Government
B) Leviathan
C) Discourse on Method
D) Gulliver's Travels

Answer 3

Leviathan

Question 4

In the sixteenth century, midwifery was a trade often pursued by ________.

A) noble women
B) merchant's wives
C) elderly or widowed women
D) male barbers

Question 5

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the discoveries that most captured the public imagination were made in ________.

A) medicine
B) natural history
C) chemistry
D) astronomy

Question 6

Who published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres and rejected the notion of an earth-centered universe?

A) Tycho Brahe
B) Nicolaus Copernicus
C) Galileo Galilei
D) Johannes Kepler

Question 7

Baroque art became associated with ________.

A) the Renaissance
B) English nobility
C) Roman Catholicism
D) popular Protestantism

Question 8

What percentage of people accused of witchcraft in the early modern period were women?

A) 80 percent
B) 100 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 10 percent

Question 9

Although he invented analytic geometry, whose most important contribution was to develop a scientific method that relied more on deduction?

A) René Descartes
B) Francis Bacon
C) Isaac Newton
D) Johannes Kepler

Question 10

Galileo believed that all aspects of nature could be described in terms of ________.

A) spiritual harmonies
B) the motion of atoms
C) their relation to celestial vibrations
D) mathematical relationships

Question 11

Galileo named the moons of Jupiter after the Medicis because ________.

A) he wanted to flatter his patrons
B) looking for famous names, he could only think of the Medicis
C) he was in love with a Medici noblewoman
D) it was the custom to name heavenly bodies after living people

Question 12

Baroque art first emerged in ________.

A) Paris, France
B) papal Rome
C) Florence, Italy
D) Buckingham Palace, London, England

Question 13

How many people were sentenced to death for witchcraft or harmful magic between 1400 and 1700?

A) 1.5 to 2 million
B) 2,000 to 3,000
C) 500,000 to 600,000
D) 70,000 to 100,000

Question 14

Descartes divided existing things into two categories: body and ________.

A) modality
B) God
C) metaphor
D) mind

Question 15

Hobbes saw human beings as ________.

A) naturally docile
B) basically good
C) basically just
D) self-centered, power-hungry creatures

Question 16

Who is known as the father of empiricism?

A) Isaac Newton
B) Francis Bacon
C) Johannes Kepler
D) Galileo Galilei

Question 17

Jonathan Swift's satire of the new sciences was ________.

A) Leviathan
B) Gulliver's Travels
C) First Treatise of Government
D) Letter Concerning Toleration

Question 18

The scientific fact that the orbits of the planets are elliptical was discovered by ________.

A) Newton
B) Galileo
C) Brahe
D) Kepler

Question 19

Maria Winkelmann made her contributions in the field of ________.

A) natural history
B) medicine
C) astronomy
D) biology

Question 20

Who addressed the issue of planetary motion and established a basis for physics that endured for more than two centuries?

A) Nicolaus Copernicus
B) Isaac Newton
C) Johannes Kepler
D) Galileo Galilei

Question 21

The witch hunts ended because, among other things, ________.

A) they threatened the social order
B) Protestants were more preoccupied with the devil
C) the power of words seemed greater after Gutenberg
D) no judges were left

Question 22

The scientist most known for his work on the laws of gravitation was ________.

A) Tycho Brahe
B) Isaac Newton
C) Francis Bacon
D) John Locke

Question 23

The most famous institution dedicated to the new sciences was the ________.

A) Berlin Academy of Science
B) Royal Society of London
C) University of Paris
D) French Academy of Science

Question 24

In Locke's view, the relationship between rulers and the governed has its foundation in __________.

A) military power
B) divine will
C) trust
D) economic inequality

Question 25

As Brahe's assistant, Kepler ________.

A) stayed closely aligned to the theories of Brahe long after Brahe's death
B) grew jealous of Brahe's fame and worked to discount the research they had completed together
C) was considered inferior to Brahe as a scientist
D) helped collect the scientific data and then interpreted it in his own way after Brahe's death

Question 26

Newton was a strong supporter of ________.

A) empiricism
B) inspiration
C) divine guidance
D) rationalism

Question 27

Baroque art aligned with the ideas of the scientific revolution because it ________.

A) paralleled the interest in human anatomy and the natural world
B) departed from classic religious scenes
C) depicted largely mathematical ideas
D) was commissioned by the leaders of the new scientific world

Question 28

The woman who brought René Descartes to advise on the new science academy was ________.

A) Queen Christina of Sweden
B) Maria Cunitz
C) Elisabetha Hevelius
D) Maria Winkelmann

Question 29

The author of Pensées, published posthumously, was _________.

A) Denis Diderot
B) René de Chateaubriand
C) René Descartes
D) Blaise Pascal

Question 30

In the early sixteenth century, the standard explanation of the place of the earth in the heavens combined the works of ________.

A) Ptolemy and Aristotle
B) Plato and Aristotle
C) Aquinas and Bacon
D) Socrates and Plato

Question 31

Charles I's employment of Rubens illustrated to the people of England that ________.

A) baroque art demonstrated religious truths
B) Charles opposed a monarchial government
C) Galileo was incorrect and should be condemned
D) Charles I had Roman Catholic sympathies

Question 32

The most elaborative baroque monument to political absolutism was ________.

A) Pope Urban VIII's tabernacle in Rome
B) Charles I's palace in London
C) Louis XIV's palace at Versailles
D) Franz Joseph's palace in Vienna

Question 33

According to Pascal's famous wager, ________.

A) it is best to believe God exists and stake everything to gain the lot; if God should prove not to exist, comparatively little will have been lost
B) it is best to live life to the fullest, regardless of your religious beliefs, and if God does exist, seek forgiveness near the end of your life
C) it is best to believe that God does not exist so that if he does exist, you will be joyful rather than disappointed
D) only one person in a hundred would be saved

Question 34

Francis Bacon believed that________.

A) the study of nature began with the articulation of general principles
B) knowledge of nature should be used to improve the human condition
C) knowledge of nature was primarily useful for what it told us about the divine
D) the best era of human history lay in antiquity

Question 35

According to Hobbes, human beings escape the terrible state of nature by ________.

A) becoming selfless and obeying others
B) taking part in a tacit contract
C) naturally being sociable
D) embracing Christianity

Question 36

The heliocentric universe was introduced by ________.

A) Nicolaus Copernicus
B) Isaac Newton
C) Johannes Kepler
D) Galileo Galilei

Question 37

Many proponents of mechanism believed________.

A) machines should do the work of humans
B) human beings were machines, slaves to religion
C) humans are machines whose purpose is to produce knowledge
D) the world can be explained in mechanical metaphors

Question 38

The clergy _________ the search for witches.

A) condemned
B) ignored
C) endorsed
D) pitied

Question 39

Based upon your knowledge of the text, which of the following is the most plausible cause of the witch hunts?

A) The droughts causing famine, especially in Ireland, led to the death of many, and because the witches claimed to control the weather, they were to blame.
B) Witches were primarily women, and because women bore children that were causing an economic and scientific panic, they were to blame.
C) The corrupt government needed a distraction from the bad publicity, and because the same women that were suspected of being witches were spreading the news of corruption, politicians saw witch hunts as an answer to both of their problems.
D) Religious divisions and warfare threatened the security of society, and the witches were the scapegoats of a social panic.

Question 40

Which of the following is Tycho Brahe's major contribution to science?

A) He created a vast body of astronomical data from which his successors could work.
B) He did groundbreaking scientific research in which he suggested that Mercury and Venus revolved around the sun.
C) He proved Copernicus's research incorrect and published his own geocentric findings.
D) He proved that the moon and other planets revolved around the earth.

Question 41

According to Francis Bacon, the Bible and nature ________.

A) should be explained by scientists
B) must be compatible since they shared the same author
C) are directly opposed on countless points and must be reconciled
D) are inadequately explained by the Roman Catholic Church

Question 42

The Berlin Academy of Science denied Maria Winkelmann's application to continue her husband's study because ________.

A) she was a woman
B) her husband had died
C) her work was considered inferior to the work of other scientists
D) she had angered the upper level hierarchy of the Academy

Question 43

How did the telescope change the understanding of the universe for scientists?

A) It increased the accuracy of physical observations.
B) It required a new level of mathematical accuracy.
C) It improved navigation.
D) It required increased attention to scientific subjects.

Question 44

During the era of the scientific revolution, _____________ knowledge was only in the process of becoming science as we know it today.

Question 45

___________ popularized the Copernican system, but also articulated the concept of a universe subject to mathematical laws.

Question 46

The Enlightenment was the ________.

A) eighteenth-century movement that held that change and reform were both desirable through the application of reason and science
B) twentieth-century movement that brought scientists and philosophers together to reconcile their differences on the state of the natural world
C) eighteenth-century movement that attempted to interpret the events of scripture based on scientific observations of the natural world
D) nineteenth-century movement that saw the growth of industry and the increase of manufacturing

Question 47

Opposing ________, it was natural that the scientific revolution would also often find itself in opposition to _________.

A) reason; the church
B) received truths; political authority
C) the deductive method; empiricism
D) scholasticism; universities

Question 48

The assumption that the earth moved about the sun in a circle is known as the ________________ model.

Question 49

Which of the following is true of the scientific revolution?

A) It was not rapid.
B) It involved a large collective of people that numbered in the thousands.
C) It was a unified movement.
D) Everything associated with the revolution was new and groundbreaking.

Question 50

In his Discourse on Method, Descartes attacked ________.

A) Locke's method
B) the use of reason alone
C) the church
D) received truths

Question 51

The scope of witchcraft persecutions showed that _________.

A) the Catholic Church was losing its power
B) the Protestant Reformation had run its course
C) the wars of religion were over
D) belief in witchcraft was common

Question 52

Newton relied on the _____________ of Francis Bacon and rejected the rationalism of Descartes.

Question 53

How did scientists interact with universities during the scientific revolution?

A) Universities were often criticized by scientists.
B) Universities were generally praised by scientists.
C) Scientists were eager to be hired by universities.
D) Universities wanted to take credit for the discoveries of scientists.

Question 54

The learned societies that emerged in the 1600s are best described as ________.

A) forums for intellectual exchange
B) political clubs
C) social gatherings
D) closely linked to universities

Question 55

Prior to 1600, the scientific world viewed Copernicus's understanding of the universe with ________.

A) full acceptance and approval
B) complete rejection
C) caution and interest
D) religious outrage and condemnation

Question 56

Pascal's attitude toward reason was that it was ________.

A) un-Christian
B) of little use
C) insufficient for grasping religious concepts
D) superior to faith in understanding the world

Question 57

The book on astronomy by Maria Cunitz was ________.

A) initially rejected by the scientific world
B) recognized as her own work only after her husband added a preface
C) considered an important accomplishment for a woman of her day
D) widely read and distributed in universities

Question 58

The idea that humans were, by nature, creatures of reason and basic goodwill is an idea embraced by ________.

A) Locke, in opposition to the ideas of Descartes
B) Hobbes, in opposition to the ideas of John Locke
C) Locke, in opposition to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes
D) Bacon, in opposition to the ideas of John Locke

Question 59

Most Ptolemaic writers assumed the earth was the center of the universe, an outlook known as _______________.

Question 60

The greatest example of empiricism is shown by the work of ________.

A) Blaise Pascal
B) Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler
C) Thomas Hobbes
D) Ptolemy

Question 61

____________ was one of the first major European writers to champion innovation and change.

Question 62

Refer to the excerpt "Descartes and Swift Debate the Scientific Enterprise." How do Descartes and Swift differ in their views on the value of science? What are the main points of difference?

Question 63

Explain the role of the institutions of science created in the scientific revolution, including the Royal Society of London and the Berlin Academy of Sciences.Why were these institutions important and how did they relate to contemporary authorities?

Question 64

What ends, religious or secular, did baroque art meet? How does the artwork of the time coincide with the natural sciences and changes in culture that existed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Explain.

Question 65

People who supported new science, applied knowledge, religious toleration, mutual forbearance, and political unity formed the basis for the eighteenth-century movement known as the ________.

Question 66

Francis Bacon argued that there were two books of divine revelation, the Bible and nature, and that the two books must be compatible because both shared the same ____________.

Question 67

Baroque painters depicted their subjects in a thoroughly _____________, rather than an idealized, manner.

Question 68

Compare and contrast Blaise Pascal's and Francis Bacon's approaches to the relationship between religion and science.On what would they agree? On what would they disagree?

Question 69

Bernini was hired by Urban VIII to decorate ________.

Question 70

With few exceptions, women were barred from science and medicine until the late ___________ century, and not until the twentieth century did they enter these fields in significant numbers.

Question 71

The method by which scientists draw generalizations derived from, and test hypotheses against, empirical observations is known as _________________.

Question 72

Explain the beliefs of Francis Bacon.Why did he want to be compared to Columbus? Is that an accurate comparison? Why did Bacon disagree with most people in his day when they recalled antiquity as the best era of human history? Do you agree or disagree with his views? Why?

Question 73

Traditional beliefs and superstitions remained solidly in place in the culture and led to the eruption of panics and ________ in almost every Western land.

Question 74

Explain in detail the rationale and founders of the Ptolemaic system.What scientists contributed to or critiqued this explanation of the universe? What was each scientist's criticism or contribution to this method? What other system was established to challenge the Ptolemaic system?

Question 75

The method of investigation that relies on evidence, experimentation, and observations derived from sensory experiences to construct scientific theory is the ________ method.

Question 76

Explain Newton's view that planets move due to gravity.How did Newton prove this viewpoint? Did this movement create order or disorder in the heavens? What did Newton have to say about the nature of gravity itself?

Question 77

What is meant by the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century belief that "genuinely new knowledge" about nature and humankind could be discovered? How did this differ from earlier assumptions?

Question 78

How were the witch hunts a sign of their times? What role did religion play in the witch hunts? What do you think caused the witch hunts to come to a close?

Question 79

Discuss the contributions of women to the scientific revolution.What is the merit of examining their contributions, considering they were so marginal?

Question 80

The condemnation of ___________ by Roman Catholic authorities in 1633 is the single most famous incident of conflict between modern science and religious institutions.