Scribd
Upload
124 views

Copernican Intellectual Revolution-European History: Nicolas Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who proposed the Copernican Revolution, which placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. This was the first comprehensive heliocentric theory and marked the start of the Scientific Revolution by establishing science as an autonomous discipline. Copernicus' theory was published in 1543 and gained acceptance slowly by astronomers due to its mathematical techniques, despite controversy over its cosmological implications. It established a new understanding of humanity's place in the universe and the role of science in society.

Uploaded by

Ismael Jr PANGCOGA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
124 views

Copernican Intellectual Revolution-European History: Nicolas Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who proposed the Copernican Revolution, which placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. This was the first comprehensive heliocentric theory and marked the start of the Scientific Revolution by establishing science as an autonomous discipline. Copernicus' theory was published in 1543 and gained acceptance slowly by astronomers due to its mathematical techniques, despite controversy over its cosmological implications. It established a new understanding of humanity's place in the universe and the role of science in society.

Uploaded by

Ismael Jr PANGCOGA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Copernican Intellectual Revolution- European History

Copernican Revolution, shift in the field of astronomy from a geocentric understanding of the


universe, centred around Earth, to a heliocentric understanding, centred around the Sun,
as articulated by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century. This shift
marked the start of a broader Scientific Revolution that set the foundations of
modern science and allowed science to flourish as an autonomous discipline within its own right.

Although heliocentric theories had been considered by philosophers as early as Philolaus in the
5th century BCE, and while there had been earlier discussions of the possibility of Earth’s
motion, Copernicus was the first to propound a comprehensive heliocentric theory equal in scope
and predictive capability to Ptolemy’s geocentric system. Motivated by the desire to
satisfy Plato’s principle of uniform circular motion, Copernicus was led to overthrow traditional
astronomy because of its inability to be reconciled with the Platonic dictum as well as its lack of
unity and harmony as a system of the world. Relying on virtually the same data as Ptolemy had
possessed, Copernicus turned the world inside out, putting the Sun at the centre and setting Earth
into motion around it. Copernicus’s theory, published in 1543, possessed a qualitative simplicity
that Ptolemaic astronomy appeared to lack. To achieve comparable levels of quantitative
precision, however, the new system became just as complex as the old. Perhaps the most
revolutionary aspect of Copernican astronomy lay in Copernicus’s attitude toward the reality of
his theory. In contrast to Platonic instrumentalism, Copernicus asserted that to be satisfactory
astronomy must describe the real, physical system of the world.

Copernicus did not solve all of the difficulties of the Ptolemaic system. He had to keep some of
the cumbrous apparatus of epicycles and other geometrical adjustments, as well as a few
Aristotelian crystalline spheres. The result was neater but not so striking that it commanded
immediate universal assent. Moreover, there were some implications that caused considerable
concern: Why should the crystalline orb containing Earth circle the Sun? And how was it
possible for Earth itself to revolve on its axis once in 24 hours without hurling all objects,
including humans, off its surface? No known physics could answer these questions, and the
provision of such answers was to be the central concern of the Scientific Revolution. The
reception of Copernican astronomy amounted to victory by infiltration. By the time large-scale
opposition to the theory had developed in the church and elsewhere, most of the best professional
astronomers had found some aspect or other of the new system indispensable. Copernicus’s
book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of
the Heavenly Orbs”), published in 1543, became a standard reference for advanced problems in
astronomical research, particularly for its mathematical techniques. Thus, it was widely read by
mathematical astronomers, in spite of its central cosmological hypothesis, which was widely
ignored. In 1551 the German astronomer Erasmus Reinhold published the Tabulae
prutenicae (“Prutenic Tables”), computed by Copernican methods. The tables were more
accurate and more up-to-date than their 13th-century predecessor and became indispensable to
both astronomers and astrologers.
Nicolas Copernicus
- Father of Copernican Revolution.
- Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer known as the father of modern astronomy.
He was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets
revolve around the sun, or the Heliocentric Theory of the universe.
- Copernicus was a prototype Renaissance Man. Studied widely in many subjects, but took a
special interest in mathematics and astronomy, as these seemed crucial and central to his
philosophical understanding.
Nicolas Copernicus Early Life
- Nicolas Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, a city in north- central
Poland on the Vistula River. Copernicus was born into a family of well-to-do merchants,
and after his father’s death, his uncle-soon to be a bishop-took the boy under his wing. He
was given the best education of the day and bred for a career in canon (church) law.

Copernican - 1 : of or relating to Copernicus or the belief that the earth rotates daily on its axis
and the planets revolve in orbits around the sun.
Copernicus’ System
 Earth a planet, like others, all circling the sun (no longer a planet)
 Moon circling earth (no longer a planet)
 Earth has three motions:
1. Daily rotation -- replacing the movement of the sphere of the fixed start
2. Annual revolution around sun -- accounting for retrograde motion
3. 3rd motion -- an annual rotation about an axis perpendicular to the ecliptic (to correct
for change in earth's axis relative to the sun -- seeking symmetry around a point instead
of inertial orientation relative to the stars)
 

Problems to be explained (away) by Copernicus


 
1. moving  earth -- no answer, really. Copernicus said that it was okay for the earth to move because
it was a sphere and spherical motion was natural for spheres. Clouds and other objects in the air do
not rush off to the west because being earthly, they partake of the earth's motion.
 
2. phases  of Venus -- since Venus is held to orbit the sun in a smaller orbit than the earth, it will be
seen from the earth at different angles with respect to the sun and therefore should exhibit phases,
like the moon does. But Venus does not appear to exhibit phases. -- Copernicus' answer is that
Venus is not lit by the sun, but has its own light.
 
3. stelar  parallax. -- if earth is not the centre of the sphere of the fixed stars, but in orbit around the
centre, it should see the stars at varying angles at different times of year. Therefore there should be
stellar parallax seen. But none is seen. -- Copernicus' answer (actually correct, but seemed
preposterous at the time) is that stellar parallax was not visible because the stars were too far away.
(In relation to the heavens, the orbit of the earth is but a point.) (Stellar parallax discovered in 1838
by Bessel.)
 
Everything about Copernicus's reasoning was ancient. Difficulties solved by ad hoc arguments. His
system just as complex as Ptolemy's. Copernicus solved some problems in Ptolemy but replaced
them with others just as bad, perhaps. Orbits all circular and at constant speed--as required by
ancients.
Copernicus saved the phenomena in a Platonic fashion.
 
His original appeal was to Neo-Platonists only.  Too much defying common sense.

How did the Copernican revolution changed the world?


- When Copernicus replaced the Earth with the Sun at the center of the universe, it changed
the role of astronomy in society. A lot of the resistance to Copernicus' theory came not
only from within the scientific community but also a result of the social implications of a
heliocentric universe.
What was the Copernican Revolution and why was it so important?
- The Copernican Revolution gives us an important framework for understanding the
Universe. We do not occupy a special or privileged place in the Universe. The Universe
and everything in it can be understood and predicted using a set of basic physical laws
(“rules”)

You might also like