Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lesson 6 - Intellectual Revolution Copernican
Lesson 6 - Intellectual Revolution Copernican
COSMOLOGY
cos·mol·o·gy | \ käz-ˈmä-lə-jē \
Early cosmology, from Neolithic About 20,000 years ago, humankind The third stage, considered the core
times of 20,000 to 100,000 years began to organize itself and develop of modern cosmology, grew out of
ago, was extremely local. The cultures. This led to the development ancient Greece, later adopted by the
Universe was what was immediately of creation myths to explain the origin Church. The underlying theme in
interacted with. Cosmological things of the Universe. Many of the myths Greek science is the use of
were weather, earthquakes, and still maintained supernatural themes, observation and experimentation to
cataclysms. Things outside daily but there was an internal logical search for simple, universal laws.
experience were considered consistency to many of the stories. In
supernatural. some sense, the creation myths are
the first scientific theories.
Reference: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec01.html
The
Greek
View
PLATO & ARISTOTLE
►Plato believed that concepts had a universal form, an
ideal form, which leads to Platonic Idealism.
ARISTOTLE
COSMOLOGY
EARLY GREEKS
► Homer and Hesiod (the 8th century BC) postulated a flat or cylindrical
earth located in a hemispherical cosmos
► Pythagoras (560-480BC) held the view that the earth was a sphere in a
universe which was itself also fully spherical
https://bertie.ccsu.edu/naturesci/Cosmology/Cosmo1Background.html
”
Through trigonometric considerations, ancient Greeks were able to determine the Earth’s circumference.
Note: 1 stadia ~ 0.16 kms
PLATO
► The world was the creation ► The Demiurge organized ► The soul of the cosmos,
of a "Demiurge" (from the the world out of the elements-- which Plato considered as the
Greek "demos" or people and Earth, Water, Air and Fire. more important part, was its
"ourgos" or work) out of These formed the "body" of principle of eternal and recurring
materials provided by a pre- the cosmos, which was also circular motion, as done by the
existing "chaos", or jumble of endowed with a "soul". moon, planets, sun and stars.
matter
► It is presumed, though not explicitly stated by Plato, that the Earth is the
center of the cosmos, with the other heavenly bodies rotating about it
COSMOLOGY ACCORDING TO ► Acceptance of the four Platonic elements
of Earth, Water, Air and Fire as the basis for
ARISTOTLE phenomena on both the Earth (the planet)
and in the atmosphere.
SHORTCOMING
This model doesn’t work well with planets, doesn’t explain
retrograde motions and doesn’t explain different brightness levels.
Image:https://www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/history/eudoxus/
eudoxus.html
EARLY GREEK ASTRONOMY
ARISTOTELIAN-PTOLEMAIC
MODEL
► Aristotle proposed 55 concentric, crystalline spheres to which
the celestial objects were attached, and which rotated at different
velocities with the Earth at the center
SHORTCOMING
His model could not explain varying planetary brightness and the
retrograde in their motions
Image:http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~blackman/ast104/
aristotle8.html
► A 1524 representation
of Aristotelian-Ptolemaic
Geocentric universe
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
EARLY GREEK ASTRONOMY
ARISTOTELIAN-PTOLEMAIC
MODEL
► The solution to the deficiency in Aristotle’s model was to add
epicycles. Ptolemy made the most sophisticated version of
this model by introducing epicycles in epicycles it also
introduced the idea of the “equant”, an observation point
slightly off from where the earth is
RETROGRADE MOTION
(Photograph ©2007–08 Tunç Tezel.) https://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OrbitsHistory Images:http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~blackman/ast104/aristotle8.html
Astronomy & Theology
► By the Middle Ages, Aristotle’s philosophy was merged with medieval
theology in the great synthesis of Christianity and Reason undertaken by
philosopher-theologians such as Thomas Aquinas.
“ Thus, the ideas largely originating with pagan Greek philosophers were
baptized into the Catholic church and eventually assumed the power of
religious dogma: to challenge this view of the Universe was not merely a
scientific issue; it became a theological one as well, and subjected dissenters
to the considerable and not always benevolent power of the Church.
HELIOCENTRIC MODEL
COPERNICAN MODEL
► Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish priest, proposed (in 1515)
that the Earth was a planet like Venus and Saturn, and all
these circled the Sun, but did not publish his work until 1543.
SHORTCOMING
The shortcoming of this model is the use of circular instead of
[Adapted from Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543, De revolutionibus
elliptical orbits. orbium coelestium (“On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres.”)]
COPERNICUS' SYSTEM
► No equant.
HELIOCENTRIC MODEL
COPERNICAN MODEL
► It is believed by many that Copernicus’ book was only
published at the end of his life because he feared ridicule and
oppression by his peers and by the Church.
► His ideas remained rather obscure for about 100 years after
his death. In the 17th century, the work of Kepler, Galileo,
and Newton would build on the heliocentric universe of
Copernicus and produce the revolution that would sweep
away completely the ideas of Aristotle and replace them
with the modern view of astronomy and natural science.
This sequence is commonly called the Copernican
Revolution.
BRAHE MODEL
► King Fredrick II of Denmark built Tycho Brahe a
naked-eye observatory to measure the position of
planets with high accuracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg#/media/File:Uraniborg_main_building.jpg
► Tycho Brahe's
Uraniborg main
building from the
1663 Blaeu's
Atlas Maior
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg#/media/File:Uraniborg_main_building.jpg
COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
BRAHE MODEL
► Brahe developed a model in order to explain Galileo’s
observation that Venus had phases. His model had all the
planets (except Earth) orbiting around the Sun, but then
the Sun orbited around the Earth.
KEPLER MODEL
► Johannes Kepler was Tycho Brahe’s
assistant. Brahe felt threatened and assigned
Kepler to the difficult task of observing Mars.
The eccentricity of ellipses are anywhere between zero and one; the circle has an eccentricity of zero.
Source: https://www.mechamath.com/precalculus/characteristics-of-an-ellipse/
COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
ISAAC NEWTON
► Contributions to different fields:
• Mathematics, both pure and applied
• Optics and the theory of light and color
• Design of scientific instruments
• Synthesis and codification of dynamics
• Invention of the concept and law of
universal gravity
• Alchemy
• Chronology, church history, and
• interpretation of the Scriptures
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Newton/Career
It took 144 years of active debate and research for the
Copernican view to establish itself. Can a scientific revolution take
that long? What is important about a revolution is not its length
but its depth. What makes a change revolutionary is its upheaval
in an established structure, a reversal of viewpoints, a
replacement of presuppositions. It is a general rearrangement of
elements in a network, be it conceptual, political, or social. Some
elements in the system are displaced, some replaced, and others
remain.
FRIEDEL WEINERT
from Copernicus, Darwin, & Freud: Revolutions in the History and Philosophy of Science