Kopernika Revolūcija – zinātnes laikmeta simbols un klišeja

Abstract

According to a broadly accepted view, contemporary science emerged after the scientific revolution of the 17th century, which started with Copernican revolution in astronomy. Copernican revolution has become a symbol for characterizing a revolutionary scientific development. During the following centuries, the Copernican revolution has been generalised rethinking of humans’ place and significance in the Universe. Eventually, this has transformed into a claim that Copernicus began “dethronement” of humans from the privileged position in the centre of the Universe, and thus gave a severe blow to the religious world-view. In fact, the concept of Copernican revolution has been transformed into frequently repeated “Copernican cliché”, particularly promoted in many popular science publications and textbooks. Although indeed Copernican revolution led to rethink the significance of humans in the Universe, the “Copernican cliché” oversimplifies both the intentions of Copernicus and the historical science-religion relationship.