Copernicanism Research Articles

Venus’s phases: evidence supporting heliocentrism

Abstract The affirmation of the Copernican system marks a milestone in the history of science. However, in educational settings, theoretical and philosophical aspects are often prioritized, with less attention paid to the empirical and quantitative data supporting heliocentrism. The discovery of Venus phases by Galileo Galilei through his early telescope represents a compelling piece of evidence corroborating the Sun-centered model. A renowned drawing published in Galilei's treatise ‘Il Saggiatore’ (1623) illustrates this phenomenon and the anti-correlation between phases and apparent diameter. The analysis of the illustration reveals precise quantitative information comparable in accuracy to that which can be extracted from contemporary astrophotography. Inspired by this result, the galileian discovery has been revisited and tailored into activities suitable for both high school and college teaching levels. These activities invite students to construct their own empirical evidence for heliocentrism by analyzing digital images and using interactive digital tools for image manipulation. The topic has also been proposed at the university level through more advanced analysis techniques. The common aim at each level is to engage students in a dynamic ‘learning by doing’ experience, replicating pivotal moments from the history of science and transforming a topic traditionally confined to the history of ideas into a living, interactive subject.

The Sun from Copernicus to Newton: from Heliocentrism to the Solar System

Abstract This paper gives a brief account of changing conceptions of the Sun from 1542 (Nicolaus Copernicus) to 1705 (Halley’s Comet). It explores the obstacles to the acceptance of Copernican heliocentrism and the emergence of the novel claims that the Sun is a star and that the Earth is a planet within what was now called the “Solar System”.

Was there an association made between Geocentrism and Anthropocentrism before the Copernican Revolution?

Some post-Copernican authors, such as Bernard de Fontenelle and Cyrano de Bergerac, mention an association between geocentrism and anthropocentrism that was broken by the Copernican model. This argument has been criticized by authors such as A. O. Lovejoy, Remi Brague, and Dennis R. Danielson, who argue that the geocentric model of the Universe humiliated man rather than glorified him, since the Earth, as the center of the Universe, was seen as the filthy part of the Universe. So, living on the Earth was not considered a noble status for Man. In this paper, however, I will show that living in the coarser part of the Universe had also been seen in conjunction with having a noble status, and that there was indeed an association made between geocentrism and anthropocentrism before the Copernican Revolution.

Jeffery M. Leonard. Creation Rediscovered: Finding New Meaning in an Ancient Story

Jeffery M. Leonard. <i>Creation Rediscovered: Finding New Meaning in an Ancient Story</i>

A New Response to Wray and an Attempt to Widen the Conversation

This article begins by examining a recent claim by Brad Wray that the discovery of atomic number and isotopy constitutes a scientific revolution in the sense of the later writings of Thomas Kuhn. I argue that although Kuhn’s criteria may apply to the change from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican model of the universe, they do not apply in the above chemical or atomic case. I also examine the wider issue of Kuhn’s turning away from internal scientific issues to a consideration of lexical issues. I conclude, as others have done before me, that this may have been a wrong turn in view of the emphasis being placed on questions of sense rather than reference.

Die Crucigers: Caspar der Ältere, Caspar der Jüngere, und Elisabeth Cruciger in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wittenberger Reformation ed. by Armin Kohnle and Irene Dingel

Reviewed by: Die Crucigers: Caspar der Ältere, Caspar der Jüngere, und Elisabeth Cruciger in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wittenberger Reformation ed. by Armin Kohnle and Irene Dingel Timothy J. Wengert Die Crucigers: Caspar der Ältere, Caspar der Jüngere, und Elisabeth Cruciger in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wittenberger Reformation. Edited by Armin Kohnle and Irene Dingel. Leucorea-Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation und der Lutherischen Orthodoxie, 40. Leipzig: Evangelischer Verlagsanstalt, 2021. 474 pp. One of the most helpful series published in the last two decades has been the "Leucorea Studies," focused especially on characters around Luther, Melanchthon, and their university. Not since the mid-nineteenth century, when Theodor Pressel and others wrote the first scientific investigations of those surrounding the central figures, have works described the life and thought of Wittenberg's other reformers. Previous volumes investigated Georg Major, Paul Eber, Johannes Mathesius, Nicolaus von Amsdorff, Johannes Bugenhagen, Katharina von Bora, Johann Stigel (the poet), Georg Rörer (Luther's amanuensis), and Justus Jonas. Others have themes such as the Augsburg Interim or the University of Wittenberg itself ("the Leucorea"). This volume focuses on Caspar Cruciger, Sr. (1504–1548), his first wife Elisabeth (née von Meseritz; 1500/1505?–1535), and their son, Caspar, Jr. (1525–1597)—all important contributors to the Wittenberg Reformation. Given the scant scholarship concerning them, these essays increase our knowledge significantly. Those interested in almost any aspect of Wittenberg's sixteenth-century theology and practice will need to consult this book. Indeed, it is perhaps the very best in the series, as the authors combine new archival and original-source investigations with a careful reading of past scholarship. The appendices (providing bibliographies of the works by Cruciger, Sr. and Jr. and a preliminary list of Cruciger, Sr.' s correspondence) give scholars a fine place to begin work. A variety of authors—from recent graduate students to well-known professors—contribute. [End Page 199] The first eight essays concern aspects of Cruciger, Sr.' s life and work. Johannes Träger traces his origins in and connections with Leipzig; Kestutis Daugirdas maps his later interest in astronomy and Copernican theory; Stefan Michel describes new aspects of his relation to Luther; and Marion Bechtold-Mayer does the same for Melanchthon. Others concern specific events: the Cordatus controversy over the necessity of good works (Anna Lena Jungk), his participation in the religious colloquies of the early 1540s (Irene Dingel), his ecclesiological interests in one of his commentaries on some Psalms (Amy Nelson Burnett), and the crisis over the Interim, coinciding with his death in 1548 (Armin Kohnle). All provide new insights into Cruciger's importance as a first-generation reformer. The five essays concerning Cruciger, Jr. are even more impressive for the wealth of new information and corrections of old legends. Beate Kusche traces his development from member of the arts faculty in the 1550s to banished professor of theology in the mid-1570s. Based upon her work on Wittenberg's Scripta publica, Christiane Domtera-Schleichart provides glimpses into his occasional writings for university life. Hans-Peter Hasse uses his wealth of research about the collapse of Philippism in Wittenberg in the 1570s (Zensur theologischer Bücher [Leipzig, 2000]) to describe in great detail Cruciger, Jr.' s own fall from grace, citing from the (unpublished) protocols of interviews with theological examiners and Elector August's personal intervention into the affair. Corinna Ehlers provides new information about his involvement in the dispute over original sin and the way Melanchthon's later positions played a role in forming his own. Jan Martin Lies puts to rest old myths about Cruciger, Jr.'s later life, showing that first in 1578 he went directly from Saxon house arrest to the landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, where the Landgrave Wilhelm made him tutor for his son and unsuccessfully tried to get him a position at the University of Marburg. In no case did he expressly support Reformed theology, nor did he play a leading role in the church life in Hessen. Four essays deal with the Cruciger family and Elisabeth von Meseritz. Volker Gummelt looks closely at the fragmentary evidence about her early life and convincingly argues for her birth in Meseritz...

Introduction: The Idiosyncratic Nature of Renaissance Mathematics

Introduction: The Idiosyncratic Nature of Renaissance Mathematics

Stanley Jaki: Science and Faith in a Realist Perspective

Stanley Jaki: Science and Faith in a Realist Perspective

HISTORICAL CONTINGENCY FOR COSMOLOGY [2]-TYCHO BRACHE’S GEOCENTRIC UNIVERSE

Before the invention of a telescope, Tycho Brache developed his geocentric model of the Universe. Some of the historical contingencies are discussed in a context of the early Scientific Revolution. Even though considered to be the simplest and a sufficiently accurate model, Tycho’s geocentric model played very little role in the transition from Ptolemy’s to Copernican model.

HISTORICAL CONTINGENCIES FOR COSMOLOGY [1] -A CHOICE BETWEEN PTOLEMY’S AND COPERNICAN MODEL

During the Scientific Revolution, Copernican Sun-centered Universe had replaced Ptolemy’s Earth-centered Universe. However, this was not made possible due to scientific rationality and objectivity based on the best available sets of empirical evidence at the time. The transition from Ptolemy’s to Copernican model was aesthetic and psychological in nature rather than rational and objective.

Reversals in Wartime: Alcuin and Charlemagne discuss Retrograde Motion

The apparent retrograde motion of the planets was a puzzle for astronomers from the ancient world to the final establishment of heliocentric cosmology in the early modern period, but enjoyed an especially rich discussion in the Carolingian Renaissance. We explore the first stirrings of an eighth-century response to this epistemological challenge in a remarkable series of letters between Alcuin of York and Charlemagne, sent while the latter was on campaign against the Saxons in 798 CE. Their exchange constitutes the longest discussion of the phenomenon of Mars' retrograde motion in the West up to that date. Our consideration of the relevant letters explores Alcuin's ability to marshal diverse and complex explanatory narratives and observational traditions around the problem of the retrograde motion of the planet Mars, even as he was unable to fully reconcile them. Attention to his ultimately unsuccessful (and at times contradictory) attempts at explanation suggest that he relied on knowledge from sources beyond those previously recognized, which we identify. Charlemagne's curiosity about the matter can be located in the much longer context of an ancient tradition of imperial and royal concern with heavenly phenomena; at the same time, the exchange with Alcuin heralds the ninth-century expansion of astronomy away from the computists' preoccupation with the solar and lunar calendrical data required to calculate the date of Easter and towards a more wide-ranging curiosity about observed planetary motion irrelevant to Easter dating and computistical calculations. Alcuin's functional, if not geometrical, assumption of the centrality of the sun in his explanation merits a further examination of the more general sense in which lost ancient heliocentric ideas sustained early medieval echoes.

MATHEMATICS, THE "BOOK OF NATURE" AND THEOLOGY - GALILEO GALILEI AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN SCIENCE

Starting from the cycle of letters known as The Copernican Letters (1613-1615) and following through to the 1632 Dialogue, I will attempt to outline the context in which Galileo Galilei’s work is constituted as a veritable theory of nature research based on mathematics. Galilei rests on the principles of science to ground his choice for the Copernican model, as well as the separation of natural research from theology, but his concern for a unified philosophy of the natural world is intertwined in his work with the dignity of creation understood as “the great book of the world” by which divinity talks to man in the language of mathematics.

New Systematic Solution for Resolving Nonlinear Dynamics Using System Analytical Theory Based on Engineering Science

There are many nonlinear dynamics in field of non-physical sciences, such as the food chain, economic systems, or engineering systems with the characteristics of closed or open-loop systems. The problems arising from this have been resolved by the outdated chaos theory in statistical physics based on the paradigm of logical thinking. However, it was founded by classical physicists, and it is imperfect and vague, moreover, very difficult for others. Therefore, we require a perfect systematic solution based on systems thinking, such as systems analytical methods in engineering science. Surprisingly, in 2021, a non-physicist, on behalf of a physicist, has successfully resolved the problems and achieved a new solution based on systems thinking through interdisciplinary research; moreover, it has been published. Unfortunately, most physicists do not welcome it because they have no experience and it is disadvantageous to them like the Copernican theory. In addition, they have no ability to evaluate the new solution because they do not know the analytic method. Nevertheless, non-physicists are greatly welcome it, thus, there is no problem in it. Hence, non-physicists will verify it using MATLAB or simulator and apply it to all science, on behalf of physicists. If so, non-physicists will have both a logical solution and a systematic solution for resolving nonlinear dynamics.

Geo-heliocentric models and the Society of Jesus: from Clavius’s resistance to Dechales’s Mathesis Regia

ABSTRACT In 1588 Tycho Brahe proposed a new cosmological system keeping a motionless Earth at the centre of the world. In the first half of the following century the reception of Tycho’s model within the Society of Jesus was characterized by a strong resistance at the beginning, followed by a long and winding path, and then a good fortune, whereas heliocentric models were increasingly investigated in European observatories. In 1651 a Jesuit astronomer, Giovan Battista Riccioli, published the Almagestum novum, an encyclopaedic synthesis of astronomical knowledge where the Earth’s motions or rest were extensively discussed in order to prove the Earth's immobility. However, through the period 1650–1687 the Almagestum novum did not entirely fulfil its aims, rather seeming like the dying swan’s song of Tychonic or semi-Tychonic models. Contemporary scholars appreciated the encyclopaedic effort by Riccioli, but many were critical of his proofs. Even influential Jesuit astronomers showed a remarkable interest in the Copernican model, accepting geocentric models only on the basis of Holy Scripture’s authority. This conduct and the tacitly allowed circulation in Catholic Europe of openly Copernican books, indicate that Catholic science tolerated heliocentric theory, when presented as a computational device rather than a representation of reality, more frequently than we usually think.

New Systems Solution for Resolving Nonlinear Dynamics Based on Systems Thinking

This study describes a new solution for resolving nonlinear dynamics. Surprisingly, it has been resolved and completed by non-physicists on behalf of physicists in 2021. It is a revolutionary solution like the Copernican Theory, which is perfectly different from the existing chaos theory. In the past, nonlinear dynamics has been analyzed using logical solutions, such as chaos theory, based on logical thinking. However, it is not perfect systematic solution, hence; the new solution has been analyzed and resolved by systematic analytical tool in other sciences. Then, the result is more perfect and precise than the old chaos theory. Regrettably, most physicists do not welcome this advancement, because they have primitive solutions such as chaos theory. If the new solution is true, it is very disadvantageous to them like Galileo’s heliocentric theory. Therefore, they do not welcome it and deny and reject it. Hence, they wish it to fail; moreover, they want to remain in safe zone. Unfortunately, they became outsiders because they have no ability to review new solutions. Unfortunately, we have no obligation to follow physicists. If so, non-physicists, bypassing physicists, must study independently nonlinear dynamics based on systems thinking, and have to share the findings other scientists. It means that the new solution would be replaced the chaos theory in traditional physics; moreover, it would be resolved many unsolved nonlinear dynamics in the future.

Advanced Studies for Resolving Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Involving Complexity Based on Systems Thinking for Non-Physicists

There are many examples of nonlinear dynamics, such as food chains or thermodynamic systems within closed-loop systems. In modern physics, these problems have been resolved based on logical thinking by using the chaos theory in statistical physics, which was arranged by classical physicists in the 17th century. However, this is a significantly erroneous problem because, in engineering science, nonlinear dynamics must be resolved and cleared using systems analysis theory based on systems thinking. It is the main concept in a new solution that is studied through interdisciplinary research; it is needed to introduce control theory into physics. In 2015, on the behalf of physicists, the author successfully resolved and achieved a new solution, which is a significant achievement in modern science. Unfortunately, physicists have not welcomed it because it is disadvantageous to them, similar to the Copernican theory. So, they themselves became outsiders. If so, non-physicists need to follow their chaos theory in physics unless they do not clarify their solution; moreover, non-physicists on behalf of physicists can use their own new solution without risk. Hence, all scientists need to learn the systems analytic method in engineering.

On Void and the Plausibility of the Copernican Paradigm: an Indo-Persian Link in the Qajar Reception of Modern Astronomy

Abstract Historiography on the introduction of the Copernican astronomical paradigm in Iran has acknowledged the presence of Persian treatises from India in early-nineteenth century Qajar Iran for some time. In spite of this acknowledgment, the processes by which the modern paradigm was transmitted to Iran via the subcontinent have remained shrouded in mystery for the most part. MS Or. 462 at Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, represents a unique early nineteenth-century composite manuscript (majmūʿah), in which, alongside treatises belonging to the premodern Ptolemaic paradigm, appears an entry on the Copernican planetary system. The treatise in question, titled “The discovery of the novel opinions of the sages of Europe” (Istikshāf-i rāyhā-yi tāzah-ʾi ḥakīmān-i farang), outlines the expanding geographical knowledge of Europe as well as the cosmological revisions of Copernicus and Newton, among other unnamed European scholars. In this article, we first examine the treatise’s connection to its Indo-Persian source and present an overview of its content on the new Copernican cosmology. Furthermore, we examine an encounter between proponents and detractors of the new scientific paradigm as detailed at the end of the treatise. Finally, we draw a few conclusions about the introduction of modernity and modern science into nineteenth-century Qajar Iran, based on the information that can be retrieved from this treatise.

Copernicanism and Its Biological Discontents

Copernicanism and Its Biological Discontents

Edward Gresham’s Astrostereon, or A Discourse of the Falling of the Planet (1603), the Copernican paradox, and the construction of early modern proto-scientific discourse

This paper investigates the functioning of the ‘Copernican paradox’ (stating that the Sun stands still and the Earth revolves around the Sun) in the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England, with particular attention to Edward Gresham's (1565–1613) little-known and hitherto understudied astronomical treatise – Astrostereon, or A Discourse of the Falling of the Planet (1603). The text, which is fully appreciative of the heliocentric system, is analysed within a broader context of the ongoing struggles with the Copernican theory at the turn of the seventeenth century. The article finds that apart from having a purely rhetorical function, the ‘Copernican paradox’ featured in the epistemological debates on how early modern scientific knowledge should be constructed and popularised. The introduction of new scientific claims to sceptical audiences had to be done both through mathematical demonstrations and by referring to the familiar concepts and tools drawn from the inventory of humanist education. As this article shows, Gresham's rhetorical techniques used for the rejection of paradoxicality of heliocentrism are similar to some of the practices which Thomas Digges and William Gilbert employed in order to defend their own findings and assertions.

Giordano Bruno: Expander of the Copernican Universe

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Giordano Bruno, or</b> Iordanus Brunus Nolanus (1548–1600), was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist, born in the Kingdom of Naples. He extended the then novel Copernican model and proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own. Besides, Bruno also underlined that the universe is infinite and could have no celestial body at its center. Revolutionary ideas shaking the base of the Catholic Church contentions; the response took some time, but was mercilessly cruel.