Copernican system

“ The Copernican system, so long as it was not purged of the artificial appendage of epicycles by the laws of Kepler, was not very much simpler than the Tychonic, and, mathematically speaking, the only difference between them was, that the one placed the origin of co-ordinates in the sun (or rather in the centre of the earth's orbit) , the other in the earth. ”

“ By the same right we might conclude that the main principles of the Copernican system cannot be immutable, because they would [pg 160] hinder the progress of science. Progress certainly does not consist in throwing away all certainty acquired, in order to begin anew. Or does it really belong to progress in astronomy to again give up Copernicus, to go back to Ptolemy and let the sun and all the stars revolve again around the earth? ”

“ Fig. 20.—The Copernican System.
Copernicus dealt only with the six planets then known and the sun and moon. As to the stars, he had no idea that they were suns like our own, at immense and various distances from us. The knowledge of the magnitude of the sidereal [Pg 206] universe was reserved for our own century, when it was discovered by the method of parallaxes. ”

“ Such were the astronomical systems in vogue before the time of Copernicus—all of them based upon the principle of the earth being the immovable centre of the universe. We must now turn to trace the history of the introduction of that system which has completely thrown over all these former ones, and which every one knows now to be the true one—the Copernican.
No revolution is accomplished, whether in science or politics, without having been long in preparation. The theory of the motion of the earth had been conceived, discussed, and even taught many ages before the birth of Copernicus. ”

“ I cannot omit this opportunity of relating to you what happened to myself at the time when this opinion (the Copernican system) began to be discussed. I was then a very young man, and had scarcely finished my course of philosophy, which other occupations obliged me to leave off, when there arrived in this country, from Rostoch, a foreigner, whose name, I believe, was Christian Vurstisius (Wurteisen) , a follower of Copernicus. This person delivered, on this subject, two or three lectures in a certain academy, and to a crowded audience. ”

“ Elbing and Ermeland were hostile to each other, Copernicus was well known in Elbing though probably from afar, for there seems to have been almost no personal intercourse between canons and people, and the spread of Luther's teachings had intensified the hostility of the villagers towards the Church and its representatives. But not until Giordano Bruno made the Copernican system the starting-point of his philosophy was the Roman Catholic Church seriously aroused to combat it. ”

“ It is to be noticed that Galileo (like Copernicus himself) dreaded the ridicule of fools. It is probable that neither of them feared the discipline of the church, or even considered it likely to be exerted.
The revolution in men's ideas to be worked by the Copernican system was not understood in the sixteenth century. It was regarded as a scientific hypothesis—an absurd one, contrary to scripture, Tycho Brahe had said. Its theological import was appreciated first by Lutherans and afterwards in Italy. ”

“ He gave open adherence to the Copernican system in 1610, when he constructed a telescope and discovered the satellites of Jupiter; and after this there followed discovery after discovery, like the spots on the sun and the phases of Venus, which latter discovery confirmed the Copernican hypothesis. He invented the hydrostatic balance, the proportional compass, the thermoscope, microscope, and telescope. His two most noteworthy writings are The Dialogue concerning the Two Most Important World-Systems, and Investigations into Two New Sciences. ”

“ in such things we ought to THINK WITH THE LEARNED, AND SPEAK WITH THE VULGAR. They who to demonstration are convinced of the truth of the Copernican system do nevertheless say "the sun rises," "the sun sets," or "comes to the meridian"; ”

“ The influence of the church, coupled with man’s inclination to exalt his own importance, strongly tended against the acceptance of such heterodox views. Among the many hostile critics of the [4] Copernican system, Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) stands out pre-eminently. This conscientious observer bitterly assailed Copernicus for his suggestion that the earth moved, and developed a scheme of his own which postulated that the planets revolved around the sun, and planets and sun in turn revolved around the earth. ”

“ But no astronomical service of Galileo can outrank that which he did in establishing the Copernican system by showing the mechanical principles upon which the solar system is constructed. In 1616 he was warned by the Inquisition not to “hold, teach or defend” the Copernican system, and agreed to act upon their advice. ”

“ Until after optics had made considerable advance, the Copernican system remained but a speculation. A single modern observation on a star has to undergo a careful analysis by the combined aid of various sciences—has to be digested by the organism of the sciences; which have severally to assimilate their respective parts of the observation, before the essential fact it contains is available for the further development of astronomy. ”

“ People were so wedded to ancient errors that it required one hundred years of telescopic work to bring the Copernican system out of the realms of hypothesis. For generations the universities taught both the geocentric and the heliocentric systems, leaving the student to decide which was right. ”

“ There are many more arguments, of which the foregoing are but instances chosen more or less at random; but no one of them is of especial weight or novelty.
To strengthen his case, Riccioli listed the supporters of the heliocentric doctrine throughout the ages, with those of the opposite view. If a man's fame adds to the weight of his opinion, the modern reader will be inclined to think the Copernicans have the best of it, for omitting the ancients, most of those opposing it are obscure men. [39]
Riccioli nevertheless viewed the Copernican system with much sympathy. ”

“ Youmans should labor to insinuate the contrary we cannot really understand. Dr. Taylor, against whom he writes, had said nothing concerning either the personal views of Copernicus or the old system of astronomy, but had simply maintained that the so-called Copernican theory, as mentioned by Prof. Huxley, and as understood by all—that is, as perfected by Kepler, Newton, and others—stands to-day on such a basis of undeniable facts that we can no longer hesitate about its truth. ”

“ Copernican theory. 10. It can excite no wonder that the system of Copernicus, simple and beautiful as it is, met with little encouragement for a long time after its promulgation, when we reflect upon the natural obstacles to its reception. Mankind can in general take these theories of the celestial movements only upon trust from philosophers ”

“ When Copernicus swept away the astronomical basis of this system of thought, it had grown so familiar, and had associated itself so intimately with men's aspirations, that it survived with scarcely diminished force—survived even Kant's "Copernican revolution," and is still now the unconscious premiss of most metaphysical systems.
The oneness of the world is an almost undiscussed postulate of most metaphysics. "Reality is not merely one and self-consistent, but is a system of reciprocally determinate parts" [19] —such a statement would pass almost unnoticed as a mere truism. ”

“ Kepler's discoveries in astronomy, Galileo's discovery of the laws of motion and Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation, put the Copernican theory on a solid foundation. Yet it was many years before the new theories were fully accepted. Dr. Johnson thought persecution a good thing, since it weeds out false men and false theories. The Copernican and Newtonian theories have stood the test of observation and criticism, and they now form the adopted system of astronomy. ”

“ Rheticus, [86] at twenty-five years of age professor of mathematics at Wittenberg, had gone uninvited to Frauenburg early that summer to visit Copernicus and learn for himself more in detail about this new system. This was rather a daring undertaking, for not only were Luther and Melancthon outspoken in their condemnation of Copernicus, but Rheticus was going from Wittenberg, the headquarters of the Lutheran heresy, into the bishopric of Ermeland where to the Bishop and the King his overlord, the very name of Luther was anathema. ”

“ He explained that these conferences took place by desire of those prelates, in order that he might instruct them about Copernicus’s book, which was difficult for laymen to understand, as they specially desired to acquaint themselves with the system of the universe according to the Copernican hypothesis. ”

“ The Church and the New Astronomy: Conclusion
ASTRONOMICAL thought on the Continent was more hampered, in the Catholic countries especially, by the restrictive opinions of the Church. Yet in 1757, when the decree prohibiting all books dealing with the Copernican doctrine was removed from the Index, that system had already long been adopted by the more celebrated academies of Europe, for so Mme. ”

“ For years Copernicus was thought to have written this preface to disarm criticism. Kepler sixty years later (1601) called attention to this error, [77] and quoted Osiander's letters to Copernicus and to Rheticus of May, 1541, suggesting that the system be called an hypothesis to avert attacks by theologians and Aristotelians. He claimed that Osiander had written the preface ”

“ We are not content till we can systematize and digest, whence our continual recourse to loose analogies and fanciful resemblances. We start from an imagined necessity of order, or from some conception of things attractive because of its apparent simplicity, and then reason out from this into the facts of Nature. Mill furnishes some telling examples. "As late as the Copernican controversy it was urged, as an argument in favor of the true theory of the solar system, that it placed the fire, the noblest element, in the center of the universe. ”

“ His answer to the Copernican doctrine is worth quoting to illustrate the attitude of one of the keenest thinkers in a brilliant era:
"Theorist: Since the sun's heat is so intense that we read it has sometimes burned crops, houses and cities in Scythia, [200] would it not be more reasonable that the sun is still and the earth indeed revolves?-46-
"Mystic: Such was the old idea of Philolaus, Timæus, Ecphantes, Seleucus, Aristarchus of Samos, Archimedes and Eudoxus, which Copernicus has renewed in our time. ”

“ It was fully a century after Copernicus died, with his great volume—still wet from the press of Nuremburg—in his hands, before the Copernican theory was generally accepted even by the learned; and the intolerant spirit with which this work was received, and the persecution which Galileo encountered more than half a century later, were due solely to the circumstance that the new theory tended to subvert the popular faith in the cosmography of the Church. In modern times, with the many popular expositors of science, the diffusion of new truth is more rapid ”

“ But Copernicus, in order to uphold his own hypothesis, claims the earth has three motions, its diurnal and annual ones, and trepidation; if we add to these the pull of weight towards the center, we are attributing four natural motions to one and the same body. If this is granted, then the very foundations of physics must fall into ruins; for all are agreed upon this, that each natural body has but one motion of its own, and that all others are said to be either violent or voluntary. ”

“ The other maxims are more metaphysical, as that everything in the universe, whether corruptible or incorruptible, obeys a fixed law of its nature; so, for example, Fortune is always fickle. In concluding his defense, he claims among other things, that the Copernician is a more admirable hypothesis than the Ptolemaic, and that it is an easy way into astronomy and philosophy. ”

“ That a planet's orbit is an ellipse and not the perfect circle was of course a triumph for the new science over the scholastics and Aristotelians. But they had yet to learn what held the planets in their courses.
From Kepler's student days under Mæstlin when as the subject of his disputation he upheld the Copernican theory, to his death in 1630, he was a staunch supporter of the new teaching. ”

“ A few years earlier, (1728) a Jesuit at Liège, though well acquainted with Newton's work, declared: "For my part I do not doubt the least in the world that the earth is eternally fixed, for God has founded the terrestrial globe, and it will not be shaken." [16] Another priest stated in the first chapter of his astronomy that the sun and the planets daily revolve around the earth; then later on, he explained the Copernican and the Tychonic schemes and the Cartesian theory of motion with evident sympathy. ”

“ The acceptance of the new theory sank man in his own estimation very considerably. The change of point of view of {350} the meaning of the universe necessitated by the Copernican theory was ever so much greater than that demanded by evolution in our time.
It took two centuries for men to adjust their thinking to these new ideas. Francis Bacon, a full century after Copernicus' time, declared emphatically that the Copernican theory did not explain the known facts of astronomy as well as the Ptolemaic theory. ”