Copernicus, Plato, and Heliocentrism
Keywords:
Copernicus, Plato, Platonism, symmetria, astronomical reform, heliocentrismAbstract
One of the most important questions of historical epistemology that is still not completely explained is how Copernicus arrived at heliocentrism. What was the question for which heliocentrism was the answer? How and why did he become a Copernican? The author argues that Copernicus’s critical attitude towards the state of astronomy, which ultimately resulted in his geokinetism and heliocentric arrangement of the planetary orbs, was founded upon his Platonism. He adapted Plato’s views on the order and arrangement of the universe created by the supreme Artisan, the goal of that order for humankind, and on the status and role of astronomy in discovering this order. Plato expressed these ideas in Laws, Epinomis, Timaeus, and Republic, and Copernicus summarized them in the original preface (proemium) to De revolutionibus and in Chapter 10 of Book I of the same book. According to the author, Copernicus’s Platonism explains all the most fundamental aspects of his project. It brings unity and coherence to his work and links otherwise seemingly completely unrelated issues, such as the equant problem and the problem of the order of the planetary spheres, into a consistent philosophy. Those Platonist concep tions not only played a negative role in the criticism of Ptolemaic astronomy but were at the same time and to a certain extent instrumental in Copernicus establishing a heliocentric cosmology.Downloads
References
Aiton, E. J., “Peurbachʼs Theoricae novae planetarum: A Translation with Commentary”, Osiris 3 (1987), str. 4–43.
Albertus de Brudzewo, Commentariolum super Theoricas novas planetarum Georgii Purbachii, ur. L. Birkenmajer, Krakov 1900.
Alkinos, The Handbook of Platonism, prev. in kom. J. Dillon, Oxford, Clarendon Press 2001.
Bessarion, In calumniatorem Platonis libri IV, gr.–lat., v: L. Mohler, Kardinal Bessation als Theologe, Humanist and Staatsmann, 2. zv., Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh 1927.
Birkenmajer, A., »Komentar [prve knjige De revolutionibus]«, v Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus libri sex, ur. R. Gansiniec, Varšava in Krakov, Poljska akademija znanosti 1975, str. 351–391.
Carone, G. R., Platoʼs Cosmology and its Ethical Dimension, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2011.
Cicero, M. T., De natura Deorum & Academica, lat.–angl., prev. H. Rackham, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press 1967.
Clutton-Brock, M., “Copernicusʼs Path to His Cosmology: An Attempted Reconstruction”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 36 (2/2005), str. 197–216.
Codrus, A. Urceus, Orationes, Epistolae, Sylvae, Satyrae, Benetke 1506.
Cooper, J. M, “The Psychology of Justice in Plato”, American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (2/1977), str. 151–157.
Cornford, F. M., Plato’s Cosmolog: The Timaeus of Plato Translated with a Running Commentary, London, Routledge & Kegan 1956.
Czartoryski, P., “The Library of Copernicus”, Studia Copernicana 16 (1978), str. 355–396.
De Pace, A., Niccolò Copernico e la fondazione del cosmo eliocentrico con testo, traduzione e commentario del Libro I de Le rivoluzioni celesti, Milano, Bruno Mondadori 2009.
Dillon, J., The Middle Platonists: 80 B. C. to A. D. 220, London, Duckworth 1996.
Ficino, M., Opera omnia, 2 zv., Basel 1576.
Gaiser, K., “Platoʼs Enigmatic Lecture On the Good”, Phronesis 25 (1/1980), str. 5–37.
Garin, E., “La revoluzione copernicana e il mito solare”, v: isti, Rinascite e rivoluzioni: Movimenti culturali dal XIV al XVIII secolo, Rim, Laterza 2007, str. 255–281.
Goddu, A., “Copernicusʼs Annotations: Revisions of Czartoryskiʼs ‘Copernicana’”, Scriptorium 58 (2004), str. 202–226.
---, Copernicus and the Aristotelian Tradition: Education, Reading and Philosophy in Copernicusʼs Path to Heliocentrism, Leiden, Brill, 2010.
Goldstein, B. R., “Copernicus and the Origin of his Heliocentric System”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 33 (3/2002), str. 219–235.
Gregory, A., Platoʼs Philosophy of Science, London, Duckworth 2000.
Kapela, M., De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, v: Marziano Capella, Le nozze di Filologia e Mercurio, lat.–it., prev. in kom. I. Ramelli, Milano, Bompiani 2004.
Kopernik, N., Commentariolus, v: N. Swerdlow, “The Derivation and First Draft of Copernicusʼ Planetary Theory: A Translation of the Commentariolus with Commentary,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 67 (1973), str. 423–512.
---, Nicolai Copernici De Hypothersibus motuum coelestium a se constitutis Commentariolus, lat.–nem., v N. Copernicus, Das neue Weltbild, ur. in prev. H. G. Zekl, Hamburg, Felix Meiner 1990, str. 1–35.
---, De revolutionibus libri sex, ur. R. Gansiniec, komentar prve knjige A. Birkenmajer; komentar preostalih knjig G. Dobrzycki, Varšava in Krakov, Poljska akademija znanosti 1975.
---, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium Libri VI, Nürnberg 1543.
---, O revolucijah nebesnih sfer, prva knjiga, lat.–slo., prev. M. Vesel, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana 2003.
Koyré, A., The Astronomical Revolution: Copernicus–Kepler– Borelli, prev. R. E. W. Maddison, New York, Dover 1992.
Kuhn, Th., The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press 1957.
Mossakowski, “The Symbolic Meaning of Copernicusʼ Seal”, Journal of the History of Ideas 34 (3/1973), str. 451–460.
Mourelatos, A., “Platoʼs ‘Real Astronomy’: Republic 527d–531d”, v: J. P. Anton (ur.), Science and the Sciences in Plato, New York, EIDOS 1980, str. 33–73.
O’Connell, D. J. K., “Copernicus and Calendar Reform”, Studia Copernicana 13 (1975), str. 189–200.
Peurbach, G., Theoricae novae planetarum Georgii Purbachii astronomi celebratissimi, Nürnberg 1472.
Pico della Mirandola, G., Disputationes adversus Astrologiam Divinatricem, 2 zv., lat–it., ur. in prev. E. Garin, Torino, Aragno 2004.
Platon, Diuini Platonis Opera omnia Marsilio Ficino interprete, 2 zv., Firence, 1484.
---, Zbrana dela, 2 zv., prev. in spremna besedila G. Kocjančič, Celje, Mohorjeva družba 2004.
---, Država, v: Zbrana dela, 1. zv., str. 1003–1252.
---, Timaj, v: Zbrana dela, 1. zv., str. 1259–1311.
---, Zakoni, v: Zbrana dela, 1. zv., str. 1352–1604.
---, Epinomis, v: Zbrana dela, 1. zv., str. 1608–1622.
Plinij Starejši, Naturalis historia, lat.–angl., ur. in prev. H. Rackham, London in Cambridge, Mass., William Haineman in Harvard University Press 1949.
---, Naravoslovje, prev. M. Hriberšek, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana 2012.
Ptolemaj, C., Almagestum seu magnae constructionis mathematicae opus […] Latina donatum ab Georgio Trapezuntio, Benetke 1528.
---, The Almagest, prev. G. J. Toomer, Princeton, Princeton University Press 1998.
Regiomontanus, J., Epytoma Almagesti, Benetke 1496.
Rheticus, G. I., Narratio prima, lat.–fr., ur. in prev. H. Hugonnard-Roche in J.-P. Verdet, s sodelovanjem M.-P. Lernerja in A. Segondsa, Vroclav in Varšava, Poljska akademija znanosti 1982.
Saliba, G., A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories during the Golden Age of Islam, New York, New York University Press 1994.
---, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press 2007.
Swerdlow, N. M., “The Derivation and First Draft of Copernicusʼ Planetary Theory: A Translation of the Commentariolus with Commentary”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 67 (1973), str. 423–512.
Vesel, M., Astronom-filozof: Nikolaj Kopernik, gibanje zemlje in kopernikanska revolucija, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana 2007.
Westman, R. S., The Copernican Question: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order, Berkeley, University of California Press 2011.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
More in: Submission chapter
