The
Copernican revolution was a very important time for the history of science.
Copernicus had the fortune of good timing, as he published his idea not only
days before his death, but also that he was living at the dawn of the
renaissance. He was able to openly discuss his models with other scholars
because this was a time when people became open to new possibilities. It was
not uncommon at the time to challenge traditional thinking, which was fortunate
for Copernicus because his model did not work.
This
part of history is very important to our modern understanding of science in
that he submitted his idea to the public for discussion and debate, and the
public took his idea seriously regardless of how different it was from what was
actually believed. It wasn’t ready to be the accepted rule, but others advanced
his work because they had access to his ideas. This demonstrates the modern
idea of science that we accept the most widely acclaimed methods, and make them
work the best even when they aren’t fully capable of describing everything.
His
simplistic approach was the most revolutionary idea. He incorporated simplicity
in two ways, first, he decided that the conventional ideas were to complex, and
second, he laid out his ideas in the simplest of manners, he listed seven
different axioms to explain his thinking. These axioms explained his reasoning
simply and concisely, and allowed others to follow his thinking and expand on
his work in the future. This was the new dawn in modern science because we are
doing work that has a potential interest for all, and we seek to collaborate
with others in seeking to obtain the truth about reality.
http://www.biography.com/people/nicolaus-copernicus-9256984?page=1
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
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ReplyDeleteCopernicus's and the sun centered model is a perfect example of Occam's razor. Copernicus was actually not the first astronomer to come up with the theory of a Sun-centered system. It was Aristarchus's work, that encouraged Copernicus to develop a Sun-centered model. However, Copernicus was able to use geometric mathematics to better calculate planet's orbital periods around the sun and each planets distance from the sun. Pretty cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you are right in saying that the importance of Copernicus's model of the universe cannot be understated. First like you said it offered us the simplest model that could be observed and studied by many different people. This goes back to the principle of Occam's razor that if you have 2 options for explaining phenomena you choose the easiest one. Second Copernicus wasn't afraid to go against the overwhelming majority in publishing his findings. It may at first seem daunting in trying to disprove a theory that has stood for over 1500 years however if science never questions its observations and tries to make them better then the advancement of science and technology is over. Even though Copernicus couldn't definitively prove that his theory worked better than the geocentric model, because he thought all orbits were perfect circles, the importance of his contributions to the history of science cannot be understated in starting what is known as the Scientific Revolution.
ReplyDeletehttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
I think the greatest contribution Copernicus have for the mankind is the ability to disagree with what the society thought was true, the geocentric model. I agree with what the author said when he talked about how Copernicus simplest approach is revolutionary which can be seen from a lot of other astronomers' work as well such as Johannes Kepler with his elliptical orbits. Other examples of scientists going against the social beliefs are Galleo and also Columbus when people thought that the Earth was square. It is all this doubts that cause us mankind to advance and revolutionize.
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