Article ID: CBB495185548

Solar Motion and Lunar Eclipses in Philolaus’ Cosmological System (2022)

unapi

In this paper, three problems that have hardly been noticed or even gone unnoticed in the available literature in the cosmology of Philolaus are addressed. They have to do with the interrelationships of the orbits of the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon around the Central Fire and all three of them constitute potentially insurmountable obstacles within the context of the Philolaic system. The first difficulty is Werner Ekschmitt’s claim that the Philolaic system cannot account for the length of the day (νυχϑήμερον). It is shown that this problem can be solved with the help of the distinction between the synodic day and the sidereal day. The other two problems discussed in this paper are concerned with two hitherto unnoticed deficiencies in the explanation of lunar eclipses in the Philolaic system. The Philolaic system cannot account for long-lasting lunar eclipses and according to the internal logic of the system, during lunar eclipses the Moon enters the shadow of the Earth from the wrong side. It is almost unbelievable that nobody, from the Pythagoreans themselves up to recent authors, has noticed these two serious deficiencies, and especially the latter, in the cosmology of Philolaus the Pythagorean.

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Authors & Contributors
Stephenson, F. Richard
Baylis, Joshua T.
Benítez, Sixto Ramón Giménez
Berggren, John Lennart
Britton, John P.
Brunier, Serge
Journals
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry
Almagest
Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Cádiz
Concepts
Sun
Moon
Astronomy
Celestial mechanics
Cosmology
Earth (planet)
People
Aristarchos of Samos
Ptolemy
Galilei, Galileo
Hesiod
Kepler, Johannes
Ovid
Time Periods
Ancient
Medieval
15th century
17th century
19th century
20th century, early
Places
Greece
India
China
Middle and Near East
Mesopotamia
Rome (Italy)
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