Article ID: CBB917832903

Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer and Curtis Wilson on the Origin of Nicholas Copernicus’s Heliocentrism (2016)

unapi

What moved Copernicus to switch from the time-honored geocentric to a heliocentric setup for the planetary system? He himself did not explain this momentous move in any detail—his only comments about it suggest that Ptolemy’s complete solution to the problem of nonuniform motion, the equant model, led him to propose Earth’s annual motion around the Sun. The most widely accepted accounts of the origin of Copernicus’s theory dismiss or dispute any direct relation between the principle of uniform motion and the heliocentric theory. Two scholars, the Polish expert on Copernicus Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer (1855–1929) and the American historian of astronomy Curtis Wilson (1921–2012), constructed detailed arguments about how Copernicus’s rejection of Ptolemy’s solution led him to his theory. The principal aim of this essay is to reintroduce Birkenmajer’s and Wilson’s voices to the discussion of the origin of Copernicus’s heliocentrism.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB917832903/

Similar Citations

Book Marcin Karas; (2018)
Nowy obraz świata: poglądy filozoficzne Mikołaja Kopernika

Book Finocchiaro, Maurice A; (2010)
Defending Copernicus and Galileo: Critical Reasoning in the Two Affairs

Book Copernicus, Nicolaus; (2004)
O obrotach ciał niebieskich i inne pisma

Book Nicolaus Copernicus; (2015)
De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium / Des révolutions des orbes célestes

Article André Goddu; (2018)
Birkenmajer's Copernicus: Historical Context, Original Insights, and Contributions to Current Debates

Article Christián C. Carman; (2018)
The First Copernican Was Copernicus: The Difference Between Pre-Copernican and Copernican Heliocentrism

Book Dobrzycki, Jerzy; Wlodarczyk, Jacek; Kremer, Richard Lynn; (2010)
Selected Papers on Medieval and Renaissance Astronomy

Article Michel-Pierre Lerner; (2017)
De Copernic à Galilée: brève histoire d'une condamnation

Book Anna De Pace; (2020)
Galileo lettore di Copernico

Book Sobel, Dava; (2011)
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

Article Michel-Pierre Lerner; (2012)
Note sur Giordano Bruno traducteur de l' "Ad lectorem" du "De revolutionibus"

Article Goldstein, Bernard R.; (2002)
Copernicus and the Origin of His Heliocentric System

Book de Pace, Anna; (2009)
Niccolò Copernico e la fondazione del cosmo eliocentrico: con testo, traduzione e commentario del Libro I de Le revoluzioni celesti

Book Jardine, Nicholas; Segonds, Alain Philippe; (2008)
La guerre des astronomes: la querelle au sujet de l'origine du système géo-héliocentrique à la fin du XVIe siècle

Article Clutton-Brock, Martin; (2005)
Copernicus's Path to His Cosmology: An Attempted Reconstruction

Book Biro, Jacqueline; (2009)
On Earth as in Heaven: Cosmography and the Shape of the Earth from Copernicus to Descartes

Article Goddu, André; (2009)
Copernicus's Mereological Vision of the Universe

Book Matjaž Vesel; (2014)
Copernicus: Platonist Astronomer-Philosopher: Cosmic Order, the Movement of the Earth, and the Scientific Revolution

Review Michael H. Shank; (2017)
Review of "De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium / Des révolutions des orbes célestes"

Chapter Vincenzo Favale; (2017)
A theorem about stars that could have improved the functioning of the internal combustion engine

Authors & Contributors
Lerner, Michel-Pierre
Copernicus, Nicolaus
De Pace, Anna
Goddu, André
Segonds, Alain-Philippe
Biro, Jacqueline
Journals
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Bruniana & Campanelliana: Ricerche Filosofiche e Materiali Storico-testuali
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Science in Context
Publishers
Les Belles Lettres
Bruno Mondadori
Instytut Historii Nauki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Olschki
Peter Lang
Springer
Concepts
Astronomy
Heliocentrism
Cosmology
Copernicanism
Revolutions in science
Science and religion
People
Copernicus, Nicolaus
Galilei, Galileo
Kepler, Johannes
Birkenmajer, Ludwik Antoni
Rheticus, Georg Joachim
Brahe, Tycho
Time Periods
16th century
Renaissance
17th century
15th century
13th century
19th century
Places
Italy
Europe
Persia (Iran)
Poland
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment