How does the Copernican Revolution lays the Methodological, Theoretical and Technological Foundation for the Development of Modern Sciences?

Introduction to Copernican Revolution

Human history is framed as a series of events and episodes, representing sudden ruptures of knowledge. Few examples of the historical periods where it was expected to move the innovations to a certain extent where it was not done in the previous periods. It leads the world to sudden shake-ups in science, technology, philosophy and literature. ‘Scientific revolution’ was taken place at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It has influenced the drastic changes in the European approach towards science.

Here, the term ‘revolution’ indicates a period where there was a turmoil and social upheaval in the ideas about the world changed rigorously. And it was marked as the beginning of a new era of the academic considerations. The scientific philosophy which was introduced by the medieval philosophers was abandoned in favor of the new methods proposed by Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton. It was started to lose the hegemonic control of the church of the masses. The Renaissance occurred with a spearheading a new awareness in the context of arts and literature, lead the world on the way to a shift towards independent rational. Literacy expanded and the old ideas were re-examined by the readers with the invention of the printing press. 

Scientific revolution’ is one of the notable movements among all the other historical events. Within scientific revolution, there are several drastic changes that were taken place. One of them is the ‘Copernican Revolution’. Nicolas Copernicus is the person who was very much contributed to this revolutionary idea. He was a renaissance person as he came to northern Italy for higher education. He was mastered in almost all the subjects and knowledgeable in every field. Copernican revolution can be defined as the paradigm shift which was taken place from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens (which defined the cosmos as having earth at the center of the universe-The Geo-centric model) to the helio-centric model which says that the sun as having the center of the solar system. This revolution continued until Isaac Newton’s publication from the publication of Copernicus; The Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres. The official idea of the church was based on Geo-centrism. However, Copernicus, being a priest, came up with the idea of the heliocentric model. 

Ptolemaic model

People believed in the Ptolemaic model of planetary motion which can be defined as a view of the universe in which the earth was at the center (geo-centric), up until Copernicus. It has been believed that if this model has been invalidated, Ptolemy was able to give explanations to both moving planets and for retrograde motion. He used several complicated theories and calculations through mathematics and astronomy. And he precisely calculated the paths of the moon, sun and other planets in the planetary system and wrote a book entitled “The Mathematical Compilation’. However, some astronomers stared discrediting this work and make their preliminary movement away from the ideas of Ptolemy. However, Ptolemaic view has been followed for over a thousand years, although his theory has been disproved. 

Copernican model

Copernicus made a claim of the cosmos by revolving the earth from the center of the universe and placed heavenly bodies in revolving around the sun. He also introduced the theory of the daily rotation of the earth in its own axis. The day and night cause as the result of it. There are several other points that claimed by Copernicus. They are, 

-All heavenly bodies do not move around the same center, 

-Earth is not the center of the universe; it is the center only of the moon’s orbit and terrestrial gravity.

-Sun is the center of the universe and the planetary system. 

-The retrograde views of the planets are due to the earth moving around the sun. 

-If we look at the sky, it is possible to see that the planets go over, stay at a point and go over again because of the relative motion. 

The motto of the book says ‘mathematicians only’. The person who published this says in the preface that this is only a method of calculation, but this is not physically true. This is the point that the church did not disagree with this publication. Otherwise, the helio-centric model is a direct opposition to what the church says. 

How the Copernican Revolution lays the methodological, Theoretical and technological foundation for the development of modern sciences?

Although the ‘Copernican Revolution’ is named by the name of Copernicus, it was not the end of this revolution. The revolution which was started by Copernicus by disproving the Ptolemaic model which was accepted more than a thousand years, influenced other people to go beyond what the traditional scientists believe. Actually the ideas generated by the Copernicus revolution lead a revolution to one’s ideas in relation towards the views of the universe. The methodological, theoretical and technological foundation which was laid by the Copernican revolution has affected the development of modern science and several influential figures were involved in that progress. The contribution of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes and Newton should be evaluated in this context. 

2.1 Theoretical foundations

The question that human beings asked from the beginning was about the nature of the universe. Ancient Greek philosophers have contributed a lot in this context with their theoretical assumptions about the universe. According to Plato, the celestial bodies are moving in circles. But the observed data of the motion of the planets was not identical with this circular path of motion. Eudoxus who was one of the students of Plato construct his view by saying that celestial bodies do not move in one circle. He emphasized about 27 circles that connected to this motion. The motion happens with several circles. They are interconnected and the earth is at the center of it. Aristotle developed this geo-centric view by using 56 circles. Ptolemy was the person who was tried to prove the geo-centric view at last. He used an epicycle to prove this view. Epicycle is a small circle which the planets move. According to him, the earth is both at the center of the planetary system and the universe. The following are the summary of his ideas. 

The earth is at the center. 

There are separate circles for each planet. 

They had different spheres for different planets. 

Aristarchus was the person who first introduced the helio-centric view. But it was neglected by the earlier philosophers who believed in geo-centric view. Copernicus was the first person who introduced this theory in the modern scientific world. Officially the idea of the church was mainly based on Geo-centrism. But the important thing is Copernicus, being a priest, went against geo-centrism. He wrote his masterpiece ‘The Revolution of the Heavenly spheres’(1543) by introducing the helio-centric theory. He analyzed his theory in seven points. They are,

All heavenly bodies do not move around the same center. 

The earth is not the center of the universe. It is the center only of the moon’s orbit and terrestrial gravity. 

The sun is the center of the universe and the planetary system. 

Stars are much further away from the earth and the sun.

The earth rotates on its own axis. As a result the day and night occurs (apparent daily evolution). 

The earth and other planets revolve around the sun giving the year.

The retrograde views of the planets are due to the earth moving around the sun. 

But Copernicus was failed to identify the accurate path of the planets. According to intellectuals, Copernicus had tried to understand Ptolemy instead of understanding the helio-centric view. 

The contribution of Kepler is important in this context. Tycho De Brahe was the leading astronomer at that time. He had been observing the sky bodies and reporting these data for nearly 30 years. He has even had his own observatory. Mars was the most bothersome planets at that time for astronomers because it was very difficult to predict its motion. 

The difficulty came due to thinking that the planets are moving in circles. However, the observed values of the path seem to be dissimilar with the circular path. Kepler started searching the accurate path of the planet Mars after Brahe dies by using Brahe’s observational data. He was able to find the right curve of the planet. He concluded by analyzing the planets are moving in circles. He introduces three laws. They are, 

Planetary orbits are elliptical with the sun at a focus

The radius vector from the sun to a planet sweeps equal areas in equal times.

The ratio of the square of the period of revolution and the cube of the ellipse semi major axis is the same for all planets. 

Galileo was the other person who was contributed to the Copernican revolution with his theoretical assumptions. The Aristotelian view of a falling body was if one drop two objects (different weights) normally the heavier one would fall earlier. But in contracts, Galileo did an experiment and found out that the time of fall is independent of the weight. That means the weight of a body does not affect its time of fall. He used mathematical calculations to arrive to the principle of ‘parabola’ which is a path of a projectile. 

And he was mathematizing physics. Later it was developed to mathematization of science. The naked-eye observations were not matched with the helio-centric theory. Therefore, he changed the way of observation by constructing the telescope. 

Newton once said that he was standing on the shoulders of the giants because he was able to achieve what he did only through the contributions made by previous intellectuals. He used mainly the views of Galileo and Descartes when forming his world views. The Cartesian geometry which was in ‘The Principles of Philosophy’ and Galileo’s ‘Dialogue Conserning Two Chief World Systems’ have become prominent when forming Newton’s ‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.’ he has come to the corpuscular theory of light from Descartes mechanical world view. Without Descartes’ ‘descriptive geometry’, Newton would not be able to write ‘Principia.’ His first law of motion has influenced by Galileo’s law of inertia which can be defined as an analysis done to search what happens to a physical body when forces do not act on it. 

As it has mentioned above, many intellectuals have been theoretically contributed to the establishment of Copernican revolution. 

2.2 Methodological Foundations

Francis Bacon was the first scientific methodologist to lay the methodological foundation in the period of Copernican revolution. He says that there is only a less possibility to extract truth via thinking, but it is possible to extract truth via sense perception and experiences. He emphasized the need of experimental methods. To illustrate, he says that it is impossible to find the phenomena in the world only by reason, but by observations and experiments. Not only him, but also Descartes was also searching for a method of science. According to them, the earlier system was fallen due to not having a precise method. Therefore, both philosophers were looking for a new method to build new knowledge. But both of them used different methods. Bacon used empirical observations whereas Descartes used reason as the source of knowledge. 

There was another source of knowledge at that time; ‘authority’. Luther accused Copernicus with the following statement as Copernicus has tried to go beyond what the church says. He says to Copernicus that ‘who is this man going beyond what the Bible says’. Even there were some people who have accepted the traditional beliefs and authority. Therefore, bacon wanted us to get rid of all the idols (social intercourse, clan, theatre views, belief systems etc.). Descartes also says the same thing as ‘doubt everything to build new knowledge’. Although bacon was the first to point out the inductive method, he adopted it from Galileo. 

Bacon emphasized the significance of synthesizing both crafts men (the lowest strata of the society, but they had practical/ technical knowledge) and scholars (came from higher classes and had scholarly/ theoretical knowledge). According to him, craftsmen are similar to ‘ants’ and the scholars are like the spiders that create their own web. There was not any integration between both groups. Bacon says, those integrators are like bees who integrate these two with their own method and effort to create new stuff. Bacon was just a theoretician. But Galileo practically used these methods. He was the person who combined both mathematical knowledge (theoretical) and technical knowledge. He integrated both rational and empirical knowledge.                   

                        

Synthesizing both craftsmen and scholars is the most important outcome of Copernican revolution to the modern science because almost every technological development occurs as a result of making a connection between craftsmen and scholars. The various improvements in the development of telephone, television, internet facility, vehicles, spacecrafts and other technological advancements have been able to achieve because of the combination of both craftsmen and scholars. If both craftsmen and scholars did not make any integration, then their knowledge will not be synthesized in order to make new outcomes. 

The foundation was laid to new sources of knowledge after bacon. Although bacon emphasized the methodology of the scientist theoretically, Galileo is the person who practically used them.  Galileo was expressing physical laws in terms of mathematics. This mathematization of physics leads the direction towards mathematization of science. This is the reason that modern science developed fast. He used both inductive and deductive methods. For instance, he came to the idea of a parabolic path of a projectile through mathematical calculations.

Galileo came up with experimental science. He looked at the sky through telescope and saw the phases of moon through the telescope. Therefore, he convinced that the evidences gained from telescope were supporting the helio-centric theory. But he did not speak out as he did not have empirical evidences. He had only the empirical evidences gained from the telescope. The church said that the Copernican system is a better way of calculation but it is not the reality. In contrast, Galileo said that the evidences of Copernican theory can be seen through the senses (eyes). But he was accused by the church for using telescope as it was defined in terms of magical evidences. He used both inductive (He used observations) and deductive methods (He used mathematical calculations/ physics). 

Kepler was the person who completed the idea of helio-centrism. He started working with Tycho de Brahe’s observed data after Brahe died. He was trying to figure out the curve of the planets. He was looking for a mathematical curve. After seven years of struggle, he found that the planets move in an ellipse. As a result, sense knowledge becomes a main source of knowledge. But earlier it was condemned, because sense knowledge is not a reliable source and it was not stable. Knowledge was assumed to be solid, stable and reliable. Experiments and observations came into the modern field with the innovations. 

2.3 Technological foundations 

Galileo mainly focused on experimental science. Galileo observed the celestial bodies when Copernicus came up with predictions. In other words, he tested the prediction of Copernicus with the telescope. He looked at the sky through telescope and he saw the phases of Venus which are similar with the phases of moon. Therefore, he predicted that the moon has phases. It was impossible to see the evidences for the helio-centric theory with the naked-eye observation. Therefore, he changed the way he observed the celestial bodies and made the telescope as another way of observation, which is instrumental observation.  He was the person who synthesized both theoretical and methodological knowledge into a practical sense. Galileo’s innovation of the telescope leads human beings for a new period of science. He went beyond the naked-eye observations with the innovation of telescope. It has influenced the innovation of spectacles and lenses in modern period. 

Conclusion

Although the ‘Copernican Revolution’ is named by the name of Copernicus, it was not the end of this revolution. The revolution which was started by Copernicus by disproving the Ptolemaic model which was accepted more than thousand years, influenced other people to go beyond what the traditional scientists believe. Copernican revolution was not only of one person’s idea, but a succession of a long process. It was lasted until Newton’s ‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’ from  Copernicus’ ‘The Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres’ to Newton’s Actually the ideas generated by the Copernicus revolution lead a revolution to one’s ideas in relation towards the views of the universe. The methodological, theoretical and technological foundation which was laid by the Copernican revolution has affected to the development of modern science. 

References 

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