De Revolutionibus Research Paper

Ptolemy, a Roman astronomer came up with the theory that the universe revolved around Earth and all the creatures inhabiting it (Doc. C). This theory, The Geocentric Universe of Ptolemy, was adjusted by most of the people during The Middle Ages. However, much later on, Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, disagreed with Ptolemy’s theory. With his use of math and reason, he came up with a new theory called The Heliocentric Universe of Copernicus (Doc. C). He said that the universe & Earth itself revolves around the sun. The Church denied this theory because they did not want to be proven wrong. If the Church was wrong about this part of the universe, this would then cause man to wonder what else they could be wrong about, or even lied to them about. This new theory taught men to think for themselves and not to rely on the Church for

The Scientific Revolution was a time of improvements in medicine, knowledge of the body, and knowledge of the universe. People questioned nature and what was taught by the Church. Sir Issac Newton developed the laws of gravity when an apple fell from a tree, Robert Boyle distinguished between elements and compounds, and Andreas Vesalius made the first accurate detailed study of human anatomy. The most revolutionary theory is seen in Document C. Greek astronomer Ptolemy said that the universe was geocentric, the earth is at the center of the universe. It agreed with what was taught by the Church and was accepted by all. However Copernicus said the universe was heliocentric, the sun is at the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it. The Church was not happy since it went against its teachings, but Galileo set up an astronomical telescope and proved the universe was

The renaissance changed man’s view of man by Ptolemy saying that we were the center of the universe and everything orbited us. This was later proven wrong by Copernicus, another scientific genius. Copernicus was saying that everything orbited the sun and not Earth. The ideas of Copernicus was upsetting the Catholic Church because he was basing it off of mathematics and the church got upset because they wanted it to be based off god.

The Scientific Revolution changed society with the birth of “modern science”; it changed the way people thought about the physical world around them. The same spirit of inquiry that fueled the Renaissance, led scientists to question traditional beliefs about the workings of the universe. The conflict all began with Copernicus’ heliocentric model being introduced to the world- going against the Church’s traditional teachings. Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the universe- stating that the sun is the center, and that other planets revolve around it. Despite his calculations, people disagreed and kept on believing in Ptolemy’s geocentric model.

Descartes and Galileo shared the same conception about the motion of the Earth. Descartes suppressed his treatise, Le Monde, because all of his physics depended on the Earth’s mobility. If the Inquisition condemned that notion, then it condemned his physics as well. Discourse on Method begins as Descartes alerts the reader of the “Galileo Affair” and his declaration to not publish his treatise. Galileo gave humanity a new definition of nature by demonstrating that one’s senses can deceive them. Descartes was in agreement with Galileo, who argued that Copernicanism contradicts sensory evidence. Descartes, like most, feared condemnation from the Inquisition. Descartes rejected the label of a heretic because he believed that if revealed, his physics could change the future for humanity. Thus, the foundation of his works relied on certainty, so Descartes wanted to ensure that Galileo’s arguments were valid. Acknowledging the political and religious demeanor of France, unlike the rest of Catholic Europe, is valuable in the understanding of what surrounded Descartes throughout his lifetime. The historical context revealed by the article and film, reinforce the scenery Descartes was functioning in and provides justification for the decisions he made. Overall, one may

Nicholas Copernicus was the first to question the universal truths and teachings of the church. He devised a theory that the earth along with the other planets revolved around the sun. This theory disagreed with Aristotle and the old teachings that the universe revolved around the earth, and that man was the center of the universe.

The Scientific Revolution not only led to countless inventions that changed the way of life, but changed people’s perspectives on many subjects such as the natural world. Copernicus changed the traditional view of the universe from an earth centered theory to a sun centered theory based on data collected from his predecessors in the field of astronomy. The key to proving this new view of the universe was the collaboration of other scientists, such as Galileo, and the usage of new astronomical instruments, particularly the telescope. The telescope allowed systematic observations of the universe, which ultimately supported the heliocentric view of the universe. This new view questioned everything that was fundamental to the Christian faith, which infuriated the Catholic Church (Spielvogel 475-480, 493).

Over two centuries ago the Catholic Church tried Galileo, because he published his book in 1632 that supported the heliocentric ideas that originated from Copernicus. The church claimed that the heliocentric theory went against scripture. During this time the Catholic Church believed in the idea that the Earth was at the center of the universe. This was called the geocentric theory, which had been around for nearly 1500 years. Galileo was tried less than a year later in 1633. The trial was private, because the church feared the community would support him, because he was one of the most achieved astronomers of their time. The church’s committee unanimously voted that his book, the Two Chief World Systems violated his

Prior to Galileo’s time, the Greek and medieval mind, science was a kind of formalism, a means of coordinating data, which had no bearing on the ultimate reality of things. The point was to give order to complicated data, and all that mattered was the hypothesis that was simplest to understand and most convenient. Astronomy and mathematics were regarded as the playthings of intellectuals. They were accounted as having neither philosophical nor theological relevance. There was genuine puzzlement among Churchmen that they had to get involved in a quarrel over planetary orbits.

Most scientists back then couldn’t prove that the Earth was in middle and everything revolved around us. Nor could they disprove it until Galileo came along with his ideas on the Copernican theory. He made many contributions to that theory. Such as the moons revolving around jupiter, that means that everything doesn’t revolve around earth. He was threatened with torture but, after he published a book that was Controversial. On whether it was wrote by him in a in between the earth centered system and the sun centered system. He hadn’t been imprisoned by the church yet “However, in a final attempt to break him Galileo was threatened with torture.’(Galileo Biography). Which he confessed to writing it on his point of view, and was placed under house

In the 16th century, Copernicus developed a theory of a Heliocentric universe. This idea proposed that the Sun was the center of the universe as opposed to the Earth, leading to a whole new concept, and ultimately controversy.

So, how did Nicolaus Copernicus help the scientific revolution? He built a path in astronomy that other astronomers down the road would follow, like Galileo who built the first telescoped and saw that not only did earth revolved around the sun it also spun on its own axis once every day. So even though Nicolaus Copernicus wasn't alive when his theory was proven correct, he still played a key role in the discovery of our heliocentric solar

During the peak of the Renaissance the Scientific Revolution came about, and through Renaissance ideals theories developed of how the universe was structured from thinkers such as Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. When the Scientific Revolution was born in the mid 1500’s, scientists started contradicting the theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy and the theory of how planet Earth was the center of the universe, which was an ideal of humanism. Copernicus, a Polish scientist during the revolution, formed a theory that the universe was heliocentric. Furthermore, through humanism Copernicus constructed this heliocentric theory that caused tension in the Church and society at the time. This followed another ideal of the Renaissance, which was the contradiction

During the fifteenth century, the Catholic church was the authority on scientific knowledge. The Catholic church taught geocentrism, the belief that the sun revolves around the earth. Galileo, an Italian scientist at the time dared to challenge the Catholic church. He made a number of observations which proved that the geocentric model, a model taught and widely circulated by the church was wrong. His observations showed that the heliocentric model, a model proposed by Copernicus which states that the earth revolves around the sun, was correct. For standing up and questioning the church, Galileo was suspected of heresy and as such, he was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.

The Copernican Revolution involves the exchange of a “geocentric” worldview to a “heliocentric” view and is inseparably linked to the “scientific revolution” of the seventeenth century movement that represents a renewal of all scientific knowledge of the time. Contrary to popular belief, the “idea that the Earth was round” was written by many ancient Greek texts, and was supported by many philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, among others. (Cohen, 30) During the