The Copernican Revolution - Hardcover

Kuhn, Thomas S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1567312179 ISBN 13: 9781567312171

Publisher: Fine Communications, 1997

Synopsis

For scientist and layman alike this book provides vivid evidence that the Copernican Revolution has by no means lost its significance today. Few episodes in the development of scientific theory show so clearly how the solution to a highly technical problem can alter our basic thought processes and attitudes. Understanding the processes which underlay the Revolution gives us a perspective, in this scientific age, from which to evaluate our own beliefs more intelligently. With a constant keen awareness of the inseparable mixture of its technical, philosophical, and humanistic elements, Mr. Kuhn displays the full scope of the Copernican Revolution as simultaneously an episode in the internal development of astronomy, a critical turning point in the evolution of scientific thought, and a crisis in Western man's concept of his relation to the universe and to God.

The book begins with a description of the first scientific cosmology developed by the Greeks. Mr. Kuhn thus prepares the way for a continuing analysis of the relation between theory and observation and belief. He describes the many functions--astronomical, scientific, and nonscientific--of the Greek concept of the universe, concentrating especially on the religious implications. He then treats the intellectual, social, and economic developments which nurtured Copernicus' break with traditional astronomy. Although many of these developments, including scholastic criticism of Aristotle's theory of motion and the Renaissance revival of Neoplatonism, lie entirely outside of astronomy, they increased the flexibility of the astronomer's imagination. That new flexibility is apparent in the work of Copernicus, whose DE REVOLUTIONIBUS ORBIUM CAELESTIUM is discussed in detail both for its own significance and as a representative scientific innovation.

With a final analysis of Copernicus' life work--its reception and its contribution to a new scientific concept of the universe--Mr. Kuhn illuminates both the researches that finally made the heliocentric arrangement work, and the achievements in physics and metaphysics that made the planetary earth an integral part of Newtonian science. These are the developments that once again provided man with a coherent and self-consistent conception of the universe and of his own place in it.

This is a book for any reader interested in the evolution of ideas and, in particular, in the curious interplay of hypothesis and experiment which is the essence of modern science. Says James B. Conont in his Foreword: "Professor Kuhn's handling of the subject merits attention, for... he points the way to the road which must be followed if science is to be assimilated into the culture of our times."

About this title

Review:

Kuhn's tale resonates with modern discoveries about planetary systems other than our own. The book opens our minds to how differently the history of astronomy could have played out had we lived on a world with twin suns, on a moon around a Jupiter-like planet or in a system packed with gas giants looping inside our planet's orbit. As we learn about other worlds, Kuhn's analysis reminds us that we are poised for our own scientific revolution. --Caleb Scharf, Nature, Vol. 487, 5th July 2012

From the Back Cover:

In this study of the Copernican Revolution, the author brings to a common focus the considered approach of the historian, the technical understanding of the scientist and the skill and experience of an able teacher.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fine Communications
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1567312179
• ISBN 13: 9781567312171
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 297