Setting up Copernicus? Astronomy and Natural Philosophy in Giambattista Capuano da Manfredonia's Expositio on the Sphere

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 290-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Shank
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
The Earth

AbstractIn 1499, while Copernicus studies in Bologna, the commentary on Sacrobosco's Sphere by the Padua master Francesco Capuano da Manfredonia first appears in print. It will be revised and reprinted several times thereafter. Like Copernicus, Capuano has a high view of astronomy and mingles astronomical and physical considerations (flies moving on wheels, men on ships, impetus, comets, raptus). Also, Capuano offers a flawed argument against a two-fold (diurnal and zodiacal) motion of the Earth. Multiple thematic resonances between Capuano's commentary and De revolutionibus, I, 5-11, suggest the hypothesis that Copernicus is answering Capuano, whose work was owned by Joachim Rheticus, if not Copernicus himself.

Machines

On Purpose ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 42-60
Author(s):  
Michael Ruse
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Real Change ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter discusses the Scientific Revolution that is dated from the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543, the work that put the sun rather than the earth at the center of the universe to Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687, the work that gave the causal underpinnings of the whole system as developed over the previous one hundred and fifty years. Historian Rupert Hall put his finger precisely on the real change that occurred in the revolution. It was not so much the physical theories, although these were massive and important. It was rather a change of metaphors or models—from that of an organism to that of a machine. By the sixteenth century, machines were becoming ever more common and ever more sophisticated. It was natural therefore for people to start thinking of the world—the universe—as a machine, especially since some of the most elaborate of the new machines were astronomical clocks that had the planets and the sun and moon moving through the heavens, not by human force but by predestined contraptions. In a word, by clockwork!

Oresme, Nicole (c.1325–82)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Molland
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Mathematical Language ◽  
Mathematical Approach ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rotation Of The Earth ◽  
Important Position ◽  
Straight Lines

Nicole Oresme, a French thinker active in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, occupies an important position in late medieval natural philosophy. He was especially notable for his mathematical approach, in which he represented the intensities of qualities and of speeds by geometrical straight lines, which allowed them to be ‘plotted’ in principle against both distance and time. He held that the shapes of the resulting graphs would then have explanatory force in the manner of ancient atomism, but, like the latter, his doctrine had a weak empirical basis. His graphical representations of speed have been compared to those later given by Galileo, but there are no grounds for positing influence. He was prominent in developing a particular mathematical language of ratios, which had earlier been used by Thomas Bradwardine to propose a ‘law’ relating speeds to forces and resistances, and Oresme likewise applied the language to cosmological and physical questions. He was a firm opponent of much of astrology and of magic, and to this end he employed both naturalistic and sceptical arguments. He gave many strong arguments in favour of a daily rotation of the earth, but finally concluded that it was at rest: his gambit had primarily a sceptical and fideistic purpose.

Defining Water in Natural Philosophical Texts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay J. Starkey
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural Occurrence ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Proper Subject ◽  
Do So

This chapter explores some of the most frequently printed and widely circulated natural philosophical texts of the sixteenth century along with their medieval predecessors. It focuses on each author’s conception of water and his classification for why water did not flood the earth. This chapter argues that most of these authors did ultimately classify the dry land’s existence as a natural occurrence. However, it also shows that their arguments for this naturalness were longer and more convoluted than previous discussions, incorporating redefinitions of the proper subject matter of natural philosophy to do so. These longer, more complex discussions suggest that water was of more particular interest to sixteenthcentury authors of natural philosophical texts than to previous ones.

scholarly journals Crystalline stenonian time features from earth and beyond

Substantia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Desmond E. Moser
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Sample Volume ◽  
Scale Invariant ◽  
Scientific Legacy ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Mineral Growth ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Natural Time ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Scientific Environment

The writings of Niels Stensen (Steno) on mineral growth and modification in his Prodromus, together with his work on time and process in other solids, are here synthesized as five classes of time features defined by changes in the visible continuity of either or both chemistry and orientation. This organization highlights Steno’s implicit recognition of the fractal, scale-invariant nature of natural time features with regard to space, time, and material. The effectiveness and validity of this Stenonian geochronology framework is demonstrated down to atom scale with modern case studies of the U-Pb geochronology mineral zircon from samples originating from the Earth, Moon, and Mars and spanning most of solar system history. Recently discovered nano-scale features, here termed chronostructures, were intimated by Steno in his corpuscular view of mineral behaviour. The remarkable advances in the Prodromus are seen here as a resulting from the intersection of Steno’s highly attuned approach to visual perception, his adoption of Stoic (Senecan) ethics early in his career to guide his natural philosophy, and the influence of the Galilean scientific environment of Florence. It is shown that, by virtue of its scale-invariant and intensive properties, Stenonian geochronology continues to serve as an independent and critical check on the accuracy of absolute geochronology measurements of geologic time given the latter’s inherent dependence on sample volume and the assumption of the chemically closed system.  In this way Steno’s scientific legacy continues to help propel human understanding of how we see our place in time. 

scholarly journals Thermodynamics and Sources of Solar Heat, 1846–1862

1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank A. J. L. James
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Laws Of Thermodynamics ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Lord Kelvin ◽  
Geological Sciences

In 1859 Charles Darwin in chapter nine of the Origin of Species showed how he had calculated that the age of the Weald was three hundred million years and that consequently the age of the earth was considerably greater than that. Darwin of course needed such a long period of time for the process of evolution by natural selection to occur. Arguments which showed that the earth could not be that old would therefore cast serious doubt on his theory. Such views were advanced in 1862 by William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow. He specifically challenged the result of Darwin's calculation of the age of the Weald by arguing that the sun could not have emitted its heat and light for that length of time. The consequences of this assertion for the biological and geological sciences for the remainder of the nineteenth century have already been delineated by Burchfield. What I wish to do in this paper is to show that the theoretical basis of Thomson's 1862 assertion had not been specifically developed as a response to Darwin, but that it was a consequence of the formulation of the first two laws of thermodynamics. I shall also show that Thomson's work was not done in isolation but that the question of the maintenance of solar energy was a serious concern of a number of physicists who had formulated the laws of thermodynamics.

In search of the ‘true prospect’: making and knowing the Giant's Causeway as a field site in the seventeenth century

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALASDAIR KENNEDY
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Field Site ◽  
Science Field ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
The North ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Natural Philosophers

AbstractThe phenomenon of the Giant's Causeway in the north of Ireland has attracted much attention over five centuries. This essay recounts the formative years between 1688 and 1708 of the Giant's Causeway as a field site and ‘philosophical landscape’ in the light of recent research on the historical geographies of scientific knowledge. This research has provided new perspectives on field science, emphasizing the spatial character of the field and its discursive formation in different spaces. A view of the field as a self-contained unit in which science is practised is rendered problematic. Instead, it is seen as part of a network of intersecting locales within which scientists and science circulate. This essay draws upon this work, exploring and mapping the spaces and techniques used by late seventeenth-century natural philosophers in London and Dublin to generate observational and conceptual knowledge of the Giant's Causeway. In doing so, the paper contributes to an understanding of the spaces of natural philosophy in the seventeenth century, of the knowledge networks within which the virtuosi operated and of the earth science field site.

Ancient natural philosophy: A resource for environmental education

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89
Author(s):  
Ann Van Ryn ◽  
Edgar Burns
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Similar Reasoning ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Greek Philosopher ◽  
James Lovelock

AbstractStudying humankind’s relationship to the earth involves broad and deep questions for students as today’s educators explore changing teaching methods. This article highlights benefits of a multidisciplinary approach to environmental education, drawing upon ancient natural philosophy as a coherent conceptual resource. The Greek philosopher Plotinus is introduced to show the application of ancient natural philosophy across all fields and on all levels of knowledge under a common banner. The significance of ancient natural philosophy is its conception of overall unity. This is the key. Unity is implicit in interrelationships between parts to whole on all levels of existence. From such a perspective, all life forms and other entities in the natural world can be understood as interrelated — just as James Lovelock demonstrated in describing the homeostatic state of natural processes on earth. On a similar reasoning, the diversity in people, societies and places can be appreciated physically and sociologically as belonging to one world. Several studies are cited to explore this overlap between ancient natural philosophy and honouring the connection and dependence of humanity on the fragility of the earth’s ecosystem.

scholarly journals A man with a master plan: Steno’s observations on earth’s history

Substantia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Stefano Dominici
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Shark Teeth ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Marine Fossils ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Form ◽  
Made In

We present specific sources, including specimens of the Medicean cabinet and geological outcrops in Tuscany, probably used by Nicolaus Steno to build a theory on the origin of organic fossils, crystals and sedimentary strata, in order to construct the history of the Earth based on universal geometric principles. Phenomena he observed in Tuscany and in precedeing travels were revealing a sequence of events consistent with the biblical account. We propose that he devised his method to reconstruct a chronology of primordial events to demonstrate the historicity of the biblical creation in contrast to unorthodox thinking. This had been spreading in philosophical circles of northern Europe since the 1650s, circles frequented by Steno before his arrival in Tuscany in 1666. Steno knew in advance what places to visit to find fossils from literature such as Michele Mercati’s Metallotheca. This was a manuscript owned by the Florentine Carlo Dati, whom Steno probably heard about while in Paris in 1664-1665. In Tuscany he soon formed a tight interaction on matters regarding the interpretation of fossils with the local community of learned men. These included Giovanni Alfonso Borelli who was asked by Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici to provide Steno with fossils from Sicily and Malta. Steno’s theory and scale-independent, geometrical method of inquiry of geological objects found in Tuscany is hinted at in his Canis Carchariae Dissectum Caput, a geological essay completed in a few months in 1666. The theory was published in its most complete form in the so-called Prodromus of 1669. In both works he demonstrated that fossils in younger strata in the Tuscan hills, such as shark teeth and molluscan shells, have an origin analogous to solids which living animals form. In both essays he explicitly related the deposition of strata with marine fossils to the biblical flood, an idea foreshadowed in his oldest known manuscript of 1659, when he was a student in Copenhagen. He found no fossils in older sandstones of the Apennines and understood those strata to have formed before the creation of life. These discoveries  and other observations he made in Tuscany were, for Steno, the final proof that natural philosophy and biblical revelation disclose in synergy the mysteries of God’s creation.

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