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James Linzel's List: Assignment 3: History of Western Astronomical Thought

  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

    • The emphasis was on the process of
      learning about the universe rather
      than attaining the goal. But people eventually got tired of learning and wanted
      absolute answers.
    • Socrates (lived 470--399 B.C.E.) disagreed with the Sophists,
      teaching that we can attain real truth through
      collaboration with others. By exploring together and being skeptical about ``common
      sense'' notions about the way things are, we can get a correct understanding of
      how our world and society operate. This idea of being skeptical so that a truer understanding
      of nature can be found is still very much a part of modern science.
    • 1 more annotations...
  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

    • Our view of the history of astronomy will now skip almost 1500 years to the next
      major advances in astronomy
    • They had preserved and translated the
      Greek writings and adopted the Greek ideals of logic and rational inquiry. Islamic
      astronomers were careful observers of the sky and created accurate star catalogs
      and tables of planet motions. Many of the names of the bright stars in our sky
      have Arabic names (e.g., Deneb, Alberio, Aldebaran, Rigel to name a few).
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  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

      • What two basic kinds of models have been proposed to explain the
        motions of the planets?
      • What is the Ptolemaic model? What new things did Ptolemy add to his
        model?
      • Why are epicycles needed in Ptolemy's model?
      • In what ways was the Ptolemaic model a good scientific model and in
        what ways was it not?
      • What is the Copernican model and how did it explain retrograde motion?
  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

    • Giordano Bruno (lived 1548--1600 C.E.) revived
      Democritus' (a contemporary of Socrates) view that the Sun was
      one of an infinite number of stars.
      • Galileo Galilei (1564--1642 C.E.) was
        the first person we know of that used the telescope for astronomical
        observations (starting in 1609). The telescope was originally used as a naval
        tool to assess the strength
        of the opponent's fleet from a great distance. He found many new things when
        he looked through his telescope:


        1. The superior light-gathering power of his telescope over the naked eye
          enabled him to see many,
          many new fainter stars that were never seen before. This made Bruno's argument more
          plausible.
        2. The superior resolution and magnification over the naked eye enabled him to
          see pits and craters on the Moon and spots on the Sun. This meant that the
          Earth is not only place of change and decay!



          Moon drawing by Galileo
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  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

    • Johaness Kepler (lived 1571--1630 C.E.) was hired
      by Tycho Brahe to work out the mathematical details of Tycho's version of the
      geocentric universe.
    • Kepler was motivated by his
      faith in
      God to try to discover God's plan in the universe---to ``read the mind of God.''
      Kepler shared the Greek view that mathematics was the language of God. He knew that
      all previous models were inaccurate, so he believed that other scientists had not
      yet ``read the mind of God.''
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  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

    • Every age has its paradigms. Though scientists try to be
      objective, philosophical
      considerations do intrude on the scientific, creative process. That is not a bad
      thing because these beliefs are crucial in providing direction to
      their inquiries and fuel for the creativity mill.
    • Experiments are the sole
      judge of scientific truth---nature eventually wins. The ideas are crucial to
      understanding the world but they eventually yield to the facts. Science makes us
      confront the world.
  • History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy

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