Article


The Platonic Way to Nicholas Copernicus' Visible God


Variant title

La via platonica al Dio visibile di Copernico 

Abstract

In the 19th century, the image of the Copernican Revolution was based on the idea that the new scientific discoveries were due to the application of the correct method of investigation: the positivist method. In the 20th century, historians of science started paying attention to the metaphysical dimensions of the scientific revolution. In particular, they paid attention to a sentence by Copernicus in which he states that the Sun must be at the center of the planetary system because it is the “the lamp,” “the ruler” and “the mind” of the universe, and that the Ancients were right in calling it “the visible God” and “the All-seeing.” By adopting the research techniques of the history of ideas, in this article, we trace the history of this paradigmatic change in the history of science.

Keywords

DOI

Language

Italian (it)

Author

Riccardo CampaJagiellonian University in Krakow

Issue

Orbis Idearum Volume 4, Issue 2 (2016), pp. 23-51
Regular Issue

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