[Revised entry by Sheila Rabin on September 29, 2023.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, notes.html]
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) was a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it. Disturbed by the failure of Ptolemy’s geocentric model of the universe to follow Aristotle’s requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies. Copernicus decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric model. He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a…
Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More
