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= = Nicolas Copernicus: From The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543

Nicolas Copernicus was so afraid of being chared with heresy that his book __ The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies __, that it was not published until 1543, the year of his death. Even throughout his novel of revolutionary takes on the “universe” and how it goes ‘round he is reluctant to defy the holy institution and its conservative Christian take on it all.

Copernicus’ main argument revolves around the debate over whether the earth is the center of the universe, a fixed point in the center of all the heavenly bodies, dictating their respective motions around it, or not. To substantiate his claim, Copernicus introduces an idea based upon perception and the consciousness of human feelings. “ Every change of place which is observed is due, namely, to a movement of the observed object or of the observer, or to movements of both, naturally in different directions, for if the observed object and the observer move in the same manner and in the same direction no movement will be seen .” I particularly like how he uses almost common sense to really plant the seed of doubt in a lot of people’s minds at the time. Copernicus comments earlier in the article that this debate over the earth’s motion’ or lack thereof, was presumed to be over, and that it was silly to consider the possibility that the earth moves.

Copernicus applies an interesting analogy to illustrate his presumptions. "We run out of the harbor, the lands and cities retreat from us." Because if a ship sails along quietly, everything outside of it appears to those on board as if it moved with the motion of the boat, and the boatman thinks that the boat with all on board is standing still, this same thing may hold without doubt of the motion of the earth, and it may seem as if the whole universe revolved. What he means by this is just because the sailors don’t feel the boat drifting along doesn’t necessarily mean the boat isn’t moving. This same concept can be applied to Copernicus’ thoughts on the motion of the earth; it’s still in motion, we just don’t realize it because there is nothing to reference it to (other than the sun or moon but they presume those heavenly bodies are revolving around the earth).

Overall I enjoyed diving deep into the mind of one of the brightest thinkers of the time and exploring his answers to the burning questions of his century. Copernicus’ keen perception of the heavenly bodies and unbiased drive towards truth is truly revolutionary.