One conception I have of this debate was that it was largely about the metaphysical intuition of Do the heavens and the earth obey the same laws, or not? The heliocentrists argued that e.g. the planets seemed similar to earth, and so we should expect them all to be going around the sun (Descartes thought that they were borne through space as if on a current of clear liquid). The geocentrists argued that the heavens stayed up there, and we stayed down here, so wasn’t it more sensible that the heavens were made of separate heaven-stuff that naturally floated around in space?
Seems sensible. That is of course why the telescope and Galileo’s observations were so important, as they revealed unexpected similarities between the earth and the heavens (other planets having moons and not being perfect spheres).
Paul Graham (there’s a always a reason to quote him) makes the claim that much of intellectual history is just about discarding the notion that humans are special, in some kind of teleological sense. Earth is a planet among planets, homo sapiens a species among species. Both have remarkable and unique properties, but only because the universe just so happned to be that way. http://www.paulgraham.com/randomness.html
Thanks for this nice post!
One conception I have of this debate was that it was largely about the metaphysical intuition of Do the heavens and the earth obey the same laws, or not? The heliocentrists argued that e.g. the planets seemed similar to earth, and so we should expect them all to be going around the sun (Descartes thought that they were borne through space as if on a current of clear liquid). The geocentrists argued that the heavens stayed up there, and we stayed down here, so wasn’t it more sensible that the heavens were made of separate heaven-stuff that naturally floated around in space?
EDIT: Words.
Seems sensible. That is of course why the telescope and Galileo’s observations were so important, as they revealed unexpected similarities between the earth and the heavens (other planets having moons and not being perfect spheres).
Paul Graham (there’s a always a reason to quote him) makes the claim that much of intellectual history is just about discarding the notion that humans are special, in some kind of teleological sense. Earth is a planet among planets, homo sapiens a species among species. Both have remarkable and unique properties, but only because the universe just so happned to be that way. http://www.paulgraham.com/randomness.html
Did you switch “geocentrists” and “heliocentrists” in this comment?
I’m confused why it would be the geocentrists who would think that the planets go around the sun because they seem similar to Earth.
Yep!