”
A mention of heliocentrism says
We think of Copernicus
Bruno, who was burned to death, is also thought of
But
Have you ever thought about it?
Why
Copernicus who proposed the "heliocentric theory"
Not burned?
Supports the "heliocentric theory"
Bruno
But buried in the sea of fire?
What's behind this?
This issue of The History of Science and Technology will give you the answer
"Heliocentric theory" arose in the Renaissance, and before talking about "heliocentrism", we have to mention two waves of rapid development in the history of human science, which had a profound impact on the Renaissance.
The first wave was related to the ancient Greeks. First of all, we all know that scientific knowledge needs to be disseminated, but no matter how it is disseminated, there must be "knowledge" to spread. In the early civilizations, the scientific knowledge of the ancient Greeks was more systematic.
The second wave has to do with our Chinese. The dissemination and inheritance of knowledge, by mouth? Obviously not enough. Cheap and energy-producing paper is particularly important. Cai Lun, the inventor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, solved this problem by improving papermaking, which later flowed around the world through the hands of arabs, promoting the development of science and technology around the world.
Because we have cheap paper, even after the change of dynasties, Chinese culture has always developed and continued.
After the destruction of ancient Rome, a large number of books were burned, and a large amount of knowledge and skills were lost. Europe entered the dark and long Middle Ages under ecclesiastical rule.
Europe
But with the effects of the Crusades and the Black Death, the rule of the Church was shaken.
In the 14th century, the budding of capitalism emerged in Italy and the Renaissance began. In terms of literature and art, the emergence of works such as Dante's "Divine Comedy", Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", and Michelangelo's "Transmission of the Century" has made people pay more and more attention to people themselves;
In terms of science, the achievement of the "heliocentric theory" is the most prominent. When Copernicus was 40 years old, he proposed the "heliocentric theory" based on the ancient Greek ancestors and contemporaries, who believed that the sun was the center of the universe.
However, this view was subject to the observational methods of the time and was not taken seriously; on the other hand, Copernicus's book The Theory of the Motion of the Celestial Bodies was almost dead by the time it was published. Therefore, he was not persecuted by the church.
And why was Bruno burned to death?
Our history textbooks often say that he was persecuted for defending the "heliocentric theory", is this the whole truth?
Did he go around preaching heliocentrism? Yes. Was it burned to death? There are also. But there is no causal relationship between the two points.
Unlike heliocentrism, the concept of geocentrism has existed for a long time and has been recognized and perfected by many scholars. Take, for example, Aristotle and Ptolemy.
Limited by the times, Aristotle believed that God created human beings in the center of the universe, human beings as unique intelligent beings, the center of all things, and around the earth is the moon, the sun and a number of stars, and it is God who provides the energy to make the world run normally and repeatedly. Ptolemy further refined and provided a large amount of data support, and geocentric theory became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
God is the center of the universe, who should be happy? The church, of course.
In order to convince more people, the church also needs science to a certain extent, so geocentrism has become the mainstream worldview recognized by the church during this time.
Bruno, who had a life of upheaval and displacement, in addition to promoting heliocentrism in Europe, also preached his pantheism everywhere, and he opposed church theology, doubted and even denied the existence of God, which was tantamount to challenging the theological view of the church.
He was therefore considered a heretic by the church, and Bruno was eventually arrested and imprisoned. In 1600, Bruno was burned to death in Rome's Campo de' Fiori, where the heliocentric said it was just a weapon in his hand. Bruno's greatness lies in his materialist ideas, he was a brilliant philosopher.
Until 1609, Galileo invented the astronomical telescope, and used the mathematical and experimental methods in modern mechanics and physics to demonstrate and develop Copernican theories and conjectures.
One can observe a series of astronomical phenomena that support the "heliocentric theory"! At the same time, the Nordic scientist Kepler proposed Kepler's three laws on the basis of his teacher's data, realized that the orbits of the planets were elliptical, and made a simple and easy-to-understand orbit model, which finally made the "heliocentric theory" universally recognized.
Heliocentrism was the last great revolution in astronomy, which not only caused a major innovation in the human cosmology, but also freed the natural sciences from the shackles of theology, and the development of science has since made great strides forward.
Recognition is recognition
New questions followed
Why is the sun the center?
Why are orbits elliptical?
Take Kepler's theoretical level
Not enough to give us an answer
People need greater scientists to emerge
Reference: "General History of Global Science and Technology" Wu Jun
"Heliocentric Theory: Let Natural Science Break Free from the Shackles of Theology" Wang Haofan, Tang Junwei, Zhou Zijie
"Ten Revolutionary Theories in the History of Science - Heliocentrism" Zhang Qiongyang