De revolutionibus

▪ 1994

      The year 1993 marked the 450th anniversary of the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus' revolutionary work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). Despite the fact that the treatise concerns astronomy, it played a major role in changing the philosophical view of humankind's place in the universe and in advancing the idea that no amount of philosophical authority could dictate what one actually experienced in nature. Whereas the Greek Aristarchus had suggested 2,000 years earlier that the Sun is at the centre of the solar system, Copernicus provided the first coherent argument for a heliocentric universe—one in which, despite centuries of learned discourse to the contrary, the Earth revolves around the Sun.

      It must be remembered that before the invention of the telescope, simple naked-eye observations easily could be interpreted to yield the conclusion that the Sun, Moon, and planets all move around the Earth. Still, in his mind's eye Copernicus saw the Earth spinning on its axis once each day, thus explaining the Sun's apparent motion, and also revolving around the Sun once each year, thus accounting for the heretofore bewildering back-and-forth movements of the planets.

      Even the great scientist Galileo, while willing to entertain the notion that the Earth moves, did not provide a convincing case for a heliocentric point of view until 1609 when he raised his first astronomical telescope to the heavens. When he saw the moons of Jupiter and recorded their revolution about that planet, Galileo concluded that he was in fact seeing the Copernican system in miniature. His discovery of the phases of Venus provided another observation more naturally reconciled with a nonmoving Sun. Yet, for taking up the cause of heliocentrism, which was contrary to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, Galileo was tried, made to recant his views, and placed under house arrest.

      At his trial, after renouncing the Copernican system with its moving Earth, Galileo is said to have whispered, "And yet it moves," an event echoed in the 1967 Beatles song "The Fool on the Hill," which contains the refrain, "But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down/And the eyes in his head see the world spinning round." Not until 1992 did the church formally admit its error in forcing Galileo to deny the evidence of his own senses. (KENNETH BRECHER)

* * *