In defense of Copernicus: Paolo Foscarini (ca. 1565-1616) and the heliocentric system.
Item
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Title
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In defense of Copernicus: Paolo Foscarini (ca. 1565-1616) and the heliocentric system.
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Identifier
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AAI9000037
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identifier
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9000037
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Creator
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Kelter, Irving Alan.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Richard Lemay
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History of Science | Religion, History of | History, Modern
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Abstract
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In 1616, the Roman Catholic Church's Sacred Congregation of the Index issued a decree condemning absolutely the Lettera...sopra l'opinione de' Pittagorici e del Copernico della mobilita della terra e stabilita del sole (1615) written by the Carmelite monk, Paolo Antonio Foscarini. This study analyses what can be called the context of justification of Foscarini's Copernican thought.;Foscarini was the first Catholic author to devote an entire printed treatise to the task of reconciling the new Copernican cosmology with Sacred Scriptures and was thus intimately involved in the attempt to create a modus vivendi between the new science of the seventeenth century and the Christian faith. The Lettera also detailed the various advantages of the Copernican astronomy when contrasted with the older, Ptolemaic system.;Beyond the Lettera, Foscarini's Copernicanism is also explored in terms of his theological Defensio, which was an attempt to defend his exegetical views from attacks levelled against him, and in terms of his letter to Galileo, much of which dealt with the acceptance of Copernicanism as a physical truth. These works have been placed in the context of Foscarini's development as a thinker and in the context of the Catholic intellectual and ecclesiastical struggle over the new cosmology of the year preceding the Condemnation of 1616.;To understand any thinker's justificatory arguments, an attempt must be made to see the arguments not only in comparison to those from thinkers of the same intellectual camp, but also in contrast to those from thinkers of an opposing camp. Such opposing camps always exist in the case of radically new scientific theories. Only by presenting arguments from the contra-Copernican intellectual camp can a proper understanding be gained of why a specific scientific theory, in this case Copernicanism, needed justification and how particular positions advanced by those such as Foscarini attempted to serve such a function. Consequently, in this study, considerable attention was paid to scientists, theologians and exegetes who reflected the Catholic intellectual world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In a number of cases these thinkers demonstrated an explicit knowledge of, and opposition to, the Copernican cosmology.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
