TY - JOUR AU - Goddu, André TI - <p> The Origin of Copernicus’s Heliocentrism Reconsidered</p> JF - Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki VL - 2018 PY - 2019 DO = 10.4467/0023589XKHNT.18.024.9515 SN - 0023-589X C1 - 2657-4020 SP - 9 EP - 19 KW - Albert z Brudzewa KW - Ludwik Birkenmajer KW - Commentariolus KW - Mikołaj Kopernik KW - kosmografia KW - topika dialektyczna KW - deferenty i epicykle KW - ekwanty KW - postulaty KW - ruch jednostajny KW - Curtis Wilson N2 - <p> The essay re-examines the detailed arguments by Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer (1855–1929) and Curtis Wilson (1921–2012) about how Copernicus’s rejection of Ptolemy’s solution to the problem of the non-uniform motions of the planets and the Moon led him to his first version of the heliocentric theory. The essay then acknowledges the speculative character of their reconstructions, the problem of anachronism in both accounts, and the mistakes that Copernicus himself made. By following their basic insights, however, readers can understand how the inconsistency in Ptolemy’s preservation of the axiom of uniform motion motivated Copernicus – first, to seek an alternative solution, and, second, to question eccentrics, which, in turn, led him to investigate epicycles. The concluding section complements their accounts, leading to an original interpretation of Copernicus’s reliance on medieval Polish developments in dialectical reasoning and on a comment in one of the books (now at Uppsala) that he annotated to develop his new vision and to construct the postulates near the beginning of <em>Commentariolus</em> (ca. 1510).</p> UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/kwartalnik-historii-nauki-i-techniki/artykul/the-origin-of-copernicuss-heliocentrism-reconsidered