FOM: Copernicus

[Alexander R. Pruss]

On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, [iso-8859-1] José Félix Costa wrote:
> Alexander R. Pruss and Palma wrote inter alia,
> 
> ''general relativity had also been formulated by or available to Copernicus,
> then he could have realized that saying the sun goes around the earth and
> the earth goes around the sun are equivalent in the sense that one can
> choose coordinates so that each of these is tenable''
> 
> This argument goes back to Nicolaus Oresmus and Cusanus (Nicolas of Cusa).
> 
> However, the argument is valid only until the discovery of paralax.

I see no reason why the argument wouldn't work just as well given
parallax.  From the reference frame of the earth, the sun moves around the
earth, and the planets and stars move around the sun.

Alex

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Dr. Alexander R. Pruss  || e-mail: ap85 at georgetown.edu
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