哥白尼(1473～1543年)

Copernicus, Nicolaus

波兰语作Mikotaj Kopernik

波兰天文学家。他在克拉科夫、波隆那、帕多瓦受教育，精通了当时数学、天文学、医学、神学的所有知识。1947年获选为弗龙堡大教堂教士後，他利用自己在经济上的稳定性，开始进行天文观察。1543年出版《天体运行论》，标示着西方思想的里程碑（参阅Copernican system）。哥白尼最早在几十年前即想出他的旋转模型，但一直延後出版，因为在它解释行星的运动（并决定其顺序）时，却生出了必须解释的新问题，需要核对旧的观察，也必须以不刺激宗教当局的方式提出。这本书直到他死後才付梓。他指出地球绕着自轴每日旋转一圈，绕着不动的太阳每年旋转一圈，藉此发展出让现代科学兴起的深远意涵。他主张天文学必须描述世界的真实、自然体系，这与柏拉图的工具主义相对。只有在克卜勒手中，哥白尼的模型才完全发展为有关宇宙基本结构的新哲学。

English version：

1473～1543年

Copernicus, Nicolaus

Polish astronomer. He was educated at Kraków, Bologna, and Padua, where he mastered all the knowledge of the day in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and theology. Elected a canon of the cathedral of Frauenburg in 1497, he took advantage of his financial security to begin his astronomical observations. His publication in 1543 of On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres marked a landmark of Western thought (see Copernican system). Copernicus had first conceived of his revolutionary model decades earlier but delayed publication because, while it explained the motion of the planets (and resolved their order), it raised new problems that had to be explained, required verification of old observations, and had to be presented in a way that would not provoke the religious authorities. The book did not see print until he was on his deathbed. By attributing to earth a daily rotation around its own axis and a yearly revolution around a stationary sun, he developed an idea that had far-reaching implications for the rise of modern science. He asserted, in contrast to Platonic instrumentalism, that astronomy must describe the real, physical system of the world. Only with Johannes Kepler was Copernicus's model fully transformed into a new philosophy about the fundamental structure of the universe.