The sublunary sphere is one of the concepts of ancient Greek astronomy, described in the works of Aristotle [1] . Indicates the region of the geocentric system of the world located below the moon , consisting of four elements : earth, water, air and fire [2] and subject to constant changes, unlike the unchanged sphere of the ether , which extends from the moon to the edges of the universe, and in which the planets are located and stars [3] .
Content
Evolution of the concept
The concept of the sublunary sphere was originally formulated by Plato and Aristotle [4] , their ideas lay in the paradigm of the geocentric system of the world. In the Middle Ages, Aristotle's ideas were developed by Avicenna [5] . The medieval scholastic, Thomas Aquinas , noted the difference between the celestial and sublunary spheres in his work, Summa Theology , and also mentioned that Cicero and Lucan were aware of the boundaries between Nature and Heaven, the sublunar and etheric spheres [6] . The result was a medieval view of what C.S. Lewis called "the" great separation "... between ether and air," heaven "and" nature ", the kingdom of gods (or angels) and the kingdom of demons, the kingdom of necessity and conjugacy to perishable. "
The development of the Copernican heliocentric system of the world dealt a serious blow to the concept of the sublunary sphere. The observations of Tycho Brahe of a supernova and comets in the supposedly unchanged sphere of the ether were finally undermined by Aristotle's ideas [7] . Thomas Kuhn cites the collapse of the concept of the sublunary sphere as a clear example of the emergence of new opportunities arising from a change in the scientific paradigm [8] .
In fiction
Dante in the “ Divine Comedy ” places Mount Purgatory above the sublunary sphere, therefore its slopes are not subject to natural changes [9] .
Notes
- ↑ Aristotle, Ethics (1974) p. 357-8
- ↑ Stephen Toulmin, Night Sky at Rhodes (1963) p. 38 and p. 78
- ↑ CC Gillespie, The Edge of Objectivity (1960) p. 14
- ↑ Gillespie, p. 13-5
- ↑ JJE Garcia, Individuation in Scholasticism (1994) p. 41
- ↑ W. Hooper, CS Lewis (1996) p. 529-31
- ↑ R. Curley, Scientists and Inventors of the Renaissance (2012) p. 6-8
- ↑ Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970) p. 116-7
- ↑ Dante, Purgatory (1971) p. 235
Literature
- J. Barnes, Aristotle (1982)
- MA Orr, Dante and the Medieval Astronomers (1956)
- Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (1957)