Copernicus

I can't decide whether Koestler respects Copernicus or if he totally dislikes him. At some points, he talks about him being uncreative and not doing a lot of work. At the same time though, he points out that if it was so easy, why hadn't others done it. Also, he points out that many have not fully read his works, so many comments are unfounded possibly.

Koestler calls Copernicus unoriginal and basically he studied the ancients more than he did the stars, and his work was based on the past. Kepler summed it up in his quote that "Copernicus was interpreting Ptolemy rather than nature. It would seem that Copernicus should being doing a lot of nature studying, but rather the bulk of the work was already done. Koestler seems to back Copernicus up in the face of that form of scrutiny. "If it was really as simple as that, then the equally simple question arises why nobody before him had worked out a heliocentric system?" Its a very good question because people seem to hark on him for not doing a lot of work and such, but if it was so easy, how come so many people before him failed to do what he did. People criticize him, but yet not many could have done what he did.

I found it amazing that so many historians are incorrect on parts of Copernicus's beliefs. If people are to pass judgment, it would seem logical that they must have read Copernicus and understand it. Yet, many of them have clearly not, and that baffles me. It is just unfair to hold such negative thoughts and not even have read them. It humored me when Koestler said Copernicus's system "uses altogether forty-eight epicycles - if I counted them correctly."

Also, the fact that there is no summary really seemed to hurt Copernicus. I guess he wrote so ambiguously that people had a hard time determining what he meant. It is suggested that summary would have cleared so many things up, but it was left out. Koestler mentions that Copernicus said there would be a summary, but that it never came through.

I would also just like to say that I really like how Koestler words things and relates different things. "He spent the rest of his life trying to fit into a medieval framework based on Aristotelian physics and Ptolemaic wheels. It was like trying to fit a turbo-prop engine on a ramshackle old stage-coach"