The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought

This book, written before his Structures, is condensed, well written and, for me at any rate, highly entertaining. No one with a casual understanding of the history of astronomy can read this and not be surprised. Of special interest is the illumination of the fact that at the time Copernicus offered his Helio-centric cosmology there was no good, scientific reason for accepting it - it being a geometric inversion of the Ptolemaic system and thus inheriting exactly all of the Ptolemaic deficiencies. Kuhn explores the reason for the gradual shift to Copernicanism and the effects a moving earth had on other sciences.

This book is an excellent and entertaining book for a scientific reader and/or for a general reader who doesn't mind being challenged a bit by logical arguments. Don't let this discourage you, though, since the logical arguments are not too difficult and really need to be discussed for completeness sake. The historical background adds to the book in a way comparable to Carl Sagan's 'COSMOS' series or to 'The Mechanical Universe' series. This book should be required reading for all enlightened westerners. It's THAT good.

I just want to focus on one aspect of this book. The first chapter and the appendix forms a very nice introduction to basic astronomy. If you want to read a book like "The Sun in the Church, Cathedrals as Solar Observatories" by Heilbron, but get shell shocked by the astronomy, then Kuhn's book is a good place to start. It's not easy reading, but Kuhn has a lot of very good pictures.

Unlike 'the Structure of Scientific Revolutions', this book is well-written and informative, if you want to know about the development of ancient astronomy. Belongs with serious, entertaining and informative books on the history of science like those by Hoyle (who explains what Copernicus really did) and Barbour (who pointed me to Hoyle in the first place).

Kuhn masterfully depicts the changes which, not only brought about the Copernican Revolution, but also, more abstractly, links them to prevaling modes of western thought as they differ from eastern models of the universe. Kuhn's attempt succeeds at placing the reader on the road to scientific revelation, not only the Copernican Revolution per se, but the political and religious currents which not only resisted it, but made it necessary. His work traces the early work of Greek astronomers and the problems they dealt with in depicting the motions of the planets and the position of the earth in the universe. He moves into Copernicus' work as a quasi-scientific endeavor synthesizing neo-Platonic forms and astute astronomical observation. This he elucidates fully, by infusing the work of other astronomers, namely Kepler,Galileo and Brahe. On a whole the book is a good example of how attitudes are changed by a revolutionary figure and a radical departure from established "paradigms" of science. Moreover, Kuhn shows us the genre of scientific history which is so important to understanding these types of issues. His book is easy to understand given cursory astronomical background and will prove invaluable in understanding not only the thought of Copernicus himself, but more precisely, the real revolution which it began. It is a must for all history students and would provide interesting topical information for science majors and star-gazers alike. You should come away with the idea that "astronomers" of the past were not as scientific as we would expect them to be, and furthermore, revolutions do not take place in a vacuum but rather are dependent on an atmosphere and necessity for acceptance.