Sublunary sphere
In
The sublunary sphere was the realm of changing nature. Beginning with the Moon, up to the limits of the universe, everything (to classical astronomy) was permanent, regular and unchanging—the region of
Evolution of concept
geocentrism and the concept of a spherical Earth
.
C.S. Lewis
called 'this "great divide"...from aether to air, from 'heaven' to 'nature', from the realm of gods (or angels) to that of daemons, from the realm of necessity to that of contingence, from the incorruptible to the corruptible"
However, the theories of
Copernicus began to challenge the sublunary/aether distinction. In their wake, Tycho Brahe's observations of a new star (nova) and of comets in the supposedly unchanging heavens further undermined the Aristotelian view.[7] Thomas Kuhn saw scientists' new ability to see change in the 'incorruptible' heavens as a classic example of the new possibilities opened up by a paradigm shift.[8]
Literary offshoots
Dante envisaged Mt Purgatory as being so high that it reached above the sublunary sphere, so that “These slopes are free from every natural change”.[9]
Samuel Johnson praised Shakespeare's plays as “exhibiting the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow, intermingled”.[10]
See also
References
- ^ Aristotle, Ethics (1974) p. 357-8
- ^ Stephen Toulmin, Night Sky at Rhodes (1963) p. 38 and p. 78
- ^ C. C. Gillespie, The Edge of Objectivity (1960) p. 14
- ^ Gillespie, p. 13-5
- ^ J. J. E. Garcia, Individuation in Scholasticism (1994) p. 41
- ^ W. Hooper, C. S. 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
- ^ Samuel Johnson, Selected Writings (Penguin) p. 266
Further reading
- J. Barnes, Aristotle (1982)
- M. A. Orr, Dante and the Medieval Astronomers (1956)
- Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (1957)
