repugnant to uninstructed common sense, although presented in such a crude form, without any of the evidence required to win general assent, was, however, undoubtedly a valuable contribution to astronomical thought. It is well worth notice that Coppernicus in the great book which is the foundation of modern astronomy (chapter iv., § 75) especially quotes Philolaus and other Pythagoreans as authorities for his doctrine of the motion of the earth.
Three other Pythagoreans, belonging to the end of the 6th century and to the 5th century b.c, Hicetas of Syracuse, Heraclitus, and Ecphantus, are explicitly mentioned by later writers as having believed in the rotation of the earth.
An obscure passage in one of Plato's dialogues (the Timaeus) has been interpreted by many ancient and modern commentators as implying a belief in the rotation of the earth, and Plutarch also tells us, partly on the authority of Theophrastus, that Plato in old age adopted the belief that the centre of the universe was not occupied by the earth but by some better body.[1]
Almost the only scientific Greek astronomer who believed in the motion of the earth was Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in the first half of the 3rd century B.C., and is best known by his measurements of the distances of the sun and moon (§ 32). He held that the sun and fixed stars were motionless, the sun being in the centre of the sphere on which the latter lay, and that the earth not only rotated on its axis, but also described an orbit round the sun. Seleucus of Seleucia, who belonged to the middle of the 2nd century B.C., also held a similar opinion. Unfortunately we know nothing of the grounds of this belief in either case, and their views appear to have found little favour among their contemporaries or successors.
It may also be mentioned in this connection that Aristotle (§ 27) clearly realised that the apparent daily motion of the stars could be explained by a motion either of the stars or of the earth, but that he rejected the latter explanation.
25. Plato (about 428–347 B.C.) devoted no dialogue especially to astronomy, but made a good many references
- ↑ Theophrastus was born about half a century, Plutarch nearly five centuries, later than Plato.
