플라톤 사상이 근대 천문학 탄생 과정에 끼친 영향

Abstract

So far the study of the effects of the Platonic ideas in the procedures of the modern astronomy birth has been superficial. The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of the Platonic ideas on the modern astronomy. But it is not concerned here with mathematical parts. Only what I wish to show in this study is the context of the thinking about the universe from the ancient Greek Ages to the terminal Renaissance. The Platonic ideas on the universe are more geometrical and harmonic than any other ideas. The characteristics of the Platonic ideas assimilated with Christianity in the Middle Ages. But those ideas took a position against the Aristotle’s ideas which had filled the role of the standard of the studies in the Middle Ages. The rebirth of the Platonic ideas in the Middle Ages was not original, that is to say Neo󰠏Platonism. Because it dealed with more various parts, The Neo󰠏Platonism was different from the original Platonic ideas. The Neo󰠏Platonism expelled the Aristotle’s theories from the astronomical region. Therefore The Neo󰠏Platonism commuted the non󰠏geometrical standpoint into the geometrical standpoint in the interpretation of the universe. The Neo󰠏Platonism inspired the ideas for the interpretation of the universe in Copernicus and Kepler. Specially the geometrical methods was very important and necessary for constructing the model of the solar system and the universe. The Neo󰠏Platonic books provided the ideas(a geometry, musical chords, a notion of anima mundi, a notion of the infinite universe, etc) for creating the heliocentric system with the Renaissance astronomers. Thus the Platonism played a key functional role in the birth of the modern astronomy.