Abstract
In this paper we make a didactic presentation of the so-called Copernican Revolution, highlighting some historical and epistemological aspects associated with it. In particular, we seek to show how the history of astronomical science, in which Copernicus' heliocentric model is inserted, has always been subject to a dispute between two scientific conceptions, which we might call realism and instrumentalism, especially as regards Ptolemy's use of devices such as the equant and eccentric in describing planetary motions. We give a brief exposition of Aristotle's cosmological thinking and the geocentric astronomical models of Ptolemy and his Arab successors, and then a more detailed, though qualitative, exposition of Copernicus's new proposal as well as its epistemological foundations. Finally, we also seek to show how this proposal, in principle restricted to a specific field of knowledge, completely shook the widely prevailing Aristotelian scientific and philosophical conception, constituting yet another element of confrontation between a new emerging worldview and another, already in its last moments, a conflict that was reflected strongly in the religious domain.
Keywords:
History of Physics; Astronomy; Copernican Revolution; Scientific Realism and Instrumentalism
