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  • Edward Rosen - Was Copernicus A Hermeticist?

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    Edward Rosen - Was Copernicus a Hermeticist?

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    Edward Rosen - Was Copernicus a Hermeticist?

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    Edward Rosen - Was Copernicus a Hermeticist?

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    78 vues5 pages

    Edward Rosen - Was Copernicus A Hermeticist?

    Transféré par

    berix
    Edward Rosen - Was Copernicus a Hermeticist?

    Droits d'auteur :

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Mary Hesse Ihermeticism indicates, It would therefore seem incumbent on Ds. Hesse either to show the prescriptive validity of those principles from which hee assumptions derive (a process she herself has so excellently shown the dficultis of), oF tallow less traditional and les determined- ly “forwardlooking” historians unhindered license peacefully to pursue ther own hermetic hares. 162 Was Copernicus a Hermetist? 1. Internal External History of Science Ifa history of scence is to deserve the name, it must be “internal.” A fully qualifed historian of scence knows the discipline whose history he undertakes to write. He masters his subject not only in the eronological period which chiefly interests him but also inthe earlier and later stages Like an alert pedestrian tying to cross a busy twowway thoroughfare, he looks not only straight ahead but als to the right and tothe le. A historian of science, however, is more than a harried pedestrian. He “understands not ony his chosen subject but aso its social setting, insofar 1s that background affected the science. To that extent he isa historian, and to that extent his history of science wil be “external.” By the nature of his craft the historian of science is pesforce a hybrid creature. He i in ‘art historian, in prt scents. His product i bath internal and external, Doth scientific and historia Ia history of science endeavored to be exclasively internal, it would in cevitably mis the social forces which affect the development of science. On the other hand, any history of seience which attempted to be exclusively external would ignore the inner slf-corecting dynamic of seience. A satis factory history of seience combines comprehension ofthe scientific subject matter with understanding of the historical period. Its narrative records positive achievements and iuminating failures. Tt pursues the ramifica- tions of ideas, sound and unsound. It scrutiniaes the societal presures m= pinging on the thought and activity of scientists, while at the same time «liscarding suppositiious frfetched and spurious connections. 2. The Case of Archimedes We have been told that “Syracase does ite to explain Archimedes."* is clisconery that a segment ofa parabola equals fur thins ofthe triangle +A. C. Grombi, Sle Change (New York: Ric Hs, 1968), p85, st 16 Edward Rosen having the same base and altitude a the segment® was an achievement in pure geometry, not connected with or explained by his residence in Syra- cause. Butitwas the king of Syracuse who “persuaded Archimedes to make for him offensive and defensive machines for evry typeof sege”® in which Syracuse was embroiled, and with Syracuse Archimedes, who owed to this ‘external pressure both intellectual stimulation and vielent death at the Thands ofan enemy soldier 3. Copernicus and Hermetism Wehavealo been tld that the core of the [Renaissance Neoplatonist] movement was Hermetic, in Nolving view ofthe cosmos as network of magia ores with which znan cin operat. The Rensance mages had his roots in the Hermetic tre of Retisance NeoPatonim, and iis the Renaissance magus Ibe Trev, who exemplifies that changed sttude of man to the cosmos which seas the necessary preliminary tothe rise of since. “The Renaissance magus was the immediate ancestor of the seventeenth century cients. “"Neo Platonisn” was indeed the body of thought ‘hich = prepared the way forthe emergence of scence. ‘The emergence of modem seience should pehaps be reacdd as proced {ng in tv phases, theft being the Hermetic or magical phase ofthe [Renaissance with ts bassin an animist philosophy, the second being the development inthe seventeenth centary ofthe Stor casi period of smodetn scence. _ revived Patonism withthe accompanying Pythagoro Platonic intr cxtin numb, the expansion of theories of hartony under the combined presures of PythagoroPatonism, Hemetism and Cabal, the intense Eatin of interest in astrology wih which genuine astronomical research tras bound up and» the cxpansion of schemy in new forms, it think, impostble to deny that these were the Renaisance forces which tarned men's minds a the direction out of which the seientfie evoution vwastocomes Temay be illuminating to view the sient tevolation an two pass, ‘the Bist phase conisting of an animistic universe operated by magic the second phase ofa mathematical universe operated By mechanics? + chime Quatro th Pals, Poort ‘it tcc cto » ‘Pancha the Hoon Tn Rensisance Sic" a Cha 8. SSnit, ASines an siy he Reason [ic os Hogs Pee pg 5 Do 28 Psa fates: Gin Rio andthe Hemi Tralitin (Chic Un say hig Ps 1968) 452 168 WAS COPERNICUS A HERRKETIST? Inthe nt pai fhe ent retin Nis Cope a> seth Restos in 9. West tat ii inthe torte ofthe gin of he wold that the Cope te en feed ‘it gon of th wld wich oe a 29 andacarn in och of Gre high pty nt dS fas a indie cig Egypt, and its magical religion, becomes identified with the Hermetic re- ligonofthewor Nor doer Caprice fl to aac the autorty of prc tel (toast ataly we the eet) ang thy PSE ‘cra Part spp te ypoovaleniemrement® Copernic ever added th aunty of Pages ad he td Ps note tlogan bat oncogene (Reel tions, I, 5) ath ct tate ht Rao vel wt seve moins and ait snc eee th aoe an theopa oP lath Pte Ne was no ounay auton amc Hts ing oly Sha of Wag io ies Cope Aho Cope oe nt the eresion rc hee oe {ica the peel poop hc anes apes who coterde thet heath cpl the seo thew’ Hes met the pre tates eect athentcans or atonmen wie masa that he eth woolen Whar theca aye ben Ice y thas ance! philsopher mates ad stoner thse roe Caper wh dosnt ade theses mech hese ti horton Wearefutr old sbut Cope tht tthe crcl moment ust ate he dag shoving he rv enced ten cme ‘hsceto Heme Tneits ene Aro meg nthe mile of cen th sn, Fin hs mos inl wh ould ei ris res pos iat fom ch ca at pte i ng othe ane et Ma thesonsnt appeal cel sone pier aie “Peis i tama ae eh eee eon ona rine Pa 165 Edvard Rosen univ its mind by ots anit ruler by stil odes. The Tce Grea est abel ita] vsble god (Copernic, Revoltins 10) = ‘Where the foregoing quotation is cut of, Copernicus coins: “and Sophocles’ Electr, the allsecing” But Sophocles calls the sun allseing in his Oodipus at Colons, notin his Eletra Evidently Copernicus did ‘ot verify is quotation from Sophocles. ‘We were tld just above that Copernicus makes “a reference to Heres Trismegits onthe suo,” But Copemieus does not mention the name Hees, and his version ofthe accompanying epithet is “Timegitus." as the manscrpt ten with his own band clearly shows?* ‘Weate tol that inthe pasage quoted above fom Copernicus Revo- Jutions (10) “the main eco i suey of the words of Hermes Times tun the Ackpin:"™ Hermes words rid as follows: The sun ilumintes the other sts nots much by the power af i ight trty try ahi nd oust, © Asc 6 the second god. governing al things and wpeading his pt onal the ing beings ofthe world, both thas wich Haves woul and those which have nares “The foregoing word of Hermes Trsmegistus in the Asclpius do not cll the soma vibe god, as Copenics sad that “Tvimegists” di. Yet we Inee that Copeniens “quoted, near his dagam of the new stem, “Hermes Trsmogitsin the Ascepis onthe suns the vile goa."™™ On theother hand, the expression “vibe gd” does ocurinan ancient theologian whom Copemits chides as follows: “Lactantas, otherwise an Astius writer but hardly a mathematician, speaks quite childish about theenths shape when hemocks those who delared that the earth asthe form of a globe” (Revolutions, Dediation Preface). These purities concerning the eats form were tered by Lactantus in his Divine Inst- tutes (IT, 24). In that ame work (IV, 6) Lactantas quoted Hermes as saying (in Greek) that “the second god was crested visible.” This vse second god was misequated by Lactantus with Jesus, aldhough Hermes "Yat Cine Bm 15 . ig hemo An leds St oe (ow Ys Rota 18) dane Rope Cate | (Ma al Rei: Otro 10), "Yates, Gioedano Beano p. 154. SIME pst IPAS 8 Yat The to Mey Lon Ros, 1, 166 WAS COPERNICUS A MERGETIST? cbviosly means dhe perceptible wives" When Copernicus ss that “nny of the piloopher have called ta visible god” perhaps he is echo- ing Lactant’s Hermes, among others, but here (Revolutions , Intro Aivetion) Copernicus visible god (vsbilem deum) ithe universe, not thesun Copernicus uses the Latin words visem deum and not the Greck theon oat, a quoted by Lactantus from the orginal Grek ext ofthe Aselepus, which was available to Lactantas, but since his time bas been lost, The Asclepias as survived in a Latin translation, which rendes our vassgeas quivider!-.. posit? Since this atin taslaton, which wed to bemiattibuted to Lacias Apuleius, has neither vibiem nor deum, it Aid not provide the mode for Copernic’ visible god, whether this was ‘he universe according to many of the pilosophess,o the sun, according to"“Trimegista “The numerous Grek passages inserted by Lactntns in his Divine In- stitutes most have annoyed readers unfaliar with Ut language. For when Lactantis later wrote the Epitome of his Divine Istiutes, he elim inated the Grek quotations including ours, which he replaced by his own Latin translation, This contains the expression deum visblem in chapter 37 (42)2" by contrast with qui vider . . postin Pseudo-Apulis oowever,in Copernic’ time Lactantits's Epitome was printed from a defective manusript lacking chapter 37 (42). Hence Copernicus never ‘etal hid eyeson deum vse in Lactanti's Epitome. Nor did that expression occur in Pseudo-Apuleis's translation of the Aslpiws. Had Copernicus ever handled a copy of Hermes, with his knowledge of Creek he would not have fumbled the epithet “Times.” As inthe case of s mistation of Sophocles, he may have relied on an imperfect recllec- tion ofsomething he had once ear id by somebody, presumably one of profesor with acces tothe complete manuscript of Lactantvs’sEpit- «ome on which our moder editions are based ® o to one ofthe man Woe Sot, Heat (Ono Cheon Pre 1924.56) 1,2% 119-20, 2. Cpe 0 5B Sec nd Rape Ea BEI Se Hemet 28, M6 Nak nd tg, le, Cope, ins pan ecru tor, 1 (pte, New You Jon, TRE ance of the complete uw of Lact’ Etre wat announced moles tent ataia (101), 46, aod boheme et meee, jean bechre 2 (177), 399 st Edward Rosen scripts of Lactantiu's Divine Institutes containing a Latin translation of ‘our Hermes passage*" Nevertheless we are told that “Copernicus discovery came outwith the Dlessng of Hermes Trismegistus upon its head, witha quotation from that famous work in which Hermes describes the sun worship ofthe Egyptians in their magical religin.”** What Copernicus mistakenly believed to be a quotation is not found inthe author misalled “Trimegistus” by Coper nicas, who obviously had only the slightest acquaintance with the her metic literature, which he did not know at frst hand. Yet we read that “even the impulse towards the breaking down ofthe old cosmology with heliocentricity may have asthe emotional impuisetowards the new vision fof the sun the Hermetic impulse towards the world, interpreted first as ‘magic by Ficino emergingas science in Copernicus, . . 2" ‘Copernicus emotional pasage about the sun (Revolutions, 1,10) was quoted above. We ae told that init “there ace perhaps echoes of Cicero's words for the sun in that famous Dream." Cicer in Scipio's Dream (Re- public, VI, 17) cals the sun “the univers’s mind” (mens mundi), and Copernicus echoes mundi . .. mentem. When Copernicus undertook to“reread the works of all the philosophers which I could obtain,” he spe- cifes (Revolutions, Dedication Preface I, 5) that he found a pivotal pas- sage in Cicero. In calling the sun the universe's “ruler” (rectorem), Coper nicus echoes rector in the Natural History (II, 12) of Plin, from whom hae took many expressions. In the cosmogonical story inthe Timaeus (39 B) Plato's creator Craftsman kindled only one ight, “which we now call the sun,” in order that it might shine s far as possible throughout the entire heaven, Hence for an unswerving Pltonst as distinguished from a Neoplatonist, the sun was the wniverse’s lantern (Tcemam mundi), the last ofthe ive labels attached tothe sun by Copernicus. ‘We ate told that “Copernicus himself associated his discovery with Hermes Trismegistes."* That association, taking the form of a nonexist ent quotation from a jumbled name, occurs inthe company of Sophocles, Cicero, Pliny, and the Phtonists?" In Copernicus’s emotional passage Cor explora ecclesia tno, 19, pp, 289-29. = Yate Ciena Broo, pp. 154-155, cE ie 1 -Ta Sscion was ted fo, the Vigin May Dy he tenthcetay on roti, Oper (Bern, 1902) -p 32, 7 tel Bana, 1a = Ye oe he bon 11 hat Cope “satbostierateimmedtly Neos 168 WAS COPERNICUS A. HERMETIST? about the sun, the hermetic association isa shaky one-fifth ofthe five aso- ciations, The three words in which itis expressed (Trimegistusvisibilem ddeum) occupy less than half a line in Copernicus’s manuscript ofthe Rev- ‘lutions. This handwritten volume contains more than 200 folios, averg- ing 10 words tothe line and 40 lines tothe page, so thatthe hermetic asso- ‘ation amounts to about 0.00002 of the Revolutions. Copernicus’ other works and his correspondence show no hermetic association at all Yet we are told that “Bacon's admirers have often been puzzled by his rejection ‘of Copernican heliocentricity and of William Gilberts work on the mag- net... . These notions might have seemed to Bacon heavily engaged in ‘extreme forms of the magical and animist philosophy or ike the proud and erroneous opinions of magus.”* 4. Branoand Copemicus Weare also told that “Copernicus might well have bought up and de strayed all copes of the Cena had he been alive.” Had Copernicus been alive in 1584, when Giordano Bruno published his Cena de Te ceneri (Ash Wednesday Supper), he would have read in the Cena’s Third Dialogue that “Copernicus didn't believe that the earth moves, because this isan ‘incongruity and impossibility. On the contrary, he attributed the motion tit, rather than to the sphere ofthe stars, or convenience in computing,” The spokesman for Bruno replies: “Tt is certain that Copernicus under: stood the statement ashe uttered it, and proved it with ll his might." This ‘uncompromising insistence that Copernicus maintained the earth’s mo- ‘ion to be a physical fact provokes the question why the contrary opinion ‘s expressed “if t cannot be inferred from some statement by him.” The source ofthis misinterpretation of Copernicus is prompy identified as “a certain preliminary Addres, stuck in by an ignorant and insolent jack 1s." Had Copernicus been alive in 1584, he might well have bought up sl copies of the Cena in order to disteibate as widely as possible its forth right denunciation of the interpolated anonymous prefatory Address which utterly falsified is geokineticism. Bruno's Cena fist publicly ex- esl hf which mre sntinod ol memeber

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