The History of Astronomy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Michael Hoskin

Author:Michael Hoskin [Hoskin, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2003-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Astronomy in the age of Newton

The outlook of the later Middle Ages had been dominated by Aristotle, and that of the Renaissance by Plato. But in the period following, the ‘mechanical philosophy’, alternatively known as the ‘corpuscular philosophy’, became increasingly attractive. It had originated with the Greek atomists, who explained the different qualities we perceive in the bodies around us as being the ways our senses interpret the movements of unchanging particles; and this appealed to an age that found a refreshing clarity about explanations that used concepts like speeds and shapes, concepts that were mathematical at least in principle. Machinery was becoming ever more ingenious – witness the great clock in the cathedral in Strasbourg. But in these machines, complex effects were being produced by simple (and intelligible) means: matter – cogs, weights, and so forth – in motion.

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