Thursday 5 January 2017

Case in Point - Astronomy - Against Kuhn's Revolutions and Paradigms

First, some links,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos Aristarchus of Samos, c. 310 - c. 230 BC
- The heliocentric view that has failed to take hold

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_astronomical_diaries Babylonian astronomical diaries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy Ptolemy, c. 100 AD - c. 170 AD
- The geocentric worldview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_translations_of_the_12th_century#List_of_translations
"- Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.)
Almagest: from Greek, Sicily c. 1160; Gerard of Cremona, from Arabic, Toledo 1175
Optica: Eugenius of Palermo, from Arabic, c. 1154"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press Printing press
"The printing press spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The operation of a press became so synonymous with the enterprise of printing that it lent its name to an entire new branch of media, the press."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus, 19 February 1473 - 24 May 1543 (AD)
- The heliocentric worldview (start)
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe Tycho Brahe 14 December 1546 – 24 October 1601
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- Wrongly posited the geo-heliocentric worldview, the Tychonic system
"Well known in his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer and alchemist, he has been described as "the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts." His observations were some five times more accurate than the best available observations at the time."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telescope History of the telescope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_telescope_types List of telescope types

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observatory#Oldest_astronomical_observatories Astronomical observatories - oldest
A selection...

  • 1577: Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din, Turkey
  • 1580: Uraniborg, Denmark
  • 1581: Stjerneborg, Denmark
  • 1642: Panzano Observatory, Italy
  • 1642: Round Tower, Denmark
  • 1633: Leiden Observatory, Netherlands
  • 1667: Paris Observatory, France
  • 1675: Royal Greenwich Observatory, England
  • 1695: Sukharev Tower, Russia
  • 1711: Berlin Observatory, Germany
  • 1724: Jantar Mantar, India



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refracting_telescope
- Galileo's use: "Galileo Galilei, happening to be in Venice in about the month of May 1609, heard of the invention and constructed a version of his own."
- Kepler's use: "The Keplerian telescope, invented by Johannes Kepler in 1611, is an improvement on Galileo's design. It uses a convex lens as the eyepiece instead of Galileo's concave one."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei Galileo Galilei, 15 February 1564 - 8 January 1642
- The heliocentric worldview (supported)
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- Refracting telescope, Galilean telescope, supporting the heliocentric worldview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler Johannes Kepler, December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630
- The heliocentric worldview (supported)
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- Refracting telescope, Keplerian telescope, supporting the heliocentric worldview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism Heliocentrism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binoculars Binoculars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflecting_telescope Reflecting telescope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton Sir Isaac Newton FRS 25 December 1642 - 20 March 1726/27
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- Reflecting telescope, Newtonian telescope (1668), supporting the heliocentric worldview
- Theory of gravity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonian_telescope Newtonian telescope
- Newton's invention
"In late 1668 Isaac Newton built his first reflecting telescope. He chose an alloy (speculum metal) of tin and copper as the most suitable material for his objective mirror. He later devised means for shaping and grinding the mirror and may have been the first to use a pitch lap to polish the optical surface."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel Frederick William Herschel KH, FRS 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- All telescopes for this era!
"During his career, he constructed more than four hundred telescopes. The largest and most famous of these was a reflecting telescope with a 49 1⁄2-inch-diameter (1.26 m) primary mirror and a 40-foot (12 m) focal length. Because of the poor reflectivity of the speculum mirrors of that day, Herschel eliminated the small diagonal mirror of a standard newtonian reflector from his design and tilted his primary mirror so he could view the formed image directly."
- Library of theories (Theory of gravity, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton etc.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe The Universe
"The earliest scientific models of the Universe were developed by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers and were geocentric, placing the Earth at the center of the Universe. Over the centuries, more precise astronomical observations led Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) to develop the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. In developing the law of universal gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton (NS: 1643–1727) built upon Copernicus's work as well as observations by Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and Johannes Kepler's (1571–1630) laws of planetary motion. Further observational improvements led to the realization that our Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy and is one of many solar systems and galaxies. It is assumed that galaxies are distributed uniformly and the same in all directions, meaning that the Universe has neither an edge nor a center. Discoveries in the early 20th century have suggested that the Universe had a beginning and that it is expanding at an increasing rate."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble Edwin Powell Hubble November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- All telescopes for this era!
- Library of theories (Theory of gravity, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton etc.)
- "was an American astronomer who played a crucial role in establishing the field of extragalactic astronomy and is generally regarded as one of the most important observational cosmologists of the 20th century. Hubble is known for showing that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the earth, implying the universe is expanding, known as "Hubble's law", although a preliminary version of this relation was proposed by Georges LemaƮtre two years earlier in a less prominent journal."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_Shapley Harlow Shapley November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- All telescopes for this era!
- Library of theories (Theory of gravity, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton etc.)
"He used RR Lyrae stars to correctly estimate the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and the sun's position within it by using parallax. In 1953 he proposed his "liquid water belt" theory, now known as the concept of a habitable zone."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein Albert Einstein 14 March 1879 - 18 April 1955
- Growing archive/database of observations, library of astronomical data
- All telescopes for this era!
- Library of theories (Theory of gravity, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton etc.)
- Theory of relativity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite Satellite
"The world's first artificial satellite, the Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Since then, thousands of satellites have been launched into orbit around the Earth. Some satellites, notably space stations, have been launched in parts and assembled in orbit. Artificial satellites originate from more than 40 countries and have used the satellite launching capabilities of ten nations. About a thousand satellites are currently operational, whereas thousands of unused satellites and satellite fragments orbit the Earth as space debris. A few space probes have been placed into orbit around other bodies and become artificial satellites to the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Vesta, Eros, Ceres, and the Sun."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing Moon landing
"A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned (robotic) missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959.

The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969. There have been six manned U.S. landings (between 1969 and 1972) and numerous unmanned landings, with no soft landings happening from 22 August 1976 until 14 December 2013."

My claim is then that "bits and pieces" make the scientific day against Kuhn's "orderly" Paradigms and so on, that science takes place in a "Cumulativist" way where science gets increasingly accurate and on Truth!

Additionally:
I've identified a mark of stupidity in history of science in that Galileo Galilei's superior has failed to commission/make the order for building, let's say, 10 Galilean telescopes when in fact his opponents and contemporaries alike have been in need of one!

This is remarkable because it shows that his contemporaries have not (to my knowledge) been interested to learn what Galileo Galilei has seen in his telescope!

Conclusion: the opponents of Galileo Galilei have not been driven by a (first-hand) thirst for knowledge!

History shows that there are quite some examples of this kind of behaviour, I think!

This also shows that Galileo Galilei has failed to teach people the way of the telescope and the calculations for his (famous) claim in support of Copernicus!

Kuhn also seems to forget that the Galilean telescope can be directed at a far-away tree or any other object. This is, of course, not a "new worldview", but enhanced sight!

From this text I intend to show that the title reveals the truth. Largely speaking "revolutions" is the
language of the tabloids!

Case in Point #2: Swinging stone in ancient Greece vs. pendulum in renaissance Italy

Relating to Aristotle and Galileo by Kuhn and SSR, p. 118 - 125 and the difference of a swinging stone and the pendulum.

Aristotle: 384 BC - 322 BC, seeing a swinging stone, I guess, by chain or thread.
Galileo: 15 February 1564 - 8 January 1642, seeing the pendulum.
The difference between them: roughly 2000 yrs.

So, by Cumulativism, if we have 2000 years between 2 people and suppose a "revolution" as Galileo considers the pendulum I'd like people to think again because that's 2000 years of engineering history as well.

Let's list some factors for these 2000 years of engineering history:
* Measurements - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_measurement
* Accuracy and precision - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision
* Technological ability to manipulate objects (i.e., tools and more) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance (for "simple machines")

So it proceeds from the factors above that a "revolution" hardly can be noted over the course of 2000 entire years and with the advance of the factors above.

Orderly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum.

For comparison, one can note that difference in weaponry as well, in telling a story of engineering:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_weapons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanelles_Gun

History of metalworking:
http://www.hackingtheuniverse.com/science/history-of-science-and-technology/genarticles/timeline-of-metalworking

Aristotle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
Galileo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

"Thus the press/media reports an ongoing revolution by transition from a swinging stone to a pendulum for 2000 years."