Did Copernicus and Galileo really come up with the Heliocentric theory?

Question

The heliocentric theory (idea that the planet go around the sun) is an idea that was known to many non-europeans before Galileo and Copernicus.

The Chinese, the Hindus in India, the Mayans, and the Arab Muslims knew recognized the heliocentric theory long before Copernicus and Galileo.


The Mayans and the Arabs were the founders of mathematical astronomy; however, many textbooks claim that it was Europeans who founded it. The Mayans created a very advanced calendar and the Arabs invented superior navigation equipment with this knowledge.

There is even some evidence that information about the heliocentric theory actually came to the European via the Arab Muslims, who had gotten this idea from the Indian and expanded upon it.


Why then is it that many history books claim that Galileo and Copernicus were the first to come up with the heliocentric theory when many other civilizations came up with it before them???

Answer 1

In fact, the earliest known proposal of the heliocentric theory was from the Greek philosopher Democritus in the 5th century BCE.



The reason Copernicus gets credit isn't that he came up with the idea, but that he was the first person to prove it. Anyone can say something; but to be able to prove is another thing entirely. It's isn't "Eurocentrism," it's science that counts; and whatever anyone else said, Copernicus was the first to prove the Earth revolved around he sun.

Answer 2

Which books? And what EXACTLY did they say about this? You need to be a little more specific on this point. No responsible text would make such a flat statement if other scholarship had previously revealed what you claim.



It is perhaps possible that others had realized the correct answers before C and G, but Copernicus was the first to be widely NOTICED in promulgating the concept, and Galileo was the first to CONFIRM the theory AND get noticed by the western Europeans.



With all due respect to the other cultures of the world, it was the western Europeans who made the differences, not the Chinese or the Mayans. The Chinese may have invented the magnetic compass and gunpowder long before anyone else, but they failed to make use these inventions. Same for the Mayans. Invention without use is useless. It's the USAGE that counts. Unquestionably the western Europeans and their descendants the Usarians of America are superior in this regard.



"Publish or perish" is the saying in academic circles. C & G published, the others didn't. End of story.

Answer 3

People tried to explain the motion of the planets against the stars. They used complicated arrangements called epicycles to account for retrograde motion. That was geocentric theory for over a thousand years. Heliocentric theory was known to the ancient Greeks. It was replaced by geocentric because of the lack of parallax motion that should have been seen in near stars as the earth went around the sun. Since it was too small to be seen without modern telescopes, it was thought not to exist. Therefore, the earth must be stationary. But this was wrong. Heliocentric theory had advantages of simplicity and was confirmed by observations of the Moon and Venus and Jupiter with the first telescopes by Galileo and others. Many years after that tiny stellar parallax was seen in near stars and that fully supported heliocentric theory.

Answer 4

As Will already stated:

Copernicus and Gallileo could prove their claims, they were not theories any more, but fact.



Another example is the Atom.

Whilst the ancient Greeks spoke of Atoms, it was just a theory without any fundamental science behind it. The concept that matter is composed of discrete units and cannot be divided into arbitrarily tiny quantities has been around for millennia, but these ideas were founded in abstract, philosophical reasoning rather than experimentation and empirical observation. Only around ~1890 could it be proven to exist.

Answer 5

the mayas did use their astronomical knowledge as an aid to agriculture ,but they did not publish except in codex like the dresden codex ,aditionally the mayas did not had the help and support of the catholic church that vigorously defended scientific truth,even burning alive giordano bruno just to demonstrate the second law of thermodinamics,ignorance was brave specially in the middle age europe with very sound scientific institutions like the inquisition that was able to get the proofs you are so proud of.enjoy