assignment 8

Question 1

Order these thinkers: galileo, ptolemy, copernicus, apollonius of perga, kepler

Answer 1

apollonius of perga, ptolemy, copernicus, galileo + kepler (kepler lived longer)

Question 2

True or false: Scientists in Copernicus’s time, though they had some evidence in favor of Copernicus’s theory, were unable to prove that the Earth goes around the Sun (rather than the Sun going around the Earth). Today, with our improved technology, we are able to prove that this is the case

Answer 2

FALSE: science does not prove things

Question 3

Ptolemy’s model: Mars undergoes retrogade motion when___

Answer 3

1. at closest point to earth (at perigee)
2. at its brightest as seen in Earth’s sky
3. is rising in Earth’s sky when Sun was setting, Mars setting when Sun is rising

Question 4

Small circle whose center orbits earth on large circle

Answer 4

epicycle

Question 5

On Ptolemy’s model of the heavens, Mercy and Venus are always_____

Answer 5

near to the sun in the earth’s sky

Question 6

what arguments did copernicus give in favor of his model

Answer 6

1. fewer circles in explaining retrogressions
2. model avoids equants
3. allows observations to determine planetary distances in units of earth’s orbital radius (planetary order)
4. no suspicious role of sun

Question 7

How does Ptolemy’s model say Sun plays a “suspicious role”?

Answer 7

1. Centers of epicycles for Mercury and Venus line up with the Sun as seen from the Earth
2. Epicycles for Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn each go around in the same time it takes the Sun to orbit the Earth

Question 8

define perigee and opposition

Answer 8

perigee: planet is brightest
opposition: planet at closest point to earth in its orbit

Question 9

true/false: copernicus and ptolemaic model both predicted mars, saturn, jupiter at perigee when it is at opposition

Answer 9

true

Question 10

What danger is Bellarmine talkinga bout?

Answer 10

contradicting the Bible

Question 11

Bellarmine praise foscarini and galileo for “proceeding prudently by limiting to speaking supositionally and not absolutely”. Bllearmine was saying….

Answer 11

Foscarini and Galileo right in regarding Copernican model as merely “saving the phenomena”

Question 12

T/F: During time between ptolemy and copernicus, did astronmers add more little circles to ptolemy’s model to improve the accuracy ,making the model more complicated.

Answer 12

False. They did not add more circles

Question 13

Bellarmine and Osiander disagreed/agreed about the aim of science

Answer 13

agreed. both were anti-realist, saved the phenomena

Question 14

anti-realism vs realism

Answer 14

realists: aim of science is to provide true description of the world

anti-realists: aim of science is to provide true description of the ‘observable’ part of the world

Question 15

was galileo a scientific realist or anti-realist?

Answer 15

galileo was a realist. why?

Question 16

were copernicus and kepler realists or anti-realists

Answer 16

copernicus was a realist: equant argument available only under scientific realism.

kepler: sun placed at physically significant location with sun as explanatory presupposes realism

Question 17

what is the pessimistic historical meta-induction?

Answer 17

anti-realist position that mature theories are possibly to turn out to be false as regards empirical evidence in the history of science-likewise, they are also not even approximately true

Question 18

name an objection to the scientific anti-realism arguemnt from empirically equivalent rival theories

Answer 18

the 2 theories that are empirically equivalent by themselves may not be empirically equivalent when combined with auxilary hypothesis

Question 19

Stellar paralax was widely recognized to be predicted by copernicus’s theory. But, not actually detected until 1830s. scientists were not justified in accepting copernicus’s theory before it was detected

Answer 19

false.

Question 20

Kepler was in ____ with Copernicus’s theory

Answer 20

agreement. bro got people to believe it

Question 21

What is an example of something that Copernicus’s theory expalined but which Ptolemy’s theory “could give no reason”

Answer 21

mars is brightest when it is visible all night

Question 22

what did Kuhn think about Coeprnicus’s argument of greator harmony and “aesthetic” superiority?

Answer 22

he thought it was WEAK

Question 23

the particular location for the sun suggesting that the sun helps cause the planets to follow their orbital paths did NOT count in favor of Kepler’s version according to scientific anti-realism

Answer 23

true.

Question 24

when are two theories empirically equivalent

Answer 24

if and only if one of them “saves” the phenomena”, then the other does also.
(nothing about both being true)

Question 25

what are unobservable facts in astronomy? who only cares about observable facts?

Answer 25

unobservable facts: earth at motion/rest, sun in motion/rest, arrangement of celestial spheres

anti-realists only care about observable facts, not unobservables

Question 26

why was kepler’s theory considered to be realist?

Answer 26

he insisted that astronomy was capapble of providing true description of planetary motion. bro thought sun helps cause planets to follow orbital paths. this was not observable.

Question 27

why did copernicus’s theory not fit the then-accepted physical theories concerning motions of bodies?

Answer 27

because accroding to physical theories then:
1. center of universe was natural place for Erathy things so there was no force pushing earth away from natural place
2. if earth was revolving around sun, it would always be changing direction and if you dropped a rock it should head toward center of universe which might not be cetner of earth

Question 28

osiander said “merely the basis of calculations; even if they should be false, that hardly matters, as long as they reproduce the phenomena of the movements exactly… irregular movement of the Sun occurs rather in virtue of the epicycle or in virtue of the eccentric?”

Answer 28

argument for scientific anti-realism from empirically equivalent theories

Question 29

what is the no miracles argument?

Answer 29

it would be an extraordinary conincidence if a theory that talks about electrons and atoms made accurate predictions about the observable world-unless electrons and atoms actually exist.

the likelihood that the theory makes accurate predictions just by chance is highly unlikely so anti-realists would be believing a miracle.