The Copernican Problem

This paper reviews new thinking about a pivotal episode in the history of early modern science. The received view treats Copernicus’s reordering of the planets almost entirely as a response to technical problems of planetary theory. The standard view also treats Copernicus as immune to the astrological concerns that were widespread during his lifetime. This paper looks at the Copernican problematic within a contentious debate about the reliability of astrology, a debate that began in the late fifteenth century and persisted for well over a century.