Nicolaus Copernicus: Father of the Scientific Revolution

We certainly asked the right question.

We began four episodes ago by defining and describing 10 types of critical thinking and we're still working on it check out our first inaugural episode to catch up with us and to absorb the 10 types of critical thinking that we identified today we're going to go the inspirational route by looking at one of history's original and certainly most important critical thinkers, back to the 15th century and Nicolaus Copernicus, father of the scientific revolution.

At its core, Vantage Point has one objective and one only, to help make you better, more competitive, and more fulfilled by constantly improving your critical thinking. So let's keep moving.

Today, we'll look at one of modern history's original critical thinkers. And what I find so important about this is now, when people decide they need to be critical thinkers, there are critical thinking models in front of them.

In the day of Nicolaus Copernicus, there were none. He was a model, aside from a thinker.

So much so that he changed life for everyone who ever came or ever will come after him.

Today, I'm going to tell you the story of Nicolaus Comperlicus.

Born in 1473 in what was then the Kingdom of Poland Without him, who knows where and when the scientific revolution would have begun Copernicus' monumental book The Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium or on the revolutions of the celestial spheres published just before his death in 1543 is regarded as the birth of modern astronomy and a pivotal epiphany that began the scientific revolution. Yet his great work nearly went unpublished but for the influence of a young student from Germany.

Copernicus was not the first to posit that the earth was in motion around the sun and thereby being the center of our solar system. That theory was held by Greeks as long ago as the 4th century BC and others since. So Copernicus was not the first to say so. he was the first to prove it and being a trained cleric in the catholic church you can imagine that his great work got him into a hell of a lot of hot water with the church but that's entirely beside the point truly a renaissance man copernicus was not only an astronomer and mathematician petition.

He was also a physician, a polyglot, fluent in four languages and conversant in two or three more.

He was a classic scholar, an artist, a governor, a military leader, a canonical jurist, a diplomat, and an economist.

Don't ask what he did in his spare time, that would be ridiculous.

In his early years, astronomy was hardly a second thought to him, yet it is astronomy and his influence on science for which the world remembers it.

The revolutionibus was the result of his work over the last 40 years of his life.

Aside from presenting his heliocentric hypothesis this book in six volumes is filled with his attempt at mathematical proof of that fact but to the day he died though he was certain of his conclusion but not confident in his math so he didn't take the steps necessary to bring his great work to the world now here's the twist we're approaching the drama here about three years before copernicus's death a young mathematics student from wittenberg germany georg joachim reticus made the 300 mile trek from to from bork poland where Copernicus lived and worked.

And he came to study under the great astronomer. He was the only pupil Copernicus ever had. During Reticus' stay, Copernicus' health declined rapidly, and it was evident he was in the process of dying. Reticus, a highly capable mathematician, poured over Copernicus' mathematics and realized it is proof that the sun was the center of our system, heliocentrism, was unassailable.

Copernicus had done it. He had proven the theory, yet he was reluctant to publish the Revolutionibus.

Only under unrelenting pressure from Reticus, who had already convinced Copernicus to publish some other works, did Copernicus consent and the work was sent off to a friend of Copernicus for, as we would say today, further handling.

The Revolutionibus was completed and printed.

Don't forget that the printing press was less than 100 years old at this point and had just come into existence when Copernicus began his work and then in a piece of drama that the most creative novelist couldn't possibly dream of, the first published edition of the Revolutionibus was placed in Copernicus's hands for him to see for the very first time, only a few hours before he died in his bed in Fromburg.

On May 24, 1543, Copernicus saw the fruit of his life's work and then closed his eyes for the last time.

Sometimes history writes itself beautifully upon that dramatic story this is a very good time for some aphorisms i love these things and i give them to you because it lets me air out this is the way i found the world to be and i'll be sharing them with you every episode My oldest and dearest friend, Chris Broon, gave me that one. That one's not mine.

But it holds true every time. When something becomes possible, it becomes expected.

Aphorism number two.

Constructive criticism is the opportunity to go to sleep at night in a better world than the one in which we awoke in the morning.

Aphorism number three says to us that it is not ai that will threaten you the threat will come from another human being who will use ai better than you do and in a little more light-hearted vein pain.

Apparition number four says that people and foods both leave an aftertaste. The problem is the one from foods goes away much sooner.

The last segment of the episode, and I want to bring you a great mind with whom I hope you're familiar. But I have a little intro to make on this.

America's originality showed in two revolutions, the American Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

We had so many great leaders at that time in one place at one time, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Tom Paine.

Never in the history of the world did so many great leaders and leadership minds show up at the same time in the same place. Alexander Hamilton, McCormick, Whitney. knee.

America had two more revolutionary waves in its development.

One was the intellectual revolution in the 1820s, and 40s, headed up by none less than Ralph Waldo Emerson and his followers.

And then we had the industrial revolution that dominated America in the last 30 years of the 19th century with people like Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Samuel F.B. Morse.

Of them, the most original thinker was Mark Twain.

Who captured politics, government, society in everything he said.

And he said, always tell the truth. This will satisfy some and astonish the rest. If you ever get up Hartford, Connecticut way, stop in on the Mark Twain house. You'll be thankful you did.

And here comes my what if question but first I want to get back to you on the what if that I asked in the very first episode when Einstein asked about riding on the front wave of a beam of light well this what if includes Albert Einstein and a modern day forerunner Bill Gates. And the what if asks the question, what if Bill Gates didn't have unlimited access to a computer when he was 16?

And what if Albert Einstein did?

Think about the things that Albert Einstein gave us without the use of a computer for storage and for computational purposes.

He gave us the photoelectric effect for which he won his nobel prize he was recognized for relativity one of the two predominant ways that physics can explain the cosmos and on and on and on and on he did that without the use of a computer What if he did? What if he did and he didn't use it and other scientists did? What if he did and he did use it, which would have changed the way Einstein thought and the way Albert Einstein thought changed the way everybody else's thinking took place?

So the what if asks what if gates didn't have it in light of what he accomplished with it and what if albert einstein did have it in what he was able to accomplish with it it's a tantalizing question think it through and please if you have some thoughts about it feel free to email me go to the website eleandra.com and enter the feedback and please i'd like to hear from you for other reasons as well in any event coming up in the next few weeks i'm going to teach you about a great economist slash scientist william I'll bet you don't know who he is up until recently I didn't either but boy does he explain a lot of things well and there's something called the Jevons paradox which we're going to go through I'm going to ask in one episode whatever happened to supply and demand which Jevons toyed around with I'm going to talk about the worst non-decision in business history I'm going to talk about what made Sandy Koufax great and how it can work for you.

And I'm going to talk about writing.

So a lot of great stuff coming up and a lot of good promos will be coming your way on email. And when you have something you'd like to tell me, please put it in an email or a text and get it to me. I'll try to answer the ones that I get. Until then, keep questioning, Keep learning and keep thinking critically.