Middle Ages and Renaissance Reconciled in the Philosophical Thought of Nicolaus Copernicus
Middle Ages and Renaissance Reconciled in the Philosophical Thought of Nicolaus Copernicus

Summary/Abstract: Within the area of historical studies, a reflection on the history of science takes place undoubtedly among these domains which particularly inspire and stimulate imagination. There are noble figures, famous for changing the course of the world who catch special attention. Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik 1473-1543), a Polish scholar, the founder of a novel view of the worldthe heliocentric model of the Cosmosserves as an example1 . Both, in scientific literature and various popular publications, for two hundred years there has been shaped a common picture of Copernicus as a Renaissance thinker, who reactivated the forgotten ancient concepts of heliocentrism (including a cult of the Sun), to the world and who, at the same time, overcame Scholasticism and Christian Aristotelianism2 . Nevertheless, even a sketchy analysis of the texts of Copernicus undermines such interpretations, as in his works there are numerous references to the medieval philosophy of science, physics, and philosophy3 . The aim of this paper is therefore an answer to the question: to what extent was Copernicus a Scholastic, and to what extent we might classify his philosophy as the Renaissance one4 ? Justification of a statement included in the title we find in the source materials (writings of Copernicus himself, and his only student at Varmia [Polish: Warmia, German: Ermland], Georg Joachim Rheticus), also, in numerous analyses available. We notice that a significant part of the literature of the subject contains a one-sided approach, therefore, to some extent our analysis will be of polemical character.

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