论宇宙原型概念从托勒密到开普勒的演变

Conceptual Evolution of the Prototype of the Universe from Ptolemy to Kepler

托勒密继承亚里士多德的形而上学宇宙观,在其《至大论》中第一次系统、完整、定量地描述了宇宙体系,托勒密本人坚持神学、数学和物理学相分离的自然哲学。本文从人类认识宇宙最基本的原型概念出发,探讨从亚里士多德的两球宇宙模型,到托勒密的亚里士多德式原型观,再到哥白尼的原型观和宇宙论革命,到开普勒的既有非科学和神秘特点,又有理性特点原型观等的演变,论述各个不同历史时期原型观的含义及其差异和相似性,从而厘清西方天文学从形而上学脱胎、演化到近代天文学的一个路径。

Having inherited Aristotle's metaphysical view of cosmology, Ptolemy described for the f irst time the universe system in a systematic, comprehensive and quantitative way in his Almagest. Ptolemy himself insisted on a natural philosophy in which theology, mathematics and physics were separated from each other. Based on prototype, the most basic concept to understand the universe, the paper discusses the evolution of the view on prototype from Aristotle's two sphere-model of the universe, to Ptolemy's Aristotelian view of prototype, to Copernicus' s prototype theory and cosmological revolution and to Kepler's nonscientific and mysterious yet rational view of prototype. It probes into the meaning of various prototypes and their differences and similarities in different historical periods and clarifi es the path of the Western astronomy growing out of metaphysics and into modern astronomy.