论吉尔伯特是否接受地球公转

Whether Gilbert Accepted Annual Revolution of Earth

吉尔伯特是哥白尼学说的支持者,他相信地球周日自转。但在仅有的两部著作《论磁》和《论世界》中,吉尔伯特没有对地球公转表态。科学史家大多认为吉尔伯特对地球公转持犹豫态度或没有接受。文章对吉尔伯特著作中与宇宙观相关的内容进行了全面研究,以多重证据论证吉尔伯特所构造的天体运行动力体系基于日心体系,并为地球公转做了理论准备。文章认为,吉尔伯特并非在地心和日心体系之间徘徊,而是出于宗教考虑回避直接讨论地球公转。

Gilbert supported Copernicus, and invoked the diurnal revolution of earth. Nevertheless, in his only two works, ＂De Mangete＂ and ＂De mundo＂, Gilbert refrained from committing himself on the annual rotation of earth. Historians mostly believed that Gilbert hesitated in accepting annual rota- tion of earth. This paper studies the works of Gilbert thoroughly, and gives multiple evidences that Gilbert developed his force system of movement of celestial bodies on heliocentric system. This paper considers that Gilbert steered clear of heliocentric system for religion reasons.