A evolução do pensamento cosmológico e o nascimento da ciência moderna

Abstract

In this work we present an exposition on the process of transformation that led from Aristotle's qualitative science, founded on philosophical principles, to modern science, which rests on a combination of empiricism and mathematization, process whose highest expression is given by Newton's work. We present how AristotelianPtolemaic Cosmos, rigidly ordered according to metaphysical criteria, was replaced by a new Universe, completely deprived from concepts of finality and value and governed by a mechanical causality, expressed through mathematical laws. We show how Copernican revolution had gone beyond the limits of astronomy and had promoted a wide transformation on scientific thought that led to the birth of Newtonian physics. Copyright by the Sociedade Brasileira de Física. Printed in Brazil.