Copernicus - A Brief History

Copernicus had training in several of the chief university disciplines of his day, as well as contact with humanist circles. He was first and foremost a mathematician, who said that on the revolutions was written for other mathematicians like himself. But he was a well rounded sixteenth century intellectual, not just a mathematician, and used the tools of rhetoric and dialectic in presenting his daring astronomical ideas. Godo argues that copernicus put to use ideas about hypothetical reasoning, which can be traced ultimately back to plato.