Heliocentrism and Sci-Fi

Here is how Damien Mackey introduces a quote from Dr. Gavin Ardley:

Dr. Gavin Ardley tells of it, with Galileo being the cut-off point (Aquinas and Kant, 1950):

Post-Galilean physical science is cut off from the rest of the world and is the creation of man himself. Consequently the science, in itself, has no immediate metaphysical foundations, and no metaphysical implications, in spite of popular beliefs to the contrary. These beliefs arise from the failure to realise the science’s ‘otherness’, that it belongs to the categorial order and not to the real order.

Only that which belongs to the real order is directly linked with metaphysics. The ancient and medieval science of physics belongs to this real order, and is, in principle, an integral part of philosophy in general. It has metaphysical foundations and metaphysical implications. [Footnote: This is not to say that all the particular Aristotelean doctrines of the Earth, the Skies, the Heavens and so on, are essential to Aristotelean metaphysics. They are integrated with metaphysics only in their general intention, and not in particular formulation. They could be modified without necessitating any change in metaphysical principles since the principles of metaphysics are founded on more general grounds. Many of the particular Aristotelean opinions about phenomena were abandoned in the 17th century with the increasingly detailed knowledge of Nature. Galileo’s Dialogues on the Two Great Systems of the World is a classic account of this revision of detailed theories of phenomena. Galileo himself, unlike many of his more extravagant followers, generally pursued this revision with considerable moderation. (See Ch. XVII). He is careful to distinguish what is true an abiding in Aristotle from what is erroneous and non-essential.]….

Here is his comment:

It is not surprising that Immanuel Kant (d. 1804), considered by some to have been the most influential thinker of the Enlightenment era, who was able to identify the artificial nature of the new sciences, whilst however adapting this methodology to his idiosyncratic new philosophy, is considered to have buried metaphysics once and for all.

Academia : Stephen Hawking - a ‘Lord of Creation’?
Part Three: Creating new universes
https://www.academia.edu/36223512/Stephen_Hawking_-_a_Lord_of_Creation_Part_Three_Creating_new_universes

And here is mine: Heliocentrism would on my view be a point belonging to change of general intention, rather than of particular formulation. One confirmation of this is, the great promoters of Heliocentrism involve Euler and Kant, both of whom were willing to consider the point of view of Hypothetic Extraterrestrials on other planets in the Solar System and on Hypothetic Exoplanets all over Cosmos, perhaps and ideally even an infinite one, who clinched popular acceptance of Heliocentrism (popular relatively speaking, meaning outside the restricted area of astronomers).

A theme very dear to the sci-fi that Damien Mackey shall explore in the following, namely extraterrestrials, is at the core of the Heliocentric revolution in general culture.

When Kant and Euler said in effect "if you consider your senses as proving that Earth is the centre of the universe, consider that someone living on Jupiter or a planet going around Sirius could say the exact same thing," they were busy building the outlines of Isaac Asimov's Foundation, Christin and Mézières' Valerian and Laureline, George Lucas' Star Wars, and, of course, Star Trek.

They were also busy setting up a weird alternative for theology:

• a) several mankinds never fallen and only ours fallen;
• b) Christ dying on planet after planet, in world after world.

And the response "perhaps original sin is bogus, perhaps redemption is bogus" was preparing the decision of Roddenberry not to include a chaplain on the starship Enterprise.

It may be mentioned that Fr Joseph Pohle, who considered that Modern Cosmology (which he embraced) involved no challenge to Christian eschatology, was from Prussia, a land with great benevolence, but also heir of Kant and Euler and in Pohle's time swallowing an amateur theology in the later writings of Karl May which prefigure the prayer meetings of Assisi.

More on Pohle in the dialogue between me and Introibo blogger, back here:

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere : Introibo Blogger Misrepresents Galileo Case Inter Alia
http://assortedretorts.blogspot.com/2018/03/introibo-blogger-misrepresents-galileo.html

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Sts Victorian and Companions
Martyrs
23.III.2018

In Africa sanctorum Martyrum Victoriani, Proconsulis Carthaginis, et duorum germanorum, Aquisregensium; item Frumentii et alterius Frumentii, mercatorum. Hi omnes, in persecutione Wandalica (ut scribit Victor, Africanus Episcopus), sub Ariano Rege Hunnerico, pro constantia catholicae confessionis, immanissimis suppliciis cruciati, egregie coronati sunt.