»Mathemata matematicis scribuntur«: Kopernikov predgovor h knjigam O revolucijah; prvič

In the preface to his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres Copernicus explains the genesis of his geokinetic and heliocentric theory. He mainly concentrates on the justification for the introduction of the concept of Earth's movement into astronomic science. The movement of Earth contradicts all articulations of knowledge, be they »scientific« (as in philosophy or teology) or »unscientific« (sensus communis). The author argues that Copernicus' dedication to Pope Paul III is the result of the fact that Copernicus realized that he had to step out of science and try to garner the support of the unscientific instance which controled the politics of science if he wanted to succeed in introducing »the new and absurd« concept of Earth's movement. The latter is in fact Copernicus's scientific (from within science) response to the »crisis« of astronomic science. But Copernicus only seemingly steps out of science. Namely, he takes for granted the following two assertions: that »learned mathematicians« will agree with him after studying his books, and that »mathematics (astronomy) is in fact written for mathematicians (astronomers)«. This means that the Pope (Church, theology), which controls the politics of science in the last resort, has no option at all: if he is not a »mathematician«, he has no right to judge the things »written for mathematicians«, but, on the other hand, if he is a »mathematician« (Copernicus in his dedication ascribes to him »the love of all sciences, mathematical as well«), he will be persuaded that the introduction of this concept in science is justified.Kopernik v pregovoru h knjigam O revolucijah nebesnih sfer pojasnjuje genezo svoje geokinetične in heliocentrične teorije, predvsem pa se osredotoči na upravičenje vpeljave koncepta gibanja Zemlje v astronomsko znanost. Gibanje Zemlje je namreč v nasprotju s vsemi artikulacijami vednosti, tako »znanstvenimi« (filozofija, teologija) kot »neznanstvenimi« (sensus communis). Avtor zagovarja tezo, da je posvetilo papežu Pavlu III rezultat Kopernikovega spoznanja, da mora za uspešno vpeljavo »novega in absurdnega« koncepta gibanja Zemlje - ki je Kopernikov znotrajznanstveni odgovor na »krizo« astronomske znanosti -, v znanost, izstopiti iz znanosti, ter pridobiti podporo neznanstvene instance, ki kontrolira politiko znanosti. Vendar pa je Kopernikov izstop iz znanosti zgolj navidezen. Kopernik namreč kot samoumevni predstavi trditvi, da se bodo »umni in učeni matematiki« po preučitvi njegovih knjig strinjali z njim, ter da se »matematika (astronomija) piše za matematike (astronome)«. To pomeni, da papež (Cerkev, teologija), ki v zadnji instanci kontrolira politiko znanosti, sploh nima izbire: če ni »matematik«, nima nobene pravice razsojati o stvareh, »ki se pišejo za matematike«, če pa je »matematik« (in Kopernik mu v posvetilu pripiše »ljubezen do vseh znanosti, tudi matematičnih«) ga bodo Kopernikovi argumenti prepričali v upravičenost vpeljave tega koncepta v znanost