Duhem has generally been understood to have maintained that the major Greek astronomers were instrumentalists. This view has emerged mainly from a reading of his 1908 publication To Save the Phenomena. In it he sharply contrasted a sophisticated Greek interpretation of astronomical models (for Duhem this was that they were mathematical contrivances) with a naive insistence of the Arabs on their concrete reality. But in Le Système du monde, which began to appear in 1913, Duhem modified his views on Greek (...) astronomy considerably; his more subtle understanding included the recognition that many Greeks subordinated mathematical astronomy to physical theory. But he could not completely repudiate his earlier views about Greek astronomy in part because his extreme nineteenth century prejudices led him to continue to insist on a clear-cut demarcation between Greek and Arabic astronomy. The inevitable result is a certain unevenness in the Système and some glaring inconsistencies. (shrink)

Based upon research over the past half century, there has been a growing recognition that a number of mathematical models used by Copernicus had originally been developed by Islamic astronomers. This has led to speculation about how Copernicus may have learned of these models and the role they played in the development of his revolutionary, heliocentric cosmology. Most discussion of this connection has thus far been confined to fairly technical issues related to these models; recently, though, it has been argued (...) that the connections may go deeper, extending into the physics of a moving Earth and the way in which astronomy itself was conceived. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of these possible connections between Copernicus and his Islamic predecessors and to discuss some of their implications for Copernican studies. (shrink)

If one is allowed to speak of progress in historical research, one may note with satisfaction the growing sophistication with which the relationship between science and religion has been examined in recent years. The "warfare" model, the "separation" paradigm, and the "partnership" ideal have been subjected to critical scrutiny and the glaring light of historical evidence. As John Hedley Brooke has so astutely noted, "Serious scholarship in the history of science has revealed so extraordinarily rich and complex a relationship between (...) science and religion in the past that general theses are difficult to sustain. Unfortunately, this more nuanced approach has not been as evident in studies of Islam and science. Though there has been some serious scholarship on the relation between science and religion in Islam, such work has made barely a dent in either the general accounts or the general perceptions of that relationship. These latter continue to be characterized by reductionism, essentialism, apologetics, and barely masked agendas. (shrink)