User talk:SteveMcCluskey/sandbox/spheres

I've looked over this article with an intent to edit it and it looks like mere editing won't suffice; a complete rewrite seems called for. The central problems of the old version concern lack of balance; as it stands it fails to give the reader the broad overview of the topic expected in an encyclopedia.


 * The article focused on what the principle editor sees as "a major anomaly for Aristotelian dynamics," which the article takes as the center of its discussion. Through this narrow focus, it granted excessive weight to the views of a few persons (especially John Philoponus and John Buridan) and viewed all other actors through their role in resolving this anomaly.


 * The article failed to give what the reader of an encyclopedia presents: a presentation of the variety of views of Celestial Dynamics during the period from antiquity to the renaissance when the celestial spheres were the dominant framework for understanding celestial motions.


 * Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the article ignored the extensive body of recent secondary literature that investigates the causes of celestial motion, and selected its materials from primary sources, from secondary literature dealing with general questions of Aristotelian dynamics (e.g., Maier, Moody, Sorabji), and from older literature (e.g., Duhem, Koyré).

There may still be some things of value in the prior version of the article, which is available in the article's history. Other editors may wish to mine it for appropriate material, while retaining the article's encyclopedic balance.