I use the term “New Philosophy” to mean the development of a critical and objective method of understanding phenomena of the physical Universe and the accumulation of facts about nature in the post-Copernican era (Coffin 65). “New Astronomy” has the orthodox meaning of the forms of motion of celestial objects in the post-Copernican era. “New Physics” refers to post-Copernican physical concepts. I use “New Organon” in the Baconian sense to mean the idea, novel in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, of acquiring knowledge empirically. This method of study by observation or experimentation contrasts with Aristotle's syllogistic Organon. I let “Old” apply to the aforementioned disciplines in the pre-Copernican era.
Astronomical data are from the Horizons ephemeris program of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, supplemented by Voyager 4 Carina Software, and are of course proleptic (i.e., data associated with dates in the Old Style (Julian) calendar are calculated according to the corresponding dates in the New Style (Gregorian) calendar). Generally, “rotation” means spin as in the 24-hour period of the Earth, and “revolution” refers to orbits as in the annual journey of the Earth around the Sun. I capitalize object names and technical terms and regard “Cosmos,” “Universe,” and “World” as synonymous. “Worldview” refers to any concept of the Universe that is necessarily part of an overall worldview. The endnotes contain explanatory material, but when necessary, digressions occur in the main text. Standard abbreviations are OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and DNB (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Context decides whether male personal pronouns refer to both genders. On the first occurrence of the name of a historical figure, I list years of birth and death because these often prove useful in discussions. For reference, these are also listed in the Index. When capitalized, “Continent” refers to mainland Europe, “Canon” refers to the body of works by William Shakespeare, F1 and F2 stand for the First and Second Folio editions, and Q2 refers to the Second Quarto edition of a play.