The beginnings of modern science shaped how philosophers saw alien life – and how we understand it today
- Written by: Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
WikipediaSpeculation about extraterrestrials is not all that new. There was a vibrant debate in 17th-century Europe about the existence of life on other planets.
This was the consequence of the transition from a Ptolemaic view, in which Earth was at the centre of the universe and everything revolved around it, to a Copernican view in which the Sun...