Lunar World Hypothesis And The Lunar Landing Hypothesis In The 17^th Century

A scientific hypothesis is based on scientific knowledge and new scientific facts,and makes a speculative explanation and tentative solution to the problems studied.In the 17 th century,new knowledge of astronomy and physics continued to emerge,and the invention and improvement of the telescope made the deeper observation of the moon much possible.All these have laid the foundation for the creation of the lunar world hypothesis and the moon landing hypothesis.John Wilkins is one of the founders of the royal society and the only person to have served as dean at both Oxford and Cambridge universities.In the 17 th century,the lunar world and the thought of the moon landing in John Wilkins' The discovery of the new world were endowed with scientificity for the first time.The discovery of the new world is a typical work of the early modern scientific hypothesis.Alan chapman,the professor of Oxford University's waldham college,said Wilkins was the first person to consider the necessary prerequisites for a trip to the moon in the scientific context of the 17 th century.Unfortunately,The discovery of the new world,generally classified as a science fiction work of the moon landing,has not been studied as a scientific hypothesis,and its scientificity has not been fully revealed.When Wilkins died,Newton's Mathematical Principles of Nature Philosophy had not yet been published.His thoughts of the moon landing were certainly not proved thoroughly on the basis of experiments.But he made the arguments as far as possible by logic and reason based on observations,experiments,scientific theories,and all kinds of relevant knowledge.This is in sharp contrast to scientific fictions.Around 1654,Wilkins experimented with the lunar lander in the garden of Waldham college,this is the embodiment of experimental spirit in this period.In The discovery of the new world,Wilkins proved the complex problems of the lunar world and the moon journey with fourteen propositions.Firstly,the dissertation probes into the historical background of the lunar world hypothesis and the lunar landing hypothesis,especially the profound sources of science and culture.On this basis,the dissertation analyzes concrete proofmethod of The discovery of the new world,to explore how Wilkins criticize the predecessors' point of view,using the latest knowledge and theory,proving the lunar world hypothesis and the moon landing hypothesis in the era of its specific state of scientific knowledge,and to explore the characteristics of its argument.The dissertation compares The discovery of the new world with the contemporary fantasy of moon landing,highlighting the characteristics of its scientific hypothesis and trying to discuss the original differentiation between hypothesis and science fiction.The main content of this dissertation is divided into five parts:The first chapter introduces the reasons of studying the hypothesis in the discovery of the new world.Although quite a number of scholars have mentioned The discovery of the new world,but most of they have only given simple introduction to it,and regarded it as a science fiction,without specialized research.The scientific nature of this book is not fully understood.The second chapter mainly analyzes the historical background of the lunar hypothesis.The concept of multiple worlds from ancient Greece to Descartes,travelling and adventure culture in ancient Greece,the ancient Greek myth and the development of the satire,all of them play important roles in promoting the hypothesis of the moon landing.Meanwhile,the development of science provides the necessary theoretical foundation.The third chapter mainly introduces the concrete demonstration mode of the lunar world hypothesis,which is mainly divided into the proving of the face and form of the moon and the proving of "another world" and its residents.Wilkins used the observations,experiments,and scientific theories of scholars such as Plutarch,Kepler,Galileo to demonstrate as much as possible,and used the most advanced magnetism and gravity theory of that time to prove his hypothesis.The fourth chapter mainly introduces the lunar landing hypothesis in The discovery of the new world and studies its demonstration methods.This chapter also compares Wilkin's hypothesis of the lunar landing with Godwin's and Kepler's moon landing fantasy,trying to prove that the former belongs to the scientific hypothesis,and is different from the fantasy novel of the moon landing.This chapter further attempts to discuss the original differentiation between hypothesis and science fiction.The fifth chapter mainly summarizes the significance of studying lunar world hypothesis and the lunar landing hypothesis of Wilkins.On the one hand,the historical origin of its scientific hypothesis can be found through analysis,Exploring its concrete way of argumentation and proving that it belongs to the scientific hypothesis.On the other hand,it can also provide new understanding and direction for future research on the history of the moon landing."Apollo 11" completed the first manned lunar landing mission in 1969.Back in the 1740 s Wilkins had tried to prove the lunar world and the moon landing with reason and logic on the basis of criticism of traditional knowledge,experiments and new knowledge.Under theperspective of scientific hypothesis,The discovery of the new world is very important in the studying the history of the moon landing.