The Model of concentric Spheres

The Theory of Spherical Vortices comes from an ancient model, the Model of concentric Spheres…

more than two millennia ago Eudoxus creates a model describing the movements in the solar system, model that Aristotle resumes and completes with the philosophical aspects.

Transforming it into heliocentric the model would be roughly this:

• the Sun would become the new centre
• the movement of Mercury would depend on the rotation of the first sphere, the fastest
• the movement of Venus would depend on the rotation of the second sphere, larger and slower than the first
• and so on…

up to the Sphere of fixed Stars, the largest sphere, this time without rotation, and coinciding with the Prime Mover.

Then we have the rotational movement of several concentric spheres and a Prime Mover, responsible, in some way, for the movement of all the spheres inside it. Prime Mover causing the movements of the Planets and the rotation of the Sun around its axis… Prime Mover that, paraphrasing Aristotle, “moves as an object of love”.

⇨ a model with a rotor, animated by an immobile mover

The model changes with the passage of time…

and Descartes thinks the Theory of Vortices, which says that the movement of the Planets is due to large Vortices of subtle matter that fills the interstellar space, Vortices carrying the Planets and keeping them on their trajectories. Planets more dense revolve in inner trajectories, Planets less dense in outer trajectories… a model of concentric spheres considered mainly on the plane housing the movement of the Planets.

⇨ a model with a rotor, activated by a Vortex of subtle matter

Leibniz, finally, takes the theory of Descartes and corrects its basic principle: for Descartes it was in the constancy of the amount of movement, for Leibniz it was instead in the constancy of the amount of motive action or vis viva. This living force comes from an extended matter permeated by an immaterial Center of force that he calls Monad.

⇨ a model with a rotor, activated by a Center of force

model very similar to the one anciently adopted by Plato, which brought together the concentric Pythagorean spheres and the central fire (i.e. a central prime cause) of Philolaus.

But…

at the same time Newton introduces a mysterious force, the gravitational force, a new Idea detached from the ancient model, Idea that anyway  arouses interest and admiration for its elegant mathematical formulation. So the Planets revolve around the Sun because bound by the gravitational force.

⇨ a model with a mathematical formulation, without a rotor, not activated by a motive cause but without resistance to the movement (because of the introduction of the Vacuum)

Hence, after two millennia, a new model, without a rotor and a motive cause, changes with the passage of time…

The Theory of Spherical Vortices comes back to the ancient model, being inspired again by a natural phenomenon, the Vortex… ancient model almost forgotten for more than 3 centuries… it’s then developed in an ancient solar system and subject to philosophical rather than physical principles.

So…

the solar system becomes Solaris,
the Earth turns into Eutòpia,
philosophers and scientists of the past become Men with simple (sometimes wrong) Ideas.

And the Impossible becomes Possible…

so the Aether exists, the Space doesn’t bend, Perpetual Motion is actualized by each Monad constituting the Universe.