Kopernik

Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish:  Mikołaj Kopernik (help·info); German: Nikolaus Kopernikus; Italian: Nicolò Copernico; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543

The birth of  Kopernik (I think he was more polish than german?) is important. Today is the birthday of Kopernik.
540 years are not much. Our lives are short, that s why we think it is a long time but actually it is not a long time. There was no real interest for the world outside. As most of the people wanted to have a power in the society and not in the world of science. There must be another kind of interest, desire for science... The interest of the kings was to hold their objects under their control, the desire of the church was to keep his sheep under his power, so who should have real interest for knowledge? If a society is only a society of power relationships, then there is no real interest for knowledge. 
 Freie Assoziation:'Wissen ist Macht'  Francis Bacon (1561-1626), but I have never  liked  the trivial version of this phrase, you can try to make it more  'noble' but I am  not sure how he has meant it really. After all he was a politician. Knighted in 1603, he gets Lord Chancellor in 1618. He was indicted of bribery and forced to leave public office. Philosophy would be probably not his first choice if he has lived as a normal english student in England nowadays. But he was more lucky, he had a better education than most of the people of his time, but I m sure, also of this time. But anyway this was a deviation of my thoughts. The main subject should be Kopernik.
'Die kopernikanische Wende' of Kant (1724-1804) is a perfect and noble way to describe the new ego of the Neuzeit different from the ignorant, uneducated egocentrism of the mankind. They were/are full of desire for power, but not for knowledge. Knowlegde, which doesn t bring money, is still not very interesting...
But people like Kopernik or Galilei wouldn t say: 'Wissen ist Macht', they were not politicians and actually they were not interested  to get power over knowledge, which has come later... they have come into trouble because of their desire, love for knowledge...like Platon has described Socrates...:-)