At least Newton realized that the motion of the Moon on the heaven and the motion of an apple on the earth are governed by the same law.
But who first proposed that the same laws should hold everywhere, regardless of the distance from us?
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1$\begingroup$ This was realized gradually, beginning from Galileo. Galileo conjectured this when we observed that the Moon "looks like Earth", has mountains and valleys etc. But he could not state the exact laws of motion. So the idea evolved, until it was finally confirmed by Newton. $\endgroup$– Alexandre EremenkoSep 8, 2018 at 14:27
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$\begingroup$ The Greek atomists, of course. And later much depends on how geometry is viewed. Aristotle divided the universe into 2 separate realms - an ideological move which after a millenium the scholastics took for truth. $\endgroup$– sand1Sep 8, 2018 at 17:01
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1$\begingroup$ This is not a historically sound question, like most "who first proposed?" questions are. The modern idea of "laws" emerged together with the idea of their universality after Copernicus, but in restrospect said universalism can be ascribed to Greek atomists, or even to Vedic schools with their nirvana. Nobody was first. $\endgroup$– ConifoldSep 10, 2018 at 0:27
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Philoponus is certainly one of the "grands génies de l'Antiquité" ("great geniuses of Antiquity") and "principaux précurseurs de la Science moderne" ("principle precursers to modern Science"), as Pierre Duhem wrote in his magisterial, 10 volume work in the history of medieval physics:
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Philoponus
John Philoponus, "The Grammarian," who lived in the late 5th – 2nd ½ of 6th century A.D., argued that the sun is fire and of terrestrial-like, corruptible matter.
From his Dictionary of Scientific Biography entry:
Philoponus’ main significance for the history of science lies in his being, at the close of antiquity, the first thinker to undertake a comprehensive and massive attack on the principal tenets of Aristotle’s physics and cosmology, an attack unequaled in thoroughness until Galileo.
Philoponus is certainly one of the "grands génies de l'Antiquité" ("great geniuses of Antiquity") and "principaux précurseurs de la Science moderne" ("principle precursers to modern Science"), as Pierre Duhem wrote in his magisterial, 10 volume work in the history of medieval physics:
- Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie. Le système du monde: Histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic. 10 vols. Paris: A. Hermann, 1913-1959,
partially translated in:
- Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie. Medieval Cosmology: Theories of Infinity, Place, Time, Void, and the Plurality of Worlds. Edited and translated by Roger Ariew. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
cf. also:
- Hannam, James. God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science. London: Icon Books, 2009.
