Beholding the Cosmos: Huygens' Cosmotheoros and the Latter-Day Copernicans

Christiaan Huygens, a founding father of modern physics and astronomy, speculated on extraterrestrial life toward the end of his life. Some of his speculations now seem quaint or naïve, but in other respects, Huygens was admirably enlightened. Huygens’ thought was permeated by Copernicanism and the associated way of thinking that may be termed the principle of indifference. Modern descendants of this statistical mode of generating speculations has given rise to speculations that are, in their own way, as naïve and untenable as Huygens’ argument for hemp on Jupiter.