Philolaus

Philolaus was an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived around 470-390 BCE. He is best known for proposing a revolutionary idea that the Earth and other celestial bodies revolve around a central fire, which he believed to represent a cosmic order. This was an early concept of a heliocentric universe, suggesting a shift from the Earth-centered view common at the time. Philolaus also emphasized the importance of numbers and mathematical relationships in understanding the universe, contributing to the development of Pythagorean thought and influencing later philosophers and scientists in their explorations of cosmology and mathematics.