isomorphismes asked: ah - actually I think I misunderstood your aristotle's mistake comments. You just mean to not try to explain the physical mechanism in terms of known compounds. (crystal, luminous ether "fluid") But still with the epicycles - wouldn't that have been "the wrong" understanding. If I fit a stock price TS with trig functions then I don't understand the mechanism and will ultimately be wrong.
One is always ultimately wrong! One should be very thankful to have a mathematical model that works in some sense. The epicycle method is a systematic method for approximating an almost periodic function (a theorem proved by Herman Weyl). One will always need an ecology of models in practice! There is no one right understanding!!
