&gt; Relativity overturned Newtonian mechanics in the same way that Copernican cosmology overturned Ptotomeic cosomology.......So are these revolutions somehow categorically different?<p>They&#x27;re so different that I&#x27;m surprised it&#x27;s even a question.  If anything the illusion of mind is bending them to fit a narrative.<p>When Relativity explained the precession of Mercury&#x27;s perihelion the existing physics was off by 1&#x2F;12,000,000th of Mercury&#x27;s orbit (per orbit.)  Not only was the Ptolemic system off by entire degrees (as opposed to arcseconds which are 1&#x2F;3,600th of a degree) it was highly dependent on the position of the observer, if you stood on Jupiter I imagine the Ptolemic system would give you complete nonsense as to where the planets would be.<p>More importantly Newton&#x27;s work has never been thrown out and you can derive classical mechanics as a special case of Relativity.  You can also derive it from quantum mechanics.  I don&#x27;t believe you can show that the geocentric model of the solar system is a special case of the heliocentric model.