Adjective: "(astronomy, history) of or relating to the Pythagorean astronomical system, which posited that the Earth, Moon, Sun, and planets orbit an invisible 'Central Fire'"[edit]
1874, Bernard H. Becker, Scientific London, page 302:
To Pythagoras himself has been frequently ascribed the idea of a pyrocentric Kosmos—with worlds revolving round a central sun—according to the Copernican, or, to speak more accurately, the Newtonian scheme.
This passage shows that the partisans of the Philolaic theory were quite aware of the problem of parallax which it presented, and that they solved it by pointing out that their pyrocentric parallax was no greater than the geocentric parallax of the alternative theory.
1967, Gerald Cornelius Monsman, Pater's Portraits: Mythic Pattern in the Fiction of Walter Pater, pages 187-188:
Apollyon, who, as god of the sun, has a certain stake in the matter, teaches the Prior the truth of what the Greeks, Pythagoras' disciples, knew many years before— the nature of the heliocentric (or pyrocentric) planetary system.
1988, Robert Keefe & Janice A. Keefe, Walter Pater and the Gods of Disorder, pages 140-141:
Monsman recognizes part of the of the pattern when he writes that Apollyon teaches the prior "the nature of the heliocentric (or pyrocentric) planetary system” (187–188 ).
2002, E. Theodossiou, E. Danezis, V. N. Manimanis, E.-M. Kalyva, "From Pythagoreans to Kepler: the dispute between the geocentric and the heliocentric systems", in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Volume 5, Issue 1, page 90:
Aristotle informs us in his work On the Heavens (II, Chap. xiii , 293a, 293b) that the Pythagoreans also supported a pyrocentric theory of the World, according to which the Earth was revolving around a central fire, called 'Dios Phylake' (the Watch-tower of Zeus) (Aristotle, 1933).
2007, Helge S. Kragh, Conceptions of Cosmos: From Myths to the Accelerating Universe: A History of Cosmology, page 16:
All the same, some 2000 years later Copernicus would refer to Philolaus' pyrocentric world model for support of the idea that the Earth is a circularly moving planet.
2009, Robert Bolton, "Two Standards for Inquiry in Aristotle's De Caelo", New Perspectives on Aristotitle's De caelo (ed. Alan C. Bowen & Christian Wildberg), page 53:
Aristotle objects to the heliocentric (or pyrocentric) view of the universe adopted by some Pythagoreans, with its assumption of an imperceptible “counter Earth” which accompanies the Earth in its motion, […]
2013, Apostolos N. Athanassakis & Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns: Text, Translation, and Notes, page 119:
Compare also the previous hymn where Earth is the “seat of the immortal cosmos” (OH 26.4) around which “the intricate realm of the stars / revolves in endless and awesome flow” (OH 26.8-9). This is reflecting a geocentric, not a heliocentric or pyrocentric, view of the cosmos; see OH 4.3n and Burkert 1972, p. 317.
2013, Phillip Sidney Horky, Plato and Pythagoreanism, page 206:
This is unsurprising: the author of Prometheus Bound demonstrates awareness of Ionian natural philosophy in a variety of ways, but the primacy of fire in the myth naturally solicits comparisons with pyrocentric philosophical models among the Presocratics.
2019, Nikos I. Geōrgakellos, Empedocles of Acragas: His Theory and the Exact Sciences, page 29:
The Pythagoreans, most probably through Philolaus, questioned the then prevailing view about a geocentric system and replaced it with a pyrocentric one (fire in the centre).
Adjective: "centering fire as a key force in nature, civilization, etc."[edit]
1991, William Cronon, "Forward: Eucalypt History", in Stephen J. Pyne, Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia (1998 ed.), page x:
The result of that sojourn was a book called The Ice, a meditation on the planet's southernmost continent which—from Pyne's admittedly pyrocentric viewpoint—is also one of the few nearly fireless places, oceans aside, on the face of the earth.
2008, Adrian Franklin, "A Choreography of Fire: A Posthumanist Account of Australians and Eucalypts", in The Mangle in Practice: Science, Society, and Becoming (eds. Andrew Pickering & Keith Guzik), page 38:
Note also that in accounting for the social life of gum trees we find ourselves revisiting Durkheim’s social effervescence, and we see that it is still dancing around fires. More tangible social becomings resulted from the dance with gum trees. The new social arrangements for dealing with bush fires also included managing the gum trees. It involved watching them and keeping an eye on their pyrocentric buildup. It involved fuel reduction through burning off, maintaining fire breaks, educating the community, and fund-raising.
2012, Fire in Mediterranean Ecosystems, (ed. Jon E. Keeley), page 79:
This is a pyrocentric perspective because obligate resprouters do have a sexual cycle with seedling recruitment; however, they have not opted for a strategy of delaying reproduction to a single pulse of recruitment immediately after fire.
2016, Catriona Sandilands, "Combustion", The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada, Volume 15, Number 1, August 2016, page 3:
Indeed, in this pyrocentric history, the prevention of fire becomes as important as fire itself: along with particular forms of vegetation and agricultural techniques, for example, European biocolonialism brought with it specific fire regimes that replaced longstanding practices of broadcast (intentional and controlled) fire use with widespread fire suppression.
2019, William J. Bond, Open Ecosystems: Ecology and Evolution Beyond the Forest Edge, page 100:
In contrast, the pyrocentric hypothesis holds that fire is a major consumer shaping the patterns, structure, and composition of vegetation.
2020, Jason Alexandra, "Burning Bush and Disaster Justice in Victoria, Australia: Can Regional Planning Prevent Brushfires Becoming Disasters?", in Natural Hazards and Disaster Justice: Challenges for Australia and Its Neighbours (eds. Anna Lukasiewicz & Claudia Baldwin), page 77:
The prominent scholar of fire, Stephen Pyne (2018) argues we are pyrophilic creatures, immersed in pyrocentric civilisations whose 'new combustion regime based on fossil biomass' has resulted in a pyric transition that has not only shaped our technologies, mobility and habitation patterns, but also our values and relationships with landscapes.
Adjective: "(geology, dated) of or relating to geophysical model of the Earth as having a molten core (?)"[edit]
1861, "Naturalists At Speyer", The Athenæum, 12 October 1861, page 481:
In the Geological Section an important discussion took place between the advocates of the pyrocentric condition of our globe and their opponents. The discussion was opened by Dr. Bialloblotzky, and so ably supported by Dr. Volger and others that the central fire was very nearly extinguished.