In the Newtonian framework there was indeed a degree of comfort in the answers one could give. Consider for example the question of whether the Earth really goes round the Sun. In a frame of reference adapted to calculating the Earth's orbit, this is a mathematical but also tautological statement. Newtonian mechanics can answer the question, whether it is not equally the case that the Sun goes round the Earth, as it indeed appears to Earth-based astronomers. In Newton's theory there is a basic, fixed frame of reference that is inertial. The 'correct answer' is that the point of view of an observer in an inertial frame of reference is privileged: other observers see artifacts of their acceleration relative to an inertial frame (the inertial forces). Before Newton, Galileo would draw the consequences, from the Copernican heliocentric model. He was, however, constrained to call his work (in effect) scientific formalism, under the old 'description' saving the phenomena. To avoid going against authority, the elliptic orbits of the heliocentric model could be labelled as a more convenient device for calculations, rather than an actual description of reality.