DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction Introduction In March 1597, Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) published his first work, Mysterium cosmographicum, at Tübingen. Unknown to most of today’s readers, this title is abridged from “The forerunner (prodromus) of the cosmographical essays, containing the Mysterium cosmographicum [. .].” What did Kepler mean by the word “forerunner”? In the revised edition of 1621, he explained: Forerunner.] After I came to the study of philosophy in my eighteenth year, in the year of Christ 1589, the Exotericae Exercitationes of Julius Caesar Scaliger was passing through the hands of the younger gen- eration; and taking up the opportunity offered by that book, I began to devise various views on various questions—on the heavens, on souls, on characters, on the elements, on the nature of fire, on the origin of springs, on the ebb and flow of the sea, on the shape of the continents of the earth, and the seas that flow between them, and the like. But since the discovery of the proportion of the heavenly spheres seemed to me outstanding, I thought I should not wait until I could traverse all the parts of nature, and that this discovery should not be published incidentally, thrown onto a pile of other inquiries, achieving but a slight probability. Rather, I decided to make the publication of this discovery the starting point of my dissertations and dared to hope for a similar success in all the remaining inquiries; but in vain. For the heavens, the prime of the works of God, are much more notably embellished than the rest, which are pal- try and mean. While the forerunner was, indeed, excellent, the intended successors did not follow, because in the remaining inquiries I did not achieve anything which was equally satisfactory. However, the reader will be able to have my astronomical works, and especially the books of the Harmonice [mundi], as the authentic and appropriate successor of this little book [. .].1 Kepler had originally planned to expand his research to the terrestrial region and to present his findings in a series of “cosmographical essays.” However, as 1 Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicum, 2nd ed., in Gesammelte Werke, 8:15, trans. Duncan, 51 (slightly modified). On the date of printing for the Mysterium cosmographicum, see Voelkel, Kepler, and the New Astronomy, 38. Kepler also recorded his enthusiasm for the Exercitationes in the autobiography that he wrote in preparation for drawing up his own horoscope. See Kepler, Gesammelte Werke, 19:329: “In physica Scaligerum suspexit.” © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi ��.��63/97890043�0�00_00� 2 Introduction he explains, this plan failed because, in comparison with his investigation of the superlunary realm, the exploration of the sublunary world yielded unsatis- factory results. Consequently, Kepler devoted himself to astronomical studies, a field in which his achievements would be significant. Scholars have explored Kepler’s astronomical discoveries and their impact on the history of astronomy extensively.2 By contrast, the young Kepler’s moti- vation to study nature has received little attention. Although Kepler clearly states his initial investigation’s indebtedness to the Exotericae Exercitationes of Julius Caesar Scaliger, the question of how Scaliger’s work affected Kepler’s conception of nature has not been addressed to date. Existing studies focus on the lectures Kepler attended at the Lutheran University of Tübingen as intellectual context for his basic concept of the world. Although many ideas found in his works have thus been elucidated, some aspects of his natural phi- losophy remain unexplored. Most intriguing is Kepler’s remark that he first thought about the planetary revolution in terms of Scaliger’s theories in the Exercitationes. The lack of an investigation of Scaliger’s treatise in relation to Kepler’s writings has therefore deprived us of the opportunity to reflect on the origins of Kepler’s astronomy. It is here worth noting Francis Yates’s desideratum of some forty years ago: “Has anyone really explained where Kepler, Newton, Galileo, came from? I wish that a concerted effort could be made, less on the published writings of the great in their modern and accessible editions than on the vast sleeping tomes.”3 The Exotericae Exercitationes of Julius Caesar Scaliger is one of these tomes, and the present study is an attempt to respond to Yates’s suggestion by examining this still “sleeping” work. Julius Caesar Scaliger, the author of the Exotericae Exercitationes, lived from 1484 to 1558.4 In his autobiographical records, Scaliger claimed that he was the last descendant of the Della Scala (Scaliger) family, which had once ruled Verona. According to Scaliger, after William Della Scala (the last prince of the family) had lost control of Verona, his grandson Benedetto had entered into the service of the king of Hungary, while his wife and a son stayed at the castle of La Rocca at Riva. When Benedetto’s wife gave birth to Julius Caesar in 1484, the castle was under siege by the Venetians, who wished to extinguish the line of Scaliger. Both the mother and the two sons barely escaped with their lives. Since they had lost their home, the family stayed at the court of Maximilian I 2 See an overview in Bialas, “Astronomie,” 906–19. 3 Yates, “Hermetic Tradition,” 271. On Kepler’s Tübingen years, see especially Methuen, Kepler’s Tübingen. 4 My account of Scaliger’s life relies on Hall, “Life of Scaliger”; Billanovich, “Benedetto Bordon”; Jensen, Rhetorical Philosophy, 15–49..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hints Into Kepler's Method
    Stefano Gattei [email protected] Hints into Kepler’s method ABSTRACT The Italian Academy, Columbia University February 4, 2009 Some of Johannes Kepler’s works seem very different in character. His youthful Mysterium cosmographicum (1596) argues for heliocentrism on the basis of metaphysical, astronomical, astrological, numerological, and architectonic principles. By contrast, Astronomia nova (1609) is far more tightly argued on the basis of only a few dynamical principles. In the eyes of many, such a contrast embodies a transition from Renaissance to early modern science. However, Kepler did not subsequently abandon the broader approach of his early works: similar metaphysical arguments reappeared in Harmonices mundi libri V (1619), and he reissued the Mysterium cosmographicum in a second edition in 1621, in which he qualified only some of his youthful arguments. I claim that the conceptual and stylistic features of the Astronomia nova – as well as of other “minor” works, such as Strena seu De nive sexangula (1611) or Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum (1615) – are intimately related and were purposely chosen because of the response he knew to expect from the astronomical community to the revolutionary changes in astronomy he was proposing. Far from being a stream-of-consciousness or merely rhetorical kind of narrative, as many scholars have argued, Kepler’s expository method was carefully calculated both to convince his readers and to engage them in a critical discussion in the joint effort to know God’s design. By abandoning the perspective of the inductivist philosophy of science, which is forced by its own standards to portray Kepler as a “sleepwalker,” I argue that the key lies in the examination of Kepler’s method: whether considering the functioning and structure of the heavens or the tiny geometry of the little snowflakes, he never hesitated to discuss his own intellectual journey, offering a rational reconstruction of the series of false starts, blind alleys, and failures he encountered.
    [Show full text]
  • Copernicus' De Rev. Was Published in 1542/3
    Copernicus’ De rev. was published in 1542/3 and quickly faded. Few copies were printed. There wasn’t even an English edition until 1952. However the 1540s were a good decade for the history of science in general. 1540- Biringuccio's Pirotechnia 1542- Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica 1542- Fuchs's De historia stirpium comentarii insignes 1543- 1st fairly complete Latin ed. of Archimedes 1545- Cardano's "Ars Magna" 1st Latin Algebra 1540- Biringuccio's Pirotechnia - This is a book on metalurgy and all sorts of other fire related technological things, including some alchemy. Good illustrations. 1542- Fuchs's De historia stirpium comentarii insignes - a book with accurate illustrations and medicinal descriptions. The owner of this book could possibly identify a plant on his/her own. 1542- Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica- A vastly more complete and better illustrated text on anatomy and physiology. A few took up the Copernican idea and expanded on it. The Diggesian Cosmos (1576) http://math.dartmouth.edu/~matc/Readers/re naissance.astro/1.1.Revol.html From Bruno’s Cena Cenari Bruno was later burned at the stake in the Campo dei fiori in Rome (1600) And then Kepler heard about Copernicus’ theory from his teacher and friend Maestlin. Kepler wrote Mysterium cosmographicum, which was published in 1596. This work was not only based on the Copernican model, it was a vast Platonic/Pythagorean expansion of it. The full title is… Prodromus Dissertationum Cosmographicarum conteinens Mysterium Cosmographicum de admirabili Proportione Orbium Coelestium deque Causis Coelorum numeri, magnitudinis, motuumque periodicorum genuinis et propriis, demonstratum per quinque regularia corpora Geometrica …which roughly translates to An Announcement (or wind that precedes the rising of the Dog-Star) of a Cosmographic Discussion containing the Divine Cosmic Mystery of the wonderfully Proportioned Celestial Sphere due to numbers, magnitudes and particular movements and periods of the heavens shown by using the five regular geometrical solids.
    [Show full text]
  • Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum
    Bridges 2011: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture Kepler’s Mysterium Cosmographicum: A Bridge Between Art and Astronomy? Kenneth Brecher Departments of Astronomy and Physics Boston University Boston, MA 02215, U. S. A. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Johannes Kepler published his geometrical model of the solar system in his book “Mysterium Cosmographicum” in 1596. It is suggested here that the inspiration for Kepler’s model was deeply rooted in the art and craft of his time. What Was the Origin of Kepler’s Celestial Model? Johannes Kepler published his first book, the Mysterium Cosmographicum in 1596 at age 26 while he was employed as a mathematics schoolteacher in the German provincial city of Graz. In a sense, the entire rest of his astronomical career was an elaboration of the questions he sought to address in this work: Why were there six (then known) solar system planets? Why are they spaced around the Sun as they are? Why do they move as they do? He answered these questions by apparently creating out of thin air an elaborate model for the layout of the solar system based on spheres inscribed and circumscribed around five nested Platonic solids. In many ways, this book represented a turning point for the way astronomy would be done in the future, for it sought to provide reasons behind what had heretofore been mainly a descriptive science. As the Kepler scholar Owen Gingerich has remarked [1] in his account of Kepler’s life and work, “Seldom in history has so wrong a book been so seminal in directing the future course of science.” Figure 1 a, b, c: On the left is the frontispiece for the Mysterium Cosmographicum.
    [Show full text]
  • Kepler's Cosmos
    science and image Kepler’s cosmos Copernicus’s system of the Universe was revolutionary but his method of representing it on paper was anything but. It was left to Kepler to apply Renaissance techniques of spatial visualization to make the theory come alive. Martin Kemp icolaus Copernicus’s programme to 8 purge the Ptolemaic model of the Uni- Nverse of its growing burden of disfig- uring complications was driven not least by what we would call aesthetic considerations. The architecture of his heliocentric system reinstated the geometrical integrity that the Greek astronomers had sought: “At rest... in the middle of everything is the sun. For in this most beautiful temple, who would place this lamp in another or better position than that from which it can light up the whole thing at the same time?” Although Copernicus’s “temple” obeyed the principles of harmonically unified design advocated in the Renaissance, his conventionally diagrammatic representa- tion of his scheme in 1543 as a flat series of concentric circles did not avail itself of the new spatial vision inherent in the buildings and paintings of the Renaissance masters. It was more than 50 years later that Johannes Kepler, fervent Copernican and Platonist, allied the new visual forms with the new astronomical vision. Among the many testimonies to Kepler’s extraordinary powers of spatial visualiza- tion, none is more remarkable than the great cosmological model he illustrated in a fold- out plate in his Mysterium Cosmographicum of 1596. We know how the scheme came to be envisaged. He tells how, when he was teach- ing his “students the way Great Conjunc- tions jump eight signs at a time”, he drew Kepler’s “Model of the Orbits of the Planets” “many triangles, or quasi triangles, in the from Mysterium Cosmographicum, 1596 (above).
    [Show full text]
  • Astrology, Mechanism and the Soul by Patrick J
    Kepler’s Cosmological Synthesis: Astrology, Mechanism and the Soul by Patrick J. Boner History of Science and Medicine Library 39/Medieval and Early Modern Sci- ence 20. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013. Pp. ISBN 978–90–04–24608–9. Cloth $138.00 xiv + 187 Reviewed by André Goddu Stonehill College [email protected] Johannes Kepler has always been something of a puzzle if not a scandal for historians of science. Even when historians acknowledged Renaissance, magical, mystical, Neoplatonic/Pythagorean influences, they dismissed or minimized them as due to youthful exuberance later corrected by rigorous empiricism and self-criticism.The pressure to see Kepler as a mathematical physicist and precursor to Newton’s synthesis remains seductive because it provides such a neat and relatively simple narrative. As a result, the image of Kepler as a mechanistic thinker who helped to demolish the Aristotelian world view has prevailed—and this despite persuasive characterization of Kepler as a transitional figure, the culmination of one tradition and the beginning of another by David Lindberg [1986] in referring to Kepler’s work on optics and by Bruce Stephenson [1987, 1–7] in discussing Kepler on physical astronomy. In this brief study, Patrick Boner once again challenges the image of Kepler as a reductivist, mechanistic thinker by summarizing and quoting passages of works and correspondence covering many of Kepler’s ideas, both early and late, that confirm how integral Kepler’s animistic beliefs were with his understanding of natural, physical processes. Among Boner’s targets, Anneliese Maier [1937], Eduard Dijksterhuis [1961], Reiner Hooykaas [1987], David Keller and E.
    [Show full text]
  • A Priori and a Posteriori : Two Approaches to Heliocentrism
    chapter 6 A priori and a posteriori: Two Approaches to Heliocentrism One could consider the earliest reception of De revolutionibus to be concluded with the publication of Mysterium cosmographicum, an ambitious attempt to reaffirm the reality of heliocentrism which signaled its author, the young Kepler, as one of the most promising and original mathematical and philo- sophical minds of his time. He did not embrace the geo-heliocentric “third way” of Ursus and Brahe, and would later reject the infinitist viewpoint of Bruno and his followers. Rather, he reassessed the Copernican system from a completely new perspective. After a period of intense astronomical observa- tions (the approach supported by Landgrave Wilhelm IV and Brahe as well as by Mästlin and Magini), Kepler claimed that it was possible to grasp the design of the heavens from an a priori perspective. His intention was, in fact, to unveil the archetypal reasons for the planetary order rooted in Divine Providence. He called this hidden astronomical truth, in Latin, the mysterium cosmographi- cum, i.e. the cosmic secret. An important aspect of his speculations was the project of unifying mathematical and physical astronomy, which he would especially develop in Astronomia nova (1609) and in Harmonice mundi (1619). On the other hand, Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, first communicated in Sidereus nuncius (1610), strengthened the heliocentric cause by bringing new data that were not reconcilable with either Ptolemaic geocentrism or with the Aristotelian principle that the heavens are unalterable. The Copernican alliance between Kepler and Galileo was in many respects a historical contingency, since they came to support the heliocentric system for different reasons and starting from very different conceptions of science.
    [Show full text]
  • Johannes Kepler and the Star of Bethlehem a Work in Progress
    Johannes Kepler and the Star of Bethlehem A work in progress It is an occasional danger embedded in scholarly practice that new research, by quoting older work presumed reliable, can perpetuate false information. We will show here that one of these episodes unfortunately revolves around the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630 CE), who is misinterpreted by astronomers using his work on the Star of Bethlehem without being able to check their source in its original language. From 1606 CE, when Kepler published De Stella nova1, until 1998 and 2006 when French and German translations respectively became available, this book existed only in Latin. Contrary to certain corrupted sources, the translations support Kepler’s German articles and confirm that he regarded the planetary massing and supernova in 1604 as unrelated events. He attributed astronomical phenomena to "natural laws" and rejected astrology as a “human disease” and meaningless superstition. Cautiously, he also linked the Star of Bethlehem to the ancient phoenix myth, which expands the symbolism of the Star but reduces its meaning as a Christian miracle. Because “heretics” were still burned at the stake in that day and age, Kepler would have risked his life if he had openly revealed such a controversial opinion. 1. Why Kepler investigated the Star of Bethlehem Every year, articles about this legendary star are published at Christmas time, which are often book promotions. But as we prepare for the popular theory of Michael R. Molnar to be recycled again, because of his following among astronomers, a courageous journalist who wanted to investigate further could make some surprising discoveries! To name names: the astronomers M.
    [Show full text]
  • First Translation of Kepler's {New Astronomy}
    Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 20, Number 44, November 12, 1993 �ITillScience & Technology First translation of Kepler's 'NewAstronomy' Kepler said, "The occasions by which people come to understand celestial things seem to me not much less marvellous than the nature qfthe celestial things themselves. "A reviewfrom Sylvia Brewda. able in other languages except German and the original Latin. To those not fluentin either language, other works of the most celebrated astronomical physicist have only been available as Johannes Kepler: New Astronomy selections or in brief pieces which Kepler himself considered translated by William Donohoe secondary within his life's work. The translator and the pub­ Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., lisher are therefore to be thanked for making this complete 1992 version of a major work available, in an edition marked by 665 pages, hardbound, $140 scrupulous attention to the technical apparatus (calculations, star positions, diagrams) of the original. However, the reader must be wary of the attempts, embedded in this edition, to The New Astronomy, or, as it was originally titled, Commen­ explain Kepler's achievements as the result of his abandon­ tary on the Motions o/the Star Mars, is the work, published ment of his previous commitment to the outlook of Christian in 1609, in which the great German astronomer Johannes Platonism in favor of an Aristotelian adherence to data, and Kepler (157 1- 1630) announced his discovery that the orbits the reduction of the reasons for things to the mere physical of the planets are ellipses, rather than various compoundings causes by which they occur.
    [Show full text]
  • Johannes Kepler: {The Harmony of the World (Harmonice Mundi)}
    Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 6, Number 2, Summer 1997 TRANSLATION The Harmony of the World (Harmonice Mundi) Preface to Book I: On the Reason for the Knowledge and Proof of the Regular Plane Figures Which Create Harmonic Proportions, with their Origin, Classes, Order, and Differences (1619) Johannes Kepler IN THE WORK KNOWN AS unabashed attacks against those Harmonice Mundi, the German who demean it. Although it serves scientist and mathematician to introduce the entire work, and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) pre- many of the profound inquiries sented to the world his crowning about the character of human work, based on the method which knowledge are touched on here, he had defined in his first book, this Preface refers specifically to Mysterium Cosmographicum Book I, and the foundations laid (The Secret of the Universe) here for the rest of Harmonice (1596). Many know of Harmon- Mundi. Book I is the most difficult ice Mundi as the work in which section to read, but provides the Kepler announced the third of his scientific language which Kepler laws of planetary motion: the ratio will need throughout the rest of of the cube of the (average) radius the work. The language is based of the planet’s orbit to the square on the process, described in Book V of its periodic time, is equal to a of Euclid’s Elements, of making constant for all planets. This law, incommensurable line lengths which applies as well to all the “knowable,” by determining a planets and systems of moons dis- method to construct them in covered since Kepler, does not defined ratios to a given line; define the true importance of this Euclid’s Book X organizes such work, however.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Quadrivium and Kepler's Harmonice Mundi
    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1982 Classical quadrivium and Kepler's Harmonice mundi Stephen Alan Eberhart The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Eberhart, Stephen Alan, "Classical quadrivium and Kepler's Harmonice mundi" (1982). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1806. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1806 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976 THIS IS AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT IN WHICH COPYRIGHT SUB­ SISTS. ANY FURTHER REPRINTING OF ITS CONTENTS MUST BE APPROVED BY THE AUTHOR. MANSFIELD LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA DATE :1 1 9 8 2 THE CLASSICAL QUADRIVIUM AND KEPLER'S HARMONICE MUNDI by Stephen Alan Eberhart B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music, 1961 M.S., University of Washington, 1975 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1982 Approved by s Chairman, Board of Examiners ci //sy - J)ate UMI Number: EP35198 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted.
    [Show full text]
  • Analogy and Creativity in the Works of Johannes Kepler 16
    Uenrnt,,r, U ., Brem, ~ ., t-erguson, K . W ., Wolff, P ., Markman, A . B ., & Forbus, K . D . (1997). Analogy and creativity in the works of Johannes Kepler . In T. B . Ward, S . M . Smith, & J . Vaid (Eds .), Creative thought : An investigation of conceptual structures and processes (pp . 403-459). Washington, DC : American Psychological Association . 16 Analogy and Creativity in the Works of Johannes Kepler Dedre Gentner, Sarah Brem, Ron Ferguson, Philip Wolff, Arthur B . Markman, and Ken Forbus Analogy seems to have a share in all discoveries, but in some it has the lion's share . (Polya, 1954, p. 17) "The roads by which men arrive at their insights into celestial matters seem to me almost as worthy of wonder as those matters in themselves ." -)ohannes Kepler nalogy is often linked with creative thought (Finke, 1990, 1995 ; Finke, Ward & Smith, 1992 ; Gentner, 1982 ; Hesse, 1966; Holyoak & Thagard,A 1995; Koestler, 1963 ; Perkins, 1994 ; Ward, Finke, & Smith, 1995) . Bodern (1994b) stated that "a psychological theory of creativity needs to explain how analogical thinking works" (p. 76) . Our goal in this chapter is to illuminate the processes by which analogy promotes creativity and This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BNS-87 .20301 and Office of Naval Re- search Grant N)0014 •92.1 .1098 . Ron Ferguson received support from a Northwestern University Cogni . tive Science Fellowship . 6ENINER Er AL . conceptual change. We lay out four mechanisms by which analogy can act to create changes in knowledge, and consider the sorts of changes they promote . We draw on the works of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) to illustrate our points.
    [Show full text]
  • Eloise Lardet the University of Edinburgh What Are Platonic Solids? History Applications You Might Have Heard of “Regular Polygons”
    Platonic Solids Eloise Lardet The University of Edinburgh What are Platonic solids? History Applications You might have heard of “regular polygons”. Examples include The name “Platonic" comes from the Greek mathematician Although they may not be the elements of the Universe, as the equilateral triangle, square, regular pentagon. They have Plato, who lived around 400 BC. He may not have been the Plato believed, the Platonic solids do appear all over nature, the same number of edges as vertices, and all angles are the first to discover all five solids, but he had a theory about the and have many uses. same. Universe based on these shapes. Many viruses have the shape of an icosahedron, such as HIV. In 2D there are an infinite number of regular polygons. • There are tiny single-celled organisms called Radiolaria which But what about regular shapes in 3D? • live in the ocean. All five platonic solids can be seen in They must satisfy these conditions: Radiolaria skeletons. All the faces must be the same regular polygon • The same number of faces must meet at each vertex (corner) Figure: Plato’s Elements [2] • How many polyhedra satisfy these conditions? Only 5! He believed that the Platonic solids represented the four basic These are called Platonic solids. Let’s meet them... elements (fire, earth, air, and water), with the last one representing the whole Universe. Figure: Icosahedral HIV virus [4] Figure: Icosahedral Radiolarian [5] Euclid was another Greek mathematician who researched Regular polyhedra are common among molecules due to Platonic solids. The last book of Euclid’s Elements is all about • their strong structures and symmetries.
    [Show full text]