Reading the Mind of God : Johannes Kepler and the Reform of Astronomy / edited by A.E.L. Davis, J. V. Field, T. J. Mahoney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, A. E. L., 1928-2020.

Contributor:

Field, Judith Veronica.

Mahoney, T. J.

Series:

Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, 2366-0090

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astronomy.

Science--History.

Science.

Mathematics.

Astronomy, Cosmology and Space Sciences.

History of Science.

Local Subjects:

Astronomy, Cosmology and Space Sciences.

History of Science.

Mathematics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (426 pages)

Edition:

1st ed. 2024.

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands : Imprint: Springer, 2024.

Summary:

This volume provides a wide-ranging introduction to Kepler’s work, with essays on his religion, his cosmological theories, his work in astronomy, astrology, optics and mathematics and his interactions with Tycho Brahe and Galileo Galilei. Kepler is a major figure in the history of science. His laws of planetary motion overthrew a tradition, going back as far as the ancient Greeks, of constructing the paths of planets by combinations of circles; and the derivation of the laws was revolutionary in the way it relied upon detailed agreement with observations. Moreover, the laws explicitly relate the motion and path of each planet to the Sun. Thus, when the tables that Kepler based upon the laws proved to be highly reliable over many decades, this played a crucial part in making heliocentrism acceptable. And many years after Kepler’s death the laws themselves played an important part in Newton’s derivation of the inverse square law of gravitation in his Principia (1687). In this respect, Kepler can look ‘modern’. But his work is grounded in his religious belief that the Universe is the visible expression of the nature of the God who created it. This book, whose chapters are written by leading scholars, is primarily addressed to undergraduate and graduate students of science and the history of science but will also appeal to the general reader with an interest in the history of science.

Contents:

Kepler’s place in the history of astronomy

Religion and natural philosophy

Late Humanism

The geometrical cosmos

The occult sciences

Kepler’s astrology

Tycho Brahe and observational astronomy

Beginning the quest for physical causes

Kepler’s theoretical astronomy: the laws of planetary motion

Kepler’s contributions to optics

Kepler and Galileo: Copernican cosmology, telescopes and comets

The Rudolphine Tables

Kepler’s contributions to mathematics

Working continuously: Kepler’s investigations into fluid mechanics

'A Warning to Astronomers'

Somnium

Kepler in Translation

Kepler’s personality and life

Epilogue: Kepler and the historians

A Kepler Chronology.

Other Format:

Print version: Davis, A. E. L. Reading the Mind of God

ISBN:

9789402422504

OCLC:

1472979856