Comets, popular culture, and the birth of modern cosmology / Sara J. Schechner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schechner, Sara J., 1957- author.

Series:

Princeton paperbacks.

Princeton Paperbacks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comets.

Cosmology.

Religion and science--History.

Religion and science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (386 pages).

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1997]

Summary:

In a lively investigation into the boundaries between popular culture and early-modern science, Sara Schechner presents a case study that challenges the view that rationalism was at odds with popular belief in the development of scientific theories. Schechner Genuth delineates the evolution of people's understanding of comets, showing that until the seventeenth century, all members of society dreaded comets as heaven-sent portents of plague, flood, civil disorder, and other calamities. Although these beliefs became spurned as "vulgar superstitions" by the elite before the end of the century, she shows that they were nonetheless absorbed into the science of Newton and Halley, contributing to their theories in subtle yet profound ways. Schechner weaves together many strands of thought: views of comets as signs and causes of social and physical changes; vigilance toward monsters and prodigies as indicators of God's will; Christian eschatology; scientific interpretations of Scripture; astrological prognostication and political propaganda; and celestial mechanics and astrophysics. This exploration of the interplay between high and low beliefs about nature leads to the conclusion that popular and long-held views of comets as divine signs were not overturned by astronomical discoveries. Indeed, they became part of the foundation on which modern cosmology was built.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION. Shared Culture, Separate Spaces

PART ONE: SIGNS OF THE TIMES

CHAPTER I Ancient Signs

CHAPTER II Monsters and the Messiah

CHAPTER III Divination

CHAPTER IV Portents and Politics

PART TWO: NATURAL CAUSES

CHAPTER V From Natural Signs to Proximate Causes

CHAPTER VI The Decline of Cometary Divination

PART THREE: WORLD REFORMATION

CHAPTER VII Comets, Transmutations, and World Reform in Newton's Thought

CHAPTER VIII Halley's Comet Theory, Noah's Flood, and the End of the World

PART FOUR: COMET LORE AND COSMOGONY

CHAPTER IX Refueling the Sun and Planets

CHAPTER X Revolution and Evolution within the Heavens

CONCLUDING REMARKS. Popular Culture and Elite Science

APPENDIX. Recent Resurgence of Cometary Catastrophism

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691227672

0691227675