Overview
- Describes Kepler's work at the pinnacle of a long line of attempts to uncover the secrets of the observed world
- Portrays Kepler as a wanderer between the worlds of science and belief at a time of religious turmoil
- Demonstrates the extent of Kepler’s legacy to modern science
Part of the book series: Springer Biographies (SPRINGERBIOGS)
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book traces the development of Kepler’s ideas along with his unsteady wanderings in a world dominated by religious turmoil. Johannes Kepler, like Galileo, was a supporter of the Copernican heliocentric world model. From an early stage, his principal objective was to discover “the world behind the world”, i.e. to identify the underlying order and the secrets that make the world function as it does: the hidden world harmony. Kepler was driven both by his religious belief and Greek mysticism, which he found in ancient mathematics.
His urge to find a construct encompassing the harmony of every possible aspect of the world – including astronomy, geometry and music – is seen as a manifestation of a deep human desire to bring order to the apparent chaos surrounding our existence. This desire continues to this day as we search for a theory that will finally unify and harmonise the forces of nature.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Wolfgang Osterhage, born in 1948, holds Ph.D.s in Physics and Information Science. He is a consultant to international organisations and corporations, and a lecturer and visiting professor at various institutions in Germany. After many years of professional activity in other countries, he now lives and works as an independent author in the Rhineland.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Johannes Kepler
Book Subtitle: The Order of Things
Authors: Wolfgang Osterhage
Series Title: Springer Biographies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46858-3
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46857-6Published: 27 May 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46860-6Published: 28 May 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-46858-3Published: 26 May 2020
Series ISSN: 2365-0613
Series E-ISSN: 2365-0621
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 132
Number of Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Popular Science in Astronomy, Geometry