The Pursuit of Harmony

Kepler on Cosmos, Confession, and Community

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Physics, General Physics, Other Sciences, History
Cover of the book The Pursuit of Harmony by Aviva Rothman, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Aviva Rothman ISBN: 9780226497020
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: November 3, 2017
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Aviva Rothman
ISBN: 9780226497020
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: November 3, 2017
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

A committed Lutheran excommunicated from his own church, a friend to Catholics and Calvinists alike, a layman who called himself a “priest of God,” a Copernican in a world where Ptolemy still reigned, a man who argued at the same time for the superiority of one truth and the need for many truths to coexist—German astronomer Johannes Kepler was, to say the least, a complicated figure. With The Pursuit of Harmony, Aviva Rothman offers a new view of him and his achievements, one that presents them as a story of Kepler’s attempts to bring different, even opposing ideas and circumstances into harmony.
 
Harmony, Rothman shows, was both the intellectual bedrock for and the primary goal of Kepler’s disparate endeavors. But it was also an elusive goal amid the deteriorating conditions of his world, as the political order crumbled and religious war raged. In the face of that devastation, Kepler’s hopes for his theories changed: whereas he had originally looked for a unifying approach to truth, he began instead to emphasize harmony as the peaceful coexistence of different views, one that could be fueled by the fundamentally nonpartisan discipline of mathematics. 
 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A committed Lutheran excommunicated from his own church, a friend to Catholics and Calvinists alike, a layman who called himself a “priest of God,” a Copernican in a world where Ptolemy still reigned, a man who argued at the same time for the superiority of one truth and the need for many truths to coexist—German astronomer Johannes Kepler was, to say the least, a complicated figure. With The Pursuit of Harmony, Aviva Rothman offers a new view of him and his achievements, one that presents them as a story of Kepler’s attempts to bring different, even opposing ideas and circumstances into harmony.
 
Harmony, Rothman shows, was both the intellectual bedrock for and the primary goal of Kepler’s disparate endeavors. But it was also an elusive goal amid the deteriorating conditions of his world, as the political order crumbled and religious war raged. In the face of that devastation, Kepler’s hopes for his theories changed: whereas he had originally looked for a unifying approach to truth, he began instead to emphasize harmony as the peaceful coexistence of different views, one that could be fueled by the fundamentally nonpartisan discipline of mathematics. 
 

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Musings on Mortality by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book The Legendary Detective by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Face/On by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Machines of Youth by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume 1 by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Hegel, Heidegger, and the Ground of History by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Who Cleans the Park? by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book The Color of Mind by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book The Haunted Monastery by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Plant Evolution by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book The Ancient Shore by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Man Is by Nature a Political Animal by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book The Cruel Radiance by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book Image Science by Aviva Rothman
Cover of the book The Marvelous Clouds by Aviva Rothman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy