The Harmony of the WorldKepler is remembered for the 3 laws of planetary motion known after him. Rejecting the view of those who regarded astronomical hypotheses as mathematical fictions, he sought to derive the true motions of the planets from physical causes. Yet he combined his search for physical causes with a vision of the world as a manifestation of divine harmony. This led him to consider the formal causes or archetypes underlying the world's construction. Kepler's favorite astronomical work, Harmony of the World (HW), was planned in 1599, although it was not completed and published until 1619. Here, the translators have put the HW into the kind of clear but earnest language which they suppose Kepler would have used if he had been writing today. Illustrations. |
Common terms and phrases
according actual angles aphelion apparent aspects Axiom body Book called cause Chapter chord circle combined common compared complete congruence considered consonances construction continuous corresponding cube definition diameter diatessaron diesis dissonant distances divided division double Earth Elements equal Euclid Expressible extreme fact faculty fifth figures five follows former four fourth geometrical given gives greater half hand hard harmonies heptagon hexagon individual intervals Jupiter Kepler kind latter laws length less major Mars mean melody Mercury mind minor motions musical namely nature octave origin pairs pentagon perfect perihelion planets position proportion Proposition quantity ratio reason reference regular remaining result right angles Saturn scale semitone sense side single sixth smaller soft solid soul sounds spheres square star string taken things third tion tone triangle trigon true Venus whole
Popular passages
Page xxxviii - write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference; let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God Himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study Him.""
Page 77 - the side of a regular hexagon inscribed in a circle is equal to the radius of the circle
Page 395 - distances of the Earth and Saturn from the Sun. For the cube root of 1 is 1, and the square of that is 1.
Page 58 - is the side of a square whose area is equal to that of a rectangle
Page 41 - add up to twice as many Right angles as the figure has sides, less four.
Page 254 - the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine and the Margrave of Brandenburg.
Page 57 - That is, the square of the side of the pentagon is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides of the
Page 374 - If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God Himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him.
Page 481 - as long as I shall live. For from Him and through Him and in Him are all things,
Page 284 - (He is not far from every one of us; in Him we live, move and have our being.)