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
Apotome arithmetic aspects Axiom Bodin body Book Chapter chord subtended comma congruence consonances construction cube decagon definite degree diameter diapason diapente diatessaron diesis dissonant distances divided division dodecahedron Earth eccentric Elasson equal Euclid trans Expressible extreme motions fact faculty fifth figures follows four right angles fourth geometrical greater harmonic proportions Harmonice mundi harmonies heptagon hexagon icosahedron Jupiter Kepler kind knowability latter major tone Mars mathematical mean Medial melodic intervals Mercury mind minor sixth minor tone Mizon motion at aphelion motion at perihelion motion of Saturn musical nature number of sides octagon octahedron octave pairs pentagon perfect perihelion planetary planets Plato polygon position Proclus Proposition Ptolemy Ptolemy's Pythagoreans quantity ratio reason Saturn semidiameter semitone sensible sixth soft solid soul spheres square star string tetrachords tetragon tetrahedron things third tion triangle trigon trigon angles Venus zodiac
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.)