E-Book, Englisch, 274 Seiten
Reihe: Princeton Legacy Library
Stephenson The Music of the Heavens
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-6382-2
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark
Kepler's Harmonic Astronomy
E-Book, Englisch, 274 Seiten
Reihe: Princeton Legacy Library
ISBN: 978-1-4008-6382-2
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark
Valued today for its development of the third law of planetary motion, Harmonice mundi (1619) was intended by Kepler to expand on ancient efforts to discern a Creator's plan for the planetary system--an arrangement thought to be based on harmonic relationships. Challenging critics who characterize Kepler's theories of harmonic astronomy as "mystical," Bruce Stephenson offers the first thorough technical analysis of the music the astronomer thought the heavens made, and the logic that led him to find musical patterns in his data. In so doing, Stephenson illuminates crucial aspects of Kepler's intellectual development, particularly his ways of classifying and drawing inferences.
Beginning with a survey of similar theories associating music with the cyclic motions of planets, from Plato to Boethius, the author highlights Ptolemy's Harmonics, a source of inspiration for Kepler's later work. Turning to Kepler himself, Stephenson gives an account of his polyhedral theory, which explains the number and sizes of the planetary orbits in terms of the five regular poly-hedral. He then examines in detail an early theory that relates the planets' vel-ocities to a musical chord, and analyzes Kepler's unpublished commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics. Devoting most of his attention to Book Five of Harmonice mundi, in which Kepler elaborated on the musical structure of the planetary system, Stephenson lays important groundwork for any further evaluation of Kepler's scientific thought.
Originally published in 1994.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
Preface and Acknowledgments
Ch. I Introduction 3
Ch. II Earlier Theories of Astronomical Harmony 16
Ch. III Jofrancus Offusius: Scientific Astrology Based on Harmony 47
Ch. IV Distances to the Planets 64
Ch. V The Polyhedral Theory of the Mysterium cosmographicum 75
Ch. VI Kepler's First Harmonic Planetary Theory 90
Ch. VII The Reconstruction of Ptolemy's Harmonics 98
Ch. VIII The Harmonice mundi 118
Ch. IX Book 5 of the Harmonice mundi 128
Ch. 1 Regular Polyhedra 130
Ch. 2 Harmonic Proportions 131
Ch. 3 Astronomical Theory 135
Ch. 4 The Proper and Extreme Harmonies 145
Ch. 5 The Music of the Planetary Motions 154
Ch. 6 Heavenly Modes 165
Ch. 7 Universal Harmonies 170
Ch. 8 The Four Voices of Celestial Harmony 184
Ch. 9 The Causes of the Eccentricities 185
Ch. 10 Inhabitants of the Sun 236
Ch. X Conclusions 242
Bibliography 253
Index 257
