The History of Missing and Blank Things #35: The Disappeared Solids of Johannes Kepler

JF Ptak Science Books LLC    Post 548

(Continuing the thread on a History of Blank and Empty Things...)

The great Joahnnes Kepler, conceived at 4:27 on the morning of his parents’ holy joining, was raised a disagreeable boy by disagreeable parents, and that in spite of being supremely gifted, mutually dependent on his hypochondria, intellect, and astrology.  He was perhaps one of the dozen most influential scientists of the last 500 years, and had an over-assuming and awful disposition.  

The man who brought about the final loosening of religion’s grasp on astronomy and the development of cosmology had a difficult time in his childhood, sounding lonely and exiled.  His father was irritable and irritating, but his mother, described by some as garrulous and quarrelsome and of a “vile disposition”, seems to have been in a class by herself, and left an indelible mark in her son.  The full truth of Kepler’s mother was that if you described her as being like  a ”witch”, you may have been correct:  the old woman, at 74, after years of being suspected of being a witch, was arrested, finally, and hauled away under this suspicion.  In a posthumously-published work called Somnulum, Kepler himself writes of his mother as being in contact with devils from the Moon (among many other things).  His childhood left a long shadow on his social life.

It is remarkable to note his nearly alphabetical diatribe on his schoolday associates; I’m not o sure how you leave behind ideas and feeling like this later in life, and I suppose that you don’t.   It has nothing to do with his development as a scientific icon, but I

He rattles off his chums as follows:

“Holp openly detested me and on two occasions we got into fist fights….

Molitor dislike me because I betrayed him…

Kollin didn’t hate me, but I hated him…

Braunbaum turned from friend to foe because of my boisterousness…

Huldenbach became hostile because of my rash accusations…

Seifer disliked because everyone disliked him…

Kleber detested me because he thought I was a rival…

Redstock was ticked off whenever someone praised my abilities…

Husel tried to block my progress…

Between Dauber and myself there was quite a jealousy…

Lorhard would have nothing to do with me….

After Jaeger had lied to me I was insulted for two years…

The rector became my enemy because I did not accord him sufficient honor…

Murr became my enemy because I reprimanded him…”

And on and on.  Kind of incredible if you ask me, but from this did greatness come. 

On the way to restructuring the universe with his Harmonicae mundi and Epitome astronomiae, Kepler made a first abbreviated stop in his Mysterium Cosmographicum—it was an interesting work, but as substantial as it was it had as many flaws.  Galileo received a copy, and wrote politely back, but was very guarded in his opinion of the work.  Part of the problem was Kepler’s sustained interest in his astrological callings; another part came with his great reverence.  He thought that god was perfect, and that the universe he created as perfect, and so it all could be explained perfectly with a perfect method, which in this case was geometrical.  Explaining the proportions between the sun and its planets, Kepler devised a system in which spheres and squares and other objects were described within one another, separating the planets via distances determined by their points of contact.  It wasn’t a winning system, but it did abide the Copernican system, even as his forms disappeared into nothingness..  Kepler went on to bigger and greater things.

 Einstein, who much admired Kepler, said of the man: “[He] was one of the few who are simply incapable of doing anything but stand up openly for their convictions in every field.” 

 

Comments

[Joy Holland]

How on earth do you know the time of his conception? Sounds like something out of Tristram Shandy to me. I love the list of school mates--sounds just like someone I know...

[Jeff]

Yeah, that made me chuckle, the 4:27 a.m. But I can accept that Kepler somehow calculated it from evidence at hand. As it's put in your post, it seems that he was conceived on the wedding day but before the marriage actually took place? A dozen scenes fly by. It's a great beginning to a novel, per Joy's thoughts above. I think THE great novel about Kepler is yet to be written. How about it, John?

[John Ptak]

Kepler was way too smart and way to unhappy to deal with for a long period of time. Unless of course you made everything up, which would streamline stuff considerably. On the other hand if you made Barry Lyndon into Johannes Kepler, then at least the movie has already been made.

[John Ptak]

Joy: it was the old man himself who either figured out the kinda-time or made it up out of whole stinking cloth....I think that's the way you get precise stats. He always liked astrology (and by "liked" I mean "loved"), which got him through the lean years and supported him in his dotage. DOTage! Dot-age. Dots! When the man was becoming the dot he was intended to be, the period at the end of his life... After all he was primarily concerned with dots thru his life, watching the stars and recording their movements on an enormous 35' or whatever sextant. And then the dots were something he could read, too, like tea leaves or chicken heads. It was all dots, all the time.

[Joy Holland]

John you are reminding me of one of my whackier customers. I trust your wife is keeping a close watch over your sanity.

[John Ptak]

Um, thanks Joy. I trust your whacky customer is whacky in a good, healthy way. As to Patti keeping a watch over my sanity: I'll ask her, if you could just tell me first at what o'clock sanity is at....

[Jeff]

Sanity is at noon, John. You swing 'twixt three and nine ... and not through the twelve. Don't worry, though. Noon is not a very interesting time. And there's always Midnight.