THE DISCOVERY OF THE LAWS OF KEPLER: A STUDY IN THE INTERACTION AMONG EMPIRICAL SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION

Despite Kepler's candid and detailed report on the discovery of his first two laws, the problem of the origin of these laws still remains unresolved. Attempts to unravel the problem have varied from considering the discovery a chance (Newton) to one arising from a well-reasoned, patient, and systematic empirical study of Tycho Brahe's observations (Small and Dreyer). On the issue of the influence of non-scientific factors on this discovery also various views exist. Small and Dreyer do not even consider this question. Strong and, to some extent, Westman deny any positive role to such an influence, whereas Koestler and, in some sense, Burtt seem to go to the other extreme. Between these two extremes lie the views of Aiton, Gingerich, Holton, Koyre, and Wilson. I argue that all these attempts are either inaccurate or incomplete because they fail to pay attention to all the relevant factors involved. In Kepler's works and thought I see an interaction among empirical, philosophical, and religious ideas. I show that this interaction had a decisive role to play in the discovery of the laws. If Kepler had emphasized only the empirical, he probably would have been another Tycho, but not the discoverer of the laws and the father of modern astronomy. On the other hand, if he had concentrated only on the philosophical, he would have remained just one among the renaissance natural philosophers. Religious ideas alone also would not have led him to the laws. But when all the three were allowed to interact and collaborate, mutually modifying and complementing each other, the result was the laws. My study has two parts. In the first part I identify and discuss Kepler's religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas. In the second part I discuss his actual discovery of the first two laws. I divide the process of discovery into different stages and show that in each all the three factors had to collaborate to make the discovery possible. I base my studies on Kepler's own original books and letters, supplemented by reflection and commentaries on them by eminent Kepler scholars.