The Scientific Revolution: The Life and Legacy of Johannes Kepler

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Stephen Paul Aulridge Jr

"We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment." - Johannes Kepler

Just trying to define a man who had the qualities of a mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, inventor, and astrologer can prove difficult. But all of that can be ascribed to Johannes Kepler, one of the giants of his era who ushered in the Scientific Revolution and is often considered the first modern scientist.

Kepler stood at a moment in time when the intellectual worldview of most in northern Europe was medieval in nature, influenced mostly by spirituality, mysticism, religion, and metaphysics. Kepler, however, was far-thinking in his outlook, taking advantages of the latest technological ideas from the Renaissance and the new translations of Greco-Roman philosophers from out of the Spanish kingdoms and the former-Byzantine Empire. Kepler himself struggled with the seemingly incongruous division between metaphysics and empiricism. By practicing empiricism and coming up with his famous laws of planetary motion, he was forced to defend his positions against a number of important ideas in western philosophy and the contemporary understanding of nature and the cosmos. All the while, Kepler was never able to escape the medieval mind he possessed, and he looked for God in the designs of the cosmos, thus attempting to wed the supernatural to the physical.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Helpful but disappointed

I purchased this book to learn more about Kepler. While the book shared a number of details about his life I found some of them to be completely irrelevant to the story and contradictory to other historical documents about his life.
I appreciated the authors explanation of the tension between his faith and his scientific research, but I felt like too much of the authors bias came through.
Kepler was a strong Christian man and so naturally his world and life view came through his work and writings just like everything you and I do is an expression of our beliefs.
I can partially excuse the author on this because he is clearly a product of our modern educational system with all its bias toward theology.
He constantly mentioned words like force or power that are still issues of question in the minds of all scientists today. To clarify, I am referring to causation.
We are all merely studying effects and no truly honest scientist can say he has an intelligent scientific explanation for causation. The modern scientist with all his so-called answers is exercising the faith of his belief system just like you and I do.
I am weary of scientists or anyone authoritatively claiming that they have the mysteries of the universe figured out! Logic demands intellectual honesty and I do not think the author provides that in his book. He should have given credence to the possibility that theology and science can and do go hand-in-hand. His repetitive comments that science and theology need to be reconciled reveal a failed logic using the frailties of people to conclude that God and theology has no place here.
To further extrapolate, if the author had differentiated the more pure aspects of Kepler’s motivations from the churches institutionalized failings I would have respected that more. In other words, it is important to differentiate between the person of Christ and the people that called themselves his followers, and their careless and selfish execution of Biblical truth and wisdom.
In failing there he failed to acknowledge man’s propensity to seek power over and manipulate others.
Kepler was a brilliant man and a Christian and in this modern society that thinks the two can not exist together that should’ve been stated more clearly as opposed to taking that for granted as fact in the implications the author puts forth.
I find Kepler to be quite intriguing and it encourages me to pursue truth like he did while being careful how I interpret the tensions of living in the finite limitations of time and space, especially with all that we don’t know that exists outside of time and space. For that which exists outside of our finite knowledge, I believe represents eternal power and even more important the Creator, God Almighty and the person of Jesus Christ whose existence in time in space is scientifically proven.

Agree with Copernicus

Excellent narration. Relegated to find the Mars orbital motion, in which he eventually succeeded and agreed with Copernicus findings and sharing with Galileo.