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History of Astronomy By: George Forbes (1849-1936) |
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HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY BY GEORGE FORBES,
M.A., F.R.S., M. INST. C. E., (FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, ANDERSON'S COLLEGE, GLASGOW) AUTHOR OF "THE TRANSIT OF VENUS," RENDU'S "THEORY OF THE GLACIERS OF
SAVOY," ETC., ETC.
CONTENTS PREFACE BOOK I. THE GEOMETRICAL PERIOD 1. PRIMITIVE ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY 2. ANCIENT ASTRONOMY CHINESE AND CHALDÆANS 3. ANCIENT GREEK ASTRONOMY 4. THE REIGN OF EPICYCLES FROM PTOLEMY TO COPERNICUS BOOK II. THE DYNAMICAL PERIOD 5. DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE SOLAR SYSTEM TYCHO BRAHE KEPLER 6. GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE NOTIONS OF GRAVITY BY HORROCKS, ETC. 7. SIR ISAAC NEWTON LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 8. NEWTON'S SUCCESSORS HALLEY, EULER, LAGRANGE, LAPLACE, ETC. 9. DISCOVERY OF NEW PLANETS HERSCHEL, PIAZZI, ADAMS, AND LE
VERRIER BOOK III. OBSERVATION
10. INSTRUMENTS OF PRECISION SIZE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM 11. HISTORY OF THE TELESCOPE SPECTROSCOPE BOOK IV. THE PHYSICAL PERIOD 12. THE SUN 13. THE MOON AND PLANETS 14. COMETS AND METEORS 15. THE STARS AND NEBULÆ INDEX PREFACE
An attempt has been made in these pages to trace the evolution of
intellectual thought in the progress of astronomical discovery, and,
by recognising the different points of view of the different ages, to
give due credit even to the ancients. No one can expect, in a history
of astronomy of limited size, to find a treatise on "practical" or on
"theoretical astronomy," nor a complete "descriptive astronomy," and
still less a book on "speculative astronomy." Something of each of
these is essential, however, for tracing the progress of thought and
knowledge which it is the object of this History to describe. The progress of human knowledge is measured by the increased habit of
looking at facts from new points of view, as much as by the
accumulation of facts. The mental capacity of one age does not seem to
differ from that of other ages; but it is the imagination of new
points of view that gives a wider scope to that capacity. And this is
cumulative, and therefore progressive. Aristotle viewed the solar
system as a geometrical problem; Kepler and Newton converted the point
of view into a dynamical one. Aristotle's mental capacity to
understand the meaning of facts or to criticise a train of reasoning
may have been equal to that of Kepler or Newton, but the point of view
was different. Then, again, new points of view are provided by the invention of new
methods in that system of logic which we call mathematics. All that
mathematics can do is to assure us that a statement A is equivalent to
statements B, C, D, or is one of the facts expressed by the statements
B, C, D; so that we may know, if B, C, and D are true, then A is true.
To many people our inability to understand all that is contained in
statements B, C, and D, without the cumbrous process of a mathematical
demonstration, proves the feebleness of the human mind as a logical
machine. For it required the new point of view imagined by Newton's
analysis to enable people to see that, so far as planetary orbits are
concerned, Kepler's three laws (B, C, D) were identical with Newton's
law of gravitation (A). No one recognises more than the mathematical
astronomer this feebleness of the human intellect, and no one is more
conscious of the limitations of the logical process called
mathematics, which even now has not solved directly the problem of
only three bodies. These reflections, arising from the writing of this History, go to
explain the invariable humility of the great mathematical astronomers.
Newton's comparison of himself to the child on the seashore applies to
them all. As each new discovery opens up, it may be, boundless oceans
for investigation, for wonder, and for admiration, the great
astronomers, refusing to accept mere hypotheses as true, have founded
upon these discoveries a science as exact in its observation of facts
as in theories... Continue reading book >>
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