Kepler, Johann (15711630)
Famous German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer.
He was born on December 27, 1571, at Weil in Württemberg
and educated at a monastic school at Maulbrunn. He attended
the University of Tübingen, where he studied
philosophy, mathematics, theology, and astronomy. In 1593 he
became professor of mathematics and morals at Gratz in Styria,
where he also continued his astrological studies. He had an unhappy
home life and was somewhat persecuted for his doctrines.
The famous Rudolphine tables, which he prepared with the
astronomer Tycho de Brahe, were printed in 1626.
Some of Keplers writings were influenced by occult and
mystical concepts. In his work De Harmonice Mundi (1619) he
expounded a system of celestial harmonies. His book Somnium
(1634) was an early speculation about life on the moon. A discussion
of Keplers concept of archetypes appears in The Influence
of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler
in the book The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, by C.
G. Jung and W. Pauli (1955).
The laws of the courses of the planets, deduced by Kepler
from observations made by Tycho, and known as the three
laws of Kepler, became the foundation of Newtons discoveries,
as well as of the whole modern theory of the planets. His
services in the cause of astronomy place him high among the
distinguished people of science, and in 1808 a monument was
erected to his memory at Ratisbon. Keplers most important
work is his Astronomia nova, seu Physica Coelestis tradita Commentariis
de Motibus Stellae Martis (1609), which is still regarded as
a classic by astronomers.
Kepler died November 15, 1630, at Ratisbon.
