Post by richlion on Jun 16, 2015 22:33:19 GMT -8
Here is a part of an article that was published in 1896. I think it would be of interest to all...
Here is a part of an article that was published in The Earth Review, 1896. I think it would be of interest to all...
“The history of science (so-called. Ed.) shows that ALL the great laws of mind and matter have been discovered, NOT BY DEMONSTRATION but by IMAGINATION .” Science Siftings, Vol. i. No. 15. p. 235.
That this is absolutely true is proven by the undeniable and acknowledged fact that Kepler “discovered” his three “ Laws of Planetary Motion” in that way. Listen to the testimony of your
own schoolmen, ye, who believe in the “ earth’s sphericity,” surely you will believe them won’t you? even though you deny the evidence of your senses that they may be considered, “ The wise guides, philosophers and friends, who do lay upon themselves the onerous duty of deciding these momentous problems for us.”— Lord SALISBURY. Morning Leader, June 23rd, 1894.
It was not until twelve years after the publication of his first two laws, that Kepler was able to announce the discovery of the third. This, again, was the outcome of a long series of GUESSES, and what was remarkable as to the error of the idea which suggested the second law to his mind, was still more remarkable as to the third ; for not only, in his search for the ‘ harmony ’ of which he felt assured, did he proceed on the erroneous notion of a whirling force emanating from the Sun, which decreases with increase of distance, but he took as his guide a no other ASSUMPTION no less erroneous, viz., that the masses of the Planets increase with their distances from the Sun. In order to make this last fit with the facts (?) he was driven to ASSUME a relation of their respective which we now know to be UTTERLY UNTRUE; for, as he himself says, ‘ unless we ASSUME this proportion of the densities, the law of the periodic times will not answer. Thus, says his biographer, ‘ three out of the four suppositions made by Kepler to explain the beautiful law he had detected are now INDISPUTABLY KNOWN TO BE FLASE? what he considered to be the proof of it, being only A MODE OF FALSE REASONING by which ‘any required result might be deduced from any given principles.” — Modern Review, Oct. 1880.
There is more to this article, but I'll leave it at that...