Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Introduction: The Age of the New
- Part I The New Nature
- Part II Personae and Sites of Natural Knowledge
- Part III Dividing the Study of Nature
- 17 Natural Philosophy
- 18 Medicine
- 19 Natural History
- 20 Cosmography
- 21 From Alchemy to “Chymistry”
- 22 Magic
- 23 Astrology
- 24 Astronomy
- 25 Acoustics and Optics
- 26 Mechanics
- 27 The Mechanical Arts
- 28 Pure Mathematics
- Part IV Cultural Meanings of Natural Knowledge
- Index
- References
24 - Astronomy
from Part III - Dividing the Study of Nature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Introduction: The Age of the New
- Part I The New Nature
- Part II Personae and Sites of Natural Knowledge
- Part III Dividing the Study of Nature
- 17 Natural Philosophy
- 18 Medicine
- 19 Natural History
- 20 Cosmography
- 21 From Alchemy to “Chymistry”
- 22 Magic
- 23 Astrology
- 24 Astronomy
- 25 Acoustics and Optics
- 26 Mechanics
- 27 The Mechanical Arts
- 28 Pure Mathematics
- Part IV Cultural Meanings of Natural Knowledge
- Index
- References
Summary
In the late Middle Ages, astronomy, unlike most other natural sciences now recognized, had been studied and practiced for over two millennia. Together with the other ancient sciences of harmonics, optics, and mechanics, it was considered to be a mixed mathematical science, differing from the pure mathematical sciences – arithmatic and geometry – in that astronomy considered number and magnitude in bodies and not in themselves. In the application of this division (which was not always strictly followed), astronomy could only develop and apply mathematical hypotheses: Pronouncements about the true nature of the heavens lay within the province of natural philosophy. Thus astronomers were not recognized as having the authority to decide whether the earth is moving or at rest, or whether comets are celestial or atmospheric. Astronomy’s function was only to describe the apparent positions of the heavenly bodies for the purposes of timekeeping, calendar making, and prediction of celestial influences. (This last task was the function of astrology, which was a respected science in the late Middle Ages, dealing with the effects of the celestial motions, just as natural philosophy treated its causes.)
This division of the science was established on philosophical grounds, and was used by philosophers and physical theorists to keep astronomy and the other mathematical sciences in their place. Astronomers, on the other hand, were never entirely content with their marginalization, and, while they improved the predictive power of their science, they strove to show the natural philosophers that the claims of astronomy could not be ignored.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Science , pp. 562 - 595Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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