Choice Review

This is a remarkably readable monograph. The amount of careful and sympathetic scholarship is impressive and is so well integrated into the story line that one almost feels a sense of inevitability about the results being the right ones. Kozhamthadam is successful in creating an almost "you were there" feeling for the climate of opinion in which Kepler worked. One understands the role of belief in God, and Christ his son, and its connection with nature, his handiwork. One understands the role of mathematics as an expression of an image of God where rationality was central and as the language in which to understand nature; one also sees the "correcting" role played by experimental data. The bulk of the book is a detailed exposition of how Kepler arrived at the first and second laws. Like Kepler, the reader feels the tensions, worries about the possible solutions, and then sees the light. The connection among the roles of "science, philosophy, and religion" is made to appear almost seamless. Kepler emerges as a creative and introspective person with a strong sense of his ability to ask the right questions and to solve them. His place as one of the key links in the development of modern science is clear. He set the tone for Newton with his search for the causes of motion and the forces needed in explaining them, and so helped to determine the subsequent development of the picture of the universe as being mechanical. This book belongs in every library. All levels. K. L. Schick; Union College (NY)