Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology

by Schechner, Sara J.

• ISBN13: 9780691009254
• ISBN10: 0691009252
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-07
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

In a lively investigation into the boundaries between popular culture and early-modern science, Sara Schechner presents a case study that challenges the view that rationalism was at odds with popular belief in the development of scientific theories. Schechner Genuth delineates the evolution of people's understanding of comets, showing that until the seventeenth century, all members of society dreaded comets as heaven-sent portents of plague, flood, civil disorder, and other calamities. Although these beliefs became spurned as "vulgar superstitions" by the elite before the end of the century, she shows that they were nonetheless absorbed into the science of Newton and Halley, contributing to their theories in subtle yet profound ways. Schechner weaves together many strands of thought: views of comets as signs and causes of social and physical changes; vigilance toward monsters and prodigies as indicators of God's will; Christian eschatology; scientific interpretations of Scripture; astrological prognostication and political propaganda; and celestial mechanics and astrophysics. This exploration of the interplay between high and low beliefs about nature leads to the conclusion that popular and long-held views of comets as divine signs were not overturned by astronomical discoveries. Indeed, they became part of the foundation on which modern cosmology was built.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction
Shared Culture, Separate Spaces	p. 3
High and Low Culture	p. 5
The Verbal and Visual in Popular Culture	p. 10
The Culture of Comets	p. 12
Signs of the Times	p. 15
Ancient Signs	p. 17
Physical Theories of Comets	p. 17
Tokens of Doom	p. 20
Political Messages and Means	p. 24
Monsters and the Messiah	p. 27
Popular and Patristic Views of Comets	p. 27
Monsters and Their Messages	p. 30
Monstrous Comets in Scripture	p. 31
Star of Bethlehem, Herald of Judgment	p. 38
Time of the End	p. 46
Reformation in Religion	p. 47
Divination	p. 51
Color	p. 51
Conjunctions	p. 53
Passage through Zodiac and Prominent Constellations	p. 53
Astrological Houses and Cardinal Orientations	p. 56
Pointing of Tail	p. 58
Position of Nucleus	p. 58
Shapes and Sizes	p. 58
Motion	p. 60
Duration	p. 61
Historical Induction	p. 65
Portents and Politics	p. 66
In Streets and Alehouses	p. 66
God on Their Side	p. 68
Prophecies and Propaganda	p. 70
Natural Causes	p. 89
From Natural Signs to Proximate Causes	p. 91
New Attitudes toward Nature and the Recovery of Classical Science	p. 91
Aristotle and Terrestrial Corruption	p. 92
Ptolemy and the Power of Mars	p. 94
Stepping-StOnes from Symptoms to Causes	p. 96
Critics and Strategies	p. 99
The Decline of Cometary Divination	p. 104
Astronomical Reforms	p. 104
Epistemological Critics	p. 114
Shift in Priorities and Signs of Decline	p. 117
Social Reasons for the Decline	p. 123
TwoRld Reformation	p. 131
Comets, Transmutations, and World Reform in Newton's Thought	p. 133
Celestial Mechanics of Comets	p. 135
Pristine Truths and Political Corruption	p. 138
Transmutations and Perpetual Interchange	p. 142
Fire, Water, and a Heavenly Physiology	p. 148
"Revolutions in the Heavenly Bodies"	p. 149
Comets, Teleology, and Newton's Appropriation of Comet Lore	p. 153
Halley's Comet Theory, Noah's Flood, and the End of the World	p. 156
Interest in Orbits	p. 156
Halley's Theory of the Deluge	p. 162
The End of the World	p. 164
The Benefits of Comets	p. 166
The Scientific Response	p. 167
Ecclesiastical Criticism	p. 168
Halley's Alleged Freethinking in Political Context	p. 171
The Satirists' Barbs	p. 174
Comet Lore and Cosmogony	p. 179
Refueling the Sun and Planets	p. 181
Circulation of Vital Matter	p. 181
Critics	p. 183
Stoking the Stellar Fires	p. 186
Revolution and Evolution within the Heavens	p. 188
Come Hell or High Water	p. 189
From Creation to Cosmogony	p. 198
Concluding Remarks Popular Culture and Elite Science	p. 216
Appendix Recent Resurgence of Cometary Catastrophism	p. 222
Notes	p. 225
Bibliography	p. 309
Index	p. 353
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