Astronomy from Plato to Einstein
From ancient times mankind has looked to the heavens, gazing upon the beauty and majestic order of the stars, pondering the harmony of the cosmos and man’s place in it. This course explores Western astronomy from antiquity to our own spacefaring age, seeking to understand both the continuities and the differences between astronomy as a liberal art and as a modern, physical science, attending especially to the place of mathematics in the study of the stars through the centuries.
The course will start with an intensive, in-person week in Leiden. Students will read the Timaeus, Plato's famous dialogue on the creation of the world and the ordering of the heavenly spheres.
In the following weeks, students will trace the history of astronomy from antiquity to our own time. Class will meet twice a week online to discuss Ptolemy’s Almagest, Kepler’s Astronomia Nova, Newton’s Principia, and Einstein's Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, among other great astronomical texts.
The course will be conducted as a series of Socratic dialogues, and is open to anyone interested in learning more about astronomy as a liberal art. The instructors, Dr. Jeff Lehman and Dr. Andrew Seeley, are excellent professors who will help you to get a deeper and richer understanding of the philosophical and mathematical foundations of astronomy.