Kepler's lesson: his astronomy succeeded despite broken physics by leaning on metaphysical presuppositions
fkasummer · x · 2026-10-23
The author quotes a history-of-science passage on the nagging question of why Kepler's astronomy worked so well although his pre-Newtonian physics was ineffective: his instinct for physical problems was sound but his tools were not, and his success depended on shifting to frankly metaphysical presuppositions when his physical ones gave out — an implicit analogy for making progress with imperfect tools today.
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