Johannes Kepler [1930a]

Hans Reichenbach

pp. 263-269

in: Maria Reichenbach, Robert S. Cohen (eds), Selected writings 1909–1953, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

On November 15, three hundred years will have passed since Johannes Kepler, one of the founders of modern astronomy and of modem science as a whole, closed his eyes for the last time. Measured against the brevity of our own individual lives, three hundred years is a long time, but measured with an eye to the laborious progress of science as a social phenomenon of civilization, it is but a short span of time, encompassing such a closely related set of intellectual approaches that, from this stand-point, Johannes Kepler is regarded as a member of the present epoch of civilization — indeed, as one of those leading minds whose thoughts continue to be applied in new ways by scientists.