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Otto von Guericke und die Kosmologie im 17.?Jahrhundert
Author(s) -
Knobloch Eberhard
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
berichte zur wissenschaftsgeschichte
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1522-2365
pISSN - 0170-6233
DOI - 10.1002/bewi.200390073
Subject(s) - heaven , philosophy , scientific revolution , epistemology , history of science , space (punctuation) , philosophy of science , cosmology , scientific theory , order (exchange) , art history , theology , physics , history , astronomy , linguistics , finance , economics
Otto von Guericke's scientific method was based on reason and experimental science. His cosmology was embedded in theology and can be interpreted as a refutation of Descartes's worldview. He used Nicolaus Cusanus's theory of quantities in order to characterize the space. The notion of space has to be distinguished from that of world or heaven. Forces play a crucial role in this respect described by Kircher in his ‘Celestial journey’. Guericke read this work very diligently. In spite of some obvious similarities between Guericke's and Newton's scientific aims and methods there are crucial differences between the scientific convictions and results of these scholars.