[SydPhil] HPS Research Series- Dr James Christie - Astrology and the Extraterrestrial Life Debate in the Early Modern Period

[Debbie Castle]

[https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/aLpMCjZrzqHKLjZrcW7ogD?domain=gallery.mailchimp.com]








SCHOOL OF HISTORY

AND PHILOSOPHY

OF SCIENCE
Held in conjunction with the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science
SEMESTER ONE 2019
RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES
MONDAY 15TH April 2019









[https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/-11gCk8vAZt8VnoEcVqOgK?domain=gallery.mailchimp.com]

DR JAMES CHRISTIE
THE WARBURG INSTITUTE
THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON







Astrology and the Extraterrestrial Life Debate in the Early Modern Period

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the decline of astrology as a scientific discipline, as well as the adoption, or re-adoption, of the ‘plurality of worlds’ philosophy and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The histories of these two phenomena are usually kept separate, largely because the same period represents a certain terminus ad quem for the former and the terminus a quo for the latter. Nevertheless, both these trends are considered consequences of a Copernican cosmology and hallmarks of a modern worldview.
This talk will suggest the benefits of a conjoined and comparative history of astrology and the ET life debate in the early modern period. Offering up examples from Nicholas of Cusa to the Newtonian Richard Bentley, I will argue (a) that the astrological tradition initially offered a stimulus to early theories of ET life; and (b) that the idea of an inhabited universe was later used to undermine astrology, ultimately supplanting it as the dominant cosmological paradigm.






WHERE: LEVEL 5 FUNCTION ROOM F23
(NEW) ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
AT THE ENTRANCE TO CITY ROAD
CAMPERDOWN CAMPUS
WHEN: MONDAY 15TH April 2019
START: 5.30PM




All Welcome | No Booking Required | Free






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