![]() Like the chicken and the egg it’s impossible to say which came first, astrology or astronomy (though I recently read that evolutionary biologists have determined that the egg came first). Over a period of something between three and four thousand years, astronomy and astrology were not rivals or competitors but two sides of the same coin, Siamese twins joined at the hip only separated in the final phases of the so-called scientific revolution. Whilst as a non-believer I have some sympathy, I often ask myself if those harsh critics are aware of the central role that astrology played in the historical evolution of science in general and astronomy in particular, from the early days in ancient Babylon down to the end of the seventeenth century. Supporters of science, especially those who believe that empirical science is the only purveyor of truth in the world, like to poke fun at astrology as the prime example of a load of old rubbish with pretensions to non-scientific truth. He runs the blog, The Renaissance Mathematicus, and he was the editor of Whewell’s Gazette. Thony Christie (Twitter handle is a British-born historian of early modern science and mathematics currently living in Franconia, Germany. ![]()
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