@8599d6ab What I meant by "pseudoscientific" (including the scare quotes) is that the model/hypothesis Kepler initially conceived, and never in fact fully relinquished, was a completely false description of the solar system, based on an epiphany he had that the relative distances between the orbits were explained by a celestial arrangement of the five platonic solids. The sun was indeed at the centre of it though! 🙂
@359dd83b
Got it! And now that I do (again, sorry to be dense): can you spell out the lesson? My sense is that it’s something like: don’t be afraid to think outside the box; even if you’re wrong, => progress!
@8599d6ab Yes, there's definitely that aspect to it too! I was thinking of these two complementary lessons: 1) Science advances in improbable ways; we should be aware of this and so be as precise and limited as possible when it comes to judgment of scientific practice.
BUT: 2) Reality nevertheless remains the ultimate test zone, and no matter how elegant one's initial model/hypothesis may be, ultimately theory and not reality must bend.
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