The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915: A Source Book

576 Pages·2008·20.48 MB·English

by  Michael J. Crowe

THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DEBATE, ANTIQUITY TO 1915 CROWE E
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A S O U R C E B O O K
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Edited with commentary by Michael J. Crowe
LIFE DEBATE
“This is a valuable book that is not available anywhere else. Crowe’s purpose is to let
the reader see the original words of the authors who discussed other worlds. Such a
source book serves an important purpose, and is ideal for teaching and generating
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discussion in class. The subject is of increasing importance as we find more and
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more about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life through current disciplines such
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as astrobiology, bioastronomy, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.”

E A N T I Q U I T Y T O 1 9 1 5
—Steven J. Dick, Director, NASA History Division, NASA
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“Having established himself as the world’s authority on the history of the debates
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about extraterrestrial life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Michael Crowe
is perfectly positioned to produce this source book. The introductory commentaries A
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on the excerpts from primary sources he has so judiciously selected reveal again and
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again that no one else knows this subject as well as he does.”
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—Frederick Gregory, University of Florida
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“The Extraterrestrial Life Debate gives new meaning to the word ‘treasury.’ Michael E
Crowe offers us more than two thousand years of golden materials—wrought by the S
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astonishing alchemy of science, religion, philosophy, and sheer imagination—about
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a topic as alive today as it ever was: ET, with all his cousins and ancestors. The
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range of authors the book showcases, and the depth of context Crowe provides,
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will make his monumental anthology the starting point for future explorations
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of this rich vein of human thought.”
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—Dennis Danielson, University of British Columbia I
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This book presents key documents from the pre-1915 history of the extraterrestrial E
life debate. Introductions and commentaries accompany each source document,
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some of which are published here for the first time or in a new translation. Authors
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included are Aristotle, Lucretius, Aquinas, Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Fontenelle,
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Huygens, Newton, Pope, Voltaire, Kant, Herschel, Paine, Chalmers, Whewell,
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Darwin, Wallace, Dostoevsky, Lowell, and Antoniadi, among others.
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Michael J. Crowe is the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in Humanities
in the Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and Philosophy
of Science at the University of Notre Dame. He has published a number of books,
including The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of
Worlds from Kant to Lowell. A S O U R C E B O O K
ISBN-13:978-0-268-02368-3 University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN 46556 Edited with commentary by
ISBN-10:0-268-02368-9 www.undpress.nd.edu
900 00 Michael J. Crowe
Cover art: Drawing by J. J. Grandville of a Bridge between
Worlds, from Un Autre Monde (1844).
9 78026 8 023683 Cover design: Jason Harvey
crowe_mech.indd 1 6/23/08 5:07:04 PM
E X T R AT E R R E S T R I A L
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L I F E D E B AT E

E X T R AT E R R E S T R I AL
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L I F E D E BAT E
A n t i q u i t y t o 1 9 1 5
A SOURCE BOOK
edited with commentary by
MICHAEL J. CROWE
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Crowe-000.FM 6/30/08 12:07 PM Page iv
Copyright © 2008 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Title page art: detail from drawing by J.J. Grandville of a Bridge between Worlds,
from Un Autre Monde(1844).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crowe, Michael J.
The extraterrestrial life debate, antiquity to 1915 : a source book / edited by Michael J.
Crowe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02368-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-268-02368-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1.Life on other planets. 2. Plurality of worlds. I. Title.
QB54.C764 2008
576.8'39——dc22
2008026865
∞The paperin this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability ofthe Committee onProductionGuidelines forBook Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
To my brother,
Patrick H. Crowe

CONTENTS
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xiii
Preface xv
PART ONE Antiquity to Newton
ONE
The Debate in Antiquity 3
TWO
From Augustine to the Fifteenth Century 14
THREE
From Copernicus to Bruno 35
FOUR
Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Pascal 51
viii c o n t e n t s
FIVE
Fontenelle and Huygens 72
SIX
Newton, Bentley, and Derham 109
PART TWO The Eighteenth Century
SEVEN
Astronomers and Extraterrestrials 129
EIGHT
Extraterrestrials and the Enlightenment 182
PART THREE From 1800 to 1860
NINE
Intensification of the Debate after 1800 233
TEN
Before the Whewell Debate 297
ELEVEN
Whewell’s Of the Plurality of Worlds and Responses 333
PART FOUR From 1860 to 1915
TWELVE
New Approaches to an Ancient Question 369
c o n t e n t s
ix
THIRTEEN
The Late Nineteenth Century 438
FOURTEEN
The Controversy over the Canals of Mars 470
Conclusion 518
Appendix
The History of Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life Research Program 522
Selected Bibliography 526
Permissions 542
Index 544