''The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe'' is a 1959 book by
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
. It traces the history of Western
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
from ancient
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
to
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
. He suggests that discoveries in science arise through a process akin to sleepwalking. Not that they arise by chance, but rather that scientists are neither fully aware of what guides their research, nor are they fully aware of the implications of what they discover.
Synopsis
A central theme of the book is the changing relationship between faith and reason. Koestler explores how these seemingly contradictory threads existed harmoniously in many of the greatest intellectuals of the West. He illustrates that while the two are estranged today, in the past the most ground-breaking thinkers were often very spiritual.
Another recurrent theme of this book is the breaking of
paradigms in order to create new ones. People, scientists included, cling to cherished old beliefs with such love and attachment that they refuse to see what is wrong in their ideas and the truth in the new ideas that will replace them. (This point was developed a few years afterwards by
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book '' The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term ''paradig ...
in ''
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (1962; second edition 1970; third edition 1996; fourth edition 2012) is a book about the history of science by philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philoso ...
'', in which the concept of "
paradigm shift" came to the fore.)
Without denying the greatness of
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He wa ...
and the other modern scientists, he pointed out their mistakes and sometimes intellectual dishonesty, arguing that: "The
scientific revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...
's intellectual giants were dwarfs from a moral point of view". "The conclusion he puts forward at the end of the book is that modern science is trying too hard to be rational. Scientists have been at their best when they allowed themselves to behave as 'sleepwalkers,' instead of trying too earnestly to ratiocinate."
Analysis
The historian of astronomy
Owen Gingerich
Owen Jay Gingerich (; born 1930) is professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he has ...
, while acknowledging that Koestler's book contributed to his interest in the history of science, described it (in 2004) as "highly questionable" and criticized its treatment of historical figures as fictional.
Gingerich's work, which he recounts in a book called "
The Book Nobody Read Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus''" in reference to Koestler, shows that the latter was entirely wrong when he said of Copernicus' De Revolutionibus that it was a "book that nobody had read" and "one of the greatest editorial failures of all time".
French mathematician
Alexandre Grothendieck cites this work as one of his sources of inspiration in his memorandum entitled
Publication data
* Arthur Koestler, ''The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe'' (1959), Hutchinson
* First published in the United States by MacMillan in 1959
* Published by Penguin Books in 1964
* Reissued by Pelican Books in 1968
* Reprinted by Peregrine Books in 1986;
* Reprinted by Arkana in 1989;
* Chapters on Kepler excerpted as ''The Watershed'' published by Doubleday Anchor in 1960, as part of the Science Study Series.
See also
*
1959 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1959.
Events
*January 31 – Sandu Tudor begins a 40-year sentence at Jilava prison for "conspiracy against social order" and "intense activity against the worki ...
*
Owen Gingerich
Owen Jay Gingerich (; born 1930) is professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he has ...
References
External links
*
Frankel, Charles (24 May 1959)
"The Road to Great Discovery Is Itself a Thing of Wonder" ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sleepwalkers
1959 non-fiction books
Astronomy books
Books about the history of science
Books by Arthur Koestler
English non-fiction books
English-language books
Hutchinson (publisher) books
Cosmology books