''Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds'' () is a

popular science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

book by French author

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (; ; 11 February 1657 – 9 January 1757), also called Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, was a French author and an influential member of three of the academies of the Institut de France, noted especially for his ...

, published in 1686. The book expresses support for

cosmic pluralism Cosmic pluralism, the plurality of worlds, or simply pluralism, describes the belief in numerous "worlds" (planets, dwarf planets or natural satellites) in addition to Earth (possibly an infinite number), which may harbour extraterrestrial life. ...

and discusses the topic of

astrobiology Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the List of life sciences, life and environmental sciences that studies the abiogenesis, origins, Protocell, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the univ ...

. Fontenelle speculated on the existence of

Venusians The planet Venus has been used as a Setting (narrative), setting in fiction since before the 19th century. Its Atmosphere of Venus, opaque cloud cover gave science fiction writers free rein to speculate on conditions at its surface—a "cosmic R ...

as a distinct species of

extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...

Content

The work consists of six lessons popularizing the knowledge of

René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...

and

Nicolas Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. Copernicus likely developed his model independently of Aris ...

, taught through conversation with a Marquise, spread over six evenings and preceded of a preface and a dispatch ''To Monsieur L***'' . * ''First evening.'' That the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

is a

Planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

which turns on itself, & around the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. * ''Second evening.'' That the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

is an inhabited Earth. * ''Third night.'' Peculiarities of the Moon World. That the other Planets are also inhabited. * ''Fourth evening.'' Peculiarities of the Worlds of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, Mercury,

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

, &

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

. * ''Fifth night.'' That the Fixed Stars are so many Suns, each of which illuminates a World. * ''Sixth evening.'' New thoughts that confirm those of previous Interviews. Latest discoveries that have been made in Heaven.

Analysis

Unlike many scientific works of its time, ''Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds'' was not written in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

but in French, making it one of the first books to attempt an explanation of

scientific theories A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be or that has been repeatedly tested and has corroborating evidence in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation, measureme ...

in a popular language. A precursor to it could be seen in

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno ( , ; ; born Filippo Bruno; January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which concep ...

's 1584 book ''.'' It is an early exposition of

, the idea that the

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

s are distant suns which might have their own

planetary systems A planetary system is a set of gravitationally bound non-stellar bodies in or out of orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although such systems may also consis ...

, including the possibility of

. In the preface, Fontenelle suggests that the offered explanation should be easily understood even by those without scientific knowledge, and he specifically addresses female readers. The book itself is presented as a series of

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

s between a gallant

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and a

marquise A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...

, who walk in the latter's garden at night and gaze at

s. The philosopher explains the

heliocentric model Heliocentrism (also known as the heliocentric model) is a superseded astronomical model in which the Earth and planets orbit around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed th ...

and also muses on the possibility of

. It is significant that the Marquise is an intelligent and curious thinker, able to understand complex ideas and suggest her own, subverting the wide-spread misconception that women were not capable of comprehending higher concepts. It is the first work introducing the trope that sentient Venusians are gentle, ethereal, and beautiful.

Reception

The book was very well received both in France and elsewhere, and was regularly published. In 1691, Fontenelle was elected to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. Fontenelle's work was not cast polemically against the world view of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

or the Protestant churches, nor did it attract the attention, positive or negative, of theologians or prelates. The book is Fontenelle's most famous work and is considered to be one of the first major works of the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

Translations

The first English translation was published in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

by Sir William Donville or Domville in 1687, followed by another translation by

Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; baptism, bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration (England), Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writ ...

in 1688, under the title ''A Discovery of New Worlds'' and a third by John Glanvill later in 1688.

Antiokh Kantemir Antiochus or Antioch Kantemir or Cantemir (; ; ; ; 8 September 1708 – 31 March 1744) was a Moldavian who served as a man of letters, diplomat, and prince during the Russian Enlightenment. He has been called "the father of Russian poetry". ...

translated it into

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

in 1730, although the translation was only published in a

censored Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

edition in 1740, due to objections from the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

. Elizabeth Gunning translated it into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

in 1803.

References

External links

Full text of 1800 edition at Google Books
(in French)
Full text of 1803 edition at Google Books
(in English)
Full text of 1803 edition Digitized by Google, Free Download at OpenLibrary
(in English) * {{Authority control 1686 non-fiction books 1686 in science 1686 in France French books Age of Enlightenment Popular science books Historical physics publications Venus in culture Books about René Descartes Nicolaus Copernicus Astrobiology books Dialogues