Constellations and Conjectures

This second edition of Norwood Russell Hanson’s Constellations and Conjectures, a philosophical history of astronomy originally published in 1973, provides significant updates and corrections to the original text. The new edition also features an introduction by Matthew D. Lund, author of N.R. Hanson: Observation, Discovery, and Scientific Change (Humanity Books, 2010), that contextualizes the book and Hanson’s legacy.

Hanson, a driving force behind the creation of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) as a new subject of study in the post-war period, saw history and philosophy of science as mutually interdependent and illuminating. Hanson brought Wittgensteinian ordinary language philosophy to bear on the concepts of science, and his treatments of observation, discovery, and the theory-ladenness of scientific facts remain central to the philosophy of science. Additionally, Hanson was one of philosophy’s great personalities, and his charm and sense of humor come through clearly in the pages of Constellations and Conjectures.

Hanson’s vivid writing and drawings bring to life humanity’s perennial fascination for the heavens. While some might view the history of science as a repository of error and confusion, Hanson argues that intelligibility emerges incrementally and, in the end, triumphantly, as history unfolds. Astronomy’s history is viewed as a sort of grand romance where the ideals of prediction and explanation continually elude and evade each other, until their destined union. This book is of interest to scholars of philosophy and the history of astronomy.