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Kepler’s triumph over misfortune

Published: 21 Feb. 2025, 00:01

Lee Woo Young

The author is an HCMC distinguished professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study.

His life was marked by unrelenting misfortune. At the age of four, he contracted smallpox, losing most of his vision. His youth was devoid of joy, and his marriage became a ceaseless source of misery. His son succumbed to smallpox, and his wife, suffering from mental illness, passed away prematurely. When the city he lived in fell under Catholic control, he, a Lutheran, lost his job. His mother was accused of witchcraft and imprisoned. Though she was eventually released after much hardship, she died soon after.

For his second marriage, he meticulously compared 11 potential candidates before choosing a wife, yet their clashing personalities made it even more unhappy than his first. In his later years, he barely made ends meet by casting horoscopes. Anyone else facing such relentless misfortune would have been consumed by despair.

And yet, he changed the course of human intellectual history.

The man at the center of this story is none other than Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), the scientist who discovered that planets orbit in ellipses. Whenever adversity struck, he locked himself in his room, pouring his entire being into astronomical calculations. His misfortunes gave birth to his dreams. Walking hand in hand with suffering, he delved deeper into the mysteries of planetary motion.

For 11 years, he confined himself to his room, ceaselessly calculating. His exhaustive efforts led him to two key discoveries: the speed of a planet varies depending on its position and the line connecting a planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals. Then came the breakthrough — he saw the pattern emerge before his eyes. The secret of orbital motion had finally unveiled itself. The answer was an ellipse.

For 2,000 years, humanity had clung to the belief — shared even by Galileo — that planetary orbits were perfect circles. That belief was a mirage. Ironically, Kepler’s misfortunes illuminated the world.

In life, everyone encounters hardships, large and small. Misfortune lies beyond human control. But as Kepler’s story shows, hardship does not always lead to ruin. If one sows the seeds of dreams even in the soil of suffering, those dreams may blossom brilliantly.

Perhaps misfortune exists so that humans may dream.

Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.