“Was Kepler Being Ironic? Ramus Professors of Mathematics and the Nature of Their Hypotheses in the Classroom”

The educational reformer Petrus Ramus stipulated in his will and publications that his proposed new chair of mathematics at Paris should have certain attributes: be well-schooled in Greek and Latin, esteem reason over authority, place an emphasis on geometry, arithmetic, optics, and mechanics, and champion an astronomy without hypotheses. This latter challenge was taken up by Johannes Kepler when he suggested that he himself met Ramus’ criteria. This chapter will explore the multiple ways in which two prominent holders of, and one candidate for the chair presented astronomical hypotheses to students in the classrooms of France and Britain, offering multiple hypotheses that seem to run contrary to Ramus’ stipulations. However, their activities reflected an interpretation that Ramus’ intention had been—as Kepler suggested—a desire to go beyond unnecessary speculation grounded in unprovable natural philosophical conjecture in order to find a true astronomical model grounded in the specialist aptitudes specified in his will.