Olbers's Paradox,the Beginning of Creation,and Johann Mädler

The standard work on the history of Olbers's Paradox is Jaki S. L. , The paradox of Olbers' Paradox (New York, 1969). This work contains a wealth of historical material, but according to Edward Harrison (Darkness at night: A riddle of the Universe (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 229) it is flawed by Jaki's failure to understand some of the physical mechanisms underlying Olbers's Paradox. Harrison's book is in my judgement the best discussion of the physics of Olbers's Paradox and proposed resolutions. Harrison thinks a knowledge of up-to-date science is crucial in understanding the history of science. See his “Whigs, prigs, and historians of science”, Nature, cccxxix (1987), 213–14.

Harrison , Darkness at night , 146–8, 209; Harrison E. R. , “The dark night sky riddle: A ‘paradox’ that resisted solution”, Science, ccxxvi (1984), 941–5.

According to the biography of Mädler by Herrmann D. B. in the Dictionary of scientific biography (ix (New York, 1974), 2), from which my outline of Mädler's life is largely taken, Mädler became a “seminary teacher”, and in English ‘seminary’ carries the connotation of a religious school. However, in the standard German language biographies, Allgemeine Deutsch Biographie, xx (1884), and Brockhaus Conversations, ix (1846), he is termed a “Seminarlehrer” and a teacher in a “Schullehrerseminar”, respectively, which is best translated as “teaching-school teacher”.

According to Mädler's introduction to the fifth edition of Populäre Astronomie (entitled Der Wunderbau des Weltalls, oder Populäre Astronomie (Berlin, 1861)), there was no third edition. The 1852 edition was simply an expanded reprint of the 1849 edition, and in fact both were called the “fourth edition”. The National Union Catalog records no editions other than the first (1841), second (1846), fourth (1849), fourth (1852), fifth (1861), sixth and seventh editions.

Ibid., fifth edition, 466.

Ibid.

Mädler J. H. , Geschichte der Himmelskunde von der ältesten bis auf neueste Zeit (Braunschweig, 1873), ii, 223.

Poe E. A. , Eureka: A prose poem, facsimile of the first (1848) edition with introductory essay by Benton R. P. (Hartford, 1973).

Eddington A. S. , quoted in Edgar Allan Poe: A critical biography, by Quinn A. H. (New York, 1941), 556.

Poe , op.cit., p. 134 of the 1848 edition.

Tipler F. J. , “General relativity and the eternal return”, in Essays in general relativity, ed. by Tipler F. J. (New York, 1980), 21–37.

It was widely read according to Herrmann , op. cit. Independent evidence for this is the reference by Engels (see below); it was even referenced by Poe in Eureka, pp. 121–6 of the 1848 edition!.

Barrow J. D. and Tipler F. J. , The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford, 1986), 440–4: “Creation ex nihilo.”.

Tipler F. J. Ellis G. F. R. and Clarke C. J. S. , “Singularities and horizons: A review article”, in General relativity and gravitation: One hundred years after the birth of Albert Einstein, ed. by Held A. (New York, 1980), ii, 97–206. This is a history of the development of the singularity theorems.

Engels F. , Dialectics of nature, preface and notes by Haldane J. B. S. (New York, 1940). Engels goes on to reproduce independently Halley's (incorrect) argument that starlight would be insensible beyond a certain distance, but he presents this argument only to demonstrate that Olbers's absorption explanation is not the only one. Haldane points out Engels's error, but Haldane himself thinks only absorption prevents us from being roasted by starlight! Engels could not really appreciate Mädler's argument, since Engels believed in a cyclic universe (ibid., 24 and 202), and he claimed a cyclic Universe was fundamental to any materialist world view. However, Haldane (p. 24) thinks Engels would have welcomed the modern concept of the entire Universe having a history. A unidirectional progressive Cosmos, in Haldane's opinion, is the only model truly consistent with the Marxist world view. The noted Marxist scholar Sidney Hook disagrees with Haldane; he feels Engels was fundamentally wedded to the idea of a cyclic cosmos (personal communication and Out of step (New York, 1987)).

Tipler F. J. , “Johann Mädler's resolution of Olbers' Paradox”, to appear in the September 1988 issue of Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work contains a photograph of Mädler.