Room 244, Mandel Building, Mt. Scopus Campus | raz.chen-morris@mail.huji.ac.il

 

Prof. Raz Chen-Morris teaches at the Department of History at the Hebrew University. He investigates the history of science during the Renaissance and the Early Modern era. His research focuses on the life and work of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), integrating the history of science with intellectual and cultural history. His book with Ofer Gal, Baroque Science (2013), examines the New Science as a Baroque phenomenon that probes certain epistemological paradoxes: that the human eye is a mere instrument that cannot see; that mathematics is unable to find the harmonious order of the world; and that to reason one has to be passionate. His book Measuring Shadows (2016) develops this line of thought, suggesting that the aspiration to observe what is invisible was a major characteristic of 17th-century scientific activity. Kepler's new optics tackled certain persisting problems that haunted late Scholastic thought while facing the challenges suggested by Renaissance art and early modern intellectual crisis.

Raz’s current research probes the relationship between political imagination and early modern mathematics. This research suggests that the telescope redefines scientific activity while drawing a new image of the prince and suggesting novel theories of sovereignty.