Johannes Kepler was born in December of 1571 in the small town of Weil der Stadt, Germany. His father was a soldier, and so his mother was responsible for nurturing Kepler’s more intellectual fascinations. Once he was of age, he received an education at the University of Tübingen, where he was later educated in theology as well as science and mathematics. Here he would eventually be introduced to the Copernican model of the solar system. It is also worth noting that many educational institutions in Germany were under the control of Catholic and Protestant churches, so theology was still a large part of Kepler’s studies and later influenced his philosophy. As the Copernican theory was strongly rejected by both Catholic and Protestant churches due to going against biblical text, He was largely taught the Copernican model in private.
Kepler’s attendance in these institutions were largely due to scholarships given to those feeling loyal to their rulers in Germany. This was necessary as Kepler came from a family that did not have the money for higher education without the aid of scholarships. Later in his mathematical studies, he was asked to replace professor Georg Stadius in mathematics. While in this position, he also made a great deal of his income from astrological calendars which he also indulged in, even though he did believe that astrological predictions could be due to chance alone.
While in Tubingen, it was under mathematician and former Lutheran pastor Michael Maestlin where Kepler was taught much about the Copernican theory, despite the fact that Maestlin was very private about his belief in this theory due to it being seen as very heretical. Kepler then spent the rest of his life proving this Copernican theory through a more religious lens in his publications.
After publishing his Mysterium Cosmographicum and having a large impact on the scientific community, he decided to move to Prague due to his success. Here, he worked under the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Kepler did a large portion of his studies and got a lot of his works published while in Prague. He studied a lot in optics, publishing his Astronomiae pars optica. In astronomy, he published his famous Astronomia Nova, as well as a piece of text discussing Galileo’s findings from the telescope. In addition, he also published astrology treatises as astrology did play a large part in his works and philosophy. Once his first wife died whom he married before moving to Prague, he moved to upper Austria to teach as a professor at Landschaftsschule. Surprisingly, later in his life Kepler had to go back to his mother so that he could defend her against being accused of being a witch, as the witch hunt was very much alive during this time period. Thankfully, he was successful in defending her. When returning back to his work, in 1619 he published his philosophical work, Harmonice Mundi, as well as his works on the Copernican model of the solar system. Throughout this period, he continued to publish more work in mathematics as well.
Eventually, When in Regensburg to present in front of imperial authorities his finances, Kepler died in November of 1630.