I have only recently discovered that a fellow named Owen Gingerich ever lived or died. Yet he and I have very much overlapping timelines -- I was born when he was 28, and he died just two and a half years ago. Now that I know who he was, I am sorry I didn't learn of him sooner. So here is a post for Gingerich, concluding "science week" at Jamesian Pragmatism Refreshed. Gingerich was an astronomer, and an important participant in debates over what we understand by the word "planet," debates that centered -- while he was most involved in them -- on the case of alleged planet Pluto. Gingerich was also a teacher of the Harvard University course "The Astronomical Perspective," a core science course for non-scientists. To me what is most fascinating about Gingerich, though, is his work as a historian of science, and especially of the early modern developments in astronomy and physics beginning with Copernicus and continuing through Newton's day. In 2...