Background
Bartholomaus Keckermann was born c. 1571-1573 in Gdansk, Royal Prussia (now Danzig, Poland). He was the son of George and Gertrude Keckermann.
1590
Wittenberg University, Wittenberg, Germany
In 1590 Keckermann was sent to Wittenberg University.
1592
Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
Keckermann stayed to Leipzig for a semester in 1592.
1592
Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
Keckermann went to Heidelberg in 1592 and obtained his Master of Arts degree in 1595. In 1602 he obtained his Doctor of divinity degree.
Danzig Gymnasium, Danzig, Germany
Keckermann was educated at Danzig Gymnasium.
Astronomer mathematician philosopher theologian writer
Bartholomaus Keckermann was born c. 1571-1573 in Gdansk, Royal Prussia (now Danzig, Poland). He was the son of George and Gertrude Keckermann.
Keckermann was educated by Jacob Fabricius, rector of the Danzig Gymnasium. In 1590 he was sent to Wittenberg University, then to Leipzig for a semester (1592), and finally to Heidelberg (1592). In the latter city, he obtained his Master of Arts degree in 1595. In 1602 he obtained his Doctor of divinity degree at Heidelberg.
In 1595 Keckermann was appointed tutor and then a lecturer in philosophy. The chair of Hebrew was conferred on him in 1600. His growing reputation had resulted in an invitation in 1597 from the Danzig senate to return to that city’s Gymnasium. Although he declined this offer, Keckermann accepted a later invitation and became professor of philosophy at Danzig in 1602. There he remained until his death.
Jacob Fabricius imbued Keckermann with strict Calvinist doctrine and a detestation of Anabaptists and Catholics.
At the Danzig Gymnasium, Keckermann tried to implement a Ramist reform of the curriculum with a scheme intended to give youths an encyclopedic education within three years. In this new cursus philosophicus the first year was devoted to logic and physics, the second year to mathematics and metaphysics, and the third to ethics, economics, and politics. The key to this syllabus was Keckermann’s systematic method, which was influenced by the view of Petrus Ramus that the correct approach to discipline is topical and analytical, rather than merely historical or narrative.
Keckermann was not a pure Ramist, however, and was most sympathetic to the progressive Aristotelian views outlined in Jacopo Zabarella’s De methodis. Like Zabarella, Keckermann believed that much of the effort being devoted to the textual analysis of Aristotle (effort that led to the prolonging of the cursus philosophicus) could be better diverted to developing new Aristotelian methods and analytical systems. He thus drew heavily on both Aristotelian and Ramist ideas for his philosophical and logical Praecognita, in which he gave the first theoretical discussion of systems (the set of precepts characterizing each science).
In his lectures at Danzig, he made abundant use of his systematic method. In its published form, the typical lecture course is entitled Systema. Among the published système are treatments of logic, politics, physics, metaphysics, ethics, theology, Hebrew, geography, geometry, astronomy, and optics. These works are philosophical and pedagogical in character and contain little material of any scientific value; certainly, there is no scientific originality in them. Their main interest lies perhaps in their illustration of the content of university courses in mathematics and natural philosophy in the early years of the seventeenth century.
Keckermann’s Systema physicum, a set of lectures delivered in 1607 and published in 1610, discussed physics, astronomy, and natural philosophy, all in largely Aristotelian terms. The author differed from most Peripatetics by describing the four elements as less complete and perfect in form than the mixed bodies. Since elements are not completely and individually sui generis, Keckermann found it plausible that they should be capable of rapid transmutation into one another.
The long discussion of comets has a theological flavor, which is not surprising in view of Keckermann’s religious training and devotion. Comets are conventionally defined as terrestrial exhalations produced by the action of the planets in the supreme aerial region. God then encourages angels or permits demons, to join with the comet in producing extraordinary terrestrial effects. God’s unpredictable choice of angels or demons for the task explains the good and bad effects of comets, although some allowance must be made for the comet’s relation to the stars and planets. Predominantly, however, the effects of comets are malign and indicate divine wrath.
There are serious gaps and errors in the Systema physicum. The vacuum is not adequately discussed in terms of Aristotelian motion and place. Keckermann also maintained that water contracts when frozen. This mistake was criticized in 1618 by Isaac Beeckman, who remarked that either a simple experiment or common sense would have exposed the fallacy. Keckermann’s use of experiment - or, rather, of experience - is in fact very crude and imprecise.
It is not known whether Keckermann was married, and no information in general is available about his family.