Making Sense of Astrology [Hardcover]

Ronny Martens (Author), Tim Trachet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Despite 2000 years of examination and numerous challenges to the validity of astrology and its application to people's lives, the belief in the power of the stars continues to be strong world-wide. Does astrology work? Can it help us understand our lives and the world around us? Scientific analysis of astrological claims has moved the debate to a new level, away from the philosophical and symbolic. "Making Sense of Astrology" provides an objective evaluation of astrology, providing an overview of the main arguments linking astrology to astronomy.The authors, well-known international experts in science and reason, draw on well-founded data from the birth of astrology, traditional mythology, claims by astrologers, the psychology behind belief in the zodiac, and essential information from scientific studies. Astrological theory and practice are evaluated, throwing light on the many reasons for their continued success. The authors provide descriptive and evaluative material that should enable readers to make an intelligent and informed judgement about the value of astrology.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Dutch

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573922188
• ISBN-13: 978-1573922180
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,697,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convincing refutation of Astrology, July 19, 2000

By 

D. Sinclair - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Sense of Astrology (Hardcover)

"Sceptical" treatises of controversial subject areas all too often suffer from lack of credibility, because they do not take the criticized subject seriously. Instead of making an honest attempt to understand the subject thorougly (which, in the case of astrology, involves hard work), they resort to purely rhetorical arguments, ridicule, logical trickery, misrepresentation of the subject, "debunkery by association", sometimes even make up scientific evidence to the contrary and invent whole studies that were never performed.

This scholarly work does not need any of this. Keeping the "sceptical" belligerence to a minimum, the authors make rational, intelligent arguments that are accessible to any interested layperson who is willing to invest a little time and effort of thought. A truly educational work, and worthy of five stars.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book I have been waiting for a long time!, July 6, 2000

By 

Helmer Aslaksen (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Making Sense of Astrology (Hardcover)

The title may be a bit misleading. The authors are skeptics, but try to take astrology seriously. They explain the house system and aspects etc carefully. The discussion of the problems involved in defining the houses in the artics is excellent! If you've always wondered how astrologers "know" which properties are ascribed to the different sign and planets or what the houses really means, then this is the book for you!
On the negative side, I think that sometimes they get a bit "agressive" towards astrologers. I think that the best way to make fun of astrologers is to take them seriously. Once you understand the arctic house problem, you will probably not have much faith in astrology. So there's no need to get agressiv. I also think that they could have given a bit more detail in explaining the astronomical and geometical problems. Unless you have some understanding of astronomy, you're not going to be able to understand everything. But the basic issues are explained well, and you can just skip the harder session.

PS. One of my students has written a mathematical supplement to this book. It's available on my home page. (Amazon won't let me give you the URL in the review, but just do a quick searh on the web.)