Galileo: a founder of science

From 1612-1613 evidence in the heavens sparked a debate. "Although Galileo was aware of the potentially explosive nature of this particular issue (the problem of the calendar and the shape of our solar system), he felt he could not stay silent, but decided to refute the argument." -- concerning small planets orbiting the sun, sun spots, and the Copernican theory.

Maurice A. Finocchiaro, The Essential Galileo.

• A founder of modern science; astronomy, physics, mathematics.

• explained pendulums, falling bodies, law of inertia, projectile motion.

• confirmed the Copernican, heliocentric system in face of heresy.

• His trial became the scandal of Catholicism even as late as 1992.

"The events of of 1616 marked a turning point in Galileo's career. He was no longer free to research the earth's motion, since he was not supposed to hold or defend it but was to limit himself to discussing it hypothetically, or instrumentalistically."

Maurice Finocchiaro, The Essential Galileo. page 11.

The Copernican system:

"the daily revolution of the Earth on its axis, and with Aristarchus its yearly journey around the sun."

Dampier, p. 109.

"To Copernicus the primary question was what motions of the planetary bodies would give the simplest most harmonious geometry of the heavens. . . a simpler scheme than the Ptolemaic cycles and epicycles in which the heavenly bodies move around the Earth."

Dampier, p. 111.

Precession of the equinoxes

A scientific problem of complex movement

The slow westward movement of the equinoctial points along the plane of the ecliptic by a rate of 50.27 seconds of arc per year resulting from a slow westward shift of the Earth's axis of rotation.

If the Sun is moving to the east, does that mean the moon moves to the west?

Overview:

Galileo: The person & the myth

Time period:

High Middle ages and Renaissance 1300 - 1633 - 1660 is the English Revolution

Reformation of Christendom 1517 - Luther / Calvin, Zwingli
Counter-reformation 1563

1609-10, He perfects a telescope & publishes his observations.

1618-1648, The Thirty Years' War

1660 is the Restoration of James II, Britain

Themes:

a sense of identity shifted, symbolism of the church underwent change, measuring reality with instruments created a new measures of the world.

"these are the days of miracle & wonder"

Middle Ages had created a strong hierarchical system that divided secular from sacred authority in which roles were determined by rank and service to the feudal order. Peasants were tied to the land, the Clergy possessed their own governing structure and the nobility was subject to oaths of fealty, entail, and obligations in an intricate order of fiefdoms ruled by Earls, Dukes, Princes, Kings as well as many other minor lords.

Medieval order was accompanied by a profound sense of place: personal, social, native, & cosmic order all emerged from this certainty of rank based on descent and pedigree.

Into this system Universities were created by some Bishops for the purposes of a more learned and educated clergy and for the dissemination of works in Latin about the Greek and Roman heritage of law, letters, medicine, and mathematics.

This was the world into which Galileo was born, a social and political order changing ever so slowly but with a strong heritage of order and responsibility, despite the great Schisms in the Catholic Church that had split Orthodox from western Roman churches (1054) and the matter of dual Popes in Rome and Avignon (1378-1417). The Vatican remained opposed to the Copernican astronomy until 1922.

Methodology:

The entire controversy over the Copernican system's legitimate representation of the heavens rests on a question of how well mathematics and observation dispel uncertainties with regards to the apparent motion of planets, stars, sun spots and comets.

"In 1618 three comets appeared in succession, the third being especially bright and lasting" the sky and the commentary on these events by academics brought into question Aristotle's ancient assumptions that these objects were in the earth's atmosphere. As Galileo was drawn into the arguments his contention that these comets were not in the earth's atmosphere --based on their apparent motion-- held "an implicit defense of the banned Copernican system."

Maurice Finocchiaro, The Essential Galileo. pp. 12-13.

Holton's Three criteria for science:

reason -- logical; deductive or inductive

empiricism -- experimental evidence

heuristics -- discoverable models

Analytical

History of ideas vs. Biography
Primary vs. Secondary sources
The rationalization of humanism --
Science & Art

Foundations of Modernity:

Galileo - Descartes - Hobbes - Hooke - Newton - Locke

Newton referred to the world he created with the rationality of calculus, the certainty of gravity and the discoveries of telescopes as "modernity," because this new "mechanistic order" detectable by empirical means in the divine plan replaced earlier alchemical, algebraic and Aristotelian worlds.

Galileo's times: zeitgeist.
Age of Discovery
from the Council of Trent, December 1545 until 1563
to the
English Revolution, 1640s; there ensued an ongoing challenge to authority.

Council of Trent, mostly Italian Bishops with the ascendancy of the Jesuit order.

The Council had been called to examine Catholic doctrine and the necessity of reform. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had wanted abuses of the Papacy, the monasteries and the clergy looked at first in an attempt to please the Protestants and hopefully tempt them back to the church. Once Protestant churches were back, they could focus on redefining doctrine. Paul III did not want this approach of reconciliation as reforms could financially damage him and concessions could diminish Papal authority. The result was that two separate sections of the council dealt with reform and doctrine simultaneously. By 1563 the Papacy and fundamentalist Catholicism as distinct from either reconciliation among all Christians or heretical Protestantism had triumphed to become a cornerstone of Roman order until 1963.

The personality of and influences on Galileo;
Father was a music teacher, 1 of 7 children
Conflicts sacred & secular; thinkers versus doers

Writings:

Siderius Nuncius (1610) & Dialogo (1630)
Trial by the Roman Inquisition & faithful Christian Doctrine
Legacy of Galileo–Freedom of inquiry -- Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Scientific Revolution–began to spread due to printing and instrumentation, but was characterized by three features:

mechanism, belief in the "clock work" like behavior of the divine order
utility, explanations were best that explained more things with the fewest assumptions, such as laws of gravity, or atmospheric pressure.
efficiency - as a value arose based on new precise measurement, and a more regulated system for accurate weights and measures demanded by markets and revenue collectors.

The Thirty Years' War: