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Galileo We live in time of dusk's of Christianity, when majority of sociologists agree that it is only a matter of 50 - 100 years, before this religious doctrine extinct. Even in present time, going to church became a shallow ritual for the most of Christians, who think of this religion as another comforting thing in life. Yet, there were times when promoters of good news used not to just exercise a spiritual authority over people in Europe, but also impose their views in the field of empirical science. We can only imagine now how hard it was for the true scientists to deal with a threat of being excommunicated from the Church, over their scientific discoveries, at the time when Christianity was at its strongest.
Galileo Galilei's (1564 - 1642) role in freeing science out of Christian imprisonment cannot be overestimated. Along with Copernicus and Jordan Bruno, he had shaken the foundations of Christian doctrine, which resulted in beginning of its continuous decline as religion. Many refer to Galileo as the father of modern science, since he was the first to apply mathematical analysis to the practical experiments, which became a common practice among scientists in later centuries. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564 to the family of musicians. Although, his family belonged to the nobility, it nevertheless was poor. His father Vincenzo Galilei was in continuous search for work and used to change the place of his family's residence very often.
In 1570 Galilei's moved to Florence, where Galileo had spent his early years, until he began studying at University of Pisa in 1581. Although, he initially wanted to study medicine, Galileo began to dedicate more and more time studying the laws of physics. In 1602 he made his first discovery about the mechanics of pendulum movement, which prompted him to conclude that the pendulum period does not have correlation to its swing. The Aristotelian psychics was a compulsory subject in University of Pisa, when Galileo was studying there, therefore, he learned a great deal about it. Nevertheless, he criticized Aristotle over his tendency towards assumption of obvious. This led Galileo to another discovery - thorough practical experiments he learned that the objects falling rate does not depend on their density.
In order to prove it, Galileo used to drop different objects from a fixed height. The legend states that he used to do this from the top of famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. After his appointment as professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1592, Galileo became fascinated with a naval technologies. During his numerous trips to Arsenal, where Venetian ships were being built, he noticed that these ships are very vulnerable to even slight water leaks. This incident provoked him into inventing a water pump. Galileo had also possessed a practical mindset, as he patented his invention in the matter of a few months.
Still, it did not cause him to become rich, because of socio-political realities of his time. Despite the fact that Galileo's activity during his years in University of Pisa have accounted for numerous mechanical innovations, it wasnt up until his re-invention of telescope that his name became known to the public. In 1609 he placed a three magnifying glasses into a metal tube, which enabled him to take a better look at remote objects. Amazingly, it was only a matter of 2 month before Galileo was able to improve his invention, by increasing a magnifying ratio to 20 times!
This allowed him to discover Moons craters, the four satellites of Jupiter and the dark spots on Sun. Galileo's main psychological trait was his tendency towards practical application of his purely abstract discoveries. It is no wonder that Galileo's astronomical observations prompted him to doubt the validity of geocentric model of university, which was supported by the Church. Even before he was able to support Copernican theory with his own empirical data, Galileo used to argue with Christian clerics in favor of it. The new astronomical device allowed Galileo to base his theoretical conclusions on the solid experimental base. At first, his astronomical discoveries were being met with much of an interest, on the part of Church's authorities, who simply failed to realize that they had the potential of shattering the whole Christian concept of the universe.
Nevertheless, it wasnt too long before they started to understand the metaphysical application of Galileo's discoveries. Galileo himself strived to gain public fame, by disputing the Christian vision of universe. The year 1610 marks the publishing of Galileo's first book Starry Messenger, where he declared that contrary to Aristotle, both moon and sun were not a perfect spheres. Referring to his telescope observations of universe, Galileo provided readers with information about solar flares and moons numerous craters, mountains and valleys. Even though that no direct criticism of Christian dogmatism was found in this book, the fact that Galileo has proven heavenly realm being just as imperfect as earthly one, constituted a big blow on Church's authority. After having observed the mechanics of Jupiter's satellites movement, Galileo has deduced that our moon is also a subject to the same heavenly laws.
Having established the fact that planets revolve around the sun, Galileo suggested that there wasnt a sufficient reason to believe that the planet Earth was an exception. In his letter written to Don Virginia Cesarini, Galileo said: In my Starry Messenger there were revealed many new and marvelous discoveries in the heavens that should have gratified all lovers of true science; yet scarcely had it been printed when men sprang up everywhere who envied the praises belonging to the discoveries there revealed. Some, merely to contradict what I had said, did not scruple to cast doubt upon things they had seen with their own eyes again and again. (White, p. 56). In 1616 Galileo wrote a letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, where he suggested that certain passages from Bible should not be taken literally. Just as todays Protestants, Galileo decided to attribute the properties of deep allegorist to Biblical obvious nonsense, in order not to inflict a Church's wrath. Nevertheless, there he again asserted his innovative ideas: I hold that the Sun is located at the center of the revolutions of the heavenly orbs and does not change place, and that the Earth rotates on itself and moves around it.
Moreover... I confirm this view not only by refuting Ptolemy's and Aristotle's arguments, but also by producing many for the other side, especially some pertaining to physical effects whose causes perhaps cannot be determined in any other way, and other astronomical discoveries; these discoveries clearly confute the Ptolemaic system, and they agree admirably with this other position and confirm it (Finocchiaro, p. 134). Still, it didnt help much. Catholic church was engaged in mortal fight with arising Protestantism at the time, so any attempt to undermine its spiritual authority had to be stumped out at any cost. In 1612 Cardinal Belarmine has told Galileo that he would be much better off if he interpreted his own theory as one big allegory. This suggestion was meant to serve as warning, yet Galileo continued to insist that Earth revolves around the Sun.
In 1632 he published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican. In it he clearly attacked the old Ptolemaic world-view that Western culture had been built on since ancient times -- the comforting idea that the earth was the center of all creation. He amassed vast data to prove that Copernicus was correct in asserting that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the scheme of things. No matter how uncomfortable that might make us feel about the earth being dethroned as the center of all things, this was simply the truth. This time Church wasnt willing to put up with Galileo. His book was immediately banned and he was asked to present himself in front of Inquisition commission in Rome.
During the hearing Galileo had to back down, admitting that he was wrong on the account of heavenly mechanics. He said that he was being misled and did not engage in heresy on purpose. After this, Galileo was being sentenced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest in Florence. The legend states that after the Inquisition hearing was over, Galileo proclaimed Eur si more!" (But it does move! ). Contemporary historians doubt the validity of this legend, but it appears as very likely that Galileo could have said it for real, given the fact of his character. In 1642 Galileo died, being completely blind by that time.
Yet, unlike many unrecognized geniuses that were well forehead of their time, Galileo's name became known to a great many progressive people in Italy and abroad, prior to his death. In 1992 Pope John Paul II had officially admitted that the Holy Catholic Church was wrong, pressing heresy charges against Galileo 358 years earlier. In his edict-lifting bulla Papa stated: Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions... Galileo, a sincere believer, showed himself to be more perceptive in this regard than the theologians who opposed him. " (Drake, p. 13) Yet, this edict was a very reluctant act, on the part of Catholic authorities. It is only under the great public pressure, the Church was being forced to recognize the fact that its accusations against Galileo were groundless. According to holy fathers, the only reason why Galileo was being treated unjustly is that Church was not deploying a scientific methods at the time.
By saying that they imply that Church, after being reformed, is now a progressive institution. But it doesnt take a scientist to realize that Christianity still remains the most retrograde force in the world, which does its utmost to slow down peoples scientific and social progress. Therefore, even though Catholic Church has officially apologized for persecution of Galileo, it still must be held accountable for its atrocious policies, regarding a science. Galileo's legacy is better analyzed in terms of European scientific tradition to operate with abstract categories for the purpose of finding their application on practical level. This tradition is highly logical, because the mathematical precision is a fundamental principle, upon which the Western scientific thought is based. Galileo was able to incorporate his idealism into his vision of universe.
Even though Catholic Church now claims him to be a devout Christian, he certainly was not. Still, by being able to observe the fact that heavenly objects movement is regulated by some invisible laws, he concluded that this was because the universe was intelligent in its essence. He suggested that all processes in universe are subjects of the same mathematical laws. The notion of morality was not given to mankind by some whimsical and highly emotional deity, but it is nature itself that defines morality through introducing a concept of universal order. Whatever cannot fit into universe is immoral: Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the characters in which it is written.
It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these one is wandering in a dark labyrinth (Galileo, p. 234). Today no one doubts the Earth has spherical form and that it revolves around the Sun, which, in its turn, revolves around the center of our galaxy. But it is important to understand that the scientific progress is not something that we can take for granted. There are many examples in history of such progress being reversed, resulting many cultures to dissolve in barbarism. The new generations of scientists need to be inspired by the examples from the past and that is when the example of Galileo Galilei will come in handy. Bibliography: Blackwell, Richard Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible.
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991. Drake, Stillman Galileo: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. 2001. Finocchiaro, Maurice The Galileo Affair.
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989. Galilei, Galileo Starry Messenger New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2000. Machamer, Paul The Cambridge Companion to Galileo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1998.
White, Michael Galileo Galilei: Inventor, Astronomer, and Rebel. Woodbridge, CT: Black birch Press. 1999.
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Research essay sample on University Of Pisa Galileo Galilei
