Galileo Case

GALILEO

Introduction:

Galileo is regarded as one of the greatest scientific thinkers of the Renaissance. His questioning of Aristotelian and Ptolemaic concepts of physics and astronomy, his studies of motion, his refinement of the telescope, and his subsequent discoveries about the universe were to have far-reaching, influential effects on the way people think about the earth and the heavens. Galileo's ideas also got him into trouble: condemned by the Inquisition for espousing a heliocentric world system, which violated Catholic Church teachings that the Earth was the center of the universe, he spent the last years of his life under house arrest. Galileo made an impact on the world through his contribution to Physics and Astronomy. One of his greatest achievements is the enhancement that he has done to the telescope, which has been used in discovering the Galilean moons. With all his contributions to science, Galileo Galilei has been addressed as the 'father of science', 'father of modern physics', 'the Father of Modern Science' and 'father of modern observational astronomy. He discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way round. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Stephen Hawking says, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science." The motion of uniformly accelerated objects, taught in nearly all high school and introductory college physics courses, was studied by Galileo as the subject of kinematics.

Main Topic:

His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, improving compass design.Galileo's championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime, when a large majority of philosophers and astronomers still subscribed (at least outwardly) to the geocentric view that the Earth is at the centre of the universe. After 1610, when he began supporting heliocentrism publicly, he met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615. Although he was cleared of any offence at that time, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as "false and contrary to Scripture" in February 1616, and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it--which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy," forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Venus has been known to humans since prehistoric times, so nobody really discovered it. Galileo was the first to observe the phases of Venus in 1610, so some credit him with its discovery. Galileo was the first man to use a telescope to observe the stars and planets, and with the information he gained from this(craters on the moon, moons around Jupiter, sunspots), he was able to challenge the outdated view of the universe which seemed to think that "the heavens" were perfect. Beyond astronomy, Galileo challenged Aristotle's concepts of motion, and discovered the principle of inertia, and his thoughts were later incorporated into Isaac Newton's universal law of gravitation. Galileo further distinguishes two types of claims about science: (1) "propositions about nature which are truly demonstrated" and (2) "others which are simply taught". The role of the theologian with regard to the former category is "to show that they are not contrary to Holy Scripture," e.g., by providing an interpretation of Holy Scripture compatible with the proposition; with regard to the latter, if it contradicts Holy Scripture, it must be considered false and demonstrations of the same sought. Presumably, if in the course of attempting to demonstrate that a proposition in the second category is false, it is instead demonstrated to be true, it then must be considered to be part of the former category. Galileo's discussion allows that theological condemnation of a physical proposition may be acceptable if it is shown not to be conclusively demonstrated, rather than a more stringent standard that it must be conclusively demonstrated to be false, which, given his own lack of conclusive evidence for heliocentrism, could be considered a loophole allowing him to be hoist with his own petard.

Galileo's view of natural philosophy (science) is that it is the study of the book of nature," "written in mathematical language" as contrasted with theology, the study of the book of Holy Scripture and revelation. Galileo endorses the idea that theology is the "queen" of the "subordinate sciences", by which he means not that theology trumps science in any and all matters. He distinguishes two senses of theology being "preeminent and worthy of the title of queen": (1) That "whatever is taught in all the other sciences is found explained and demonstrated by means of more excellent methods and of more sublime principles," which he rejects] and (2) That theology deals with the most important issues, "the loftiest divine contemplations" about "the gaining of eternal bliss," but "does not come down to the lower and humbler speculations of the inferior sciences ... it does not bother with them inasmuch as they are irrelevant to salvation". Where Holy Scripture makes reference to facts about nature, they may be open to allegorical interpretation rather than literal interpretation, unless their literal truth is somehow necessary to the account of "the gaining of eternal bliss."

Galileo also distinguishes between what is apparent to experts vs. the layman, denying that popular consensus is a measure of truth, but regarding that this distinction is what lies behind claims made in Holy Scripture about physical propositions that are not literally true. With regard to the theological expertise of the Church Fathers, their consensus on a physical proposition is not sufficient to make it an article of faith unless such consensus is upon "conclusions which the Fathers discussed and inspected with great diligence and debated on both sides of the issue and for which they then all agreed to reject one side and hold the other". Or, in a contemporary (for Galileo) context, the theologians of the day could have a