Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution

Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution
Author: Stillman Drake
Publisher: Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 1970
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

In a startling reinterpretation of the evidence, Stillman Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's condemnation by the Inquisition was caused not by his defiance of the Church, but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers. Galileo's own beautifully lucid arguments are used to show how his scientific method--based on a search not for causes but for laws--was utterly divorced from the Aristotelian approach to physics. His methodology had a definitive impact on the development of modern physics, and led to a final parting of the ways between science and philosophy.

Hobbes and Galileo: Method, Matter and the Science of Motion

Hobbes and Galileo: Method, Matter and the Science of Motion
Author: Gregorio Baldin
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2020-04-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030414140

This book, translated from Italian, discusses the influence of Galileo on Hobbes’ natural philosophy. In his De motu, loco et tempore or Anti-White (~ 1643), Thomas Hobbes describes Galileo as “the greatest philosopher of all times”, and in De Corpore (1655), the Italian scientist is presented as the one who “opened the door of all physics, that is, the nature of motion.” The book gives a detailed analysis of Galileo’s legacy in Hobbes’s philosophy, exploring four main issues: a comparison between Hobbes’ and Mersenne’s natural philosophies, the Galilean Principles of Hobbes’ philosophical system, a comparison between Galileo’s momentum and Hobbes’s conatus , and Hobbes’ and Galileo’s theories of matter. The book also analyses the role played by Marin Mersenne, in spreading Galileo’s ideas in France, and as a discussant of Hobbes. It highlights the many aspects of Hobbes’ relationship with Galileo: the methodological and epistemological elements, but also the conceptual and the lexical analogies in the field of physics, to arrive, finally, at a close comparison on the subject of the matter. From this analysis emerges a shared mechanical conception of the universe open and infinite, that replaces the Aristotelian cosmos, and which is populated by two elements only: matter and motion.

Galileo

Galileo
Author: Jr. James Reston
Publisher: Beard Books
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2005
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781587982514

A suspenseful narrative and spiritive rendition of the life of Galileo.

Galileo’s Thinking Hand

Galileo’s Thinking Hand
Author: Horst Bredekamp
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 509
Release: 2019-04-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 311053830X

Contemporary biographies of Galilei emphasize, in several places, that he was a masterful draughtsman. In fact, Galilei studied at the art academy, which is where his friendship with Ludovico Cigoli developed, who later became the official court artist. The book focuses on this formative effect – it tracks Galilei’s trust in the epistemological strength of drawings. It also looks at Galilei’s activities in the world of art and his reflections on art theory, ending with an appreciation of his fame; after all, he was revered as a rebirth of Michelangelo. For the first time, this publication collects all aspects of the appreciation of Galilei as an artist, contemplating his art not only as another facet of his activities, but as an essential element of his research.

The Reception of the Galilean Science of Motion in Seventeenth-Century Europe

The Reception of the Galilean Science of Motion in Seventeenth-Century Europe
Author: Carla Rita Palmerino
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2013-03-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 140202455X

This book collects contributions by some of the leading scholars working on seventeenth-century mechanics and the mechanical philosophy. Together, the articles provide a broad and accurate picture of the fortune of Galileo's theory of motion in Europe and of the various physical, mathematical, and ontological arguments that were used in favour and against it. Were Galileo's contemporaries really aware of what Westfall has described as "the incompatibility between the demands of mathematical mechanics and the needs of mechanical philosophy"? To what extent did Galileo's silence concerning the cause of free fall impede the acceptance of his theory of motion? Which methods were used, before the invention of the infinitesimal calculus, to check the validity of Galileo's laws of free fall and of parabolic motion? And what sort of experiments were invoked in favour or against these laws? These and related questions are addressed in this volume.

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht
Author: Betty Nance Weber
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2010-03-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0820334782

First published in 1980, this collection of fifteen original essays touches on a variety of topics related to the genesis of Brecht's works and their impact on contemporary literature, theater, and film. Discussed are Brecht's confrontation with Marxism and its political manifestations, the influence of his work on film and theater practitioners, the uses his literary descendants have made of his political commitment, and much more.

The Prism and the Pendulum

The Prism and the Pendulum
Author: Robert Crease
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 030743253X

Is science beautiful? Yes, argues acclaimed philosopher and historian of science Robert P. Crease in this engaging exploration of history’s most beautiful experiments. The result is an engrossing journey through nearly 2,500 years of scientific innovation. Along the way, we encounter glimpses into the personalities and creative thinking of some of the field’s most interesting figures. We see the first measurement of the earth’s circumference, accomplished in the third century B.C. by Eratosthenes using sticks, shadows, and simple geometry. We visit Foucault’s mesmerizing pendulum, a cannonball suspended from the dome of the Panthéon in Paris that allows us to see the rotation of the earth on its axis. We meet Galileo—the only scientist with two experiments in the top ten—brilliantly drawing on his musical training to measure the speed of falling bodies. And we travel to the quantum world, in the most beautiful experiment of all. We also learn why these ten experiments exert such a powerful hold on our imaginations. From the ancient world to cutting-edge physics, these ten exhilarating moments reveal something fundamental about the world, pulling us out of confusion and revealing nature’s elegance. The Prism and the Pendulum brings us face-to-face with the wonder of science.

The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought

The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought
Author:
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 814
Release: 1998-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780804780834

Available for the first time in English, Roger's masterwork of intellectual history situates the life sciences within the larger context of French Enlightenment thought and the history of institutions.

History of Universities

History of Universities
Author: Mordechai Feingold
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-04-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0198779917

Volume XXIX/1 of History of Universities contains the customary mix of learned articles and book reviews which makes this publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. The volume is, as always, a lively combination of original research and invaluable reference material.