Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992

Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992
Author: Maurice A. Finocchiaro
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2007-10-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0520253876

"This is must reading for historians of science and a delight for the interested public. From his access to many primary sources in the Vatican Library and from his broad knowledge of the history of the 17th century, Finocchiaro acquaints readers in an interesting manner with the historical facts of Galileo's trial, its aftermath, and its repercussions. Unlike many other works which present predetermined and, at times, prejudiced judgments, this work provides exhaustive evidence to allow readers to develop their own informed opinion on the subject.”—George V. Coyne, Director, Vatican Astronomical Observatory “The tragic condemnation of Galileo by the Roman Catholic Church in 1633 has become the single most potent symbol of authoritarian opposition to new ideas. Pioneering in its scope, Finocchiaro's book provides a fascinating account of how the trial and its cultural significance have been freshly reconstructed by scholars and polemicists down the ages. With a philosopher's eye for fine distinctions, the author has written an exciting commentary on the successive appearance of new primary sources and their exploitation for apologetic and secular purposes.”—John Hedley Brooke, author of Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives "If good history begins with good facts, then Retrying Galileo should be the starting point for all future discussions of the post-trial phase of the Galileo affair. Maurice Finocchiaro's myth-busting documentary history is not only a repository of little-known sources but a pleasure to read as well.”—Ronald L. Numbers, co-editor of When Christianity and Science Meet “Retrying Galileo tells the less well-known half of the Galileo affair: its long and complex history after 1633. Finocchiaro has performed an invaluable service in writing a book that explores how the trial and condemnation of Galileo has been received, debated, and reinterpreted for over three and a half centuries. We are not yet done with this contentious story.”—Paula E. Findlen, Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of Italian History and Director of the Science, Technology and Society Program, Stanford University

The Trial of Galileo

The Trial of Galileo
Author:
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2014-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1624661351

In 1633, the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo as a suspected heretic for defending Copernicus's hypothesis of the earth's motion and denying the scientific authority of Scripture. This book draws upon Maurice A. Finocchiaro's earlier works, especially The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History (1989), to provide a brief, new documentary history of Galileo's trial that is simultaneously the most user-friendly and inclusive available.

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Author: Galileo
Publisher: Modern Library
Total Pages: 642
Release: 2001-10-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 037575766X

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one, proving, for the first time, that the earth revolves around the sun. Its influence is incalculable. The Dialogue is not only one of the most important scientific treatises ever written, but a work of supreme clarity and accessibility, remaining as readable now as when it was first published. This edition uses the definitive text established by the University of California Press, in Stillman Drake’s translation, and includes a Foreword by Albert Einstein and a new Introduction by J. L. Heilbron.

Galileo's Instruments of Credit

Galileo's Instruments of Credit
Author: Mario Biagioli
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2007-07-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0226045625

Annotation. In six years, Galileo Galilei went from being a mathematics professor to a star in the court of Florence to a target of the Inquisition. And during that time, Galileo made a series of astronomical discoveries that reshaped the ideas of the physical nature of the heavens and transformed him from a university mathematician into a court philosopher. Galileo's Instruments of Creditproposes radical new interpretations of key episodes of Galileo's career, including his telescopic discoveries of 1610, the dispute over sunspots, and the conflict with the Holy Office over the relationship between Copernicanism and Scripture. Galileo's tactics shifted as rapidly as his circumstances, argues Mario Biagioli, and these changes forced him to respond swiftly to the opportunities and risks posed by unforeseen inventions, other discoveries, and his opponents. Focusing on the aspects of Galileo's scientific life that extended beyond court culture and patronage, Biagioli offers a revisionist account of the different systems of exchanges, communication, and credibility at work in Galileo's career. Galileo's Instruments of Creditwill fascinate readers interested in the history of astronomy and the history of science in general.

Science, Method, and Argument in Galileo

Science, Method, and Argument in Galileo
Author: Maurice A. Finocchiaro
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2021-08-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030771474

This book collects a renowned scholar's essays from the past five decades and reflects two main concerns: an approach to logic that stresses argumentation, reasoning, and critical thinking and that is informal, empirical, naturalistic, practical, applied, concrete, and historical; and an interest in Galileo’s life and thought—his scientific achievements, Inquisition trial, and methodological lessons in light of his iconic status as “father of modern science.” These republished essays include many hard to find articles, out of print works, and chapters which are not available online. The collection provides an excellent resource of the author's lifelong dedication to the subject. Thus, the book contains critical analyses of some key Galilean arguments about the laws of falling bodies and the Copernican hypothesis of the earth’s motion. There is also a group of chapters in which Galileo’s argumentation is compared and contrasted with that of other figures such as Socrates, Karl Marx, Giordano Bruno, and his musicologist father Vincenzo Galilei. The chapters on Galileo’s trial illustrate an approach to the science-vs-religion issue which Finocchiaro labels “para-clerical” and conceptualizes in terms of a judicious consideration of arguments for and against Galileo and the Church. Other essays examine argumentation about Galileo’s life and thought by the major Galilean scholars of recent decades. The book will be of interest to scholars in philosophy, logic, philosophy of science, history of science, history of religion, philosophy of religion, argumentation, rhetoric, and communication studies.

Galileo's Inquisition Trial Revisited

Galileo's Inquisition Trial Revisited
Author: Jules Speller
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2008
Genre: Catholic Church
ISBN: 9783631562291

This book shows that the known accounts of Galileo's trial leave many important facts unexplained or even clash with them. A most careful reading of the relevant documents and treatises backs an interpretation which has Pope Urban VIII sue Galileo for denying God's omnipotence or His omniscience by admitting the «absolute truth» of Copernicanism. The Pope's opinion results from an argument he fully trusts, together with his belief that Galileo failed to fulfill a condition to which the publication of the Dialogue was subjected. That the trial does not end with a conviction for Urban's awful «formal heresy» but merely for «vehement suspicion of heresy», with the «heresy» consisting in the pseudo-heretical belief in a doctrine contrary to the Bible, all this is due to the existence of a Galileo-friendly party inside the Holy Office, led by Cardinal Francesco Barberini and powerful enough to wring a compromise from the Pope.

Creation Rediscovered

Creation Rediscovered
Author: Jeffery M. Leonard
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1683073207

Creation Rediscovered, by Jeffery M. Leonard, guides readers through a contextual reading of the Bibles creation stories. Over the last two centuries, few subjects have generated as much controversy for Christians as has creation. The whethers, whens, and hows of creation have often become a battlefield in which the pitched forces of competing sidesDarwinists and creationists, young-earthers and old, figurativists and literalistshave struggled for the upper hand. Like most battles, this fight has tended to inflict a fair amount of collateral damage along the way. This is especially true for those put in the terrible position of feeling they have had to choose between the Bible they have fallen in love with and the science they have studied. In this book, Jeffery Leonard writes to fellow travelers in the faith who want to take the biblical text seriously, while at the same time appreciate sciences exploration of what we consider to be Gods creation. It is his contention that setting the Bibles creation texts back within their ancient context allows us to do both of these things. Indeed, Leonard believes that when we reread what the Bible has to say about creation in its original setting, we find meaning in the text far more profound than what we have previously imagined. Key points and features: • Written by a Bible scholar • Unique, timely, and fresh interpretation • Helps readers see the Bibles creation stories as vessels of healing and hope in Gods larger plan for humanity • Attempts to redirect Christians to read the ancient creation stories within the context in which they were written

The Index of Prohibited Books

The Index of Prohibited Books
Author: Robin Vose
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2022-10-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1789146585

The first comprehensive history of the Catholic Church’s notorious Index, with resonance for ongoing debates over banned books, censorship, and free speech. For more than four hundred years, the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum struck terror into the hearts of authors, publishers, and booksellers around the world, while arousing ridicule and contempt from many others, especially those in Protestant and non-Christian circles. Biased, inconsistent, and frequently absurd in its attempt to ban objectionable texts of every conceivable description—with sometimes fatal consequences—the Index also reflected the deep learning and careful consideration of many hundreds of intellectual contributors over the long span of its storied evolution. This book constitutes the first full study of the Index of Prohibited Books to be published in English. It examines the reasons behind the Church’s attempts to censor religious, scientific, and artistic works, and considers not only why this most sustained of campaigns failed, but what lessons can be learned for today’s debates over freedom of expression and cancel culture.

Galileo Revisited

Galileo Revisited
Author: Dom Paschal Scotti
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2017-08-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1621641325

No other work on Galileo Galilei has brought together such a complete description of the historical context in its political, cultural, philosophical, religious, scientific, and personal aspects as this volume has done. In addition to covering the whole of Galileo's life, it focuses on those things that are most pertinent to the Galileo Affair, which culminated in his condemnation by the Inquisition in 1633. It also includes an extensive discussion of the relationship between religion and science in general, and of the relationship between Christianity and science in particular, without which a true understanding of the affair is much weakened. This discussion of the relationship of Christianity with science-a long, generally positive relationship-is most timely since the case of Galileo is, as many historians and Pope Benedict XVI have stated, the beginning of the alienation of the Church from much of the intellectual culture of our present age. The "warfare between science and religion" is an old myth that should finally be retired, but for many it is still axiomatic. This work shows the significance of astrology in the history of society and the Church (Galileo was a master astrologer), and the importance of the internal tensions and factions within the Roman Curia in the seventeenth century. It also tells of the profound battles among Church leadership over the direction of the Church in a time of uncertainty and intellectual and cultural ferment. The Galileo Affair is not just of its time and place, and it is not just about Galileo, but it touches upon that perennial issue of how the Church deals with issues of adaptation and change.