Oh the Irony: The Life of Galileo
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, on February 18, 1564, to a family of aristocratic lineage but average wealth. When he was seventeen, his father, a noted musician who also earned money in the wool trade, sent him to study medicine at the University of Pisa. Galileo, however, soon turned to a career in mathematics. He supported himself by tutoring students In mathematics. In 1589 he obtained a position lecturing at the University of Pisa, where he remained for three years, making discoveries that challenged the then-dominant view of physics, which was based on the ancient writings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Shortly he decides to move to Florence where he begins experimenting with the telescope
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Back in the 1600s, the church and royalty were the highest of powers. Most never dared to defy these powers, for they knew the possible consequences that could potentially-come-about. Galileo was one of the few, so-called whistleblowers, to-come about-and go against centuries of what society thought was correct and what the church preached . The main theme throughout this play is brought about by these suchindings and the actions that Galileo takes. It is not so much about the history/side of Galileo and accomplishments as a scientist, but about the complex relationship between science, politics, society, and religion back in these times. This theory wasn't as much of a historical revolution, but2la social revolution. In some ways it challenges the fact that the pope was t center of the hierarchy and now can be viewed as everyone being one in the same. It shows that the sun is the center of the universe and the earth is rotating around it, along with all us in-Ai-victuals-all-together displays a sense of harmony in the fact that we all are moving at once. However,(this provided for much consequence V-- for Galileo and society. These teachings defied centuries of teachings from God and the authority that he, like no other, had. When Galileo's friend, Sagredo, asks him where
Galileo had heard about the theories that the previous scientists had stated. Galileo wanted to see if what they were saying was accurate. To prove the heliocentric theory he invented the telescope in the year 1609 that help to confirm that it was in fact the heliocentric model instead of what everyone believed which was the geocentric model. Galileo started to share his discoveries to the public, but stopped after the Church told him not to share the information. (Doc ) However, the timeline indicates that Galileo waited seventeen years before sharing the information again publicly, so he actually obeyed the Church’s request for a very long time. Galileo was a devoted Catholic and strongly believed in the words of the Bible. In a letter written in 1615 written by Galileo to the duchess of Tuscany Galileo he stated how the Bible can sometime be misunderstood,“ But [he] believe that nobody will deny that the Bible is often very complex, and may say things which are quite different from what its bare words signify…”(document A). Galileo wanted to convince the Duchess that perhaps the evidence he gathered could be used to interpret the sun’s placement as the Bible was difficult to understand at times. The fact that Galileo was so religious validated his reliability, because he would have favored the Bible over his theory. He only argued about this one concept from the Bible and he had physical evidence and support from other scientists to prove his
Galileo was born in Pisa Italy on February 15, 1564. Galileo was the first born child to Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. His family moved to Florence Italy after living in Pisa for ten years. In Florence he received education at the Camaldolese monastery in Vallombrosa. Later on in his life he decided to study medicine at the University of Pisa to study medicine. Wh...
Galileo even as a boy seemed destined to challenge the scientific thought of the day. He has often been characterized as a pioneer of rebellion against authority. If that was true then he was only following in his father’s footsteps. His Father, a revolutionary man in the world of music who spoke out against the music theories of his day, was quoted as saying, "It appears to me that those who try to prove an assertion by relying simply on the weight of authority act very absurdly" (White, 196). Galileo continued in his father’s rebellion against contemporary views with his support of a helio-centric-universe, a view previously argued by Copernicus, but for the most part ignored by scientists for its contradiction with the established, church-endorsed system of Ptolemy.
Galileo Galilei’s heliocentric theory upset the religious authorities because it was a new idea that was different from the commonly held biblical belief that the earth stayed still and was in the center of the universe. Galilei’s heliocentric theory represented the scientific revolution versus the Church’s long held biblically based belief. By writing down his thoughts and publicizing them, Galilei was making them accessible and understandable for all. The Church was threatened because his findings were in direct opposition to the Church’s beliefs. They understood Galilei to be contradicting the bible and committing heresy. Therefore, Galileo Galilei’s heliocentric theory and the Church’s push back against him represented the clash between the new generation that involved scientific knowledge, and the old generation that was based on religion and ancient philosophers.
After reading this letter I feel that Galileo had a very opinionated outlook on life and was heavily involved in a struggle for freedom of inquiry. Galileo was a person who had many strong beliefs and would not let people or a document have a say in what he believes.
Galileo was a mathematician and a natural philosopher, who converted Copernicanism, which states that the earth revolved around the sun, into philosophy and the world’s true nature. By introducing new knowledge and using science to prove existing theories, he had caused a revolution by changing how people perceive the world during the last few hundred years and to doubt the authority of the Church, so as to spur on more people to confront the Church’s interpretations of the Bible and generate more knowledge.
Galileo's life. Galileo remained a good friend of the Grand Duke as well. In the summer of 16...
Galileo’s struggle with the Catholic Church is the essence of the problems people had introducing new ideas to the world. This was a time period during which people were often killed for what they believed by either the state or the church. Perhaps by not killing Galileo outright the church showed that times were starting to change, or maybe not. The episode will no doubt go down in history, however, as a turning point in science, and in religious thought.
Galileo is one of the greatest scientists in the world, especially at that moment. At that
In 1610 he was one of the first people to use the telescope to observe
In 1612, he published his Discourse on Bodies in Water, refuting the Aristotelian explanation of why objects float in water, saying that it wasn’t because of their flat shape, but instead the weight of the object in relation to the water it displaced. In 1623, a friend of Galileo, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, was selected as Pope Urban VIII. He allowed Galileo to pursue his work on astronomy and even encouraged him to publish it. but it had to be on one condition, it be objective and not advocate Copernican theory.
The modern science view as well as the Scientific Revolution can be argued that it began with Copernicus’ heliocentric theory; his staunch questioning of the prior geocentric worldview led to the proposal of a new idea that the Earth is not in fact the center of the solar system, but simply revolving around the Sun. Although this is accepted as common sense today, the period in which Copernicus proposed this idea was ground-breaking, controversial, and frankly, world-changing. The Church had an immense amount of power, and was a force to be reckoned with; in the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, new scientific proposals and ideas were discouraged in many cases by the Church. A quote from Galileo’s Children does an excellent job summing up the conflict: “The struggle of Galileo against Church dogma concerning the nature of the cosmos epitomized the great, inevitable and continuing clash between religion and reason.” If evidence goes against scripture, the scientist is considered a heretic and is, like in Galileo’s case, forbidden to discuss the ideas any further. Galileo Galilei, who proposed solid evidence and theory supporting the heliocentric model, was forced to go back on his beliefs in front of several high officials, and distance himself from the Copernican model. This, luckily, allowed him to not be killed as a heretic, which was the next level of punishment for the crimes he was charged with, had he not went back on his beliefs. Incredible support was given through the young developing academies with a sense of community for scientists and academics; “Renaissance science academies represent a late manifestation of the humanist academy movement.” Since the Church was grounded traditionally evidence that went agains...
adversary. One must learn from Galileo's life that sacrifice in the way of progression of
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15th, 1564. His father, Vincenzo was a music teacher and musician. After his family moved to Florence, Galilei was sent to a monastery to be educated. He was so happy there that he decided to become a monk, but his father wanted him to be a medical doctor and brought him home to Florence. He was never really interested in medicine and studied mathematics at the University of Pisa. He was especially interested in famous mathematicians like Euclid (geometry) and Archimedes. In fact in 1586 he wrote his first book about one of Archimedes theories. He eventually became head of mathematics at the University of Pisa where he first wrote about a very important idea that he developed. It was about using experiments to test theories. He wrote about falling bodies in motion using inclined planes to test his theories.
Humbled at last by his enemies, the father of modern science wasn’t wholly subdued. His discoveries impacted the world as we see it. Without his sacrifice and motive to fight for what he believed in, we wouldn’t be as advanced as we are today in modern science. Although society advanced by increased knowledge, having more scientific answers, and increased new developments because of the freedom to deviate from established theories, there were some negative effects. Society had lost their innocence and belief in their traditional faith. Galileo’s battle against the Church was worthwhile for generations to come. Without his inventions, theories, or introduction to the concept of theory experimenting, the world of modern science wouldn’t exist as we know it today.