Chuck Noren wrote:
> I'm jumping in on the middle on a conversation and pulling
> it out of context.
>
> I am wondering if there are some historians out there who can
> comment on this. From what I heard, Galileo, when he first published
> his theories about the Solar System, the Church largly ignored him.
> It was some secular philosophers/scientists who were upset about
> the theory and activily enlisted the aide of Rome to come down on
> Galileo. I have not read historical sources on this so I don't know
> if this is urban legend. Has someone studied the historical details
> of the history of the conflict and could comment on this?
>
Stillman Drake, one of the foremost authorities on Galileo,
supports this in his book <Galileo: Pioneer Scientist> with
one minor :) revision. The secular philosophers/scientists
were ticked off about Galileo's views on hydrostatics:
"Philosophers outraged by Galileo's hydrostatics managed to
involve the Church in their battle against his new science.
Neglect of this preliminary battlefield has resulted in
a rational but unhistorical account of the whole war, in
which philosophers seem innocent bystanders."
-- Stillman Drake
Part of the evidence for this comes from a letter written
by Galileo to the Grand Duchess Christina in 1615. In this
letter Galileo documents some of the tactics used by the
philosophers in their attempts to discredit him. Here
are some short excerpts from this letter:
========
"Persisting in their original resolve to destroy me and
everything mine by any means they can think of, these
men are aware of my views in astronomy and philosophy.
They know that as to the arrangement of the parts of the
universe, I hold the sun to be situated motionless in
the center of the revolution of the celestial orbs while
the earth rotates on its axis and revolves about the sun.
[...] Possibly because they are disturbed by the known
truth of other [scientific] propositions of mine which
differ from those commonly held, and therefore mistrusting
their defence so long as they confine themselves to the
field of philosophy, these men have resolved to fabricate
a shield for their fallacies out of the mantle of pretended
religion and the authority of the Bible. These they apply
with little judgement to the refutation of arguments that
they do not understand and have not listened to.
First they have endeavored to spread the opinion that
such propositions in general are contrary to the
Bible and are consequently damnable and heretical.
They know that it is human nature to take up causes
by which a man may oppress his neighbor ...
Next, becoming bolder, and hoping (though in vain)
that this seed which first took root in their
hypocritical minds would send out branches and ascend
to heaven, they began scattering rumors among the
people that before long, this doctrine would be
condemned by the supreme authority. ...
-- Galileo as quoted by Drake
=====================
"... men such as these are academics, scholars,
some of the nastiest men I know." -- Blaise Pascal
Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
The Ohio State University
"... we have learned from much experience that all
philosophical intuitions about what nature is going
to do fail." -- Richard Feynman