Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution

Download or read book Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution written by Stillman Drake and published by Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1970 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.