Galileo's Mistake : A New Look at the Epic Confrontation Between Galileo and the Church

by Rowland, Wade

• ISBN13: 9781559707220
• ISBN10: 1559707224
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-09
• Publisher: Arcade Pub

Summary

A provocative reexamination of one of the defining confrontations between science and religion, the historic conflict between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church.

Author Biography

Wade Rowland is the author of more than a dozen books, most recently Ockham's Razor, which was chosen as "required reading" by Canada's Globe and Mail. He holds the MacLean-Hunter Chair of Ethics in Communication at Ryerson University in Toronto. He also lectures in the social history of communications technologies at Trent University in Peterborough. He lives near Port Hope, Ontario, with his wife, Christine.

Table of Contents

Illustration and Photo Credits	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
ONE
Overture
TWO	11	(6)
Pope Paul V
A Time of Crisis Doctrinal Revolutions
THREE	17	(14)
A Dialogue
Science's Motives
On Curiosity A Negotiation
FOUR	31	(14)
Galileo the Aquarian
Ptolemy's World Comets and Supernova
Kepler's Genius The Uses of Hypotheses
FIVE	45	(10)
Young Galileo
The Studies in Motion
The Experimental Method
Number and Beauty The Pythagoreans and the Reduction of Quality to Quantity
SIX	55	(12)
Ferrara and Copernicus
The Reluctant Revolutionary Challenging Aristotle
A Stimulating Meeting
SEVEN	67	(12)
The Stagirite
The Primacy of Mind
The Good Deductive Science
EIGHT	79	(6)
Aristotle's Influence
A Question of Infinity Copernican Caution
Saving the Appearances
NINE	85	(20)
The Padua Years
The Telescopic Discoveries The Lure of the Medici
The Jesuits Rumors of Reaction
TEN	105	(8)
In the Medician Court
The Phases of Venus Sunspot Disputes
Triumph in Rome Cardinal Bellarmine
ELEVEN	113	(16)
Bruno's Heresy
An Infinite Universe Aristotle Revisited
The Struggles of Aquinas The Return of Pythagoras
TWELVE	129	(12)
Storm Warnings
Cardinal Barberini The Conflict Is Joined: "Letter to Christina" Bellarmine's Response
THIRTEEN	141	(10)
Under Attack
A Dangerous Mission Barberini's Argument
Defeat in Rome The Warning
FOURTEEN	151	(8)
A Dialogue in Venice
Science's Successes The Nature of Knowledge
FIFTEEN	159	(8)
Further Dialogue in Venice
Science and Faith Faith and Reality
The Nature of Progress
SIXTEEN	167	(12)
On the Lido
The Problem of Objectivity
Reasoning's Recursiveness
The Map and the Territory An Unfortunate Outburst
SEVENTEEN	179	(6)
At Santa Maria Maggiore
Galileo's Conservatism Kepler's Heterodoxy
A Remarkable Fresco
EIGHTEEN	185	(8)
A Scientific Testament
Models of the World The Paradox of Empiricism
NINETEEN	193	(16)
Pope Urban VIII
Intimations of Change Galileo's Dialogue
The Suppression A Summons from the Inquisition
TWENTY	209	(10)
An Enigmatic Pope
A Mass in St. Peter's A Chance Encounter
TWENTY-ONE	219	(8)
A Remarkable City
History's Parochialism
An Uncomplicated Man
The Motives of Pontiffs
TWENTY-TWO	227	(12)
A Dialogue in Vatican City
Galileo's Rehabilitation "Learned Ignorance"
The Puzzle of the Abjuration
TWENTY-THREE	239	(14)
The Final Journey to Rome
The Inquisition The Denial
The Confession
The Sentence
TWENTY-FOUR	253	(6)
The Judgment and Abjuration
The Unspoken Issues
TWENTY-FIVE	259	(8)
The Aftermath
Return to Arcetri
Discourses on Two New Sciences
A Visit from Hobbes Milton's Tribute
TWENTY-SIX	267	(12)
On the Road to Florence
Galileo's Tomb Human Happiness
Science and Number Limits to Scientific Knowledge
An Unfinished Journey
APPENDIX	279	(4)
On the Question of Galileo's "Perjury"
Notes	283	(8)
Index	291