Galileo Essay - 2,085 words

Galileo We live in time of dusks of Christianity, when majority of sociologists agree that it is only a matter of 50-100 years, before
this religious doctrine extinct. Even in present time, going to church became a shallow ritual for the most of Christians, who think of
this religion as another comforting thing in life. Yet, there were times when promoters of good news used not to just exercise a
spiritual authority over people in Europe, but also impose their views in the field of empirical science. We can only imagine now how
hard it was for the true scientists to deal with a threat of being excommunicated from the Church, over their scientific discoveries, at
the time when Christianity was at its strongest. Galileo Galileis (1564-1642) role in freeing science out of Christian imprisonment
cannot be overestimated. Along with Copernicus and Jordan Bruno, he had shaken the foundations of Christian doctrine, which
resulted in beginning of its continuous decline as religion. Many refer to Galileo as the father of modern science, since he was the
first to apply mathematical analysis to the practical experiments, which became a common practice among scientists in later
centuries.

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564 to the family of musicians. Although, his family belonged to the nobility, it
nevertheless was poor. His father Vincenzo Galilei was in continuous search for work and used to change the place of his familys
residence very often. In 1570 Galileis moved to Florence, where Galileo had spent his early years, until he began studying at
University of Pisa in 1581. Although, he initially wanted to study medicine, Galileo began to dedicate more and more time studying
the laws of physics. In 1602 he made his first discovery about the mechanics of pendulum movement, which prompted him to conclude
that the pendulum period does not have correlation to its swing.

The Aristotelian psychics was a compulsory subject in University of Pisa, when Galileo was studying there, therefore, he learned a
great deal about it. Nevertheless, he criticized Aristotle over his tendency towards assumption of obvious. This led Galileo to another
discovery - thorough practical experiments he learned that the objects falling rate does not depend on their density. In order to prove
it, Galileo used to drop different objects from a fixed height. The legend states that he used to do this from the top of famous Leaning
Tower of Pisa. After his appointment as professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1592, Galileo became fascinated with a
naval technologies.

During his numerous trips to Arsenal, where Venetian ships were being built, he noticed that these ships are very vulnerable to even
slight water leaks. This incident provoked him into inventing a water pump. Galileo had also possessed a practical mindset, as he
patented his invention in the matter of a few months. Still, it did not cause him to become rich, because of socio-political realities of
his time. Despite the fact that Galileos activity during his years in University of Pisa have accounted for numerous mechanical
innovations, it wasnt up until his re-invention of telescope that his name became known to the public. In 1609 he placed a three
magnifying glasses into a metal tube, which enabled him to take a better look at remote objects. Amazingly, it was only a matter of 2
month before Galileo was able to improve his invention, by increasing a magnifying ratio to 20 times! This allowed him to discover
Moons craters, the four satellites of Jupiter and the dark spots on Sun.

Galileos main psychological trait was his tendency towards practical application of his purely abstract discoveries. It is no wonder
that Galileos astronomical observations prompted him to doubt the validity of geocentric model of university, which was supported by
the Church. Even before he was able to support Copernican theory with his own empirical data, Galileo used to argue with Christian
clerics in favor of it. The new astronomical device allowed Galileo to base his theoretical conclusions on the solid experimental base.
At first, his astronomical discoveries were being met with much of an interest, on the part of Churchs authorities, who simply failed to
realize that they had the potential of shattering the whole Christian concept of the universe. Nevertheless, it wasnt too long before
they started to understand the metaphysical application of Galileos discoveries. Galileo himself strived to gain public fame, by
disputing the Christian vision of universe. The year 1610 marks the publishing of Galileos first book Starry Messenger, where he
declared that contrary to Aristotle, both moon and sun were not a perfect spheres. Referring to his telescope observations of
universe, Galileo provided readers with information about solar flares and moons numerous craters, mountains and valleys.

Even though that no direct criticism of Christian dogmatism was found in this book, the fact that Galileo has proven heavenly realm
being just as imperfect as earthly one, constituted a big blow on Churchs authority. After having observed the mechanics of Jupiters
satellites movement, Galileo has deduced that our moon is also a subject to the same heavenly laws. Having established the fact that
planets revolve around the sun, Galileo suggested that there wasnt a sufficient reason to believe that the planet Earth was an
exception. In his letter written to Don Virginio Cesarini, Galileo said: In my Starry Messenger there were revealed many new and
marvelous discoveries in the heavens that should have gratified all lovers of true science; yet scarcely had it been printed when men
sprang up everywhere who envied the praises belonging to the discoveries there revealed. Some, merely to contradict what I had
said, did not scruple to cast doubt upon things they had seen with their own eyes again and again. (White, p. 56).

In 1616 Galileo wrote a letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, where he suggested that certain passages from Bible should not be
taken literally. Just as todays Protestants, Galileo decided to attribute the properties of deep allegorism to Biblical obvious
nonsense, in order not to inflict a Churchs wrath. Nevertheless, there he again asserted his innovative ideas: I hold that the Sun is
located at the center of the revolutions of the heavenly orbs and does not change place, and that the Earth rotates on itself and
moves around it. Moreover ... I confirm this vie
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay
...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

Continue READING the FULL Essay by clicking HERE

Essay Tags: galileo, catholic church, galileo galilei, new york, university press This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for your
research of: Galileo