On Trial for Reason: Science, Religion, and Culture in the Galileo Affair

300 Pages·2019·4.851 MB·English

by  Maurice A. Finocchiaro

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ON TRIAL FOR REASON
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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is meant to be a summary, synthesis, and simplification of my
many scholarly works dealing with the Galileo affair: his Inquisition
trial, its intellectual issues, its background, the historical aftermath up to
our day, and the philosophical and cultural lessons involving the relation-
ship between science and religion and the nature of rationality, scientific
method, and critical thinking. Thus, I owe a debt of gratitude to the many
scholars and institutions from whom my scholarly work has benefitted.
They are mentioned in my previous works, and so here it will suffice for me
to express only this general acknowledgment.
Furthermore, this book is also meant to be an expansion and elaboration
of a public lecture which I have had the opportunity to deliver at many ven-
ues in many parts of the world. In fact, after I started publishing scholarly
works on the Galileo affair, it did not take long before I received invitations
to present a one-hour lecture to audiences of intelligent and educated per-
sons who were not specialists on the topic, but were curious and interested
about its details. Although initially challenging and uncomfortable, such
lecturing became increasingly pleasant, and also beneficial to me by forcing
me to focus on the universal and perennial relevance of the topic. I have
never had the occasion to formally thank the organizers and audiences of
such lectures, and so here it seems very appropriate to express my gratitude,
both generally and specifically.
Deserving mention are the following more memorable occasions, when
the organizers were especially wise and effective, and the audiences espe-
cially engaged and engaging: Raymond Erickson and the audience of musi-
cians, musicologists, artists, and art critics, at the Tenth Aston Magna
Academy on Music, the Arts, and Society, on the theme of “Foundations of
the Italian Baroque, 1560–1620,” at Rutgers State University, June 23–30,
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preface and acknowledgments
1991; Carlos Alvarez and the interdisciplinary audience of faculty and stu-
dents, at the Colloquium on “Mathematics, History, and Culture,” to inaug-
urate the new library of the Faculty of Science, at the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, September 20–2, 1994; Derrick
Pitts and the general public at “The Legacy of Galileo Symposium,” on the
occasion of the International Year of Astronomy, to commemorate the
400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, at the Franklin
Institute, Philadelphia, June 18–20, 2009; Peter Slezak and the audience at
the public lecture sponsored by the Program in History and Philosophy of
Science and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New
South Wales, Sydney, Australia, also to celebrate the International Year of
Astronomy, October 22, 2009; John W. Meriwether and the audience of sci-
entists, engineers, and spouses, at the “Classmate Speaker Program,” 50th
Anniversary Reunion of the Class of 1964, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, June 6, 2014; and Kenneth Wolfe and the audience of mostly
elderly and retired persons at the “Contextual Lecture Series 2014: People
Who Changed the World,” Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, July 8, 2014.
Last but not least, there is a group of persons to whom I am grateful and
who deserve acknowledgment for their assistance concerning this particu-
lar book, attempting to simplify my specialized scholarship and to amplify
my public lecture. John Heilbron, author of Galileo and many other books in
the history of physics, provided both positive support and substantive criti-
cism; I appreciated both, while feeling free to criticize his criticism. Latha
Menon, at Oxford University Press, not only did the usual tasks required of
a commissioning editor, but also read and edited the entire manuscript; her
suggestions significantly improved the literary style and narrative and the
general appeal of my writing. One of the anonymous reviewers of my ori-
ginal proposal provided not only a favorable recommendation, but also a
very perceptive and fruitful interpretation of my project: “without ‘dumb-
ing down’ of historical and philosophical content, to be of interest to a wide
readership”; this was and continued to be my guiding principle in the writ-
ing of this book, and I found this reviewer’s judgment a constant source of
encouragement. Finally, two readers of my manuscript deserve special
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preface and acknowledgments
thanks: Aaron Abbey, a professional librarian at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas and a former student of mine; and Mark Attorri, a professional
and practicing attorney in New Hampshire, for whom Galileo is a hobby
and diversion from his law practice. They provided numerous and detailed
comments and criticisms, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had this
book read by these two ideal examples of intelligent, educated, interested,
curious, and nonspecialist readers.
In a class by itself is the special debt of gratitude which I owe to the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in particular the College of Liberal Arts,
the Philosophy Department, the Chair of the Philosophy Department
(David Forman), my departmental colleagues (David Beisecker, Ian Dove,
Todd Jones, Bill Ramsey, Paul Schollmeier, and James Woodbridge), and the
staff in the Office of Information Technology (Hector Ibarra and Nick
Panissidi). They have continued to provide institutional, material, and moral
support, even after I decided to retire from formal teaching to work full
time on research, scholarship, and writing.
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CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments v
1. Introduction: Avoiding Myths and Muddles 1
2. When the Earth Stood Still 25
3. The Copernican Controversy (1543–1609) 47
4. Re-assessing Copernicanism (1609–1616) 77
5. The Earlier Inquisition Proceedings (1615–1616) 109
6. The Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (1632) 123
7. The Inquisition Trial (1632–1633) 155
8. Becoming a Cultural Icon (1616–2016) 171
9. Religion vs. Science? 203
10. A Model of Critical Thinking? 225
11. Some Final Thoughts 249
Bibliography 259
Notes 267
Artwork Acknowledgments 275
Index 277
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