Revolution in Science: How Galileo and Darwin Changed Our World

220 Pages·2009·1.81 MB·English

by  Mark L. Brake (auth.)

Revolution in Science

Revolution in Science
How Galileo and Darwin
Changed Our World
Mark L. Brake
REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE
Copyright © Mark L. Brake, 2009.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of
the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998,
of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the
above companies and has companies and representatives throughout
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-20268-9 ISBN 978-0-230-10210-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-10210-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from
the Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Macmillan Publishing Solutions.
First edition: December 2009
For Been and Rosi,
who did not compel me to write this dedication

Contents
List of Figures and Tables viii
Introduction 1
Part I Wisdom of the Ancients 5
1 Greek Sky: The World Before the Telescope 7
2 Heaven and Earth 29
3 The Darkness Rising 45
Part II The Gathering Storm 69
4 Medieval Sky 71
5 The Great Chain of Being 89
Part III The Revolutions: The Weapons of Discovery 103
6 The Telescope and Galileo 105
7 Evolution and Darwin 131
Part IV The Aftermath: Worlds Turned Upside Down 145
8 The “Galileo” Aftermath 147
9 The “Darwin” Aftermath 177
Part V The Prestige 191
10 The Kudos 193
Notes 207
Index 217
Figures
1.1 The classical geocentric system of the Pythagoreans 17
3.1 Schema 1: Central Fire cosmology, showing the
Earth and Sun at noon 48
3.2 Schema 2: Central Fire cosmology, showing the
Earth and Sun at midnight 49
3.3 Schema 3: The classical geocentric system
(with soaring Greek gods!) 52
3.4 Schema 4: The classical heliocentric system 53
3.5 Schema 5: The system of Heraclides 55
3.6 Aristotle’s geocentric universe, complete with the
four elements, celestial spheres and the Primum Mobile,
the ninth sphere driven by divinity 65
4.1 Schema 6: The Epicycle System of Ptolemy 80
5.1 Der Doktor Schnabel von Rom, Doctor Beak
of Rome, an engraving by Paul Fürst, 1656 97
8.1 The Tychonic system 158
Table
Greek chart: Philosophy and science in the ancient
Greek world 27
Introduction
T
his is a tale of two revolutions. It is a story of history and adventure,
science and invention, sex and absurdity, slavery and lunacy, murder
and alchemy. A chronicle that sweeps continents and centuries, upend-
ing kings and cosmologies, religious dogma and the dark age of faith.
Bringing remarkable ages to vivid life, the narrative traces momen-
tous events that twice turned the world upside down. A medieval revo-
lution that shifted the Throne of God to the far reaches of the universe,
and a Victorian revolution that struck at the heart of humanity itself.
Today we associate these respective revolutions with Galileo and
Darwin. Each had a weapon of discovery: Galileo the telescope, Dar-
win the theory of evolution. With these weapons they helped prise
open an alien universe, inhospitable to God and man alike.
Both Galileo and Darwin have become martyrs to science. Galileo’s
infamous trial at the hands of the Inquisition gave enormous prestige
to the new experimental science. The drama of Darwinism was used
to justify ruthless exploitation, the conquest of innocent peoples, and
even war itself.
But our story is far bigger than just Galileo and Darwin.
For it has universal, as well as human, themes. Astronomy and
evolutionary biology are historical sciences. They try to explain the
sweep of phenomenal changes in Earth and Sky over the vastness of
deep space and time.
Our study of these subjects must center on the evolving link between
industry, empire, and the structure of scientifi c revolutions. Indeed, the
very source of the word “revolution” as meaning social and political
upheaval, originates from the days of Copernicus and Galileo. And the
revolutions play witness to the original paradigm shifts. They are crucial
not just to science but equally to society and culture.
Furthermore, our story will trace the origin and development of
the modern malaise in the human condition, associated with man’s
separation from nature. And it allows us to contemplate the great
lessons of science: how it works, how it errs, how it evolves.