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- <font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1"><b><a href="lectures.html">INDEX</a></b><br><br><font size="+1"><center><i>Reading Revolutions: Intellectual History</i><br><br>
- What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate: Galileo and
- the Church<br><br><font size="+0">Christopher Magri</font></center>
- <p><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- The following is a summary of a lecture given by Chris Magri based on his slides.</font></p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S1.jpg" title="Galileo" width="450" height="337"></p>
- <font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- <p>As the story goes, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric solar system in <i>
- De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium</i> which was published after his
- death. The Church is outraged and threatened by the new science.
- Galileo is persecuted for defending the Copernican model, defiantly
- publishes <i>Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems</i> and ends his life
- under house arrest. The history is more complicated and much more
- ambiguous.</p>
- <p>In the 1500's the understanding of the heavens were based on the writings
- of Aristotle and the model created by Ptolemy in the second century.
- Using observations of gravity and motion, the Aristotelian model proposes a
- geocentric universe. </p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/DSC00090.jpg" width="450" height="338"></p>
- <p align="left">The model fits most observations. Without modern
- measurement it is difficult to prove otherwise. It also fits nicely
- with personal egocentrism and the theology of the Church. There are
- anomalies. </p>
-
- <p align="center"><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S3.jpg" width="450" height="340"></p>
-
- <p>The predictable but rather arbitrary motion of the planet Mars is
- illustrated by a chart created by Chris Magri. Of course, it is only
- arbitrary if you assume Mars is revolving around the earth.</p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S4.jpg" title="Galileo" width="450" height="339"></p>
- </font>
- <p>Ptolemy explained the phenomenon of retrograde motion by proposing
- epicycles.</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S5.jpg" width="450" height="340"></p>
-
- <p>In addition, the earth would be off-center in relation to the path to
- account for changes in distance.</p>
- <div align="center">
- <table border="0" width="50%" id="table2">
- <tr>
- <td>
- <p align="center">
- <font size="+1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/PTOLEMY2.jpg" width="450" height="353"></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
-
- <p>Over time, the epicycle would be displaced.</p>
- <div align="center">
- <table border="0" width="50%" id="table3">
- <tr>
- <td>
- <p align="center">
- <font size="-1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/PTOLEMY3.jpg" title="Ptolemy's System"width="450" height="356"></font></p>
- <p align="center"><font size="-2"><i>Anonymous author. See
- model in motion at:</i></font><font size="-2"><br>
- <a target="_blank" href="http://webpages.charter.net/middents/Ptolemy's%20Model.htm">
- http://webpages.charter.net/middents/Ptolemy's Model.htm</a></font></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
-
- <p>When you add in the other four planets, you have what appear to be
- spinning rings on orbits. You can see the effect in this computer
- model from Paul Stoddard. Click on the link below, choose months, and
- change the speed on the slider in the upper right hand corner to observe
- both what we see from earth and what the motion would look like if seen from
- above.</p>
- <div align="center">
- <table border="0" width="50%" id="table1" cellpadding="7">
- <tr>
- <td>
- <p align="center">
- <font size="+1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/PTOLEMYM.jpg" width="500" height="542"></font><i><font size="-2">
- <br>By permission of Paul Stoddard: See model in motion at<br>
- </font></i><font size="-2">
- <a class="fixed" target="_blank" href="https://mail1.maine.edu/horde-3.0.4/services/go.php?url=http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/ptolemy.html">
- http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/ptolemy.html </a>
- </font></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S6.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>When Copernicus proposed that the sun is central he did not simplify the
- mathematics. The model still requires epicycles.</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S7.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>Notice that the orbits are perfect circles. Copernicus felt that
- this was consistent with the ideal of harmony in the universe but it made
- his model difficult to describe.</p>
- <div align="center">
- <table border="0" width="50%" id="table4" cellspacing="0">
- <tr>
- <td>
- <p align="center">
- <font size="-1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/COPERNIC.jpg" width="500" height="570"><i><font size="-2">
- <br>By permission of Paul Stoddard: See model in motion at
- </font></i><br>
- <font size="-2">
- <a class="fixed" target="_blank" href="https://mail1.maine.edu/horde-3.0.4/services/go.php?url=http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/ptolemy.html">
- http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/ptolemy.html </a>
- </font></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
- <p> </p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S8.jpg" width="450" height="342"></p>
- <font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- <p>For the Church, the main purpose of astronomy was to predict the position
- of the planets and thus set the time for the moveable feast days.
- Thus, the forward suggests that the Copernican model may be a convenient
- fiction, acceptable if it works. (Take a look at the
- <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus">calculations
- for Easter</a>).</p></font>
- <p><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- Copernicus did not make many observations of his own, instead he relied on
- the observations of the ancients and his interpretation of Plato.
- Tycho Brahe, on the other hand, spent his life making extensive and exacting
- observations of planetary, solar, and stellar positions.</font></p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S9.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
- <p align="left"><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- Brahe, concluded that the earth doesn't move because if it did, if you
- measured the stars when the earth was on one side of the sun and contrasted
- those measurements to measurements made when the earth moved to the other
- side of the sun, closer stars would change their position relative to
- farther stars. This is called stellar parallax.
- </font></p>
- <p align="left"><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- It is similar to binocular parallax. Hold your finger out in front of
- you, close one eye and then the other and look at your finger. The
- finger moves in relation to the objects behind it because your eyes are
- inches apart. Brahe was unable to find any evidence that parallax
- occurred in any of his extensive records. While the distance between
- the positions of the earth are great, the stars are so far away that the
- parallax effect is extremely small. Measurements of stellar parallax
- were not successfully made until 1838 by Friedrich Bessel.</font></p>
- <div align="center">
- <table border="0" width="50%" id="table5" cellspacing="0">
- <tr>
- <td>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/BRAHEM3.jpg" width="500" height="477"><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"><i><font size="-2">
- <br>
- By permission of Paul Stoddard: See model in motion at
- </font></i><br>
- <font size="-2">
- <a class="fixed" target="_blank" href="https://mail1.maine.edu/horde-3.0.4/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjove.geol.niu.edu%2Ffaculty%2Fstoddard%2FJAVA%2Fptolemy.html">
- http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/ptolemy.html</a>
- </font></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
- <p>Galileo ignored Brahe's model and chose to support Copernicus.</p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S10.jpg" width="450" height="340"></p>
- </font>
- <p><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">Galileo
- was not the only scientist in the 1600's. There was a network of
- individuals across Europe who both corresponded and shared publications.
- Galileo was one of the first to use the telescope and in 1611 used one to
- show sunspots to a
- number of people in Rome. In October of 1611, a
- Jesuit, Scheiner, began to make observations of sunspots and published his
- findings in January 1612. He interpreted the sunspots as small
- planetoids revolving around the sun.
- </font></p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S11.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
- </font>
- <p>After that, Galileo began a serious study of sunspots and carried out a series of
- debates with Scheiner, a member of the Jesuit order, in published letters. Galileo challenged
- Scheiner's interpretation and provided measurements and observations to
- prove that the spots were blemishes on the sun and that they showed that the
- sun rotates. Scheiner lost the debate and in subsequent publications
- changed his interpretation to agree with Galileo. Years later, Galileo
- complained that other scientists were trying to claim primacy in the
- discovery of sunspots -- credit for which Galileo felt belonged to him. Scheiner assumed that Galileo was talking about him and was outraged.
- Galileo had a new enemy. </p>
- <p>He was able to go on to alienate <i>all</i> of the Jesuits when he
- scathingly called their intelligence and integrity into question over the
- nature of comets. Jesuit observers had proposed that comets were
- short-lived planetary objects in orbit while Galileo claimed they were
- vapors in the earth's atmosphere. Galileo could not limit himself to
- proof and observations but felt compelled to vilify anyone who disagreed
- with him.</p>
- <p>Galileo's more reasoned style can be read in his letter to the
- <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/galileo-tuscany.html">Grand Duchess Cristina</a>
- expressing his views on the relationship between science and Biblical
- interpretation:</p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S12.jpg" width="450" height="337"></p>
-
- <p>Galileo posits that the denial of the Copernican theory has more to do
- with Galileo's defense of Copernicus since the Copernican theory had been
- read and discussed without problem for over 50 years. He calls on the
- writings of St. Augustine to show that enquiry and reason can be brought to
- bear on biblical issues and that literalism can be used in both directions.</p>
- <p>Magri goes on to give illustrations of places where it is absurd to take
- the Bible literally, even without touching on scientific matters:</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S13.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>Opposition against Galileo and by extension, his theories, grows.
- It is not limited to people within the Church but is found among academics
- who have been insulted, threatened, or refuted by Galileo in various
- publications on a vast array of topics. Cardinal Bellarmine is sent to
- warn Galileo not to promote the Copernican model but to treat it as an
- hypothesis. Caution is the word.</p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S14.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>Pope Urban VIII suggests that Galileo consider that God might have made
- the world one way but allowed us to see it in another way. Galileo
- gets permission to publish a work about Copernican theory as long as it is
- clearly treated as unproven.</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S15.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>The use of a conversation to explore different sides to an issue allows Galileo
- to seem even-handed. The personalities and arguments he assigns his
- characters are anything but unbiased, in fact, they strengthen the insults
- directed at Aristotelian and Ptolemaic astronomy. He is even able to
- include a passing insult directed toward Scheiner. </p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S16.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
- <p><br></font>To answer
- <font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">Cardinal Bellarmine's demand
- for evidence, Galileo has Salviati argue in the Dialogue that the
- presence of ocean tides
- proves that the earth moves.
- </p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/dialogue36.jpg" width="450" height="396"></p>
-
- <p>Pope Urban VIII is not amused and probably feels betrayed. He turns from supporter to judge. He orders that the
- Inquisition investigate. Where he had admired and sought to counsel
- Galileo on handling his enemies, now he joined them in seeing Galileo as
- totally out of control and a threat.</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S18B.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>The Catholic church continued to produce great scientists and removed
- itself from the controversies over stellar configurations. It was even
- able to absorb Darwin's evolution. The same cannot be said of all.
- Some still fear that knowledge may undermine belief.
- </p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S19.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>Now they want belief to be disguised as science rather than science
- subsumed under belief. It leads to:</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S20.jpg" width="450" height="338"></p>
- </font><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- <p>and also to:</p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/galileo57.jpg" width="450" height="338"></p>
- <p align="center"> </p>
- <p align="center"><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S22.jpg" width="450" height="340"></font><br>
- </p>
- <p>Kepler published <i>Epitome Astronomiae</i> in 1621 in which he provided
- extensive mathematical proofs of the Copernican heliocentric solar system as
- modified by Kepler to include elliptical orbits. Kepler's work did not attract the same kind of hysterical opposition. Earlier, Kepler attempted to share his findings with Galileo, but Galileo
- was on his own road.
- </p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S23.jpg" width="450" height="337"></p>
-
- <p>Galileo's response to critics and to colleagues alike played an important
- part in the polarization of emotion and politics. Had he been able to
- restrain himself to his more reasoned arguments he may have been able to
- maintain the support of those both in the Church and in academia who had
- once defended and admired him.</p>
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S24.jpg" width="450" height="339"></p>
-
- <p>As Galileo ended his <i>Dialogue </i>with the words of Sagredo:</p>
-
- <p align="center">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/S25.jpg" width="450" height="338"></p>
-
- <p>so we must end.</p>
- <hr width="40%"><hr width="60%"><br>
- <div align="center">
- <table border="0" width="100%" id="table6">
- <tr>
- <td><a href="pictures/Galileo/1206cclosewl.jpg">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/1206ws.jpg" width="350" height="271"></a></td>
- <td>
- <font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">
- <a href="pictures/Galileo/1218wl.jpg">
- <img border="0" src="pictures/Galileo/1218ws.jpg" width="361" height="271" align="right"></a></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
- <p><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">The 1710 Florence edition
- of <i>Dialogo di Galileo Galilei linceo matematico supremo dello studio di
- padova</i></font><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">. </font></font>
- </font>
- <font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1">Click either picture for an
- enlargement.</p>
- <p>An English translation of the work can be found at
- <a target="_blank" href="http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Galileo.html">
- http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Galileo.html</a>.</p><hr width="60%"><hr width="40%">
- <p></font><br>
- </p>
- <center><table border="6" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="80%" id="decorative" bgcolor="#cccccc">
- <tr>
- <td width="100%"><center><table border="6" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%" id="credits" bordercolor="#111111" bgcolor="#cccccc">
- <tr>
- <td width="100%"><blockquote><font face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" size="-1"><br>Citation:<br><br>"What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate: Galileo and the Church." Summary of a lecture by Christopher Magri. University of Maine at Farmington, September 14, 2005. Retrieved _______.
- <http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Reading_Revolutions/Galileo.html>.
- <br><br>URL: <a href="http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Reading_Revolutions/index.html">http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Reading_Revolutions/index.html</a> <br><br>Marilyn Shea, 2005<br><br>
- </blockquote></td></tr></table></center>
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